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Monday, Dec. 23
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Jay Leno returns to stand-up at IU Auditorium

Jay Leno performs his stand up comedy routine Friday at the IU Auditorium.

By Camille Sarabia

Guests at IU Auditorium on Friday eagerly waited for “the king of late night” to take his throne for the evening.

Before Jay Leno took the stage, it was bare except for the royal blue curtains as the set’s backdrop and the lone microphone and stool.

Nearly every seat in the main level was filled. Some people sat leaning over the balcony.

There was a constant pour of laughter and tears in the guests’ eyes as a giddy, lighthearted atmosphere filled the auditorium.

“I’m getting too old for this job in a young field,” Leno said during his act.

Leno, standing on stage in his charcoal suit and striped tie, eased gently from joke to joke as he made grand gestures with his arms for emphasis and paced back and forth on stage.

He rested in the center of the stage, leaning his arm on the microphone stand, but he wouldn’t stay there for long.

He lifted his free hand to push back his thick white hair and continued to pace, mesmerizing the crowd with his stories, his views on IKEA and the American obesity ?epidemic.

“How fat are we trying to get in this country?” he said. “Dairy Queen now has cheesecake in ice cream. Cheesecake is merely an ingredient. We’re getting fatter. Our TVs are getting skinnier.”

Then he proceeded to entertain the crowd about his views on edible underwear.

In 37 years of experience, he’s widely regarded for his 22-year run as the host and face of the Tonight Show and place in the Television Hall of Fame.

Leno is executing a change in his game. He’s shifting from being a face on television to re-visit his career in stand-up comedy and to reign once again on the stage.

“We once had these interns, nice girls from Ithaca College, ages 18 to 21,” he said, preparing for an impersonation. “One of them stopped me in the hall and asked, ‘Excuse me Mr. Leno, do you have the time?’

“I go, ‘Yes, sure. It’s about half past two,’” Leno said.

He resumed his college girl voice and said, “I’m sorry, what time is it?”

“Half past two,” he said. “You know, 2:30.”

“Oh, 2:30. OK, what’s half past two?”

“It’s half past two. Have you never heard that?”

“No, I’ve never heard that,” Leno’s girl impression said.

“Now, I’m the crazy old man,” Leno said to the audience.

IU senior Steven Chen decided to come see Leno at the last minute with a friend.

“He’s been in the industry long enough to know what works and what doesn’t,” Chen said. “He is able to capture his whole audience in his comedy.”

To him, Leno is different from current comedians. His age and experience make him stand out.

What most excited Chen was seeing Leno on stage.

“I want to see him back in the spotlight. I’ve never seen him just doing stand-up,” he said.

“Here’s a question,” Leno said. “And this is just for the men in my age group. Do you know what age you became invisible to women?”

“It’s about age 52,” he said. “When you’re younger, you smile at a girl, she smiles back and it makes your day. When you turn 52 it becomes, ‘That old guy tried to talk to me.

“I don’t mind being 64,” he said. “I don’t mind looking 64, but something unfair happened.”

Leno told of an incident that happened to him 25 years ago when he was 39 and riding his motorcycle on a Friday night.

“I was going 85 or 90 mph, pushing the bike a little bit,” he said. “I fall and hit some sand, the bike falls out from under me, hits a tree, the bike disintegrates, I slide along the pavement, my leg is all cut up ... the ambulance takes me away.”

On Saturday, he got out of the hospital bed and could barely walk.

By Monday night, he was back performing.

Leno paused after his story and then began again with the words “last Thursday.”

The audience broke into ripples of laughter before he could speak another word.

Leno waited for silence, baiting the crowd and then continued.

“Last Thursday, I was sitting on my couch,” he said, describing the scene.

He began to say each word slowly for effect.

“I yawned and turned my head at the same time,” he said.

Leno yelled into his mic, imitating a reaction to pain. The audience appeared amused, responding with laughter.

“I tried to turn my head in a Lazy Boy,” he said. “What an idiot I was. What a fool I was.”

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