July 2015
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Leno's Late Night Picks; Tonight Show Memorable Moments

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BOMAfacts owes a debt of thanks to Bisnow’s reporters for providing daily convention coverage. Parts of the stories reported in Convention Round-Up draw on their on-the-spot reporting.

Comedy legend Jay Leno kicked off commercial real estate’s biggest show of the year with a crowd-pleasing performance that blended his trademark monologue with light-hearted audience Q&A. Leno spared none of popular culture, skewering Walmart for selling caskets, misdials from Apple watches, drug side effects that are scarier and even deadlier than the diseases they purport to cure, and his favorite milieu -- America’s politicians.

Q&A’s were shout-outs from the floor and included:

Favorite Interviews: Barack Obama, as Senator and then President, and former astronaut and Senator John Glenn. Apparently Leno had written an essay about the astronaut in 5th grade and his teacher had given him a C...then he told the crowd he had called her after interviewing the Senator, and asked if she would give him a better grade for snagging the interview with one of America’s first space heroes.

Favorite Leno Show segment question: In his impromptu, on-the-street segment, where he’d interview passers-by, his favorite question was "How was Mount Rushmore formed?" The most common answer.... "Erosion." With that typical Leno smile, he commented, "Finding idiots was never a problem."

Favorite late night shows: Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. He also predicts Stephen Colbert will do well, but said he’d welcome seeing something other than the "usual parade of white guys."

Favorite comedians: Friend Jerry Seinfeld, and Robin Williams, whom he also considered a friend, as well as the more edgy humor of Louis CK and Chris Rock.

Perhaps one of his most poignant TV moments came when he hosted John F. Kennedy, Jr. on his show. Reaching out to shake JFK Jr.’s hand, Jay instead saw himself shaking the hand of the little boy standing beside the casket of his assassinated father, President John F. Kennedy, and saluting, an image that has become one of the most iconic pieces of film in recent American history.