Jay Leno was terrific

Posted by Beth Alexander (06.21.07, 9:58 AM)

Maybe I'm late to the party, but what is up with the critical remarks about this very funny man, who gave a masterfully funny performance at the Swan Ball on June 9? He riffed on a range of topics for more than an hour. He promised 65 minutes, and by...

Maybe I'm late to the party, but what is up with the critical remarks about this very funny man, who gave a masterfully funny performance at the Swan Ball on June 9? He riffed on a range of topics for more than an hour. He promised 65 minutes, and by my calculation, it may well have been 75 minutes. I'm sure the Ball paid a goodly sum for his services, and he made sure everyone felt they got their money's worth.
The commentary in Beverly Keel's column in The Tennessean made it sound as if the attendees were completely without a sense of humor. Or that Jay was insensitive to the audience.

He told jokes, including anecdotes and one-liners non-stop, almost too quickly to fit in a good belly laugh without missing the next couple of lines. He covered the relationship between men and women, America's relationship with food, how women feel about their cats, immigration, Bush, international relations, teaching parents to program their VCR—cross-country, drunken airline pilots, Paris Hilton and lots more I can't even remember.
Did I find every single syllable hysterical? No. That's not how comedy works. But did i find 90 percent of it amusing? Yes. And did I find 15 percent of it fall-out-of-my-chair funny? Yep, and that's a pretty good average.
Regarding the part I found funniest—about food products in America ["What kind of topping do you want on your pizza?" "Another pizza!"]—I was told that one fellow sat through that portion with a determined frown on his face. I'm not a woman with a cat, so that part seemed irrelevant to me, but his pace was so quick, that his topics were a little like Nashville weather: wait a few minutes, and it'll change.
The only time I sensed tension in the crowd was during two sentences about President Bush, then Jay went on to something else. I have no recollection of the term condom being mentioned, and though he brought up Jesus, it was for about 5 seconds, then he went on to something else. I was not drinking, and I have much of the monologue on tape. I thought for the most part, the crowd was incredible attentive, still, listening, amused and appreciative. As Tom Black says in his columns about wine tasting, it was a moment to savor. We were lucky to get to see a national comedian performing just for us. Pretty special.