For 18 years, Jay Leno spent several minutes every weeknight on “The Tonight Show” making jokes about politicians, be it Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or whoever was in the news that day. That doesn’t include all of the years he guest hosted for Johnny Carson before getting the gig full-time.

Don’t expect the same when Leno performs Sept. 12 at Stambaugh Auditorium. The guy who could fill an entire Netflix standup special with nothing but Clinton and Monica Lewinski jokes has sworn off politics … and Netflix specials.

“I decided I’m not doing politics anymore,” Leno said during a telephone interview last week. “I’m so sick of how comedians, or anybody in show business, feels about an issue one way or the other. It’s just straight comedy, and ticket sales are up like 20, 30% because you’re not going to alienate half the audience.

“Rodney Dangerfield and I were good friends. I knew Rodney for 40 years. I have no idea if he was a Democrat or a Republican. We never discussed it. We never did. All we talked about were jokes and comedy. That’s all we did, you know. And so I have no idea how he felt about immigration or any other issue, so I try to keep the show that way. Just take it as pure comedy. I’m not trying to educate somebody on my viewpoint.”

It was a decision driven as much by his life off stage as it was by performing.

“I have friends that like Biden, and I have friends that like Trump,” Leno said. “I’m not a Trump guy. I know the guy personally. I don’t care for him. He’s not my candidate. But these (Trump’s supporters) are decent people. They’re good people, you know, nice families, usually plumbers or mechanics or people like that, you know, blue collar stuff. And OK, I don’t assume that somebody is an idiot because they don’t agree with me.

“I just see so many comedians today, all the talk shows get a fraction of the ratings that they used to because it’s just alienating half the audience all the time. You know, it’s so funny, when I did ‘The Tonight Show,’ I used to get credit for making fun of both sides equally. Now it’s like I heard Leno tell a pro Republican joke the other day. I thought he was a good guy.'”

These days Leno occasionally does shows with Arsenio Hall or Craig Ferguson, two other members of that small fraternity of late night talk show hosts. Not only have they shared an experience that few others have, but Leno said the rivalries and “Late Show Wars” headlines were overblown.

Leno told a funny story about his relationship with Hall, who was still on the air when Leno took over for Carson. One night Hall told his audience, “‘When you watch this show, the music’s going to be hip. You’re not going to see Barry Manilow’s ass on this show,’ and the audience goes crazy,” Leno said.

This was around the time Hall was quoted as saying he’d “kick Leno’s ass” in the ratings. Leno regularly checked in on what the competition was doing, and a few months later, he was watching Hall and heard him say that appearing next week on the show will be … Barry Manilow.

“So I call his office,” Leno said. “They say, ‘He doesn’t want to speak to you.’ ‘Oh, I think he needs to speak to me … (Hall says), ‘What do you want? You’re bothering me.’ I just go, ‘Ooooh, next week — Barry Manilow,’ and he just falls out of the chair (laughing). From that point on, the feud was over, we were friends again.

“It just proved that when you do a talk show, you need everybody. You need every guest, people you’re not a fan of or you don’t think it’s not your audience, because it’s all about the numbers.”

Leno last performed in the area in 2016, when he played Packard Music Hall and spent some time next door at the National Packard Museum. When told that the 1929 boattail speedster built by Mecca native Jerry Miscevich and featured on his series “Jay Leno’s Garage” now was part of the museum’s collection, the comedian said, “That’s great. He put a lot of work into that. It’s pretty cool.”

Leno is known nearly as much for his love of cars and motorcycles as he is for comedy. This non-car guy asked if tinkering with a joke to perfect it appealed to the same part of his brain that enjoys tinkering with vintage cars and bikes. If anything, it’s the opposite, he said.

“I’m in a subjective business. Some people think you’re funny, some people think you suck, and they’re both correct … When something’s broken and you fix it, nobody can deny that it wasn’t running before you fixed it. When I come into the garage, I work with my hands and there’s a finality to it. The job is done. With ‘The Tonight Show,’ if a show goes great — good, you’ve got another one tomorrow. Show goes bad? Oh, well, forget it. We’ve got another one tomorrow. You never quite reach nirvana. You just try to get as close as you can.

“But when things are broken, and you fix them, you get them back to where they should be. I don’t say the heart is healthiest when the head and hands work together, but as corny as that sounds, I think it’s true. I work with my hands during the day, and then when you talk at night, you go, ‘Oh, man, you put in a transmission, you make maybe 80 bucks. When you tell a joke, you don’t get your hands dirty and you get a ton of stuff. It always makes me appreciate show business.”

Leno joked that he’s reached that age where people come to see him because they think it might be their last chance before he dies, but he still enjoys touring at age 74.

“I like the human connection to it. I always read about how kids are really lonely because they text everything and don’t really interact … I like this business because, with the exception of the microphone, you could do the same thing a thousand years ago, standing in the town square and yelling and talking. It’s basically the same thing. You’re the court jester or the fool or the comedian, whatever you want to call it, but I like it.

“I don’t do HBO specials or Netflix specials. If you like what I do, I will come to where you are and do it for you. That’s how much I like it … I’ve had people tell me, ‘I was watching this comedy special and didn’t think it was that funny.’ I go, ‘What were you watching it on?’ ‘My iPhone.’ ‘So you’re sitting in your car at a red light and you’re watching a comedy special on your iPhone?’ Believe me, that’s not going to be hilarious. You know the difference between standing outside a nightclub and listening to it through the window and being on the other side of the window? It’s like night and day. I mean, it’s infectious. Laughter is one of those things that the more people that are doing it, the more people enjoy it. it’s a shared experience.”

If you go …

WHO: Jay Leno

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12

WHERE: Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $49.50 to $89.50 and are available at online at experienceyourarts.org, at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office and by calling 330-259-9651.