How Jay Leno forged a relationship with a local comedy troupe at a small theater in Newport

NEWPORT — It was the start of a beautiful professional bond when Jay Leno popped into the Firehouse Theater a few years ago for a surprise act.

“That’s kind of where the bridge started to get built,” said Frank Fusaro, artistic director for the Bit Players, an award-winning local comedy troupe and regular fixture at the theater.

Fusaro recently worked with Leno, a former late-night talk show host, to string together "5 Nights of Leno," a series of sold-out shows from Dec. 19-23, presented in association with the news website What’s Up Newp.

Leno laid down roots in Newport in 2017, when he and his wife, Mavis, purchased four of the five condos at the Seafair estate, located on Ocean Avenue. From comedic appearances to his involvement in the city’s luxury car scene, Leno seems to have embraced life in Newport.

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“It’s awesome,” Fusaro said of the working relationship between a small-town comedy troupe and the comedic heavyweight that is Leno.

After his surprise performance at the Firehouse Theater in 2019, Leno “contacted me directly to put together a charity event … and we ended up doing it for a Newport firefighter who was battling cancer,” Fusaro explained.

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The event was held at the Jane Pickens Theater to accommodate a bigger crowd, and it was a huge success, Fusaro said. He and Leno were planning another similar event when the COVID-19 pandemic forced sweeping lockdowns across the country.

Leno reached out again recently, as restrictions have eased, and pitched the five-night series, Fusaro explained. “And I was like, ‘Jay, (at) your age?’” Fusaro joked.

The event proceeds will benefit the Newport Police Department union.

“The police department as a form of municipal government is not involved. Rather, the Newport Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 8 is, which is the police department union. There is a subtle difference between the police department and the FOP,” Newport Police Lt. April Amaral said in an email to The Daily News, when asked about the event.

The president of the police union, Newport Police Sgt. Scott Moody, expressed the FOP’s appreciation for the donation in a prepared statement.

Moody said the union plans to use the funds “for the well-being” of all Newport police officers, to enhance training and upgrade equipment “and to further support the charitable causes that the FOP contributes to every year.”

“For example, in the past the FOP has used its resources to purchase a state-of-the-art drone,” individual first-aid kits for officers and gym equipment for the department, Moody said in his statement.

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“Also, every year the FOP supports various charitable causes such as an annual Christmas Basket Event, community policing events, and local sports leagues and other deserving organizations, and provides charitable donations from the ‘no-shave’ event.”

“Jay was the one who chose the cause,” Fusaro said. “His plan was, he said, kind of tongue-in-cheek but obviously seriously: ‘Well, I need to do one (event) for the police department, because I did something for firefighters. I gotta balance the scales here in the municipal world.’”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Jay Leno, The Bit Players team up to host charity event in Newport RI