Local comedians to still write jokes for Leno

This is Jay Leno’s last week as host of The Tonight Show. Leno replaced Johnny Carson in 1992.

Leno writes much of his own material…but not all of it. He has staff writers and a few people, like two men here in Birmingham, who write jokes for him every week.

Without missing a beat, the two will keep writing jokes for Jay when he moves to 9 p.m. this fall.

Being on stage at the Comedy Club at the Stardome is easy when there is no one in the audience. Sitting there with Joe Hobby and John Martin, we’re all funny.

Joe Hobby has been writing and telling jokes for more than 20 years. He knows how it feels up here.

“I mean stand up, when you have 500 people here laughing and cheering and they’re with you and it’s something you’ve created and you’re kind of in control… it’s a drug,” Joe Hobby said. “I mean I still get goose bumps remembering the first night at Oak Mountain… 10,000 people and would laugh so hard I could feel it on my skin.“

Joe Hobby started writing jokes for Jay Leno 20 years ago, and he’s never stopped.  John Martin started writing some jokes that he gave to Joe to forward on to Leno, and he’s now in his fifth year of writing.

Joe remembers when Leno first took over The Tonight Show.

“I said I think he did the joke and I never got a check… so I called out there and said, ‘I think he did my joke and I didn’t get a check.’“

They don’t have to do that anymore.  If Jay uses one of their jokes, they get paid. John Martin said sometimes you think of funny stuff faster than you can write. Other times, you just stare at a blank computer screen.

“So, being funny is hard work sometimes, sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s very difficult,“ Martin said.

Joe and John have been told that when Jay moves to his earlier time slot to keep the jokes coming.

“He’ll keep his monologue, he’ll keep his Jaywalking segment… he’ll keep his headline segment, so there will be a lot of familiarity,“ Martin said.

Jay Leno is leaving The Tonight Show in great shape.  And, it’s no secret that NBC did not want to see Leno on another network.

“I don’t think anybody had any idea that Leno would still be #1 here in 2009,” Martin said. “And, he has been #1 over Letterman consistently for just years and years and years… I don’t think anybody anticipated that.“

“The 9:00 slot is now yours and you can do with it as you will, and he was intrigued by that,” Joe Hobby said. “Otherwise, personally and he never said anything directly to me… I thought he was going to go to ABC ‘cause he wasn’t through yet.“

Joe and John both believe writing for an earlier audience might be a little different. 

“I think there’s going to have to be some adjustment,“ Joe Hobby said.

My 13-year-old son was behind the camera with me.

“Yeah, and kids his age…we don’t want them knowing about Viagra and or Levitra,” Joe laughed.