By Oregon Coast TODAY
To help celebrate 30 years in business, Lincoln City’s Chinook Winds Casino Resort welcomes two comedy legends that have been standouts in stand-up and stars on screens since the resort first opened its doors.
The comedy show, starring Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall, will kick off a fun-filled anniversary weekend Friday through Sunday, June 20-22.
The celebration for the resort, owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, includes a massive fireworks display starting about 10 o’clock Saturday night.
A no-cover fireworks afterparty in the Chinook Winds Showroom for people aged 21 and older will feature DJ Metal, beginning at 10:30 p.m. and lasting until 1:30 a.m.
The Lincoln City Finders Keepers program will also have a special float drop throughout the weekend to help celebrate the occasion.
Leno and Hall will perform at 8 p.m. Friday. Leno is best known for hosting “The Tonight Show” for more than two decades. He has brought laughs to many stages and televisions, beginning with the Norman Lear-produced classic comedy “Good Times.” Leno played a guy who star J.J. Walker ran into in the waiting room of a free clinic where most of the patients were getting treated for venereal diseases.
“I wouldn’t say my mom wasn’t proud of me when I made my first TV appearance,” Leno said. “But her only comment was, ‘Couldn’t you have played a doctor instead?’ ”
Even while Leno was a late-night host, he never stopped performing stand-up.
“I did about 50 dates a year while doing ‘The Tonight Show,’” he said. “Standup is like golf, you can do it until you’re 80, but if you leave, it’s hard to come back.”
Due to changes in the comedy landscape, Leno has phased political jokes out of his sets.
“Since I’ve taken politics out of my comedy, tickets sales have gone up,” he said. “Plus, I’m a lot happier. I think people just need a break from it sometimes.”
An early influence on Leno was a story he heard about an interview Marilyn Monroe gave after posing for Playboy.
“She was asked what she had on during the shoot and she answered, ‘The radio,’” Leno said. “It just took the wind out of the sails of the people who were getting ready to tear her down and say she had ruined her career. That’s when I learned that if you do comedy right, you can get people on your side.”
A known car enthusiast and host of the Emmy Award-winning web series “Jay Leno’s Garage,” the comedy mogul still gets greasy.
“When you work with your hands it keeps you humble,” he said. “And when the hands and head work together it keeps you balanced.”
Leno is also kept balanced by working with other comedians like Hall, a longtime friend and the host of “The Arsenio Hall Show.”
“When Arsenio started his show he said publicly, ‘You’re not going to see Barry Manilow on this show,” Leno said. “About a month goes by and there was Barry Manilow on the show. So, I called to gently rib him about the quote. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Hall moved from Ohio to Chicago in 1979, where he tried his hand at stand-up comedy and was discovered by jazz singer Nancy Wilson. In the following few years he toured, opening for major headliners like Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder. Attempting to diversify his career, he made appearances on television shows such as “Solid Gold” and “The Tonight Show,” then starring Johnny Carson, and a film cameo in “Amazon Women on the Moon.”
In 1987, he was asked to replace Joan Rivers on the Fox series, “The Late Show.” On the strength of his work as interim host, he was signed to a film and television deal with Paramount Pictures, leading to the opportunity to co-write and co-star in the hit comedy “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy.
Ticket prices range from $120 to $135. For more information and tickets, go to chinookwindscasino.com or call 888-244-6665 or 541-996-5825.
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