Edition: U.S. / Global

TELEVISION; Jay Leno, Common-Sense Comedian

By ELVIS MITCHELL; Elvis Mitchell is a film and television critic for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition.
Published: November 22, 1987

''DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT?'' says the comedian Jay Leno, beginning another of those hard-nosed, common-sense riffs that sound as effortless as a cool bop solo. ''I had Donna Mills on 'The Tonight Show' with me and she says [ launching into a coquettish voice ] , 'I was just voted one of the 10 sexiest women in America, and I don't know what that means.' Doesn't know what it means? I said to her, 'Take a guess. What do you think it means? Duh. . .' Give me a break. It means the publicist that she hired to get her name out there is doing his job.'' Mr. Leno stops and chuckles at the ''Knots Landing'' star's corny false modesty.

It's his willful demystification of show business, politics and popular culture that has pushed the 37-year-old comedian from Boston into the spotlight after many years of carrying his own bags from one city to another on the Lonely Guy Comedy Club Circuit. His low-pressure stand-up gained a higher profile through countless appearances on ''Late Night With David Letterman.'' That late-night audience included Johnny Carson, who last year named Mr. Leno one of two permanent rotating ''Tonight Show'' guest hosts, along with Gary Shandling. (''I host most Mondays and a bunch of weeks a year, except for sweeps weeks or weeks without vowels in them or something. I'm not really sure how the schedule works.'') He's also done several cable and late-night comedy specials and is a favorite guest at televised awards ceremonies. Mr. Leno's broad-based intelligence -he seems interested in almost everything under the sun, like Johnny Carson but with a sunnier disposition - contrasts rather well with Mr. Shandling's neurotic, city-boy self-obsession.

Jay Leno isn't nearly as well turned out as Gary Shandling, however. Despite a haircut that de-emphasizes his gee-willikers demeanor, Mr. Leno still does not sport the professional city-slicker wardrobe of most comedians; his clothes seem to come from the Philip Michael Thomas collection at Montgomery Ward. Mr. Leno's Irish-Italian heritage may be responsible for the seemingly contradictory elements of his presence: burliness and gentleness. His oversized jawline and friendly blue eyes make him look both vivid and likable, a perfect package for his Everyman's one-upmanship. Leno's tossed-off shrewdness will be in evidence on Wednesday evening at 10, when he stars in his first prime-time special on NBC, ''Jay Leno's Family Comedy Hour.''

Typically, he deglamorizes the behind-the-scenes work on the special, which takes a few comic swings at the traditional concepts of family life: ''I called up [ NBC president ] Brandon Tartikoff and told him what I wanted to do. I asked him if he liked it, and he said, 'Great, we'll put it on the night before Thanksgiving.' I went, 'Oh. . .uh. . .okay,' and that's all there was to it.''

Mr. Leno may have achieved nighttime success by virtue of his work on ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Late Night,'' but he's by no means an overnight success. He began doing stand-up in the early 1970's after graduating from Emerson College in Boston, and one of his contemporaries on that scene in those scrimp-and-hustle days was a shaggy Hoosier fresh from the heartland named David Letterman. The two became friends in the trenches.

Mr. Leno credits his earthbound approach to comedy as the secret of his success. He defines himself primarily as a working comedian, and prefers performing before live audiences to doing films or TV shows. He's on the road so often - roughly 300 nights a year -because he wants to remain in touch with what he calls the grass roots.

Mr. Leno spends so much time on the nightclub and auditorium tour that he's only spent about a week in the house in Beverly Hills he bought last July, where he stores his large collection of motorcycles. His wife, Mavis, travels with him most of the time. Mr. Leno now moves smoothly between nightclubs, television and most recently, a starring role in a film.

While laying the foundation for his comedy career by doing thousands of club dates, Mr. Leno had small roles in the movies ''Silver Bears'' and ''American Hot Wax.'' This summer, he made ''Collision Course,'' a culture-clash action comedy shot on location in Detroit with the comic actor Pat Morita. That film, in which Mr. Leno plays a Detroit cop and Mr. Morita portrays a detective flown in from Japan to investigate a murder, is due for release early next year. While making it, Mr. Leno persisted in maintaining his rigorous workload, playing club dates at night while filming during the day.

''It was a killer, juggling all that stuff,'' he says. ''Movies aren't fun to make. I'd be on the set and then have to be on stage somewhere at 9:30, then have to get back to the location by 2 in the morning so I could be on the set at 6 A.M. again. That was a little wacky. I don't think I'll do it again. But I won't give up stand-up to do movies. Stand-up is what I like best, and it's put me in a position to do 'Late Night' and 'Tonight' and movies.

''I would much rather ad lib than rehearse something,'' he says, and describes the detailed preparation for his special as an example of what he prefers not to do. ''You write the sketch; then you show it to someone; and then you make changes and you rehearse it, and then you block it and edit it,'' he says, boredom creeping into his voice. ''I would rather say, 'Let's just do it.'