In 1992, during his third year of work, Mecurio attended a private stand-up comedy show by Jay Leno who was soon replacing Johnny Carson as the host of "The Tonight Show". Mecurio, a comedy fan who had written some jokes for his own leisure, handed 15 pages of his own material to Leno at the end in hope of selling some for him to use on television. Leno contacted him weeks later, asking him to send more. Mecurio was paid $50 for his first joke which Leno used on the show. After Mecurio's father died in 1993, he had a seven-month absence from work to support his mother in Providence.