"You know, this is what you're going to look like in thirty years," Leno said to me (pointing to my father's bald head and chubby frame) as I first shook his hand in my dressing room. 

They say comedians always remember their first appearance on The Tonight Show. For me, this was also true. And although the incredible experience was staggering for the number of professional opportunities it later bestowed, I will always remember my off-camera encounters with Jay Leno as fondly as I recall those spent on national television with him.

As a nervous nineteen year old preparing for his first shot on network late night television, Jay Leno didn't seem nervous for me one bit. In fact, when he realized that my Italian family back home sent me packing to Burbank with home made cookies made especially for the King of Late Night, Leno initiated a feeding frenzy in my dressing room that, strangely enough, did more to calm my apprehensions than just about anything else. Leno was a comforting presence, not an intimidating one. And in the entertainment industry, such is very rare.

You know, they say Jay Leno is a hard-working blue-collar comic who truly is an "everyday kind of guy." In my experience, that description fits the real Jay Leno like a glove.