Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

I'm Jesse Thorn. It's Bullseye.

This week I'm thrilled to have on Jay Leno. One of the greatest stand-up comics of all

time one of the biggest TV hosts in the history of TV hosts. Also a guy who by his own admission

never got much love from critics. The guy who got cast more or less as the villain in the

late night battles with David Letterman, Conan O'Brien. I'll talk with him about those

battles. It's in the past now and he's more reflective, but it's still hard to pierce

the veil. It's hard to know how he feels about that stuff.

One thing though is crystal clear when it comes to Jay Leno, he loves to work, above

pretty much everything else. So it won't surprise you to learn that he's spending what could

be his retirement making a television show. It's called Jay Leno's Garage It Heirs

on CNBC. And it's not by accident that Jay has been doing this as long as he has. He's

still a disarming interview, still charming and witty and quick on his feet. He's hilarious.

He is very, very good at what he does. Here's an episode from the newest season of Jay Leno's

Garage. He's talking with Charlie Sheen and they're chatting about Charlie's role in the

1986 car movie The Wraith.

As I remember, you're a kid who dies when you come back as a car. It doesn't make a lot

of sense to me still. But it's a true story. It's obviously true story.

Yes. Yeah, and I've come back as this car, but as a spirit, as a race, to seek revenge

on the road gang that killed me. Of course. My brother works at a burger joint. My ex-loving

interest is now with the leader of the gang. So this is based on your own family. 100%.

Yeah. Now, because this about the time platoon is coming out, right? Yes.

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