Frank Caliendo Reveals Why He Turned Down First Opportunity to Appear on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ (Exclusive)

Frank Caliendo has made a real name for himself over the years as a comedian and impressionist appearing on shows like MADtv, the Fox Network, Fox NFL Sunday and HBO’s Hard Knocks. But even though he’s in high demand at the moment, there’s nothing that comes before family for him.

In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Caliendo confessed that he actually turned down appearing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno — a visit that would have been his first — to be present for his daughter Juliet’s birthday party.

“The first time I was ever asked to be on The Tonight Show, I actually said, ‘It’s my daughter’s birthday, I can’t be there,’” he explained, mentioning that he hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he was asked to appear on the popular night show. “We were having the birthday party at a gymnastics place — like a Rollie Pollie Ollie kind of thing — and we were there and they called me and I was like ‘I can’t’ just having hope that they’d ask me again, which they did.”

Family plays a huge role in the comedian’s life. He shares his daughter Juliet and son Joe with his wife, Michele. While Caliendo has fans across the board who sing his praises when it comes to his hilarious stand-ups and impressions, like any typical father-daughter or father-son relationship, his kids just see him as their dad who tends to embarrass them from time to time.

“They like the doors it can open, I think,” he said jokingly when asked if his kids are impressed by his hilarious personality. “They’re embarrassed of me.”

Since his daughter is a huge comicbook fan and follows the Marvel and DC Universes, it comes in handy that the Chicago native is well connected with access to some of her favorite actors and actresses. Caliendo explained that his daughter was able to meet Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, and Josh Brolin who plays the infamous character of Thanos in the Avengers franchise.

When Caliendo’s not with his family or doing stand-up, he’s probably in the studio working on one of his podcasts, either Al Jackson & Frank Caliendo Try To Be Serious and The Frank Caliendo-Cast.

“Al and Frank Try To Be Serious is actually a little bit more serious [than the names lets on], but we have the laughter to make it fun,” he said.

“On that podcast,” he continued, talking about The Frank Caliendo-Cast, “that’s a little bit of sports [and] a little bit of pop culture.”

Pop culture is a new area the 45-year-old is branching off into, actually. Throughout the years, he’s become so well known for his involvement in the sports world, that he hasn’t had the time to invest, per say, into other genres, but now he’s devoting his time to new adventures.

“I’ve been working on a lot of new stuff,” he said. “I’m known so much for the sports stuff, that [while] I’ve been doing that I’ve been trying to branch out and do lots of other just little, pop culturey kinds of things.”

For more information on Caliendo, visit his official website.