Jay Leno’s Dyslexia: How It Became His Advantage
Jay Leno hosted The Tonight Show for more than twenty years. He took over from Johnny Carson in 1992 and stayed, with one short break, until 2014.
He is also a stand-up comic, and a car lover who hosted Jay Leno’s Garage.
Leno is dyslexic. He talks about it openly, and he says it gave him one very useful habit.
School and the hard part
Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts. School was a slog. The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity says he struggled most with math and foreign languages, and had to work hard just to keep up.
His mother was a Scottish immigrant with little formal schooling. She still sat down and helped him with his homework.
She also gave him the rule he has lived by. She told him he would have to work a little harder than the other kids to get the same result. He took her at her word.
CBS News reported that he started telling jokes as a teenager to make up for his dyslexia. Then an English teacher noticed. She asked him to join her creative writing class and write his stories down.
Leno has said that was the first time in his life he really focused on something. He credits his teachers for getting him into show business.
When he found out
The sources we read do not say when Leno learned he was dyslexic. They do not say whether he was formally tested as a child.
What we can say is that he has called himself dyslexic in public for many years. He has told his story to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity and the Child Mind Institute.
He grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. In his telling, the answer back then was simple. You worked harder.
Jay Leno’s dyslexic advantage
Leno is clear about what he thinks dyslexia gave him. He says dyslexic people tend to lock on to one thing with great focus. Once they find what they are good at, they give it everything.
“With every disadvantage, there’s an advantage, and I think that’s our advantage.”
Jay Leno, for the Child Mind Institute
You can see it in his career.
- Persistence. As a young comic he went to an audition at the Improv in New York. He showed up at 11 in the morning for a tryout at 8 at night. About 60 people were ahead of him. He got on stage because he was still there when others had gone home.
- Patience. He first appeared on The Tonight Show in 1977. He became the regular guest host about ten years later, and the full host in 1992.
- Playing to his strengths. He uses cue cards, not a teleprompter. A cue card shows him a whole phrase at once. He also learns better by watching a video than by reading written steps.
- Being different. He has said that being a bit different helps you stand out in show business.
He says dyslexia does not affect him much now. That is partly because he has set up his work to suit the way he thinks.
His advice is plain. Find out what you are good at and what you are not, then lean on the good part.
What we take from it
Jay’s mom had it about right. It may take a bit more work, and the work pays off. We would add that it is fine to grumble about it on the way.
We also love the audition story. He did not get on stage by reading the fastest. He got there by waiting nine hours and refusing to leave. That is a skill a lot of us already have.