Long before he became host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno was dubbed by media and peers alike as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Performing comedy at a breakneck pace, he fulfilled over three hundred dates a year. In Leading With My Chin, he recounts many of the ridiculous steps (and missteps) that led him on what may be the unlikeliest of paths--from college campuses to Carnegie Hall to Las Vegas and, finally, to The Tonight Show. Unlike many comedians, whose acts reflect broken homes and neurotic backgrounds, Jay revels in his wholesome Andover, Massachusetts upbringing, which is plain to see in Jay's heartwarming stories about his parents. Out on the comedy circuit-a virtual battle zone for Jay-he encounters every humiliation any performer has ever known: the nights when he was literally mugged onstage, and when he was merely punched out. And also that romantic night at The Comedy Store--working amid the likes of David Letterman, Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman and Steve Martin--when he met his future wife Mavis outside the ladies' bathroom! Brimming with stories heartwarming and endearing, humiliating and just downright embarrassing, Leading With My Chin demonstrates the silly things you have to go through to make someone laugh.