Garth Brooks to talk, fly 1800 miles, perform ... all in 5 hours

This caught my editor Ward Triplett's eye: Garth Brooks is scheduled to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" next Monday, Nov. 5 — but hold on, he's scheduled to perform the first of nine shows in Kansas City's Sprint Center that same night. Huh?

(Yes, you read correctly. Brooks is doing nine performances in one city, and one city only. He originally billed it as a one-night-only concert, but in what we were told was an anti-scalper strategy, he kept adding shows throughout the morning that tickets went on sale. Of course he'll have a crew recording the concerts for a future television special — as if you needed to ask!)

So I asked a "Tonight" publicist and here was her reply: "He is appearing at the show for a 1 pm taping and then flying to Kansas City to begin his 9 shows.  Busy guy!"

I've only been to a couple of show tapings, but 1 p.m. seems awfully early, doesn't it? But because Leno doesn't have the kind of ticket demand that David Letterman's show does -- well, when was the last time you thought, "What can I do while I'm visiting BURBANK?" -- he doesn't have to do his tapings at 5:30 every night.  According to the show publicist, tickets are not actually handed out until the morning of the show, so they can be for whatever taping time the show needs.