Category: Comedians Slideshow

Jay Leno’s down-to-earth persona and topical humor have helped make him one of the most successful and recognizable personalities in the show business. Jay Leno began his entertainment career in the 1970’s touring the country as a stand-up comedians and sometimes booking as many as 300 gigs annually. One of these gigs was Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.

On September 28^th, 1976, Jay Leno appeared live on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. That night a very young Jay Leno, who was wearing a brown leather vest with a very hip Panama hat performed one of his early stand-up performances and told jokes about American life, TV news, car commercials and college life in Boston. Rather than watching from backstage, Don Kirshner was in the public that night with family and friends. During Jay Leno’s performance the cameras caught candid shots of Kirshner enjoying Leno’s act.

Jay Leno’s Rock Concert performance helped boost his growing popularity. After appearing on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, Leno’s career continued its meteoric ascent.

His frequent gigs on popular nightclubs and TV shows soon led to multiple appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. By the 1980s, he had become Carson’s regular guest host and Leno had become a household name. When Carson retired in 1992, NBC passed hosting duties for The Tonight Show to Jay Leno. This promotion caught his competitor David Letterman by surprise, who had also been a co-host for The Tonight Show and had his eye on the job.

For the next 17 years, Jay Leno hosted the The Tonight Show without a problem until 2009, when Leno unwillingly agreed to step down from his host position, allowing his chosen successor, Conan O’Brien, to take over. Leno then got offered a nightly prime-time program, The Jay Leno Show. When it debuted in 2009, the show did not receive the ratings NBC had expected.  At the same time, Conan’s ratings were also struggling. NBC offered to rearrange both the prime time and late-night schedules to include everyone involved; however, Conan O’Brien was not very happy with such arrangement and refused to alter the schedule. Eventually, Leno took back The Tonight Show, and Conan O’Brien left NBC.

Despite the conflict and subsequent media attacks, Jay Leno continues to reign as the king of late night. With his political and current events humor, he hosts the top-rated Tonight Show nightly, which is seen in over 45 countries worldwide. Off-screen, Jay Leno spends his limited free time quietly with his wife and his collection of classic cars and motorcycles.

Before becoming a superstar, Billy Crystal, like many other young comedians of the 1970’s, performed on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.  On January 1^st 1975, Crystal appeared on Rock Concert to perform a standup between the musical acts of Natalie Cole and B.T. Express and clips of Led Zeppelin’s rock film The Song Remains The Same.  Dressed in typical seventies fashion, with blue bell-bottom slacks and a tight grey wool sweater, Crystal opened his act by “mistakenly” bumping his head on the microphone and pretending like the sound went out.  He then launched into a bit that included quips about the audience’s drug use and the struggles of life as a comedian. The performance was very well-received by the audience and it was clear that this would not be the last we saw of this young talent.

Sure enough, following Billy Crystal’s appearance on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, his career really began to gain momentum. He went on to land several TV roles, join the Saturday Night Live cast, host his own variety show, and appear on popular game shows.  However, it was a string of hit movies in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that really made Billy Crystal a household name. These well-known films included Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers.   

With the great success of his film career, Billy Crystal was invited to host the 1990 Academy Awards.  One of the all-time great award show hosts, Crystal has since gone on to MC the Oscars 8 times – second only to Bob Hope’s 18 ceremonies hosted. This year, Crystal has once again been chosen to host the 84th Annual Academy Awards. 

Billy Crystal has had a tremendously successful career as an actor, director, writer and producer.  Outside of his work in entertainment, he is also involved in numerous philanthropic causes and is well-known as an avid sports fan, often in attendance at Yankees Stadium or chatting up Chris Paul and Blake Griffin while sitting courtside at Los Angeles Clippers games. 

Known for having a dry and cynical sense of humor, David Letterman is a pioneer of the “late night show,” as well as one of the greatest comedians of our time.

Letterman’s career started off in his hometown of Indianapolis, as a weatherman, radio host and TV announcer in the early seventies. In 1975, Letterman moved to California, and began working as a struggling stand-up comic at “The Comedy Store” in Hollywood, where the audience often included celebrities like Paul McCartney, Sammy Davis Jr. and Johnny Carson. Soon he was hired to write material for popular TV shows, including “Good Times.” 

By the late seventies, David Letterman’s stand-up began to get national exposure, and he was asked to perform his act on popular TV shows of the time, including Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert in 1978. Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert was not only known for having popular rock bands and musicians on, but it was also known for showcasing many up and coming comics. Following the footsteps of The Ed Sullivan Show, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert served as a launching pad for the careers of many comedians. David Letterman was one of them.  That evening in Los Angeles, Letterman performed a hilarious bit about how Southern Californian’s freak about a little rain but when an earthquake hits “it’s no big deal.”

While Letterman was already making a name for himself, appearing on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert helped to further propel his career thanks to the show’s large national expsure.  This helped land Letterman appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” where he became so popular that he quickly turned into a substitute host for the show. NBC saw a huge potential in David Letterman and decided to give him his own day time show called “The David Letterman Show” in 1980, which aired only for a few months. However, in 1982 he was given another opportunity to host his own show, a late night show following Carson’s called “Late Night With David Letterman.”  His show later moved to CBS and changed its name to the current – “The Late Show With David Letterman.”

With his original and irreverent style, David Letterman was one of the iconic comedians who performed on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.