When I was working in my home office the other day, I looked up and saw it hanging on the wall. It always makes me smile. It’s just a small frame with a check stub under the glass. It’s not that unusual because lots of people frame things that are important to them: college degrees, GEDs, even completion certificates from transmission schools. And this check stub is important to me. The amount is not significant, but the note on the left-hand side is. It says, “Writer Services – Comedy Material Jay Leno.” This little piece of paper is the first hard evidence that proves to everyone (including the IRS, who keeps asking about my office deduction) I am a professional comedy writer.
(From Left to Right) Jay Leno and Joe Hobby. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hobby)
Joke writing was a natural by-product of me doing stand-up. For about 18 months after my first open mic night, I honed my writing and delivery skills at the Comedy Club in Birmingham, Alabama. I slurped up information about comedy the way an anteater sucks up ants. I found a couple of books on writing which became invaluable resources because they taught me joke structure and routine. That led to writing topical one-liners for a local morning radio team who really needed the help. To give you an idea of how long ago this was, they paid me in cassette tapes. Nothing like schlepping a few jokes for the new Journey release.
About this time, I noticed an interesting cover on Rolling Stone magazine. It had a joint photo of David Letterman and Jay Leno. I don’t think you’ll see that happening today without some serious photoshopping. What I remember about the article was the description of Jay – a decent, blue-collar kind of guy, they said. In fact, he responds to every piece of fan mail. An idea germinated. What if I sent Leno some of my topical jokes and asked him to critique them? That would be so cool to have my own one-liners graded by The Man.
So I got out a legal pad, and hand wrote a letter to Jay, one comedian to another. Forget that he was guest-hosting the Tonight Show at the time, and I was one step beyond knock-knock jokes. I made every effort to suck up to him (which I admitted in the letter) and then asked the favor. I enclosed about four pages of my comedic gems along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Hopefully, the future king of late-night would write some suggestions in the margin and send them back to me. Considering he got thousands of letters each week, I doubted I would hear from him for a while. So after dropping the package in the mail, I forgot about it.
Two weeks later, I was working in my downtown office when the phone rang.
It was my wife, who forgoing the pleasantries, immediately and pointedly said, “Hey. I need to know something. Have you sent some kind of letter to Jay Leno?”
My heart jumped, but I stayed cool. “Why are you asking me that?”
“Because I think I might’ve just made a fool out of myself.”
I wisely let that hanging curveball go right by me. My experience as a husband finally paid off.
Instead, I asked innocently, “What could you possibly mean?”
“Well, I just got a weird phone call from someone saying they were Jay Leno. He said he wanted you to sign a writing contract. It was really a pretty lame impersonation, so I thought it was one of your idiot friends playing a joke on you.”
Panic flooded me. “No, no, no! Did you hang up? Did you get a name? Did you get a number?” I was yelling like George Costanza on a Seinfeld episode. “Vandelay Industries! Vandelay Industries!”
Carol tersely responded, “Well, whoever it was gave me a phone number, but I’ll bet it’s one of those sex lines.”
“I’ll be the judge of that!” I yelled. “Just give it to me!”
It turns out it was Jay. He really does read his letters. More importantly, he looked over my jokes and liked the stuff I submitted! So he gave me his manager’s contact information. When I called her, I got a very brief primer on submitting material and how I would be paid. It was a hand-signed check from Jay himself. I also signed an independent work agreement, meaning he would only pay me for the jokes he used, making it the ultimate in free enterprise. And no healthcare. Once Leno buys a joke, it’s his to use – in the monologue or in his nightclub act.
Since this was before he took over the Tonight Show on a full-time basis, I began to watch Jay every Monday night, looking for style, tendencies, and topics. Finally, I began writing about 5 to 7 jokes a week. As a point of comparison, by the end of his run on the show, my weekly submissions numbered about 50-60. Some nights the material flowed so freely that my fingers couldn’t keep up with my thoughts. Other nights, it was all I could do to squeeze out a half dozen lame jokes to fax him.
After about three weeks of writing, I thought I heard something that sounded like one of my jokes. I began watching the mailbox like a sumo wrestler watches a buffet line. Within a few days, I received a letter with a Los Angeles return address. I ripped open that envelope, and there it was: a light blue check personally autographed by Mr. Jay Leno. At last, I was officially a professional comedy writer! That began our long association together.
The joke? Oh yeah, here it is:
“Scientists are now saying that drinking cow’s milk can be hazardous to your health. I’ll tell you what’s hazardous to your health. Having your mom catch you standing in front of the refrigerator drinking milk out of the carton. ”
I know, I know. Any one of you could’ve written it. That’s probably true, but I’m the one who put it on paper. And because of a fan letter and an open-minded late-night host, I got a check for it.
(From Left to Right) Jay Leno and Joe Hobby. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hobby)
My Life as a Hobby: My First Joke – Thanks Leno!
By Joe Hobby
When I was working in my home office the other day, I looked up and saw it hanging on the wall. It always makes me smile. It’s just a small frame with a check stub under the glass. It’s not that unusual because lots of people frame things that are important to them: college degrees, GEDs, even completion certificates from transmission schools. And this check stub is important to me. The amount is not significant, but the note on the left-hand side is. It says, “Writer Services – Comedy Material Jay Leno.” This little piece of paper is the first hard evidence that proves to everyone (including the IRS, who keeps asking about my office deduction) I am a professional comedy writer.
(From Left to Right) Jay Leno and Joe Hobby. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hobby)
Joke writing was a natural by-product of me doing stand-up. For about 18 months after my first open mic night, I honed my writing and delivery skills at the Comedy Club in Birmingham, Alabama. I slurped up information about comedy the way an anteater sucks up ants. I found a couple of books on writing which became invaluable resources because they taught me joke structure and routine. That led to writing topical one-liners for a local morning radio team who really needed the help. To give you an idea of how long ago this was, they paid me in cassette tapes. Nothing like schlepping a few jokes for the new Journey release.
About this time, I noticed an interesting cover on Rolling Stone magazine. It had a joint photo of David Letterman and Jay Leno. I don’t think you’ll see that happening today without some serious photoshopping. What I remember about the article was the description of Jay – a decent, blue-collar kind of guy, they said. In fact, he responds to every piece of fan mail. An idea germinated. What if I sent Leno some of my topical jokes and asked him to critique them? That would be so cool to have my own one-liners graded by The Man.
So I got out a legal pad, and hand wrote a letter to Jay, one comedian to another. Forget that he was guest-hosting the Tonight Show at the time, and I was one step beyond knock-knock jokes. I made every effort to suck up to him (which I admitted in the letter) and then asked the favor. I enclosed about four pages of my comedic gems along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Hopefully, the future king of late-night would write some suggestions in the margin and send them back to me. Considering he got thousands of letters each week, I doubted I would hear from him for a while. So after dropping the package in the mail, I forgot about it.
Two weeks later, I was working in my downtown office when the phone rang.
It was my wife, who forgoing the pleasantries, immediately and pointedly said, “Hey. I need to know something. Have you sent some kind of letter to Jay Leno?”
My heart jumped, but I stayed cool. “Why are you asking me that?”
“Because I think I might’ve just made a fool out of myself.”
I wisely let that hanging curveball go right by me. My experience as a husband finally paid off.
Instead, I asked innocently, “What could you possibly mean?”
“Well, I just got a weird phone call from someone saying they were Jay Leno. He said he wanted you to sign a writing contract. It was really a pretty lame impersonation, so I thought it was one of your idiot friends playing a joke on you.”
Panic flooded me. “No, no, no! Did you hang up? Did you get a name? Did you get a number?” I was yelling like George Costanza on a Seinfeld episode. “Vandelay Industries! Vandelay Industries!”
Carol tersely responded, “Well, whoever it was gave me a phone number, but I’ll bet it’s one of those sex lines.”
“I’ll be the judge of that!” I yelled. “Just give it to me!”
It turns out it was Jay. He really does read his letters. More importantly, he looked over my jokes and liked the stuff I submitted! So he gave me his manager’s contact information. When I called her, I got a very brief primer on submitting material and how I would be paid. It was a hand-signed check from Jay himself. I also signed an independent work agreement, meaning he would only pay me for the jokes he used, making it the ultimate in free enterprise. And no healthcare. Once Leno buys a joke, it’s his to use – in the monologue or in his nightclub act.
Since this was before he took over the Tonight Show on a full-time basis, I began to watch Jay every Monday night, looking for style, tendencies, and topics. Finally, I began writing about 5 to 7 jokes a week. As a point of comparison, by the end of his run on the show, my weekly submissions numbered about 50-60. Some nights the material flowed so freely that my fingers couldn’t keep up with my thoughts. Other nights, it was all I could do to squeeze out a half dozen lame jokes to fax him.
After about three weeks of writing, I thought I heard something that sounded like one of my jokes. I began watching the mailbox like a sumo wrestler watches a buffet line. Within a few days, I received a letter with a Los Angeles return address. I ripped open that envelope, and there it was: a light blue check personally autographed by Mr. Jay Leno. At last, I was officially a professional comedy writer! That began our long association together.
The joke? Oh yeah, here it is:
“Scientists are now saying that drinking cow’s milk can be hazardous to your health. I’ll tell you what’s hazardous to your health. Having your mom catch you standing in front of the refrigerator drinking milk out of the carton. ”
I know, I know. Any one of you could’ve written it. That’s probably true, but I’m the one who put it on paper. And because of a fan letter and an open-minded late-night host, I got a check for it.