Jay Leno became one of America’s favorite comedians while serving twenty consecutive years as the host of everybody’s favorite late night show The Tonight Show.

So, when Leno announced that he would be retiring in February, fans were devastated. However, during a recent interview with the Associated Press, Leno assured his fans that he is enjoying his retirement and praised his replacement former Saturday Night Live star Jimmy Fallon.

Leno says that he feels “liberated” and is enjoying traveling and investing in his stand up comedy routines. “Write joke. Tell joke. Get check. It’s pretty simple. It’s not a hard plan,” he joked to the AP, while he was in Israel to host an award ceremony that is to honor former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg for his philanthropic work. Leno will also be performing, in Jerusalem, in front of Bloomberg, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the other dignitaries, during the first ever Genesis Prize ceremony.

While Leno says he has no plans of immediately returning to television, he did say that he would gladly make an appearance with Fallon if he was invited. “I have no problem doing that, but I think that once you leave you’ve got to let the ground lay fallow for a while,” he explained.

Leno admitted that Fallon is doing an excellent job, and he is glad to have the burden of the show taken off his shoulders. “He’s [Fallon] a great friend of mine and I think he is doing a terrific job,” Leno said. “At some point you realize it is time to step down … I’m having a good time now.”

“You don’t have to watch Noah and all these other films, these kinds of kid movies. You get to a certain age where ‘OK, I’m over the superhero thing,'” he added. “I don’t have to do that anymore so that’s fantastic!”

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