Top of the Morning, April 16, 2024

Apr. 16—Fifteen years after a memorable hog-calling skit on The Tonight Show, area farmer Chris Karr reunited with Jay Leno on Saturday night in Champaign.

With the help of State Farm Center staff, Karr was taken backstage to say hello to the comedian, who was touring alongside Arsenio Hall.

"He saw me and said, 'There's my hog-caller,'" Carr said.

It was Leno's fifth appearance in the building (1984, '87, '91 and a sold-out show in '95).

With planting season just around the bend — Karr mostly farms in the Seymour and Bondville area — Saturday's timing couldn't have been better for the state's most famous hog-caller.

Karr still gets quizzed about his Tonight Show appearance in 2009.

"I get asked: 'What was the highlight?'" he said. "The highlight was I had never talked to 31 million people at the same time. That was the highlight."