Jay Leno Considered Bailing on His Canadian Stand-Up Dates
Jay Leno has survived burns, car crashes and an extremely suspicious fall next to a Pennsylvanian Hampton Inn, but despite these brushes with death, Leno is still somewhat nervous about visiting Canada next month.
It’s no secret that the historically chummy relationship between the U.S. and Canada is currently verging on South Park-levels of strain, owing to Donald Trump’s recent trade war and his repeated threats to annex America’s neighbor to the North. As a result, Leno is somewhat unsure about whether or not he should be crossing the border to fulfill his upcoming Canadian stand-up dates — not because he supports Trump’s policies, but because he just feels really awkward about the whole thing.
Per LateNighter, while appearing on Canadian journalist Bill Brioux’s podcast brioux.tv, Leno called the recent attacks on Canada “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” He went on to note that when his mother first immigrated from Scotland, “half the family went to Canada,” meaning that Leno grew up with a slew of Canadian relatives.
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To further prove his Canuck cred to the host, Leno also recalled watching old episodes of The Littlest Hobo, which was basically the “Canadian version of Lassie.”
“I’m embarrassed when I go (to Canada now),” Leno confessed. “Because I try to be the nice American. I try to be as polite as I can. And when I meet Canadian people here, I always say, ‘Hey, I apologize.’” He went as far as to call the current U.S. president’s attitude toward Canada “rude and disrespectful.”
Leno currently has two tour dates scheduled in Canada this spring — one at a casino just north of Toronto, where he will be joined by his former late-night competitor Arsenio Hall, and another in Windsor, Ontario. But he feels so ashamed of his country right now that he nearly bailed on the gigs altogether. “I was almost not going to do these dates, because I didn’t want to be the ugly American coming in,” Leno explained.
“I don’t like to disagree with my country when I’m in another country, but this one doesn’t make any sense to me. I can’t think of a better friend than Canada,” the former Tonight Show host added.
But even though he’s seemingly outraged by the modern political climate, when asked if he’ll address the matter during his Canadian sets, he confirmed that he won’t bring it up, although he did say that he might offer an apology to the crowd. This is because Leno has opted to remove politics from his act entirely, in an effort to keep everyone in his audience happy — and presumably to ensure that he can keep telling the same 30-year-old jokes. He claimed that “ticket sales are up 20 or 30 percent” as a result.
If Leno does end up canceling these shows, the bookers could always replace him with the Leno made out of car parts that already resides in Canada.
