Jay Leno keep laughs coming at 72 with decades long entertainment career
SARASOTA, Fla. - For more than 50 years, Jay Leno has been entertaining audiences and bringing laughter when needed. He's never retired and still performs regularly.
Leno says he has never taken any opportunity he was given for granted.
"I always consider myself a standup comedian who was just lucky enough to get a TV show," he said. "TV shows last this long or this long. I was lucky it lasted that long, but eventually all TV shows end. Comedy is like golf, you can do it until you are 80 if you play it right."
Leno has a few years until he turns 80 years old, but at 72, he keeps the laughs coming.
He hasn’t stopped working even after leaving ‘The Tonight Show.’ Leno has rejoined friend and former bandleader Kevin Eubanks on the comedy quiz show "You Bet Your Life" that airs on FOX 13.
It’s a reboot of the old Groucho Marx show, where people team up to win money, and they cover just about any topic.
"It’s a fun show to do, because it’s really just it’s kind of like you're Jay walking like we used to do in TV, I don’t see the people before they come up," said Leno. "It’s not like ‘this guy does what?’ ‘Oh oh okay.’ I don’t know anything about anybody, so you really have to live on your wits. It’s kind of like you’re Jay walking with a game show attached where you can win some money and that’s what makes it fun. It’s fun to do."
MORE: Jay Leno released from hospital after suffering burn injuries
Even a motorcycle crash and burn injuries hasn't slowed him down.
In January, Leno broke his collar bone, two ribs and cracked both knee caps after crashing his motorcycle. Before that in November, Leno was badly burned after some gasoline ignited as he was working on an antique car.
Leno just laughed it off.
"When you crash a motorcycle at least it gives you some street cred. If you slip in your walk-in bathtub, then that’s just really embarrassing. That’s like an old person’s accident," said Leno. "At least when you’re 72 and you crash an 83-year-old motorcycle, oh okay. You get a little bit of street cred, and it’s alright."
While performing at the Van Wezel, the Sarasota Film Festival honored him with a lifetime achievement award for a career that has spanned decades and continues on.
"I never took any of this too seriously. I don’t believe the bad stuff or the good stuff," he said. "You just kind of take. People think you’re funny or they think you’re awful. To argue with the people who think you’re awful. You won’t convince them, so that’s fine. You just go along and do what you do and have fun with it. I enjoy it. It’s a great way to make a living. I really, really like it."
"You Bet Your Life" with Jay Leno airs on FOX 13 at 1:30 p.m. on weekdays.