Leading with My Chin [Mass Market Paperback]

Jay Leno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1997

The king of late-night television and America's hardest-working comedian delivers the monologue of his life.

Against the odds Jay Leno has emerged as the undisputed king of late night television as host of the # 1 -rated The Tonight Show. His twenty-year stand-up career; working alongside the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Carry Shandling, and David Letterman, was a long, hard, and laugh-filled battle to the top. In this entertaining, anecdote-filled book, Leno delivers the monologue of his life, leaving readers admiring his unstoppable wit and tenacity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

So what do you expect from a celebrity autobiography? Tales of an impoverished childhood and an unappreciated early career? Angst-ridden revelation? In Jay Leno's take on the genre, tales have only one purpose--laughs. This is a book of jokey anecdotes and humorous stories marking the comedian's progress to the top. The persona of the young Leno is not so different and just as likable as the one appearing nightly on television. Whether it is his mother's advice, his teachers' complaints, or the awkward situations he finds himself in (for example, standing before an Orthodox Jewish audience who have been mistakenly led to expect a Yiddish storyteller) Leno always sees the funny side. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

An amiable, mildly funny pastiche of anecdotes, most interesting for what it unfortunately avoids about the talk-show host's career. -- Entertainment Weekly

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (September 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061094927
• ISBN-13: 978-0061094927
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, enjoyable, exactly what you would expect from Leno, April 5, 2008

By 

TW - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Leading with My Chin (Mass Market Paperback)

Comedy is difficult to rate because personal taste accounts for a large degree of one's perception of the material. I have always been a fan of Jay Leno and appreciate his sense of humor, hence Leading With my Chin was very enjoyable. It falls right in line with the sense of humor you anticipate from watching the Tonight Show or any of his stand-up routines; however it is not merely a series of jokes as Leno presents an account of his life growing up in Massachusetts. If you appreciate Leno's wit and have interest in discovering the life that helped developed his sense of humor, you will enjoy this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a guy!!!!, August 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Leading With My Chin (Hardcover)

I may only be a sophomore in college, but I have loved Jay Leno for years now. :o) I read his book and when I finished it I wanted to cry, simply because there weren't any more wonderful stories left to read. I didn't cry though--I just flipped it back to the beginning and read it again. This book really lets people into his life. He doesn't back-stab anybody or put anybody down, and his stories aren't "And that's why I'm perfect" He shows us the more human side of him, and his style of writing makes you feel as if you were actually having a conversation with him, and these were the stories he was telling you. These are stories that nobody will ever get tired of reading. They are no doubt stories that, if Jay were a father, his children would beg him to tell over and over again. This is my new favorite book! Way to go Jay!!! :o

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a nice man!, January 28, 2001

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Leading with My Chin (Mass Market Paperback)

Jay Leno either is a very nice man or he's a total liar. I don't believe that it's the latter. LEADING WITH MY CHIN is his autobiography, and it certainly confirms his niceness.

This is the brief, "official" version of his childhood and early years, in which he gives what seems to be an honest appraisal of his failures every bit as much as his successes. Many of the anecdotes, hardly unexpectedly for a person of Leno's skill, are hilarious. A few are oddly touching. Over and over, he proves himself to be caring and observant.

It would be impossible to read such an autobiography without learning something about the making of a star comedian, and about the hard work it requires. Certainly, the determination to get as far as Leno and that handful of others have gotten must be fierce. It says a great deal about Leno's humanity that he has managed to keep intact his decency while he climbed to the very top of his industry.