Comedian and former late-night talk show host Jay Leno may never have cruised before, but he became the first godfather to bless a Carnival Cruise Line ship Wednesday night.
It was not the average christening. As Carnival welcomed the Venezia, a former Costa Cruises ship, into its fleet, Leno and Carnival president Christine Duffy pulled the ribbon on a massive bottle of Aperol, sending celebratory sparks into the air to signify that the ship had officially joined the fleet.
The Venezia is now Carnival's "adopted daughter from Costa," said Duffy.
Carnival Corp. decided last year to move the 2019-built Italian-styled ship from Costa to Carnival. A second Costa ship, the Firenze, is expected to begin sailing for Carnival out of Long Beach in the spring of 2024.
Leno, who has Italian heritage, said he liked the Italian flourish of the ship, joking to reporters before the ceremony that "this whole place is like my cousin Toby's wedding."
Leno has never sailed on a cruise, he told reporters, although he has performed comedy routines on ships before and did so again following the Venezia's blessing ceremony.
Carnival had made its way into his jokes when he was the host of "The Tonight Show," a job he began in 1992 and left in 2014. One joke came after a fire knocked out power on the Carnival Triumph, which led to days without working toilets in what became known as the "poop cruise."
Asked how he went from making jokes at Carnival's expense to performing for the brand and godfathering the ship, he said, "When things are popular in the news, you make fun of them."
Being the godfather of the ship is "an honor," he said. Carnival celebrated Leno's participation with the blessing by making a large bottle of "Lenocello," a spinoff of limoncello.
Leno said his grandfather immigrated from Italy through Ellis Island in 1886. "I think he would get a big kick out of seeing my name on the ship," he said.