Jay Leno says he almost backed out of an upcoming booking in Canada.
The former Tonight Show host crosses the border with special guest Arsenio Hall May 2 to perform at Casino Rama north of Toronto. Leno has played before thousands in this room in other years, but was having second thoughts after the barrage of “51st State” attacks from US president Donald Trump.
“I was almost not gonna do these dates because I didn’t want to be the ugly American coming in,” he tells Bill Brioux. “I’ll probably apologize. You know, I’m a guest in someone else’s country. I don’t assume it is America.”
I spoke with Leno for a brioux.tv: the podcast conversation co-presented by LateNighter.
Besides the two nations controversy, Leno, who turns 75 next month, reflects on what has been a challenging few years for him personally. He recently shared the heartbreaking news that his wife of 45 years, Mavis, has dementia. He downplays two serious accidents he has suffered recently. The preeminent car collector has fully recovered from serious injuries to his face and hands from a fire in his Los Angeles garage in 2022. Last November in Pennsylvania, a fall left him with a broken wrist as well as other injuries.
With typical humour, Leno waves off news of his injuries by saying, “it’s great for ticket sales.”
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In the following excerpt from the full interview, conducted at the end of March and condensed for length and clarity, Leno shares his take on today’s crowded late night landscape. Plus he admits that, back in the day, things were not quite so chummy between him and his Casino Rama guest – especially when The Arsenio Hall Show (1989-94) aired opposite Tonight.
Here is an exerpt from that conversation:
JAY LENO: I’ll tell you a funny story about that. You know, they really try to make it like you hate each other, right?
So, we were opposite each other and there’s a lot of rivalry, and I remember watching Arsenio’s first show. And he was great. He had Brooke Shields and he said, “You know, this show’s going to be about the funk. It’s going to be about the music. You’re not going to see Barry Manilow’s ass on this show,” and everybody cheers.
Because he was the hip guy, right? Well, when you do a talk show, you need everybody. So I would always watch Letterman and Arsenio and Dennis Miller and all the other hosts because you want to make sure you don’t do the same joke.
So a couple of months go by, and Arsenio says, “Next week on the show: Barry Manilow. Barry Manilow!”
So the next day I called his office. I say, “Can I speak to Arsenio?” “Who’s calling?” “Jay Leno.” “He doesn’t want to speak to you.” “No, this is important. He wants to speak to me.”
“No, no,” he goes. “No, he doesn’t want to speak to you,” because we were fighting, you know. But they finally put me through and Arsenio says, “What do you want, man? What do you want?” I said, “Ooo, next week on the show, Barry Manilow.” He fell down. He fell down, laughing. That is funny, because you need… you need everybody, you know?
I remember Byron Allen when he was going to do a talk show, he said, “On my show, no TV personalities, just film.” Wow, good luck. There are not enough actors around. You need every single guest you can get, and it’s just … even Arsenio had to laugh. He started laughing, and we became friends again.
I wanted to ask if you watch late night television anymore. It’s just so divided. Now you have folks on the left and folks on the right, and I guess audiences that gravitate to one or the other.
It was a plus to be able to make fun of both sides. Now, it’s a negative. You’re yelled at because you haven’t taken a stand on this issue. And yeah, it’s a little tricky. I think the thing that’s really killed late night is when Letterman and I and Conan were all on at the same time. There weren’t a lot of options. Now you can watch all eight seasons of The Sopranos. You can watch “The Godfather” trilogy.
Plus television kind of shoots itself in the foot because when revenue goes down, they put on more ads. And whenever I watch any late night show, now there’s a monologue for six minutes. Then easily another five or six minutes of commercials. We live in an era now where a 30-second commercial is so well produced It seems like a minute commercial.
And then they just passed a law that from 12 to 12:09 or 12:10, you can put in some more commercials after midnight. If I see Jake from State Farm again, I’m going to shoot myself. It’s the same over and over and over again, you know, and I think that’s what really hurt it, too.
But Yeah, we just live in divided times. Well, look at Canada and America. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
I want to ask you about this, I mean, Jay Leno. You import more car parts than Canada. I mean, what are you gonna do now with the hike in tariffs?
My mother was from Scotland. As the family came to America, half the family went to Canada, because some people had a cousin or brother and other people had a cousin or brother in New York, you know, so they went back and forth.
And when I was a kid I lived in New England, so we would get Canadian TV shows. I always talk about this, but I would laugh when I’d watch The Littlest Hobo. You remember that? It’s like the Canadian version of Lassie?
And I’m watching it one day and the Littlest Hobo, the dog, is walking along some highway in Canada. It’s blinding snow, so the dog sits down, puts his paw up like he’s hitchhiking right, and a car stops and picks him up and they go away.
Look. Canadians are nice, but they’re not nice! They don’t pick up hitchhiking dogs. It just made me laugh.
When you were doing The Tonight Show, “Headlines” were such a funny part of the show. Now it’s all headlines. How would you navigate this if you were doing The Tonight Show now? Would you be less political than we’re seeing now, or more?
You know, what’s interesting is when you have a fondness for the people you’re making fun of, right? It’s a little easier. The joke can’t be pure when you generally dislike the people you’re making fun of, then your anger clouds the joke.
That’s my problem with a lot of… great, nice stuff, depending on which side you’re on. Well, I know which I’m on. It just seems to be the same joke over and over… Now, everybody’s so worked up. So mad, so angry that it’s… I get this thing with Canada, you know, I’m embarrassed when I go there, because I try to be the nice American, you know? Better be as polite as I can. And then, when I meet Canadian people here, I always say, hey, I apologize, like, oh, we understand, you know, because it’s really not the American people…I don’t understand it. I hope it works itself out, but. I find it so rude and disrespectful.
I find these comments like, “Trudeau was our governor. He’s the governor, and it’s the 51st State.” There’s no reason for it. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why you would be disrespectful. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m baffled. I don’t understand.
Is there a joke, something you may be thinking of in terms of addressing the situation with Canada and trade and everything?
I’ll probably apologize… I don’t want to look like the ugly American, you know, just come in with, you know, the price of everything, the value of nothing, that kind of attitude. I mean, I know, the way the world sometimes perceives this, and I try not to be that way, and I go out of my way to be overly polite and complimentary.
And you know, I mean, I’m a guest in someone else’s country. I don’t assume that it’s America… I was almost not gonna do these dates because I didn’t want to be the ugly American coming in.
We need to laugh right now, so please, come.
