Jay Leno: Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Johnny Carson, & the Politics of Everything | FULL INTERVIEW

Jay Leno, thank you so much for your hospitality. Well, thanks for coming, you guys. I appreciate it. We're here in Jay's garage in Burbank, California. That's pretty obvious. We're in a garage. I just can't say I can't say this in my living room. But, you know, a lot of divorced guys, they have a living room that looks like this. And I mean, I remember walking one guy's house and he had a Harley in the living room. I said, single man, are you? He goes, yeah, how did you know? I said, I just saw the motorcycle in the living room. It's kind of a dead giveaway that you're single. Well, this is a pretty spectacular spot and we're very close to the Burbank airport. So if people hear a plane, it's OK. Right. Nothing bad is about to happen. No problem. But thrilled to be here with you. And thank you for your hospitality. Look, you're a professional comedian. You've had a tremendous career. And you've said in interviews that President Ronald Reagan actually made you laugh. You, a comedian. So can you tell us a little bit about it? Well, Reagan was good. Obama was a really good comic, too. Reagan had that performer thing. You know, he he I went I had dinner with him. He said, gee, gee, were you a good student? I said, no, Mr. President, I'm dyslexic. I said, gee, I was not a good student either. And every day I'd kick myself thinking how much further I could have gone if I just applied myself. I thought that was the greatest line I've heard. It knocked me off the chair. It's just so funny. You're president of the United States. You know, if I'd just done a little bit more. Yeah, it really made me laugh. He's a funny man. That is I mean, it's amazing. And he sounds like you got along with him in your interactions with him. Yeah, I you know, I vote on character, not necessarily politics. So I was a decent man. I liked him. We talked to you, Jay. I had an Indian motorcycle. You have an Indian? I do, Mr. Oh, what do you have? You know, we're talking. I mean, it's just a lot of fun. Well, you performed at the White House Correspondents Dinner a remarkable four times in your career. And I'd love to go back to the first time you did that in 1987 when President Reagan was was present. And it was obviously in the in his administration. What are some reflections on that? Well, that was interesting because I'm sitting backstage, you know, and it's this landless audience. I'm just sitting there in the green room, you know, and this general comes back. He's got all the you know, he's like, you can meet me. What's your name? Jay Lennison. Jay, let me test him. That is the president of the United States. That is my boss. He is the commander in chief of it. You know, you don't denigrate him. You make fun of him. But he's poking me. I said, well, I'm a comedian. I don't care. Yeah, he's just yelling at me. You know, he's just doing this. I said, well, I would say you'd be respectful. And then he leaves. I go, I'm thinking, oh, man, I got to rewrite a bunch of jokes. So what am I going to do? And then George Shultz comes in. I see his secretary of state at the time. And he's he's got he looks like he's half in the bag. He's got a drink. He goes, come here. You get out there. You nail Ronnie's ass to the wall. And I go, well, the general, what do you want from me? Yeah, I'm higher than him. I'll tell you what. Don't listen to that guy. You know that thing? I'm right. Because you think that's his real hair color? Do you? Do you? I said, well, I never really thought that it means he's touching. He's giving me this whole diatribe. Now he leaves. And I'm like, I know I don't know what to do now. I'm by myself. There's nobody there. It's just me. One guy's yelling at the other guys. So it was it was interesting. No pressure, right? How tough a room is the White House correspondence dinner, especially as somebody who did it four times because for a comedian, they said, you know, it's like the writers room at Saturday Night Live. When I host a Saturday Night Live, the writers would read their jokes or their sketches. I know it's half the ones, half of them would laugh and maybe half wouldn't. And then it'd be vice versa. What's up? Oh, they only laugh at their own stuff because they're on such it's such a pressure cooker there. If you don't get material in, only to be out in 13 weeks or whatever it might be. So it was always that sort of thing. So they only laughed if you made fun of the other side, you know, but it was a different time. And then it was more of it. It was a gentle prod. Now it's it's gotten good or bad, just really political. I mean, I love the fact that Tip O'Neill and and Reagan would go for a drink and have a beer and discuss different points of view, you know, which is what I like to do. I don't hate the the other side. I mean, yeah, it's really not a very good situation. Well, President Reagan was known as a great communicator, but he himself said that really what he was just doing is communicating great things. And among the great things that he would do is he would tell stories and he would use comedy. So I'm curious, what is your sense as a professional and supremely qualified comedian? What was his sense of timing? What was his ability to deliver? Well, he had a good sense of timing and he knew how to be funny. And, you know, he had that thing that all actors get. He's got a lot of important things to say, but he's got something funny he wants to say. And you could just see him. He would and he would start. Well, here's a story. The destiny of self-government and the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty is finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. For our friends in the press who plays a high premium on accuracy, let me say I did not actually hear George Washington say that. Yeah, he always had that he had a good sense of timing. He knew how to tell a story. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I read that there was an analysis done of your work on The Tonight Show for the 22 years and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats. Well, did you have a strategy or was that not my? It was fun to me when I got hate letters from you and your Republican friends. Well, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy over the same joke. And I go, well, that's good. So that's how you get a whole audience. Now you you have to be content with half the audience because you have to give your opinion. You know, I did a lot of dates with Colin Powell, where I would come out and do some jokes and then I'd bring him out and interview him on stage, you know. And he told me that if you're going to run for president, the greatest day is the day you renounce. From that on, it's downhill because every day you'll say something which some portion will hate, you know, and it just always struck struck me as very interesting. How did we get to this place? So is there do you have advice for comedians today to sort of bring it back to something? Rodney Dagerfield and I were. Friends, I knew Rodney 40 years. I have no idea if he was Democrat or Republican. We never discussed. We just discussed jokes. And to me, I like to think can people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life wherever it might be. And I love political humor. I don't get me wrong, but it's just what happens with people. Wind up causing too much to one side or the other. Comedy can be used to unite or divide people. Do you have any advice on how we can use it for common ground? Well, this is a great uniter. You know, funny is funny. People either, you know, it's funny when someone who is not who you make fun of their side and they laugh at it, you know. That's kind of what I do. I just find getting out. I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture, you know. To me, it's just when I was with Rodney, it was always in the economy of words. Get to the joke as quickly as possible. One of my favorite Rodney jokes like that was I walked past the bar. It's a topless and bottomless. I went in and there was nobody there. I mean, it's just a just a great job. It makes perfect sense. Nobody there. Well, and it's worth noting that both you and Rodney Rodney Dangerfield experienced and have been experiencing enormous success. Right. So so your approach worked in the marketplace. Well, why? Why shoot for just half an audience all the time? You know, why not try to get the whole? I mean, I like to bring people into the big picture. I don't understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know. Or just don't do it at all. I'm not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but. Just just do what's funny, you know. Well, picking up on one of the themes you just referenced, you once said in an interview that, quote, the odd thing is you find that Republicans, for whatever reason, seem to be able to laugh at themselves more than Democrats. Why do you think that? Well, that's probably true. I think that is true, actually, because. Well, I guess I don't know why that is. Well, sometimes, you know, I always say when I think I'm a Republican, they do something greedy. When I think I'm a Democrat, they do something stupid, you know. So you get caught in the middle there a little bit. You know, I. I'm not sure I'm one of those people. I'm a moderate. I'm in the middle. And I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. When I was a kid, Republicans were about banking and defense. What Larry and Bill did, what do I care, you know? But now everybody seems to be in everybody else's business all the time. You know, I did one that when John Boehner was I did things for him and I did a bunch of Republican things and they were wonderful. They're very good audiences. They're funny, you know. And I kind of made fun of their guy. And OK, I'm not sure you could do it today. You would get booed off the stage. You came to California in about 1973. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So Ronald Reagan was governor. And you lived through, obviously, the last few years of his governorship. Obviously, he was president. You, I'm sure, knew of him as an actor before that. Oh, yeah. What what does Ronald Reagan mean to you now? Well, you know, Fred DeCordova, who was the executive producer on The Tonight Show when I was guest with Johnny, he directed Bedtime for Bonzo. And he and Nancy, you know, they all they all work together, you know, so. And the Secret Service loved being in Beverly Hills. You know, to me, I went down to see President Bush at his ranch and no Secret Service guys. You land there and what's the town? Waco. Wait, no, not Waco. Crawford. Crawford. I'm sorry. OK, there's a gas station and a dollar store. Then you drive down 20 miles down this dirt road and there's a hut. With like half a dozen Secret Service guys doing this, and they're all day just serving this flat land. There's nothing there. They like Santa Barbara a little better. It used to be Bel Air, you know. And, you know, you check in with those guys and it's another 15 miles to the house down this dirt road, you know. And Bush loves it. I think it's great that and these service because when they get off work, what do they do? They go to the Hampton Inn or something and sit and wait till tomorrow. It's like the guys with Reagan in Beverly Hills. Oh, they loved it. They're right in the middle there on the Sunset Strip. Well, if if you had interviewed Ronald Reagan on The Tonight Show or in Jay's Garage, is there anything you wish you could have asked him upon reflection or? You know, I enjoyed politicians my favorite because when you when you have Batman on the show, you're not really talking to Batman. You're talking to a guy playing Batman. But when I would have Newt Gingrich or anybody else on the program, you just get to see a side of them that maybe, you know, you know, it was funny when I had. I remember watching Hillary Clinton and had the nomination locked up. And then Barack Obama announced he was running for president. So I called him up and I said, hey, you want to come to the show? Oh, yeah, he comes out, rents a car by himself, drives to the Tonight Show, walks out, you know, and he's got his coat over his shoulder like he does, you know. He said he walks on the stage. My name is Hussein Barack Obama. I'm running for president. I said, oh, let's see. A black guy from Chicago whose middle name is Hussein. I said you shouldn't even have to campaign. I just think you're a shoo-in. And, you know, he had a good sense of humor. He thought that was really funny. You know, he could laugh. And he gave me his phone number. I had his cell phone. OK, so, OK. And then he gets elected president and then he comes back in the Tonight Show. First time a sitting president ever done that. This time, the whole parking lot is tented. So from a satellite, you can't see where. Yeah. The car. Or security. OK. OK. So that was great. So this is what when you grew up in a small town. So I'm telling my idiot friends from eighth grade, yeah, I had President Obama on the show. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of cool. He gave me his cell phone. Let's call him up. I go, I'm not going to call him up because he's president. You don't have it. No. Uh-huh. OK, now we're like 60 year old guys doing this back and forth. I go, no, this is stupid. You know, for somebody in show business. But it's the guys you grew up with. You still want to show off. So is that you want a call? OK, let's call him up. And I hear Rocky, Mr. President. Yeah, Jay Leno. I'm just here with some of my friends. Lose this number, Jake. That was that was pretty much he literally said that. Lose this number, Jake. Thank you, Mr. President. Wow. Very cool. Oh, it killed me. I thought that was so funny. You mentioned, you know, some of your childhood friends. You're born in New Rochelle. You grew up in Massachusetts. You came to California. President Reagan's autobiography is An American Life. He grew up with very limited means, had some family challenges, but achieved the highest office in the land and great successes before that. How do you reflect on your journey? We're here in Jay's garage, a spectacular collection of cars. It really doesn't compare, really. But you've led an amazing American life. What are your reflections about America and opportunity and where we are? I am a huge believer in low self-esteem. I think it's key to success. If you don't think you're the smartest person in the room, you listen to people. You know, to me, the greatest president is the one that have advisors that are at least as smart as they are and they can get good intel. You know, having yes men or yes people around you doesn't really do any good. When I did The Tonight Show, I tried to hire the best director, best lighting people. And when the lighting guy said, this light's not, I have so many friends that got you. No, here's what I want. And I want that. And now you have a staff that hates you. And I saw that so much in show business where people would, didn't mind losing their job as long as you lost your job because they hate you. You know, so to me, the key was always kindness, surround yourself with smart people or smarter people. You know, Lincoln with that, the book was a team of rivals. Yeah. And Reagan did that. He tried to, you know, was he a great student? No, I was not a good student either, you know. And so he surrounded himself with people who were at least as smart as he is. That's not a shot on him. It's just that you know where your strengths are. And that's something you sought to do. And that always worked. I find kindness always work. I've never had a situation where kindness, I might still have lost, but I gained something from it as well. I never understand people who feel they have to intimidate and all that kind of stuff. Tell us about your dinner with Mikhail Gorbachev. Oh, this is hilarious. It's in Beverly Hills Hotel. He was no longer president and he had an interpreter. So I'm trying to be, he's got ratio in him, you know. And I said, oh, you look very beautiful. And I said, you're obviously married a younger woman. No, no, a younger woman. And she was not a child when she married him. I said, no, no, I didn't say she was a child. I said, she looks so beautiful. And nothing I said could be translated properly. It just, it was like hilarious. But Gorbachev told me a good joke about Gorbachev. He said, this is the joke they tell him. And the joke was that two guys are waiting in a bread line for like eight hours. And one guy goes, ugh, eight hours for bread. Makes you want to just kill Gorbachev. I want to kill him, you know. And somebody hears him, kill Gorbachev. Yeah, kill Gorbachev, kill Gorbachev. The other guy goes, I'm going to go do it. He steps out of line, comes back four hours later. Did you kill Gorbachev? No, that line was longer than this one. I thought that was a great joke. What a joy to sit with you. Well, thanks. Thank you so much. God bless you. Good luck.