Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Jay Leno. Yes, the successful host to NBC‘s “Tonight Show” took time out of his busy schedule to give the Lantern a glimpse into his life. Leno, a stand-up comic before replacing Johnny Carson as host of the “Tonight Show”, has created a unique style of late night humor, talk and entertainment. The late night host offered some life advice for college students, disclosed his favorite guests of all time, and finally unveiled whether the newspaper headlines he jokes about are really real.Question: What are three words you would use to describe yourself?Answer: Male, Caucasian, dangerous.Q: OK, Did you go to college?A: Yeah, I went to Emerson College in Boston and graduated.Q: Graduated in four years?A: Yep, yep, yep. I went to Bentley School of Finance for about a year. It was a complete joke, so then I switched to Emerson.Q: Did you enjoy college life?A: You know, I can’t say I really did. I always sorta knew what I wanted to do. I would go on the road and work gigs, not very good gigs, but jobs on the weekends and stuff. I can’t say I ever really got into college. I did it because my parents wanted me to graduate. Emerson was in the city, there was no campus, so school was just the place you went like a job. It wasn’t a part of my life the way a campus environment would have been.Q: So, you always knew you wanted to be a comedian?A: Yeah, I thought so, or something in show business. I came from a small town in New England, Andover, Mass., so for someone living in California, going into show business seems like a viable option because everybody knows somebody in show business. Where as I thought I would probably end up doing radio commercials or local stuff, because I came from such a little town. I always thought it would be neat to go to California, be on TV, that kind of thing, but I can’t say I ever thought it would really happen. Q: Do you have any life advice for college students?A: Yeah, it’s interesting to me, whenever I meet college students they say they want to do whatever it is they want to do. So, I often ask how they go about it, and they write letters and that kind of thing. To me, whenever I wanted to do something I would physically go to the place where they do it, and meet the people who were in charge. Everyday I get letters from people who want to be comedy writers, and comedians, and I read their letters and try to respond to them. Every now and then I meet somebody who says, “Hi, I’m so and so , and I’m from, let’s say Ohio, and I just moved out here. I’d like to be a comedy writer.”So you meet them and make eye contact. That’s worth a thousand letters. Right away people look at you they realize you’re not a psycho, or maybe you are a psycho, whatever the case may be. They get a chance to size you up and make a value judgment.I always remember reading as a kid about this guy who did an experiment in New York. He would walk down the street and not make eye contact with some people, but say something like, “Hey, how ya doin’,” to others. Then he would duck in an alley and yell for help. The people who he did make eye contact with, instinctively tried to help him in some way. But the people who he made no eye contact with just kept moving or tried to avoid the situation.I think life is like that. If I see someone and make contact, I wonder what I can do for them and how I can help. I mean, I came to California, I went to where they do the “Tonight Show,” I went to where comedians hung out. I physically got to meet George Carlin, Steve Martin, and all the people who were the idols of my generation. That was a tremendous help to me. If you want to be president or chairman of General Electric, try and meet the CEO. I find most people like to help young people just starting out when they can. They see in young people themselves at the same age. At least I do.Q: People seem to like the new segment on your show where audience members get their 15 minutes of fame. Has anyone ever tried to do a disgusting or tasteless act and you just had to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,”?A: Oh yeah, we get a lot of that actually. Most of them are pretty disgusting anyway. We do get the few, on occasion, who want to fart a song or something like that. Our response is usually, “OK, thank you, next.”Q: The newspaper headlines that you read on your show, are they real?A: The headlines and the people we meet on the walk-arounds are 100 percent real. We don’t fake them, or ask people to give wrong or right answers. Those really are all real. People can just tell when they are fake. Besides, there are enough dopey people around that we don’t have to fake anything.Q: If you could have your favorite band on the show who would it be?A: Well, you kinda get anybody you want.Q: But your favorite?A: I like the groups who were cool when I was in college. One of my all-time favorites is James Taylor. Whenever he comes on I like that. Dave Mathews Band and Aerosmith, those guys are also great.Q: has it become difficult to book bands that are not as big as those guys?A: It does get harder and harder for shows to break unknown bands. Years ago we could get bands on that main-stream America had not heard of yet. Now, we really don’t have a band on unless they have a record deal. It’s a matter of money. Record companies pick up the bill for publicity and the $20,000 rehearsal.Q: Who is your favorite guest?A: Obviously, being a comic I like people who are really funny like Seinfeld. Colin Powell and former presidents are also favorites. But you don’t really book people you don’t like, that sort of makes every guest a favorite.Q: Do the guests know what they are going to be asked before they arrive to do the show?A: They don’t know know. They do have certain guidelines. I mean I might say to a guest, “You were in Europe recently, right, so did anything funny happen over there?” or “Are you seeing anyone?”These are the kind of questions I might ask, and the quests know that much. We don’t rehearse with the guests, but we do go over certain topics that might be addressed on air.Q: Has any guest ever surprised you with a response or action that completely dumbfounded you?A: Oh, that happens about once a week.Q: What about the infamous Howard Stern interview?A: Well, Howard came on and did his usual thing with two lesbians. The lesbians kissed and we got a shot of it. Then Howard made a big deal on his radio show the next day about how we didn’t show the close-up. We didn’t even shoot a close-up.Q: Have you ever performed at Ohio State?A: I played Ohio State in 1988 or something like that.Q: Do you ever plan on coming back?A: Oh sure, if they ask me. I’d love to.