Auction organizers and comedic television host Jay Leno laughed all the way to the bank with six figures from the sale of his donated motorcycle.

Over the weekend Jay Leno auctioned off his customized Star VMAX motorcycle to benefit a Brooklyn community arts program run by one of his oldest friend sand his lighthearted approach to auctioneering earned the charity some serious money.

Saturday evening, as live coverage of the Barrett-Jackson classic car auction from Las Vegas reached its climax, Jay Leno put his star power to good use. Using not only his high celebrity profile, but also a reputation among car collectors came to the auction to earn much needed funds for Bailey's Cafe.

A community arts program that operates in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, Bailey's Cafe was founded by Stefanie Siegel, a close friend of Leno's during their college days. The two had not seen each other for 18 years, until they met in the VIP 'green room' behind the stage at the Mandalay Bay convention center.

Backstage, as the two old friends caught up and anticipated the sale, Leno kept an eye on the television monitor. "I thought that Shelby Cobra would go for more," he said, adding, "It's a tough economy."
 
To create excitement Leno rode the VMAX onto the Barrett-Jackson stage and bidding on the bike, which featured an old-school hot rod-style paint job by Benny Flores, quickly reached $60,000. Although it seemed the bidding might stall there, Leno had the crowd enthralled. He sweetened the pot with a Garmin GPS system, then his Alpinestars jacket and Arai helmet, and a personal tour of his garage. As the bids reached $70,000-$80,000, Yamaha's Bob Starr announced that Yamaha's musical instrument division had donated 6 guitars and a drum set to the arts program. That prompted Leno to virtually demand bidders pony up another $5,000.

Bailey's Cafe uses the arts as a way of building a true sense of community in inner city neighborhoods. Programs are for people of all ages and focus on creating inter-generational respect and understanding.

"You know what school funding is like," Leno would say in a serious tone to the bidding crowd, "Every cent goes to the kids."

Other times he adopted a stand-up tone that was a little more risqué than his TV persona, joking that the alternative to running up the bid was having some poor kid in Brooklyn join a street gang.

When the hammer finally fell, Jay's customized Star VMAX sold for $120,000, nearly 8 times MSRP. With Barrett-Jackson donating all the transaction's fees to the cause, all the funds raised went to Bailey's Cafe.

Before the auction, Jay had joked that, "Bailey's Cafe is an arts program, but I didn't have any Yamaha musical instruments to sell, so I thought I'd sell my Star VMAX, which is made by Yamaha."