Leykis 101 Includes Patience on ‘Politically Incorrect’

Watch KLSX-FM (97.1) afternoon-drive talk-show host Tom Leykis on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher” tonight, and you’re in for a surprise. For the first five minutes, this maven of male-female relationships from admittedly the male point of view leans back in his chair, sports a Cheshire-cat grin and says virtually nothing.

Along with Eric Braeden of CBS’ “Young and the Restless,” Leykis has been called in to spar with Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, authors of “The Rules” and “The Rules II,” who advocate postponing sex in order to capture “Mr. Right.” The boys team versus the girls team, notes Maher.

Leykis’ initial silence is doubly bewildering, considering that a regular feature on his syndicated radio show, carried on some 100 stations, is “Leykis 101,” designed to teach men how to get more sex--fast. Having appeared on Oprah, Geraldo and on Maher twice before--once on this very subject--he’s no TV virgin either.

But Leykis says he waits before he pounces.

“You can’t be an air hog,” he noted the other day. “Especially if I’m in a position of antagonism, I try to let the other person have some rope first. It comes off very bad to start blathering right at the top. . . . So you let the other people start to set the table. And then you come in and have dinner.”

Two months after the show was taped, Leykis still recalls his favorite line. It came after Schneider asked, “Do you know how many women sleep with men on the first, second or third date and never hear from them again? It’s devastating.”

“Because they don’t like you,” cooed Leykis, drawing laughter.

Appearances on shows such as “Politically Incorrect” are not about winning and losing, Leykis suggests. “A lot of people [mistakenly] take it like it’s ‘Crossfire.’ It doesn’t matter who’s right and wrong. The reality is you’re trying to get laughs, so the winner is who got the most laughs.”

By that measure, Leykis performed well. He deemed dating a waste of time. He got laughs with: “While you’re [women] sitting talking about your cat Fluffy and your last boyfriend . . . and how nasty your boss is, we’re sitting there thinking how you look naked. . . .”

Still he did sound a bit pouty, explaining that women who hadn’t slept with him on the first date “later admitted that somewhere in their past, there was a ski instructor or a major league baseball player or a hot pool boy they jumped right into bed with on the first date. . . . The bottom line is you’re waiting to meet John Q. Schlubb with a big wallet.”

Then Maher jumped in, apparently agreeing with Leykis, while grabbing the laugh line. “What he’s saying is that there is a VIP list. . . .”

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* “Politically Incorrect” can be seen tonight at 12:05 a.m. on ABC.