The Leno Wit

February 2, 1997
This readable if derivative look at Tonight Show host Jay Leno comes on the heels of Leno's own Leading with My Chin and Bill Carter's The Late Shift. Thus, the former book is a better compilation of Leno's anecdotes while the latter is a more comprehensive account of Leno's duel with David Letterman. Walker seems to have scavenged any published interview with or story about Leno to lightly tell the tale of the comic's rise in show business and the struggle for late-night talk-show supremacy. Thus Walker can report on Leno's nice-guy personality and lack of emotion without delving into the comedian's particular psychology. Nor does he critique Leno's proclamation that he does not wield political humor to change his audience's views. But freelance writer Walker does include a generous helping of Leno's jokes and the comedian's theorizing about them, making this book an entertaining exercise for fans who must have even one more Leno book.

February 1, 1997
The most notable thing about Walker's take on the reigning late-night TV king is the frequency with which he calls Leno a "nice guy." Of course, Walker portrays Leno's main rival, David Letterman, as a nice guy, too. The villain here is, instead, Leno's erstwhile manager Helen Kushnik, who is abetted in subterfuge, gambits, and other evildoings by network execs who seem as vapid a bunch of guys in gray as ever there was. Ultimately, the emphasis on nice guyness wears a bit thin, what with Walker reminding us time and again of how this limits Leno's humor--that is, he can do no sex or sexist jokes, he must be evenhanded politically, etc.--but overall this is an enjoyable look at a successful entertainer, tricked out with enough signature Leno witticisms and enough juicy details about such showbiz machinations as the jockeying to replace Carson and the dumping of Branford Marsalis to compensate for the lack of scandalmongering many may regret. ((Reviewed February 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)