Jay Leno has grit. The veteran comedian performed over the weekend despite an injury requiring an eye patch and a bandaged wrist.
Videos by Suggest
On Monday night, TMZ captured Jay Leno arriving at the Comedy for Koby event in Beverly Hills. The outlet didn’t shy away from asking the former Tonight Show host how he got his injuries.
#JayLeno's such a badass, he did a comedy gig with an eye patch, a black eye, a bandaged wrist and a swollen face … after taking a nasty fall near his hotel. 😎 #Exclusive interview here: https://t.co/R60njcKnP9 pic.twitter.com/3GKpl8FBpD
— TMZ (@TMZ) November 19, 2024
Leno told TMZ he was staying at a hotel on a hill and wanted to visit a restaurant below. Instead of taking the winding path, he chose a shortcut, which led to him tumbling down the hill.
The fall definitely injured Leno. In the footage, the left side of Jay’s face is extremely swollen and bruised, and he’s wearing an eye patch and a wrist wrap. However, he told TMZ that the incident didn’t prevent him from performing over the weekend at Yaamava’ Casino in Southern California.
Leno explained to the outlet that a couple of thousand people were waiting for him to take the stage, and he couldn’t disappoint them. The comedian waited until after his performance to visit the hospital.
Fans Rally Behind Jay Leno Following His Injury
Meanwhile, Jay Leno fans flooded social media to support the veteran comedian following his fall.
“Glad ur ok,” one fan wrote on X after seeing the footage of Leno sporting an eye patch. “One of the good guys,’ a second fan added.
“Put that man on a stamp just like Betty White!’ another fan declared.
Meanwhile, yet another fan suggested that it might be time for Leno to enjoy his golden years.
“Jay, slow down and take up painting or fly fishing!” they joked.
Of course, Leno is no stranger to injuring himself in recent years.
In 2022, while working on one of his cars in his garage, Leno suffered an accident that resulted in third-degree burns on his face, landing him in the ICU.
However, the incident didn’t stop Leno from working on his huge collection of classic cars. In fact, he feels like the whole affair was overblown.
“I got burned in a fire. I got a face full of gas. A spark jumped. [It’s] not like, ‘How did this happen?’ I mean, people get burned every day,” he recently told Fox News.