Leading with My Chin

Long before he became host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno was dubbedby media and peers alike as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Performingcomedy at a breakneck pace, he fulfilled over three hundred dates a year.In Leading With My Chin, he recounts many of the ridiculous steps(and missteps) that led him on what may be the unlikeliest of paths--fromcollege campuses to Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas and, finally, to TheTonight Show.Unlike many comedians, whose acts reflect broken homes and neurotic backgrounds,Jay revels in his wholesome Andover, Massachusetts upbringing, which isplain to see in Jay's heartwarming stories about his parents.Out on the comedy circuit-a virtual battle zone for Jay-he encounters everyhumiliation any performer has ever known: the nights when he was literallymugged onstage, and when he was merely punched out. And also that romanticnight at The Comedy Store--working amid the likes of David Letterman, RobinWilliams, Andy Kaufman and Steve Martin--when he met his future wife Mavisoutside the ladies' bathroom!Brimming with stories heartwarming and endearing, humiliating and justdownright embarrassing, Leading With My Chin demonstrates the sillythings you have to go through to make someone laugh.