Jay’s Way

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 5:06 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION January 10 - 11, 2004

Who: Jay Leno.

When: 9 p.m. Friday, 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre.

Tickets: $80.

Information: 792-7777.

On May 25, 1992, Jay Leno stepped into the enormous shoes of the legendary Johnny Carson, who retired as host of NBC's "Tonight Show" after 30 years.

During a telephone interview on Dec. 31 from his NBC studio office in Burbank, Calif., Leno talked like a man who has those now-comfortable shoes planted firmly on the ground, even as he's become one of the most successful comedians in the world.

Leno, who will be at The Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre on Friday and Saturday, talked to the Sun about his career, his drive and how he has avoided being spoiled by success.

Las Vegas Sun: When did you decide you were going to make a career out of comedy?

Jay Leno: What's today? I've always been a comedian, even back in the fourth grade I was telling jokes.

Sun: Where did the humor come from?

JL: My father was a very outgoing person, an insurance salesman, the head guy, actually. A manager. Every month he would have sales meetings to motivate his staff. He put together funny little shows, told jokes and did skits. I thought it was a fun job to have and so in the back of my mind I always assumed I would have a regular job that would entail being funny.

Sun: So how did you get started?

JL: While I was attending Emerson College in Boston in the early '70s there were a lot of what they called "hootenanny nights," you know, folk nights where everyone would sing stop-the-war-machine songs. I emceed and told jokes. I'd work for free and pass the hat.

I sucked, but I didn't know I sucked. A lot of times I got booed offstage, but a lot of times I got applause. That was pretty good. I picked up $50 to $75 a week on the side, which was a huge amount for a college student back then.

Sun: When did you commit to comedy?

JL: I didn't quit my day job until '72, when I went to New York to perform at the Improv. Nowadays there are thousands of people who want to be a comedian and thousands of places to work, but back then only a few people wanted to be a comedian, and there were almost no places to work. There were no comedy clubs in Boston.

Sun: How did you fare in New York?

JL: At the Improv they were so short of comedians sometimes they asked me to pretend to be auditioning again and again -- I must have auditioned 15 or 20 times.

Sun: Who were your contemporaries back then?

JL: Steve Martin was the big guy. Jerry Seinfield, Robin Williams and David Letterman were coming along. David Brenner was a little bit ahead of us. He was already a big name. So were Richard Pryor and Robert Klein.

Sun: At what point did you begin appearing on "The Tonight Show?"

JL: I was one of the last of my class of comedians to do the show. I did my first one in '77 and did three or four appearances -- the fourth one was not very good and they never asked me back again. At that time, I was a kid and it was an adult show.

Letterman had just gotten his show and so I switched over to doing material on Letterman that was not suitable for Johnny, and things took off for me. I didn't do "The Tonight Show" again till '86. But I did so well on Letterman that "The Tonight Show" asked me to be the permanent guest host in '87 after Joan Rivers, who had the job, was given her own show by Fox.

Sun: How has the comedy business changed since you began?

JL: The sad thing is nowadays comedians only want to do a couple of "Tonight" shows, a Letterman and then get a sitcom. It's hard for us to find comedians who will come back to perform a second or third time -- they want to move on to movies.

Sun: How would you describe yourself?

JL: That's an interesting question. I live here in California where self-esteem seems to be a big issue. I'm a great believer in low self-esteem -- if you don't think you're that good, or that bright, you will work harder.

I'm dyslexic, and when I was growing up Mom said I have to work harder. I don't think I was a particularly smart or good student, but I knew that I had to stick to it a little bit harder. Someone said America is the great land of ambition over genius, and that's really true.

Sun: Howard Stern sometimes rips you on his radio show. Does it bother you?

JL: I spend my life making jokes about Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson. I've learned to separate the product from the individual.

Sun: Is there anyone out there you would like to have on your show who hasn't been on yet?

JL: I've had just about everybody on. But they aren't here to see me, they're here for the vehicle.

Sun: How do you keep your feet on the ground?

JL: The trick is to make show business money and lead a normal life. If I can always be a fan, outside looking in, I can appreciate the business more than if I considered myself to be an insider.

Sun: At what point will you retire?

JL: I don't know. I would like to be here a few more years. There's nothing else I want to do. I mean, I don't want to do modern interpretive dance. This is exactly what I like, what I do as a comic. I go home and write jokes.

Sun: Why do you need to go on the road?

JL: There are people at NBC who are paid to tell you how great you are. If you hang around them long enough, you actually begin to believe it, so I travel with my act and it gives me a reality check -- I know if I can fill all 3,000 seats in a room I'm doing something right, but if I've only sold 400 seats, something is wrong.

Dad was a salesman. Occasionally he would go out and meet customers, even if he had nothing to sell. That's what you do. When you live in Hollywood you will meet people who tell you what you like to hear -- you have to get out of that isolated world before you really begin to believe that Evian water flows from the tap.