A new view of Jay Leno
By BILL DUNCAN
The View From Here
I would not call myself a fan of Jay Leno. I am safe in saying that because his TV show comes on long after my bedtime. In truth, I doubt I would watch the show even if I were a night owl.
I like humor and that is what he purports to present in his own style, but I have never liked slapstick comedy. I like the more subtle type.
But I must say I was impressed with a foreword he wrote in a book sent to me for a newspaper book section review. It showed me a different side of this guy who makes a living with one-liners.
I figured most people on TV have an ego problem and I characterized Jay Leno at top of the list until I read the foreword written by Leno in a small book entitled "The Power of Nice," by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval.
I am not writing this column to review the book. Don’t misunderstand me, it was a "nice" book, but sort of out of the realm of the books I review. The subtitle will tell you why: "How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness." Believe me, the business world needs that lesson in spades.
So what did the clown Jay Leno say that so impressed me? He explains why his show is called "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" instead of "The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno."
"It is because of my mother," he wrote. "She thought saying ‘Starring Jay Leno’ would tell the audiences, ‘Oh, look at me. I am a Big Shot.’
So I said to her, ‘Okay, Ma. How about with Jay Leno?’"
He continues: "Life is not that hard. Try giving a little. You would be surprised at how much you get back."
He said being nice is especially important when "you have a platform like ‘The Tonight Show.’ It can’t be a bully pulpit or an ego booster." In his foreword, Leno said that to him one of the greatest books ever written is Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol," and cites the reason as "doing the right thing makes you feel better. It’s not a religious thing. It’s just that doing good things will improve your life."
He said that when the authors of "The Power of Nice," requested an interview, he said yes, "not because I wanted to be nice. I did so because I think it’s the right way to be. But today being nice is so surprising it becomes a news story."
He related that he told a joke on "The Tonight Show," and got a letter from a woman saying she was offended. "I called her to apologize," he said, explaining that she was so shocked that he would apologize she contacted a newspaper and suddenly his apology was headline news. "We live in a society where common courtesy is so uncommon that it is treated as though you just saved someone’s life by giving them the Heimlich maneuver," Leno said in his foreword.
He is shocked, he said that if you get into an auto accident your insurance company will tell you not to apologize as it is an admission of guilt.
He questions what the insurance company wants you to do, "run away and call your attorney, yet my guess is that if it’s your fault and if you do apologize, nine times out of ten people will be grateful and probably nicer back about getting the damage repaired."
He concluded that "many of today’s problems can be solved with simple acts of kindness."
Maybe out of kindness, I will stay up tonight and watch the Jay Leno Show. Excuse me, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." One would not want him to get egotistical or he’ll have to answer to his mother.
If I may leave you with one message from this rambling it would be: "Be Nice."
(Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470.)