After graduating, Jeni went on to do public relations work, but was let go from five different firms in two years before doing an open-mic night in Brooklyn and deciding to pursue standup comedy as a career in 1982.

[7] On March 10, 2007, Jeni and his girlfriend, Amy Murphy—a weather anchor and reporter for KTTV in Los Angeles—had been conversing in bed, discussing breakfast and their plans for the day.

Running upstairs, she found Jeni on the bathroom floor, a revolver at his feet, and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

[8] Murphy called 9-1-1, and police and paramedics arrived and transported Jeni to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he died.

His family later stated with certainty that the death was a suicide and that Jeni had recently been diagnosed with "severe clinical depression coupled with fits of psychotic paranoia.