Leading with My Chin

by Jay Leno and Bill Zehme

Book Overview

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,...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061094927
• ISBN13: 9780061094927
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

FUNNIEST BOOK IN THE UNIVERSE!

I have read this book at least THREE times. I've given it to almost everyone I know. I gave it to my nephew when he was 14. One day, we saw him shaking and crying on his bed. When I asked what was wrong, he rolled over and handed me this book!!!! He couldn't even speak, he just pointed to the part he wanted me to read. It is soooo funny. Whenever my mother feels down, she just opens it up to any page and it cheers her up. If I ever met Jay, I'd tell him this is my favorite book. I made the mistake of taking it when I was waiting to see if I would be picked for jury duty. I kept laughing out loud and everyone kept looking at me. It really is funny. I don't know if his life was this funny, or if he left out most of the bad stuff, but if you have ANY sense of humor at all, GET THIS BOOK!

Funny autobiography with large doses of humor and no dirt

Heard the taped version of LEADING WITH MY CHIN,written and read by Jay Leno . . . it is his autobiography, buttold only as he could tell it; i.e., with large doses of humor and without being too offensive . . . so if you're looking for the "dirt" on any famous personalities, you won't find it here.Instead, you'll laugh at the stories of his childhood, as well as his attempts to get into the comedy business . . . as he tells it, he wasn't that funny in the beginning; in fact, what he often did in the beginning to get a laugh was raise his voiceand repeat back what he had just heard . . . or he would ask something to the following effect: You hear about thenew men's personal hygiene produce? Umpire--for guyswith foul balls. (Hey, I thought it was funny!)As his career progressed, I found myself cheering for hissuccesses . . . what I especially liked was how he spokeof his parents and their role in making him the person heis now.

What a nice man!

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.

A good life story of a funny guy

I like that Jay wrote this book himself. It doesn't have any boring parts. I've read this thing a million times since I actually am an aspiring commedian. Even though he's a generation behind me, he was similar to me when he was my age. His first trys to be funny at school were cool to hear about, since I did similar stuff. I swear to god, when I was 13, a teacher wrote something similar his teacher wrote, "If Jay studied as hard as does being funny, he'd be a good comedian." The stories and troubles with his parents are easy to identify with as a kid. He also gives a long look into his life on the road, such as playing at a college with geeks who wanted to study and not hear a comedian. (A--holes!) The book also has some sentimental and dirty parts, making it interesting all around. It's all pretty humorous and it's like he's actually telling you the stories, the way it's written sounds like the way he'd say it, well it's cause he DID. A good read if you've got a sense of humor.

What a wonderful book!!!

This is one of the cutest books I have ever read!!! When I finished reading it I couldn't help but thinking - "Hey, maybe in 20 years he'll write another book, telling us about the funny events which happen to him now" - if so - I can't wait for these 20 years to pass ;-)