Talking gay marriage, commutes and low self-esteem with Jay Leno

Jay Leno maintains a strong-held belief about self-esteem, both high and low.

“I am a great believer in low self-esteem,” the workhorse comic and longtime host of The Tonight Show says in a phone conversation from his office in Burbank, California. “I am of the belief that high self-esteem is for criminals and actors. I am one of those people who thinks, ‘I am not the smartest person in the room.’"

Leno also says he is still grateful for anyone who pays to see him perform.

“I have always been a stand-up comedian and I love it,” says Leno, performing tonight and Saturday night at Mirage’s Terry Fator Theater as part of that hotel’s “Aces of Comedy” series (tickets are $79-$99, absent fees; Weekly readers call 855-422-9770 and mention LOCAL ACE for up to 35 percent off tickets). “I remember the days when I would go places and nobody would want to see you. Well, now people actually show up.”

By the end of this year, Leno will have performed at the Mirage 15 times over nine weekends, making him one of the busiest non-resident comedians to play Las Vegas. He doesn’t need the money, of course, having a job that commands an annual salary of $25 million and a net worth reported to be $150 million. No, Leno tells jokes before live audiences of 1,250 (the seating capacity at the Fator Theater) just because he loves the practice of fine-tuning his craft.

More from the live chat with the tireless comedian:

He really does like his fans: “I like people. I am not one of those people who kick people away and say, ‘I’m not signing any autographs!’ I’m stunned that people want me to sign an autograph. I like to be among people, and the more interaction you have, the more comedy you pick up, because most comedy comes from people, and the bigger you get in show business, the more isolated you can become. I don’t want that to happen to me.”

He is proud of the mischievous booking of Carrot Top with Dick Cheney on the September 2 episode of The Tonight Show:: “It was hilarious. Welcome to America! It was just a case of looking for an odd pairing. You have somebody who is deadly serious, so let’s find the flip side and do something silly. You do this every day, and that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for and hope it happens.

“I don’t think those two would ever meet together in nature. I don’t think of Dick Cheney as a Vegas guy. I don’t think he’s ever seen Carrot Top’s show at the Luxor.”

Though he performs in Vegas several weekends out of the year, he does not spend much recreational time in the city: “I commute back and forth, land at 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock and go on at 10:30, then I leave at 1 o’clock when I’m done. I don’t get a chance to do too much. … Every weekend I’m somewhere, and this weekend I happen to be there.”

He keeps creatively sharp by performing straight stand-up comedy: “You have to do that. … You know, the stage is not a normal place to be. But if you’re there a lot, it becomes normal. If you’ve ever seen any performer who hasn’t performed in more than a month, or two or three weeks, they get onstage and there is a hesitancy in their act, the ‘Um … uh, what’s next?’ There’s a fluidity that you have to master. Comedy is not like music. Musicians can go a week or two or months without working, practicing in their garage or their basement, or studio, and then walk out onstage. But a comedian always needs an audience, someone to try this stuff out on.”

As a young comic, he often performed mental exercises to keep his mind nimble: “When I was a kid starting out in this business, for practice I would try to either do my act or recite the Pledge of Allegiance while I wrote a letter, so you can separate parts of your brain, so you can be able to write while you’re thinking of something else. These are kind of the tricks of the trade you use to keep sharp.”

Working before The Tonight Show studio audience is not at all the same as working in a club or theater: “It is different. On The Tonight Show, you do something completely different in the same place every night. When you’re on the road, you get to do the same thing every night, but in places that are completely different. On The Tonight Show, if I do a joke, it will just dissipate after I use it. I can’t ever really use it again. But if I tell that joke in Vegas and it gets a laugh, I can go home and listen to the tape and go, ‘I’ll bet if I add this to it, it’ll be better. Lemme work on that and do it tomorrow night.’

“Suddenly, a one-minute joke or a 30-second joke becomes a two-minute joke, because I’ve managed to add elements to it and build on it. Being a comedian is a lot like the movie Groundhog Day, where you keep doing the same thing over and over and making it more precise, and tighter and tighter and tighter.”

He tries to help young comics find club gigs, because he was helped by established comics when he was young: “You’ll always get more work from other comics, when you’re starting out, than you’ll ever get from an agent or anybody else. Comics do tend to help one another. You know, as a comic you realize you can’t do all of the jobs available. When I was coming up, people like Steve Martin, Robert Klein, George Carlin, were very kind to me and helped me get work. Consequently, when I go to places, I say, ‘You should hire this guy, or you should hire that guy.’

“People think (the comedy industry) is really this cut-throat thing. People are competitive, yeah, but it’s really not a bad environment at all. It’s not as competitive as sports, or selling insurance.”

The field of 2012 presidential candidates is particularly strong: “It’s fantastic! I had Michelle Bachmann on the other night! Say no more! You know something? I don’t question anybody’s motives. I just question their judgment. I never assume that anybody running for office, Democrat or Republican, is not a good American and doesn’t love their country and is not patriotic. But you have to kind of ask the question, ‘What’s the thinking there?’ when you hear that gay people getting married will somehow screw up my marriage. Is that what you’re saying? I don’t quite understand that.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With The Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.