DC -- Kennedy Center -- Mark Twain Prize (2014 -- Jay Leno):
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- Description of Pictures: Recently retired “Tonight Show” host and longtime stand-up club comedian Jay Leno will receive the Kennedy Center’s 2014 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Leno, 64, is best known for hosting the “The Tonight Show” for 22 years. He left the most hallowed desk in late-night TV barely four months ago, ceding the franchise to Jimmy Fallon.
Leno is the 17th person to win the Twain prize, created in 1998 to celebrate a living American humorist. In a statement, incoming Kennedy Center president Deborah F. Rutter called it “one of the foremost awards for achievement in comedy.”
“What an honor!” Leno said in a statement. “I’m a big fan of Mark Twain’s. In fact, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ is one of my favorite books!”
“Jay has always been on our list,” says Twain Prize co-founder and co-executive producer Cappy McGarr. “He is the quintessential American humorist. He does it every night, and has done it for many, many years. And he truly is an equal opportunity satirist.”
Leno’s association with “The Tonight Show” spanned five decades, going back to his first appearance there as a stand-up comedian in 1977. By 1987, he was the regular guest host for Johnny Carson, and in 1992 he succeeded Carson — a controversial choice, as David Letterman was also strongly in the running for the job.
Leno again took the hosting job amid friction after briefly retiring in 2009, returning in 2010 after Conan O’Brien had been in the job for less than a year. It was hard to argue with the ratings: Leno routinely topped the late-night numbers game, leading his rivals by roughly a million viewers a night in his final year.
Simply winning the ratings isn’t the plum it used to be, though. As profitability for “The Tonight Show” dwindled, the staff was downsized and Leno took a pay cut in 2012.
The Twain honor for Leno comes at a time when the longtime late-night kings are delivering their final monologues and leaving their chairs. (Letterman is stepping down next year; in 2012 he was a Kennedy Center honoree.) Leno is the first late-night host to win the prize, though he was well-established as a stand-up comic before settling in with “The Tonight Show.” In 1985, the New York Times, reviewing one of Leno’s club appearances, praised his “guy-next-door social commentary.”
“I’ve always been a stand-up comedian that had a day job,” Leno told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year. “This is my day job. I’ve always been on the road every single weekend — and the week too — since I got this job . . . . You have to do it all the time.”
“More than anyone I know, you love being a comedian,” Billy Crystal told Leno as he hosted his final “Tonight Show.”
Leno continues to tour and perform club dates. An auto buff, he also has nearly a million subscribers on his car-themed YouTube channel, Jay Leno’s Garage, and he writes a monthly column for Popular Mechanics.
If Leno is more comfort food than cutting edge, he has certainly been known to flash a spiky side, routinely lobbing barbs at public figures and even at NBC as his “Tonight Show” tenure wound down. The Twain prize has tilted more toward the mild-mannered than the unruly in recent years, with awardees including Carol Burnett, Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Bill Cosby. Arguable the edgiest winner was the first, Richard Pryor.
“Was Richard Pryor edgier than George Carlin?” McGarr asks. (Carlin was named in 2008, just before he died.) “That might be a good discussion over drinks. But each of our honorees has had a tremendous influence on those who followed them, and a tremendous influence in American society. And each has had a unique brand of humor.”
McGarr says the gala’s pre-show dinner used to lure in about 50 people and now draws well over 1,000. He also says it’s a strong fundraiser for the center.
“But really it just boils down to this being the national award for humor,” McGarr says. “Once a year it’s important to stop, pause, and say thank you to those who have made us laugh.”
The Mark Twain Prize will be awarded in a gala ceremony in the Concert Hall Oct. 19, with a national broadcast on PBS Nov. 23.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- LENO_141019_008.JPG: Caroline Bowman, who played Eva Peron in the musical "Evita" which ended that night at the Center.
- LENO_141019_026.JPG: Ross Mathews
- LENO_141019_031.JPG: Kevin Eubanks
- LENO_141019_052.JPG: Jay Leno, Mark Twain prize winner for 2014
- LENO_141019_071.JPG: David Rubenstein
- LENO_141019_074.JPG: Bradley Whitford, "West Wing"
- LENO_141019_086.JPG: Jerry Seinfeld @ Mark Twain Prize
- LENO_141019_102.JPG: Jimmy Fallon @ Mark Twain Prize
- LENO_141019_131.JPG: Al Madrigal
- LENO_141019_137.JPG: Must be a heck of a reception!
- LENO_141019_144.JPG: Kevin Eubanks
- LENO_141019_163.JPG: Jay Leno again
- LENO_141019_175.JPG: Seth Meyers
- LENO_141019_191.JPG: Wanda Sykes
- LENO_141019_196.JPG: J.B. Smoove
- LENO_141019_205.JPG: Robert Klein
- LENO_141019_210.JPG: Kristin Chenoweth
- Wikipedia Description: Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts annually since 1998. It is named after the 19th century novelist, essayist and humorist Mark Twain. The Mark Twain Prize is America’s foremost award for humor, presented annually by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to an individual who has made a significant contribution to American humor. The Prize is presented at a live taping at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington DC, during which the honoree is celebrated by his peers.
The first annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was held on October, 20, 1998 and was presented to legendary comedian, Richard Pryor. The first two years of The Mark Twain Prize (Richard Pryor and Jonathan Winters) were taped and broadcast on Comedy Central. Since then, the award presentations have been taped for broadcast on PBS.
In 2007, the Mark Twain Prize celebrated its 10th anniversary and presented The Prize to Billy Crystal. For the first time in 10 years, the show was held in the Opera House of The Kennedy Center on October 11, 2007 and was broadcast on November 12, 2007 on PBS. The evening's presenters included Bob Costas, Robert De Niro, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi Goldberg, John Goodman, David Letterman, Jon Lovitz, Rob Reiner, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Joe Torre, Barbara Walters and Robin Williams.
In the 10 year history of the Mark Twain Prize, numerous artists have participated in celebrating its past honorees including: Morgan Freeman, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Mary Tyler Moore, Rob Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld, Dick Van Dyke, Cedric The Entertainer, David Hyde Pierce, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Dave Chappelle, George Lopez, Dan Aykroyd, Candice Bergen, Tina Fey, Darrell Hammond, Tracy Morgan, Conan O'Brien, Paul Simon, David Spade, Christopher Walken, Claire Danes, Larry David, Tom Hanks, Eric Idle, Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Lorne Michaels, Randy Newman, Mike Nichols, Carl Reiner, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin, Jason Alexander, Christina Applegate, Matthew Broderick, Richard Dreyfuss, Nathan Lane and Robert Redford.
Recipients of The Mark Twain Prize:
* 1998 - Richard Pryor
* 1999 - Jonathan Winters
* 2000 - Carl Reiner
* 2001 - Whoopi Goldberg
* 2002 - Bob Newhart
* 2003 - Lily Tomlin
* 2004 - Lorne Michaels
* 2005 - Steve Martin
* 2006 - Neil Simon
* 2007 - Billy Crystal
* 2008 - George Carlin
* 2009 - Bill Cosby
* 2010 - Tina Fey
* 2011 - Will Ferrell
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