Jay Leno trades desk for stand-up gig with troops, families

  • Published
  • By Luke Waack
  • JBER PAO
Tour for the Troops brings Leno to base

Thousands of service members, their families and friends filled the Buckner Physical Fitness Center Saturday night to attend part of Jay Leno's Tour for the Troops, sponsored by the Air Force Reserve.

Leno finished taping the "Tonight Show" Friday afternoon, flew to Sacramento, Calif. for an evening show there and then boarded a plane for Alaska, arriving in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Leno didn't take much time to rest.

He hosted the grand opening of Wasilla's newest military recruiting station for the Air Force Reserve, and spoke to a crowd of hundreds of fans after 13 local residents swore their oath of enlistment.

Leno's final stop on the whirlwind tour was Buckner, where he performed standup comedy for more than an hour and a half for his military fans. The fitness center seats 2,500 people and only a handful of seats were left open in the upper balcony.

The comedy show was only for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson troops, their families and friends. Free tickets were distributed through each unit's chain of command.

"It was awesome," said Senior Master Sgt. Timothy Layton, 962nd Aircraft Maintenance Unit superintendent.

Leno's first show for troops was in 1991, which he mentioned during his standup routine.

"We fly out in Desert Storm, and we land in Bahrain -- we're going out by the Kuwaiti border and we're gonna do a show out there," Leno said. "We got on these helicopters for two hours, it was like 115 degrees and we land in a big pile of sand.

"I said, 'Where's the audience?' and there's about 60 guys sitting in the sand," Leno continued. "I go, 'Where's the stage?' The guy says, 'Just stand on the tank.' I said, 'Where's the mic?' They said, 'We don't have a mic, just shout.' I said, 'I can't shout.' I thought, 'This is going to be awful.'

"I got up there, I told one joke, these guys were like (gasping laughs)," Leno said. "They hadn't heard a joke in two years. They were the best audience I ever had. I thought, 'I want to do more of these Kuwaiti tank shows."

The audience enjoyed Leno's performance and applauded him for his service to them.

"I think it's great. He comes out and supports troops and helps the Reserve," Layton said.