Lines stretched around Funger Hall, up 21st Street, around Madison Hall and ended across from Fulbright Hall twice Saturday night. Families walking off their dinners to the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. sold-out Jay Leno Smith Center performances were treated to cross-generational shows that most patrons gave good reviews.

Despite complaints that the host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” failed to cater his act specifically to GW, audience members said they enjoyed Leno’s quips about Osama Bin Laden, drunk airline pilots, cloning and his own family.

Leno performed in front of a classic motorcycle before an audience of about 4,000 people at each show, said Jamie Ahrens, assistant manager of scheduling and events at the Smith Center. The audience included D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg,

Leno started the 10 p.m. show 15 minutes late, waiting for everyone to sit, and thanked an audience member for being “fashionably late.”

Leno spoke about difficulties associated with telling jokes after September 11.

“You can’t do Bush jokes anymore . because, as you know, he’s smart now,” Leno quipped.

Addressing terrorism, he suggested a solution for cutting off Osama Bin Laden’s money flow.

“Send over Anna Nicole Smith. She’ll take his money, he’ll be dead in week,” he said.

Leno moved on to the tribulations of the Catholic church.

“White collar crime is up,” Leno said. “And that’s just in the church.”

Leno said venues like the Smith Center offer him a chance to try out new material.

“When you work in TV, people tell you stuff is funny, but you don’t really know. They get paid to tell you it is funny,” Leno said in a pre-show interview. “You need to get out in the real world.”

He said college tours allow him to get out of Los Angeles and keep his show fresh.

Leno offered theories about how times change.

“When you’re a kid, you embarrass your parents and as you get older, your parents embarrass you,” he told the crowd of GW students, families and alumni.

Leno also discussed the slow U.S. Postal Service, calling 37-cent postage stamps “a great deal.”

“By the time the letter gets where it’s going, it costs less than a penny a day,” he joked.

Leno included some older topics in his routine, such as the O.J. Simpson trial, and questioned the “not insane” verdict of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who ate his victims.

“How many more people do you have to eat to be insane?” Leno asked the audience.

Students and parents alike said they enjoyed the high-profile act.

Susan Ilkson, mother of freshman Jessie Ilkson, said Leno was a great idea for family weekend.

“He’s really entertaining and always has a peculiar twist on things,” she said.

Cory Schwartz, brother of freshman Rachel Schwartz, said he enjoyed Leno’s stand-up routine compared to his “Tonight Show” jokes, which he reads from cue cards.

“It was fun and fast-paced,” he said.

His sister agreed, but said that Leno did not really acknowledge the University.

“I was surprised he didn’t personalize it to students, but it was still entertaining,” she said.

Richard Gajdowski, father of junior Matt Gajdowski, said that Leno was the best Family Weekend idea so far, compared to the Beach Boys and Ray Charles in the past.

“It makes sense to bring a big performer for family weekend,” he said.

“After all, we’re paying for everything.”

Senior Pat Taylor attended the show with his mom.

“(It’s) nothing like GW to go all out when parents are around,” he joked.
-Alex Kingsbury and Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.