Before They Were Stars: Jay Leno Performs Stand-Up on “Freddie Prinze and Friends”

Yesterday marked Jay Leno’s final episode as host of The Tonight Show (for real this time!), so I dug up what may be his earliest existing stand-up footage on Youtube. In 1976, Leno performed on Freddie Prinze and Friends, a stand-up comedy special which aired during the early days of HBO. It was hosted by sitcom star Freddie Prinze, who gave the world Freddie Prinze Jr., but wound up committing suicide a few months after this special aired. While Leno’s stand-up here doesn’t do a whole lot for me, the most surprising part of this special is finding out that B-movie icon Tim Thomerson (star of such classics as Trancers, Dollman and Nemesis) was once a stand-up comedian!