I thought Dave Chappelle was Jay Leno's warmup guy , but it was Don Reed who was the studio warm-up guy for Jay Leno for many years
(looks a lot like Dave Chapelle)
i kept thinking back to who was that African-American warm-up guy I saw at the Jay Leno show for a long time . I kept thinking it must have been Dave Chappelle before he broke thru to the big time as a comedian. I would look at photos of Dave Chappelle and say to myself "That sure looks a lot like the guy I remember warming up the audience back in the day" (for a few years I lived in the Burbank area and would go to the Tonight Show in person several days a week so I got to know the staff quite well - ie by facial recognition; and even Jay would nod at me in the audience from time to time). So I kept asking AI recently if Chappelle was ever the warmup guy for Jay Leno, and it kept saying no, although he made appearances on the show. Finally I got a break thru and CHaptGPT mistakenly said "Yes, it was Dave Chappelle" but then I looked at their source and it was Don Reed's wiki page. SO I looked up Don Reed and noticed the resemblance he has to Chappelle ! Wow. Anyways, my question was finally answered. It's DON REED not Chappelle who was Leno's warmup guy for many years. "
Donald Gene Reed (born November 23, 1959)[1] is an American actor, writer, storyteller, author, producer, director and comedian.[2]
Early life
Reed grew up in Oakland, California, and attended Fremont High School. Additionally he attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward, California, before being recruited to UCLA for intercollegiate speech and debate competition, where he became a national champion in competitive events: Speech to Entertain, Poetry and Dramatic readings.[3]
. In fall 2009, he became the warm-up comic for The Jay Leno Show.[1] He is the first African American warm-up comedian for a major late night show – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – and performed stand-up to warm up the studio audience for over 1,000 episodes..."
======================
David Khari Webber Chappelle ( shə-PEL; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) before quitting in the middle of production during the third season. After a hiatus, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S.[2] By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire[3] and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer.[4] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time".[5]
You Tell Me: Don't they Look Alike?
( & Not just because they're both black )
above: Dave Chappelle
below: Don Reed
