The Jay Leno Comedy Stimulus Plan Show

I just took the WSFAU staff out to the Jay Leno Comedy Stimulus Plan Show for metro Detroit's unemployed. We spared every expense: The show was free. Even the parking, the Coke and a bag of Doritos were free, thanks to the sponsors.

After the crowd was warmed up by a local jazz-funk band, the show began with a surprise introduction of Leno by Kid Rock, ovations for Rock and Leno, and Leno's little dig at the Detroit City Council's controversy over his performance taking place in the 'burbs. ("Thank you, Detroit! Oh, I mean Auburn Hills!")

Leno performed about an hour and a half worth of stand-up comedy on a wide range of subjects, including politics and presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, airlines, cats and dogs, family, aging, and food and obesity. The jokes were more adult at times than what you'd hear on his Tonight Show monologue, but nothing was too offensive. Surprisingly, there were few jokes about the economy, even though the appreciative near-capacity audience was mostly made up of unemployed or underemployed persons.

He ended the show by thanking local union members "for creating the middle class" and telling the audience about his admiration for Detroit and its automotive and manufacturing history.

The show did what it was meant to do: Take Detroiters' minds off their troubles for an evening (or two; he's in town again Wednesday night).

Comedy Stimulus preview

As I mentioned in this blog's very first post, Jay Leno is coming to the Detroit area (don't say he's coming to Detroit, or the Detroit City Council will beg to differ with you) Tuesday and Wednesday to give a pair of Comedy Stimulus concerts especially for the unemployed.

I'm going to Tuesday's show. I'll review it for WSFAU.

Until then, here's a Detroit Free Press interview of Leno, his working class ethics, his love of cars, and his reasons for coming here. The link is here.

Allow me to introduce myself.

I'm an unemployed person in southeastern Michigan who stayed up way, way too late the other night reading humorous (and a few serious) blogs about unemployment.

After laughing a little too loudly at posts about such things as wearing pajamas during the day, not making it out of your apartment some days, the futility of calling your state unemployment agency's telephone line, how much time we "formerly employed professionals" (ahem) spend on the Internet, (ahem) and what lengths to go to to get free restaurant meals, I checked to see where my fellow unemployed blogging Americans were blogging from.

First, I wanted to know if they were spying on me.

No. They were writing from California. Heh. Lightweights.

Not to belittle their -- or anyone's -- job losses.

Not that The Golden State is without its economic troubles. I understand its unemployment rate is now over 10 percent. That's not good.

However. We here in Michigan are #1 in the country when it comes to unemployment: 12 percent. Try jobhunting in our economy, my fellow unemployed Americans! I dare you!

It's so bad here in Michigan, Jay Leno decided to come here from California to take our minds off things for a few nights.

It's so bad, I decided the Internet needed a blogger from here in The Great Lakes State to make light of it all.

Here, I hope to examine what's so funny (and not-so-funny) about unemployment here in my home state.

After I go to a job fair later on today, though.