Leslie Jones–I Might Be Insane

Summary

Podcast Summary: Toure Show – Episode Featuring Leslie Jones: "I Might Be Insane"

Release Date: February 19, 2025
Host: Toure
Guest: Leslie Jones
Website: dcpofficial.com/toureshow

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1. Introduction to Leslie Jones and Her Comedy Journey

Toure opens the episode by highlighting Leslie Jones as one of the great comedians of her time, recalling her impactful performances on "Saturday Night Live" (SNL). He sets the stage for an in-depth conversation about her experiences in comedy, her personal growth, and the persona she presents on stage versus her off-stage self.

Notable Quote:

[02:19] Toure: "Leslie Jones is one of the great comedians of our time. I remember watching her on SNL and Being like, how much is she like, this actual person?"

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2. Early Life and Introduction to Comedy

Leslie delves into her upbringing, sharing anecdotes from her childhood in Memphis and later in Compton, Los Angeles. She discusses her early interactions with Suge Knight and her transition from aspiring to be a DJ or electronic engineer to discovering her passion for comedy.

Notable Quotes:

[09:05] Toure: "Were you a funny kid, son?"
[09:08] Leslie Jones: "I was a problem child. That's what my mom used to call me. Problem child. I think I was insane."

[56:08] Leslie Jones: "Well, I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. And then we came to LA when I was, like, 14. And then I was raised there in Linwood. Compton."

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3. College Years and the Shift to Stand-Up Comedy

Leslie recounts her college experience, highlighting her struggles academically and her burgeoning interest in making people laugh as a coping mechanism. She explains how her comedic persona developed as a way to protect herself and gain acceptance among peers.

Notable Quotes:

[13:56] Leslie Jones: "Cause I was not doing good in college. Oh, my God. I would wear glasses that had no lens. Like, the teachers fucking hated me."

[16:30] Leslie Jones: "I was reading about your come up. I was like, Chappelle noticed it, Fox noticed it, Rock noticed it. But the industry is not noticing it, right?"

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4. Experiences on Saturday Night Live (SNL)

Leslie shares her multifaceted experience on SNL, comparing it to a rigorous educational program where she learned various aspects of production and performance. She discusses the high-pressure environment, her creative contributions, and the limitations she faced in expressing her full comedic range due to being typecast.

Notable Quotes:

[22:46] Toure: "So SNL is a whole life changing experience."
[23:18] Leslie Jones: "SNL was very much like college, college, college."

[54:28] Toure: "Why did it end? Did you walk away or did they say, enough of you?"
[54:39] Leslie Jones: "No, I was me. It was time for me to go."

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5. Creating Her Comedic Persona and Handling Typecasting

Leslie discusses how SNL shaped her on-stage persona as the aggressive, larger-than-life character, contrasting it with her more relaxed off-stage self. She emphasizes the importance of controlling the energy in a room and how her comedic style is rooted in self-deprecation and making others laugh at themselves.

Notable Quotes:

[19:58] Toure: "But there is a big difference between Leslie Jones on stage, on TV, and let's say, quote unquote, real Leslie Jones."
[20:07] Leslie Jones: "Right? Right. I mean, Lenny was here, I'd be like, Lenny. He'd be like, no, it's not."

[04:18] Leslie Jones: "Because I have had to get out of situations. And only way to get out is to make motherfuckers laugh."

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6. Notable SNL Sketches and Moments

Leslie reminisces about specific sketches and moments on SNL that stand out in her memory. She shares behind-the-scenes stories, such as portraying Donald Trump and dealing with sketches involving other celebrities like James Franco. These anecdotes illustrate her creative process and the challenges of bringing her unique humor to a live audience.

Notable Quotes:

[43:28] Leslie Jones: "But the vibe director, too. That was the funniest shit to me."

[50:44] Leslie Jones: "It's too many. Oh, my God. When I played the ninja, and my eye wouldn't stop tearing for some reason."

[44:38] Leslie Jones: "You told him to shut the fuck up. Like, get away from the fucking cue cards."

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7. Controversial Moments and Handling Offense

The conversation shifts to discussing controversial moments in comedy, specifically addressing Leslie's experience with a joke about slavery that was deemed offensive when performed on SNL. She defends her approach to comedy, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and the challenges comedians face when addressing sensitive historical topics.

Notable Quotes:

[31:10] Leslie Jones: "Oh, my God. Read that fucking book."
[32:21] Leslie Jones: "Right? But fucked up for who? You or me?"

[63:14] Leslie Jones: "This is what I be want black people to do to just take a second."

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8. Post-SNL Career and Future Endeavors

After leaving SNL, Leslie discusses her aspirations beyond the show, including writing, acting, and creating her own projects. She expresses a desire to showcase the capabilities of black women in the entertainment industry and hints at future projects like a special with Larry Wilmore and possibly her own show.

Notable Quotes:

[78:44] Leslie Jones: "The mission was never to be the funniest or the most famous. The mission was always to be able to pay to buy your aunt house in Memphis."

[80:21] Leslie Jones: "We're working on something. We working on something. We working on it."

[79:54] Toure: "What's the Larry Wilmore show?"
[79:55] Leslie Jones: "It's about me. It's about when I used to coach kids at the YMCA."

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9. Reflections on Comedy and Personal Growth

Leslie reflects on her comedic evolution, acknowledging feedback about her humor and striving to align her jokes more closely with her personal experiences and identity. She emphasizes the importance of comedians owning their narratives and not being confined to stereotypes or limited character portrayals.

Notable Quotes:

[75:16] Leslie Jones: "Because I was doing these fucking jokes, but my talent of doing them is way better."

[65:41] Leslie Jones: "They're into self-deprecation. And they're also into making a person laugh at themselves."

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10. Closing Thoughts and Future Projects

As the interview winds down, Leslie shares her upcoming projects and the mission behind her work, focusing on steady growth and meaningful contributions rather than just fame. She hints at a potential show with Larry Wilmore and a special titled "Life Part Two," aiming to continue impacting audiences with her unique comedic voice.

Notable Quotes:

[78:44] Leslie Jones: "To steadily work. Now I know what it is. Now I know what the mission is."

[81:47] Toure: "Are you kidding?"
[81:48] Leslie Jones: "That would be so fucking funny."

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Conclusion

In this candid and comprehensive interview, Leslie Jones opens up about her journey in comedy, the challenges of navigating a high-pressure environment like SNL, and her commitment to evolving her craft. Through personal stories, behind-the-scenes insights, and reflections on the art of comedy, Leslie provides listeners with a multifaceted view of what it takes to succeed in the entertainment industry while staying true to oneself.

Final Notable Quote:

[81:53] Leslie Jones: "Thank you. I had so much fun."

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Note: Timestamps correspond to the provided transcript and are included to highlight key moments and quotes throughout the episode.

Transcript

[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

That might be the best question I've ever been asked.

[Leslie Jones]

You's a phenomenal person. I mean, you legendary. I am a fan of you, my brother. When you saw me dressed up like Trump, I don't know if you ever seen that really hardcore picture where I'm just like looking up. It was fucking great because I hated Trump. When Trump came there, oh, man, I was punking the shit out of Trump.

[Toure]

What'd you do?

[Leslie Jones]

I was just like, shut the fuck up. Like, get away from the fucking cue cards. Like the fuck. Like, they had one sketch where they wrote where I was beating him up at the end and of course that got cut.

[Toure]

You told him to shut the fuck.

[Leslie Jones]

Up all the time. Like, shut up. Like, you changing the car. You can't change the car. The fuck are you doing? Like, nobody was. I was like, yeah, he's the Apprentice. Why are y'all scared of the Apprentice?

[Toure]

Is there a story from when?

[Leslie Jones]

No, it's no story. I just didn't. But you know what? This is the thing about everybody need to fucking understand an entertainer and actually looking at an entertainer and why sometimes people don't listen to entertainers. Like, we're the best readers in the room. I'm a fucking comic. I do crowd work. You don't think I see fear? Always see it.

[Toure]

Leslie Jones is one of the great comedians of our time. I remember watching her on SNL and Being like, how much is she like, this actual person? Well, she's here today, and I'm gonna talk to her about comedy, about growing up, and how much she is really like that Leslie Jones Persona that we see when she gets on stage. This is an amazing interview where she holds nothing back and keeps it extra real. Let's get into it. It's Leslie Jones on Toure Show. Leslie, how are you?

[Leslie Jones]

I'm so glad that when he came to get us, he was like, ture's on his way. I was like, thank you for letting me know how to pronounce his name. Cause the whole time over here, I was like, tu to, Ray. No, it's Toora Turee. If I get in there and fuck this motherfucker's name up, man, he gonna never forgive me.

[Toure]

Torre.

[Leslie Jones]

To. Yeah, okay. Torre. Yeah. Tor. Ray. You know, you look like Philip Michael Thomas right here in this picture. I swear to God. I looked over here, I was like, oh, God, sparkle.

[Toure]

You know, I loved him. Miami Vice.

[Leslie Jones]

Hey, that's what I wrote on my list when I was talking to God. I want my manager to be like, Philip Michael Thomas. Cause he love them girls. He loved them girls. When he was playing that piano when sister left, that was the most insane scene I've ever seen. That motherfucker put us all in him the fuck out of here.

[Toure]

I have a vision that comedy is. You are either a material person or a phone book person. And the material people, like Chris Rock, every word must be manicured in the pauses. And then there's phone book people who just are like, Bernie Mac. And you're a phone book person. You could read the phone book and kill.

[Leslie Jones]

Because I have had to get out of situations. And only way to get out is to make motherfuckers laugh. I swear to God, laughter is the key to life. I've gotten out of so many fucking traffic tickets fights, you know what I'm saying? Cause you don't understand, like, when you at a hostility range of, like, you wanna fight a motherfucker, and then somebody look at you and go, come here, man. Give me a hug, man. We don't wanna fight. I ain't trying to get my ass whooped today. Why you want to whoop my ass?

[Toure]

But you could just say the most basic shit in the Leslie way, and it's big and it's funny.

[Leslie Jones]

And that's the thing that same. You know, that's what Chris Rock used to tell me. That he was like, become the comic that people don't even care what Jokes you doing. They just want to know what you think about it.

[Toure]

That's you.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah.

[Toure]

You come out with this howitzer personality, right? Big voice, big energy. As soon as she says hi, I'm laughing.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh man. Like, you know, that's what I gotta do. You know what I'm saying? Man, you way taller than I thought all that. You way taller than I thought, B. Yeah. I thought you was gonna be a little short motherfucker. Walking in, I was like, his name is Tooru and he looked like Philip Michael Thomas. He's obviously gonna be five three. Then you come in and you bout a five'eleven maybe about five'eleven And I love the hair.

[Toure]

Thank you.

[Leslie Jones]

No, this is. Before we start, I got an actual question for you.

[Toure]

Come.

[Leslie Jones]

I always thought that I said I want to have that conversation with him.

[Toure]

Yes.

[Leslie Jones]

So back when I was younger and I would see Don King, I would be like, what the fuck? Like, what is this with his hair and shit? Like, this is some bullshit. But then when I started wearing my hair in the crazy mohawk, I started understanding like what India Arie said is not about your hair. So every time I see you, I'm like, I love him and I love his hair. It just like weird science type shit. Like I love it. So what, what do you think about that?

[Toure]

What do I think about? I understand that hair is a symbol of vitality and having a lot of it and like letting it like fly. Like we both are kind of like. It's kind of like. It's kind not that far from how we woke up. We shaped it a little bit, but.

[Leslie Jones]

Love is so fucking much.

[Toure]

But it's like, you know, as big as we can have with curls. And it's like, it says vitality. It says, you know, like I'm here. I feel like almost you're like tapping to universe a little bit.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, I feel like also when I stopped getting my hair permed, I feel like I was killing my hair. My hair used to be real happy. Like I used to be happy because I would get it perm, it'd be bouncing and be thick, it'd be shiny and it'd be happy in the hairstyle it is after the mohawk, it's, you know, a couple of bad hairdressers, you know, messing my hair up. I just really felt, especially during COVID I. I literally was gonna get a touch up and I remember my hair being like, nah, cuz I hate that shit.

[Toure]

You know, I haven't had a haircut since before COVID Yeah, yeah. Cause I Don't get one. I may never get another one.

[Leslie Jones]

I grew all my shit out. And then it felt like my hair was like, I'm stronger. Like it's stronger and it's growing in places that it didn't before. It's just so strong and thick and nice and coiled. And then I found out that my hair wasn't nappy. All this time I thought naps.

[Toure]

Your hair's not nappy?

[Leslie Jones]

No, it's a coil. It's not nappy. That's a coil. Like that's what I learned. You know that? Yeah.

[Toure]

You know your number?

[Leslie Jones]

I think four C. Four or five or something. I don't know, six or seven. I don't know what the motherfucker is. I'm all over there. If you trying to be the best, I'm a 10, bitch. You know what the fuck? You know what I'm saying?

[Toure]

I think you're like a 4C. I think.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, isn't that what you buy though, from the 4C? Okay, yes. How does this motherfucker know? See, this is. That's nerd shit right there. When you could tell me what type of hair I got. I don't even know my blood type, motherfucker. How I know what my hair type is? I have no idea. If I could save anybody's life in this room, I don't have no idea.

[Toure]

Are these bits?

[Leslie Jones]

No, this is just you. We having fun with you.

[Toure]

You just a funny. You're just a funny vibe. Just all day long.

[Leslie Jones]

That's what I think you, you are. I think that's why I can't marry a guy that's just like me. They be trying to set me up too much. Because we'll never get invited nowhere.

[Toure]

No, but there has to be a listener. And if you're gonna do most of the talking, somebody has to be willing to do most of the listening.

[Leslie Jones]

Somebody doesn't know me. Like, how the fuck you know, I might be quiet when I got a man. Look, you couldn't even keep it straight faced.

[Toure]

Were you a funny kid, son?

[Leslie Jones]

I was a problem child. That's what my mom used to call me. Problem child. I think I was insane. I think at one point my dad took this picture of me. I wish I had brought it when I was in the sixth grade. And I remember him developing it and giving it to me, going, this how crazy? This you crazy. This what you look like every time you look at this. Know that you crazy. And I just looked like I had did some bullshit. Like I had this look Like, I did it. I did it. So I just know that I was active.

[Toure]

Were you, like, disruptive in the class?

[Leslie Jones]

Yes, very much.

[Toure]

But you made the teacher laugh.

[Leslie Jones]

Called my fifth grade teacher Buffalo butthead. Which, by the way, if you're still alive, I am so fucking sorry. That was inappropriate. But I knew it was bad. I knew it was bad because she started crying. So I was like, oh, shit. I made her cry. And then when the principal came, the principal wasn't gonna send me home. He was like, man, you can't be disrupting class this second time out. He was like, what did you call it, anyway? And I was like, buffalo butthead. He was like, oh, no, you gotta go home. That is just. And I was like, well, damn. So I went home and I got my ass whooped. My dad didn't whoop my ass. My mom whooped my ass. But my dad was like, what? And when I said buffalo butthead, he just cracked up. Cause he was like, yeah, you can't. Buffalo butt head. I was like, jj, Say it all the time. Jay Z say that all the fucking time.

[Toure]

Good times.

[Leslie Jones]

Yes.

[Toure]

Buffalo butt head. That's where you got that from.

[Leslie Jones]

Booger. You remember. You remember Wilona used to say Booger used to call him Booger. I ain't know none of that shit was bad. I thought it was good if fucking JJ Said. My dad was like, you are not fucking jj. Yeah, I used to get in trouble a lot.

[Toure]

You are kind of like JJ.

[Leslie Jones]

Wow. Okay, listen.

[Toure]

That's the same.

[Leslie Jones]

That's strike two. That's strike two right there. Oh, that's strike two. That's strike 2. Phillip.

[Toure]

Listen, is there not some kind of relationship between the Leslie Jones character Persona and the JJ Persona?

[Leslie Jones]

There's so many characters I could pick out for you that I have learned how to be funny from.

[Toure]

Please.

[Leslie Jones]

Like, okay, well, Buster Keaton, first of all, was absolutely my favorite person to watch because he was like Jackie Chan. Like, he can convert. He didn't have to speak. That was important.

[Toure]

Very physical.

[Leslie Jones]

Very physical. I love that. John Ritter and Three's Company. That was so.

[Toure]

What about John Ritter?

[Leslie Jones]

Cause he would. The way he fell over a couch, the way that something would happen, he'd be like. It was always just so hilarious to me. Lucille Ball is, for me, the master of face. Like, she could tell. She didn't give a fuck how beautiful she was, but her and Carol Burnett can literally tell you how they're feeling with their eyes. And it's mastering those little mechanisms of comedy. So, like, I would Watch Flip Wilson, Esther on Fred Sanford. The back and forth with her and Red Fox.

[Toure]

Yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, you big dummy. Like, you like the stuff that they would get away with, just all in the Family. Like, it's so many comics that I watched back in the day. But I think the one that touched me the most, the one that I do remember, and I would say it was awakening. I think I felt like I woke up when I heard this man. And Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor was doing the concert with the red shirt and the black pants, and he was talking about his dad and how his dad would be like, get in the middle of the street. I'm finna start the car. And I remember busting into Laugh, because my dad would do that shit all the time. Like, he was like, you know what? Just go get the baseball bat. I'm gonna put you through. You got. He was. It was just. And I didn't know where he got it from. And then my dad in his earphones. Cause he was a dj every night, you know, when he would drink, he would sit in front of his record player and stuff with the earphones on and listen to music. And he always listened to pig foot. Here come the judge. Here come the judge. Everybody look us, he come. And I just always would be like, what is he listening to? What is that? Like, you know? So I got in trouble a lot by snicking, sneaking his albums. Millie Jackson, you know, all that. And I was like, oh, you know. So I think it was always in me as far as, like, just, like, performing and finding where I was. And I was an active little kid. My mom just put me in everything. And, you know, I always loved choir. Always did that. But again, never thought I was going to be a comedian. I always thought I was going to either be a DJ or, like, my dad, electronic engineer.

[Toure]

Hmm. But how did it get to comedy in college for sure?

[Leslie Jones]

Cause I was not doing good in college. Oh, my God. I would wear glasses that had no lens. Like, the teachers fucking hated me. They was like, oh, God, you better be glad you know how to play basketball, bitch.

[Toure]

Like, you were good.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God, yes. I could grab the rim. You know, I was just.

[Toure]

You could dunk.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, I. You know, pull yourself up and do that.

[Toure]

Okay.

[Leslie Jones]

But not. No, straight off dunk. But I could pull myself up and do it. But I knew girls who could, though. So, like, you had a J. I had a who?

[Toure]

A jumper.

[Leslie Jones]

Okay.

[Toure]

Did you a J?

[Leslie Jones]

Is that.

[Toure]

Yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

Is that basketball toure?

[Toure]

Yes.

[Leslie Jones]

I don't think that's a real term. You had a J. What the fuck? I thought you was talking about a joint. That's what we call a joint. Did we have a J? Yes, I did ture earlier. If you trying to ask me a motherfucking question. Did you have a good jump shot? I had a jumper. But my coachmate sure that I knew that I did not have a jumper because every time I would jump any farther out of the ring that he would let me, he would pull me out the fucking game.

[Toure]

You were more of a center.

[Leslie Jones]

No, I was like Dennis Rodman, power forward. Like, I was a power forward. Not even in the scoring. I was a defensive player. So rebounds, block shots. Scaring the shit out of. Like I was saying, my house. Oh, my God, I loved the zone. Like, they don't play the two, three zone no more. You need to go back to the zone.

[Toure]

And you would be the center of.

[Leslie Jones]

The zone or the center of that motherfucker. The center. The beginning and the universe. You come in that motherfucker. I'm a knock you into some stars.

[Toure]

Could you have gone to the WNBA or not quite.

[Leslie Jones]

I was not consistent because I didn't love basketball.

[Toure]

Okay.

[Leslie Jones]

It was a means to the end or the ends to the mean. Is that how you say it? Okay, whichever way it was, whichever way that y'all motherfuckers want to put it. Goddamn nerds. That's why you never got no pussy in college. Trying to figure out which end's going to means is the dick and the poom poom. Anyway, what are we doing? What was the question? How did it make it to comedy? How'd you make it come shit like that? Like, just, you know. I didn't know I was funny. I thought I was just entertaining, if that makes any sense. Like, because I wanted people to invite me around. And I knew noticed that being goofy, people liked goofiness and people liked when you went all the way with it. Like, I would go all the way with it. Like, I would just become the character. I would just, you know, this is.

[Toure]

Just you, like on the quad or at lunch or whatever.

[Leslie Jones]

My friend called me this, like maybe about a month ago. She said, you're just a cartoon character, bitch. Like, it's just like not. You're fucking crazy. And I was like, I don't want to be like that all the time. But I'm pretty sure it was in compensation of me being tall, not thinking I was attractive, or always being made fun of. I gotta be able to protect myself. I gotta be able to Have a nice personality. I gotta have something, you know what I'm saying? I'm not really good at basketball. I'm failing in school. The fuck am I gonna do, you know? So I thought it was just gonna be a really good bartender waitress, you know what I'm saying? Cause I could really get people's attention when I was doing it. So I was like, okay, I'll do that. But I was in college still. I had got sent to Colorado State with my first coach in college and. Cause he was like one of those, like, trying to save me. He would always say, I don't want to end. I don't want you to end up behind a broom in Linwood, Leslie. Oh.

[Toure]

Oh.

[Leslie Jones]

But I still did. I still went live to show you. I still. That literally, that's what happened. So, like, I was walking through. He had transferred me to Colorado State. And I didn't know anything about Red Shirt, okay? I didn't know I had the red shirt. And that's like, you have to do all the practice and shit, but you don't get to play, man. Fuck. What? That's like telling me you're not gonna pay me at a gig. The fuck outta here. I can't get none of that back. I can't get no credits for that shit. So I started really knowing that basketball wasn't my thing. Like, it wasn't something I loved. Because, like, even if I was Red Shirt, I should have been, like, at every practice, like, yeah, I'm gonna learn to play. You know what I'm saying? I should have been that. I was not if you could get me to practice on time. And my coach was one of them type of coach that didn't put up with that shit. So at the same time, you know, he knew I was shy. But then he introduced me to the Black Student Union and that was it. After that, I met Danita Abernathy and we partied.

[Toure]

So you were a popular student because you were funny?

[Leslie Jones]

No, See, now that's so funny. You say I'm popular. I guess I was.

[Toure]

Cause you were funny and you're showing out and you're making people laugh.

[Leslie Jones]

But I would strive to be by myself. Like, all that stuff. Fun stuff is fun. But when I got home by myself is when I was actually comfortable to be funny. Well, just to create all the shit that y'all get to see. I mean, like, I like being by myself.

[Toure]

So when you're at home alone, what's happening?

[Leslie Jones]

Well, you know, I have a section of writing shit. Stuff that I'm thinking about, but then there's a section of having to calm me the fuck down. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, calm down, sleep. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, just this. You're off now. Like, you have to learn how to not be on. And sometimes you're on, sometimes I'm off. You know, that's why I smoke weed. So I try to mellow myself. Try to mellow that. Because I don't want to be just, like, all over the place. I like being funny. I love making people laugh. I love hitting people's laugh note. But I don't want to be the person that needs to be like, everything you say, I got to make a joke.

[Toure]

Yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

Now, I can do that on a show because that's what you bring me here for, you know? But if you saw me in a regular conversation, yeah, I'm still funny.

[Toure]

But there is a big difference between Leslie Jones on stage, on tv, and let's say, quote unquote, real Leslie Jones.

[Leslie Jones]

Right? Right. I mean, Lenny was here, I'd be like, Lenny. He'd be like, no, it's not. I think the Leslie Jones off camera is a little more relaxed. Like, when I'm on camera, I know who I can talk to. Like, here, I can have all the fun with you. I can say all the isms. I can be all the. But there's certain people I would go into an interview and might not do that. I'll still bring the Leslie energy.

[Toure]

When you're on snl, when you're doing the comedy, there's Leslie on tan, or how is that Sasha fierce? Whatever. And then at home, it's a different person.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, yeah. Fuck yeah. I mean, even at snl, Lauren would be like, please start at a five, because you're not gonna have nowhere to go if you start at 10.

[Toure]

Interesting. He would say that. As far as in a sketch, I.

[Leslie Jones]

Only learned it there. I learned that shit there.

[Toure]

Enosketch, you start at a certain level of energy.

[Leslie Jones]

Anything we doing update sketch, start at a 5. Because you coming in at a 10 is like throwing a bomb at some. Like, you see how I burst? You tired now? Like, I'm letting you rest because that giggle is serious. Like, the way I'm gonna make you laugh is gonna be like, really on the inside of your fucking liver. Like, you gonna feel that little. Like, later, you gonna be jiggling like, this bitch called me Philip Michael Thomas. That's real crazy right there. Like, you know what I mean? Like, so That's. I like to me. And Lenny was just talking about that. He's like, when you do crowd work, when we do, like. Cause I'm gonna be the Host of the 50th of the Red carpet. When you're doing stuff like that, my favorite thing is to make people laugh at themselves. Cause oh my God, you have laughed at that before, you know, or somebody hasn't put it in words for you. Or like, I used to love when Cecily would imitate me because I'd be like, is that how everybody see me? Cause she would be like, da, da. And I was like, bitch, I don't sound like that. She was like, you got that heavy ass mama voice. And it just so funny to me. So like I always. When I'm doing crowd work and then plus you got to know who to fuck with and not to fuck with. Now that comes from being fucked with. You know what I'm saying? You just know the eyes, the eyes have that. Hey, I can take it. But please just go to the next person. Like, it's just like this, right, right.

[Toure]

Right, right, right, right, right. Not. Not the one.

[Leslie Jones]

And then you go, what I do is I'll fuck with the person that's next to them. Cause they'll be like sitting there waiting for you to fuck with them. And then I turn around and fuck with them. And that makes that person go easy. And it's just a fun night.

[Toure]

So SNL is a whole life changing experience.

[Leslie Jones]

SNL was very much like college, college, college.

[Toure]

And it was four. Was it four years?

[Leslie Jones]

Five.

[Toure]

Five.

[Leslie Jones]

So yeah, college, college. It was like college. You learn how to produce, you learn how to direct, you learn how to. You learn how to sing, you learn how to write, you learn how to do everything there. You learn how to costume, you learn how to do everything there. They make sure you learn everything there. You know, even if you're not getting to do it or getting to do it, you learn all that.

[Toure]

It's crazy high pressure environment.

[Leslie Jones]

It's very high pressure. I mean, oh my God, the writers be like, it's like Hunter Games, Hunger Games in that, man. You might get hit with a bow or some shit. Cause them be man. Yeah. Competition. Because you go to the table with 40 sketches and you gotta pick eight. So can you imagine? It's Ash Wednesday. Like today is Wednesday, right?

[Toure]

Yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

They're at Table Reid right now watching their life pass them by. Like, literally the spirit of your body leaves your body and come back in. When you see that sketch going back and you'd be like, oh, fuck. Cause this is the worst thing to happen is that Lauren, during your sketch, pick up his phone and start playing. That's the worst reaction you can get from something. And sometimes he just be checking his phone. But if you can see. Cause he has to narrate it, he narrates it. So if you can hear him going on the day of, you be like, oh, shit, this is not going good. This is not going good. If fashion is your thing, ebay is it. Ebay is where I find all my favorites, from handbags to iconic streetwear, all authenticated for real this time. A little supreme, some Gucci. I even have that vintage Prada on my watch list. That's why ebay's my go to for all my go tos. Yeah, ebay, the place for new, pre loved, vintage and rare fashion. Ebay, things people love.

[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

It'S not that they never had it because Tracy Morgan had my energy.

[Toure]

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

[Leslie Jones]

I see what you're saying. I think Tracy Morgan is an alien. So you just deal with Tracy Morgan. Go on Tracy Morgan wherever he is.

[Toure]

Yes.

[Leslie Jones]

But I think I was a energy that came in that understood what my job was and understood what this was, what the game was, understood how they was gonna use my talent. Because I was. I mean, I tell people all the time, I was Ezra Jones before I got into snl. I was that motherfucker, you know what I'm saying? So is like I had already established Myself as a freelance person that I am renting my services to you. But you don't own these services. Like, these are my tractors. You can rent these tractors, but you don't get to keep these tractors and you don't get to treat these tractors bad. You know what I'm saying? You keep the maintenance up, all that shit, or I'mma charge you. So it's like I came in there with a whole different attitude of like, nah, motherfucker, I'm not going to make it. Like, I'm going to do my thing here. But this is. I'm already going to. I'm gonna do this whether I make it here or not. So it was like one of those attitudes, but cocky and knowing I needed to learn too. But just also on the level of like, hey, I'm 47. I'm not these children. And I know y'all train them different than y'all train. Y'all gonna have to train them different than y'all train me. Because I'm not finna do that shit. I'm not finna share a dressing room. I don't do that shit. I don't do that shit. I'm an old ass woman. I want my time alone. I want little ass kids running through there, whatever the fuck they be doing. No, I would like, quiet, put me near the bathroom. Yeah. Cause I like to take a shit once in a fucking while. No, I'm not. These kids ashamed to go in the fucking bathroom and shit. They fucking like throwing up and fucking stressed out. I need to be able to take a nap. Like, all that shit. Like, I'll call AARP on your motherfucking ass. Like, I was like the one that would, like, if we got to a pre tape and there was no place for us to be. And it's cold, I'm leaving. Cause my house is warmer. But see, like. And I got in trouble a lot because the cast members would be like, oh, well, you know, we had to handle it different. I was like, bitch, you can sit here for 14 hours if you want to for fucking two lines. I'm not finna do that. And we in Brooklyn. It's gonna take us three hours to get to Manhattan. The fuck on a Friday. Fuck outta here.

[Toure]

Tell me about where slave draft came from.

[Leslie Jones]

Slave draft. Oh my God, thank you for knowing. That's so funny. And when you said it, my head literally almost exploded. Cause I was like, that's how I have it on my joke list. Slave draft. It was slave joke, but it's slave draft. Wow. Okay, so.

[Toure]

Cause that was wild.

[Leslie Jones]

That's a thing about. That's a thing where I was writing jokes 10 years before I did jokes. And I knew that this was something. When I wrote that joke. It was 1997 or 90. Nope, 1998. Cause it was the year before I went to New York. 1998. I wrote that joke. And it was after a bad date. And I remember I was pissed. I was kinda like, this is a fuck. Like, the dating pool sucks. These motherfucking broke ass motherfuckers. I came home and I was eating cold Chinese fried rice in the middle of the floor, about to watch Spawn. Cause Spawn was my show. And I was like, you know what? Back in the slave days, I would be considered a mandingo. Like, for real. Like, look at me. Look at my teeth. Look at my teeth. How could you see that, man? How the fuck can I not that? See now that's not facing your. See, now people be talking about, like, facing your history. Face your motherfucking history. You not telling me. If I didn't quantum leap back to the slave days. They look at me and go, holy shit, a whole field. This bitch will fucking plow. So I'm a big bitch. So of course they're gonna breed me. So. And they're gonna breed me with the best brother on the fucking plantation. So yes, I'm getting the Denzel's, I'm getting the fucking. I'm getting the Kimbo slices. I'm getting. I'm getting them. Cause they're gonna. You're gonna have a good baby. A big, nice, healthy baby. And I didn't understand, like, I was doing that joke six fucking years, was ripping black and white clubs. But see, once I took it to snl, that's when everybody wanna get offended. You go, wait a minute. What about this? Oh, you promoting? No, I'm not promoting shit. I'm telling you. What the f. I'm telling you about myself. The truth. I know about myself. The actual education that it takes to even think to quantum leap. Do you get what I'm saying? The education. Have you ever read. Have you ever read Kindred by Octavia. Octavia Butler? Have you?

[Toure]

I haven't read it, but I believe.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God. Read that fucking book.

[Toure]

She's amazing.

[Leslie Jones]

She fucking. No, she's pulled back into history to defend her slave owner. So she has no clue of how slavery works. But you are like the joke. One of my favorite jokes is when people would be like, if I was back in slavery, they wouldn't do Nothing to me. Yes, they would. They would whoop your motherfucking ass. They would whoop your fucking. You. Are you gonna be Nat Turner? Which one?

[Toure]

Right?

[Leslie Jones]

You gonna die on the boat? They gonna choke you out or they gonna fucking. They gonna break your ass? Now, I'm not saying you couldn't be a strong ass slave, but what choice you really think you had back then? So I am a woman. A big ass woman, six feet tall, beautiful teeth, nice knees. My car. I got all my cartilage hood. Nice knees. Do you and do you think it's offensive? I think it's comedy. Okay, that's funny. Wow. Let's have this conversation.

[Toure]

Could it be both?

[Leslie Jones]

Mm. Mm.

[Toure]

Can it be both?

[Leslie Jones]

No.

[Toure]

And I laugh. No, I laugh.

[Leslie Jones]

You're lying to yourself, But I think I laugh.

[Toure]

But I'm like, that's a fucked up thing to say. But it's fucked up.

[Leslie Jones]

Right? But fucked up for who? You or me? Are you more offended that I think that about myself or are you more offended? That is so fucking true. And that I can admit it, the latter is true.

[Toure]

I also feel. I feel hurt that you think that about you. Okay? And listen, that's real sad that she sees that in herself. Like, I don't see that. I know you're tall, but I don't see that.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, but I love you and you're a wonderful person. And we are in 2025. But, nigga, if we was on a plantation in 1860, I wouldn't even see you. You would be a house nigger. You would be under the foot of the fuck out of here. Are you fucking kidding me?

[Toure]

We never even know each other.

[Leslie Jones]

Listen, listen. You would stand on a porch and you wouldn't say, I'm sad for her. You'd be like, get your motherfucking ass over there, Master niece of fucking lemons for his fucking tree, you big bitch. You know you can reach it the fuck out of here. I think if once we start really being out of denial about our history, we'll be more just like, effective in.

[Toure]

Expressing it, you know? I do like to see a joke that, like, only that person could do that.

[Leslie Jones]

I love that.

[Toure]

Right? Because some people will tell a joke. That's how you gotta do. Right? And like, anybody could tell that story, right? But nobody else could do that bit. And it were. But also when I wrote it, though.

[Leslie Jones]

I couldn't do it.

[Toure]

The Kyle stuff, the whole long ongoing, I'm in a relationship with Kyle plays on the same note, does it not?

[Leslie Jones]

Well, I don't Know what note it played on? Cause I hated every one of those. He brought that idea to me and I hated it from the beginning because I never would date nobody like Kyle. But they thought that shit was so funny. And they thought it was funny because I was a big ass bitch with this little white boy. And it's always was that running joke. But think about the Collins shit. It was like that. And like, you have to really, like, I'm telling you, all my fucking career, you have to break like Big Les. Big Les has never been my name. That was a dancer's name. But you know, people gonna call me that because I'm six feet tall, right? Oh. So like, why you not talking about how tall you are, how big you are? So it's almost like a M and M effect. Like, I'm gonna do the worst joke about me first before you can actually do it.

[Toure]

But you didn't like the Kyle's.

[Leslie Jones]

It wasn't that I didn't like it. I didn't like it until Kyle told me he was a Virgo. I know. That's so stupid.

[Toure]

The fuck.

[Leslie Jones]

I can't explain it. First of all, the guy who would direct those was a fucking asshole. And I don't give a fuck if you see this. You was a fuck. You still are probably a fucking dickhead. A fucking narcissistic dickhead. But the idea.

[Toure]

Did something happen?

[Leslie Jones]

No, he's just. He was just like a fucking asshole. Like, he's just like one of the white boys who thought that he's doing fucking Shakespeare. No, this is a fucking sketch. And you're not funny and you're not creating nothing beautiful. You're just being an asshole with this tedious fuck shit. It was just like little shit like that. And then he just. I can't explain it. It's like a way a person can look at you that you just like. Yeah, I know you calling me a nigga. I know you calling me a nigga. Cause he was a Mormon too. Oh. So he would just do little fucking antsy asshole shit. And I mean, oh, my God. The night that me and Tiffany haddish almost beat him up. I tell this story all the time. Yeah, me and Tiffany almost fucked him up one night. Yo, yo, Seriously, like, so that was the wedding. That was when me and Kyle got married. Okay, Me and Kyle got married. I said, I'm gonna get in trouble. All this. I don't care. But me and Kyle got married and I already just didn't like him. And we were going so long. It's 2:00 in the fucking morning. And no, it's almost 2:00. It's like 12 to and it's on a Friday night, so we gotta come to work the next day and you still shooting this fucking pre tape. So we're like, what the fuck? Like, why is it taking so fucking long? We're waiting on Lauren. No, you can shoot Lauren's when he get here. What the fuck? Like, it was so annoying. So he comes to the back. Cause I was like, yo, I'm going home. Y'all done had me here since 4:00. I gotta come to work tomorrow. So they got this big wedding dress. I'm in this big wedding dress. I done already cut my fucking. I still got this cut on my arm. I cut my arm with the wire that was in there. So my hand's bleeding and shit. I'm like, nah, I'm going home. This motherfucker was like, what makes you so fucking special? And I was like, who the fuck you talking to? You. I'm talking to you. What makes you so fucking special? Like, Lauren is this. And then I said, motherfucker, I know you not fucking talking to me. What makes me special is that the fucking sketch is about me and Cal, not you. So what the fuck? Like, he started. I was like, yo, you need to step off. Cause I'm about to fuck you up. I'm about to fuck you up. And like, I fucked up dudes before. So all I'm thinking is like, my dad was an army man. He has taught me too much. Cause all I was thinking was what I was gonna hit first. And he got this big ass Adam apple that's like, hit him in the Adam's apple. That nigga will not be able to fucking stand up. So I'm squaring off. I'm ready to bring my head up to his chin. I'm ready, right? I'm yelling, like, going off, like, get the fuck out my face. And he kept stepping to me. I was like, walk the fuck away. And he kept, you know. No, I got the. He just kept coming. Tiffany comes out the dressing room. Cause that was her week. She was like, what's up, cuz? Like, that's my girl. What's up, cuz? Who the fuck talking shit? Who talking shit? I said this much, y'all, we bout the fuck him up. Do you know we had to still go and shoot after that so this motherfucker would come over and try to give a direction. He tried. I was like, don't you put your motherfucking hand on me and then the camera will come on. It was. And so every time I see that picture. Cause they put it up like, it's so beautiful. I be like, that night. That night was crazy. And what's the name of that all girl group that's like Hanson? They like the female Hanson?

[Toure]

The Chicks.

[Leslie Jones]

Not the Dixie Chicks. They had three girls, three young girls.

[Toure]

Wilson Golden, Wilson Phillip.

[Leslie Jones]

No, wasn't him.

[Toure]

Yeah, hold on.

[Leslie Jones]

No, you old. There's some younger girls than that. And they're really famous now, you know. Motherfucker, you're younger than Bus and Phillips. Yeah. And they. They was.

[Toure]

What was their song?

[Leslie Jones]

All I know is that that night was so steam. And they was in the sketch and all they was doing. You could look like they had popcorn. They was like, I had. And then I had to also learn that my. My whatever it is I have is elevated three times. So, like, when I worked at Roscoe's, I worked at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

[Toure]

I love Roscoe's Chicken.

[Leslie Jones]

Not anymore. They used. They taste like garbage now.

[Toure]

It's. It's not the same.

[Leslie Jones]

Horrible. Don't be. You're so goddamn politically correct. Hey, y'all is fucking up.

[Toure]

Which one were you at?

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God. The one in Pasadena.

[Toure]

Oh, I've never been to that one.

[Leslie Jones]

It was. It was. It was. To me, it was next. Like, next to Hollywood. It was the next best one because they had brought the original cook out there to Pasadena, The Train and Hand Up Stan. But when I worked at Roscoe's, you know, I remember one night I came in, I think it might have been about some comedy shit, and I was just down, and it was. You know how it can be so boring that your hands feel dirty or that you feel hot? You know what I'm saying? So, like, the manager coming. There was no customers coming in. And the customers that came in was grouchy. It was just like a weird night. So my manager called me into the office, and he was like, yo, what's going on with you? And I was like, wait a minute. The whole fucking. The whole atmosphere is fucked up. I was like, why you bringing me in here? He was like, because it's you. And I was like, how the fuck is it me? How you blaming me? He was like, listen. He was like, this is not your fault. He was like, but you are the room temperature. He was like, when you walk into the room, everybody expecting to laugh, everybody expecting to be on this joyous. I was like, that's really fucked up that you're asking me to do that. He said, you wanna be a comedian? He was like, you have to make motherfuckers laugh even when you don't feel good. He was like, so why the fuck are you not practicing your shit now? Like, why wouldn't you start now? And then I was like, fuck that. That's not my responsibility. He's like, okay, let's do an experiment. He was like, go back out there. He was like, and fucking be happy and be like, dude, just like, give some energy. So I was like, well, first, change the fucking music. Like, what the fuck is this music? He was like, see? And I changed the music. I came out. I was like, all right, y'all, let's get it popping in this motherfucker. Everybody grab a towel. We about to clean off all the tables, man. We had, man. The next fucking 20 minutes was fun as fuck. And I looked over there at him and he was like. Customers started flowing in. It was crazy. Yeah. And it made me go, okay, that's a power that I need to mentally be okay to control, that I can.

[Toure]

Control the energy in the room.

[Leslie Jones]

Because first of all, first of all, you need to be mentally and very spiritually right to be able to do that because you a evil motherfucker. That's a bad power to have. Second, you need to learn how to control it so no one else can. So you can see when someone else is trying to come in and take the credit for you doing some shit. All of it is a business at this point. You have it, realize it, what you gonna do with it.

[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

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[Leslie Jones]

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[Toure]

Tell me about the Trump. It wasn't a sketch. Was a.

[Leslie Jones]

When I wanted it to be Trump.

[Toure]

Yeah. And it was.

[Leslie Jones]

But the vibe director, too.

[Toure]

But the thing of it was, she can't do it.

[Leslie Jones]

That was the funniest shit to me. Like, to me, I.

[Toure]

So that was your idea.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. Cause to me, the joke is always something that makes you laugh. So I remember saying to Lauryn, hey, you about to replace Alec. Let me be Trump. And they just was like, you fucking. Like you smoke so much weed. No, like, everybody. And I kept saying it to everybody. I was like, why couldn't I be? And everybody was like, no, no. So I was like, let's write that shit. And they was like.

[Toure]

Or you were really asking?

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. And so I was like, let's write that shit. And then Lauren let me tear up his. Cause everybody thought it was a. When you saw me dressed up like Trump, I don't know if you ever seen that really hardcore picture where I'm just, like, looking up. It was fucking great because I hated Trump. When Trump came there, oh, man. I was punking the shit out of Trump.

[Toure]

What'd you do?

[Leslie Jones]

I was just like, shut the fuck up. Like, get away from the fucking cue cards. Like, the fuck. Like, they had one where they wrote where I was beating him up at the end, and of course, that got cut. Motherfuckers.

[Toure]

You told him to shut the fuck.

[Leslie Jones]

Up all the time. Like, shut up. Like, you're changing the car. You can't change the car. The fuck are you doing? Like, nobody was. I was like, yeah, the mother. He's the Apprentice. Why are y'all scared of the Apprentice?

[Toure]

Was. Is there a story from when?

[Leslie Jones]

No, it's no story. I just didn't. But you know what? This is the thing about everybody need to fucking understand an entertainer and actually looking at an entertainer and why sometimes people don't listen to entertainers. Like, we're the best readers in the room. I'm a fucking comic. I do crowd work. You don't think I see fear? Always see it. When he came into the table read, he had his scripts bundled up in his arm like a little kid. Like, he almost couldn't get it together. And he'd throw them on the table, but then he grabs his flip phone and flips it open and go, yeah, sell. Sell. Yeah, sell. Like, he. He said it loud enough so everybody could Stop and see him and not see that fear. So me being a person that knows how to do stuff like defeating the shit, I was like, how much money did you make, motherfucker? How much money was that phone call, Trump? And he was like, ah, tell you. You know what I mean? 101 communication. 101. That's all that Trump pulled on everybody. He's a snake cell oarsman.

[Toure]

And in the SNL environment, you were able to bully everybody.

[Leslie Jones]

Everybody knows how to do it. They're just too polite to do it. I just do stuff that people already wanna do because I'm not afraid to be first. And I'm about to die, so what the fuck?

[Toure]

What?

[Leslie Jones]

I'm closer to death than being born.

[Toure]

You're not about to die.

[Leslie Jones]

I'm 57.

[Toure]

I know, but you're not about to die.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, I'm not about to die right here in front of you. Don't nobody wanna die in front of Philip Michael Thomas. I love Miami Vice.

[Toure]

Go there. Wait. Tell me something about that week with Trump.

[Leslie Jones]

I mean, they got a picture of me and him together after the fucking host meal. And listen, we were all sitting like, Kenan was supposed to be at that dinner, but for some reason he got hurt and Taryn took his place. So imagine me, the only black motherfucker there, and I'm sitting beside what's Ivanka's husband, Jared. I'm sitting by Jared, and then Ivanka and then Melania or whatever her name, Millennial, whatever the fuck her name is sitting by. And they all sitting right there. Right? And again, he's not. He's not the president. He's Trump. He's not anyone but a millionaire. Why are y'all treating him so importantly? I know it's a thing to treat the. The host would. But they was treating him like everybody white in that room knew something was up. Like, what the fuck? Like, I'm dumb about politics. And I think that's why people like me to talk about, because I'm really dumb about it. So everybody in New York knew Trump was a piece of shit?

[Toure]

Yeah, for sure.

[Leslie Jones]

Everybody that lived here knew. He was like. You could feel the disdain at the table. Everybody was sick. Oh, my God. The table read. Fucking Trump was just salivating over Cecily. It was disgusting. Salivating.

[Toure]

She had to take a fucking Xanax.

[Leslie Jones]

I remember she was so fucking stressed out. Cause he was doing like this. Like, she would read and he'd be like. And, oh, God. I was just like, oh, I wanna jump on his face. Like the fuck are you looking at her like that? I didn't know. So I'm sitting by Jared. I'm making. I got a red jacket on. But that's my favorite jacket. I look so cute in that red jacket. I didn't know that red meant Republican motherfucker. I didn't know none of that shit. I'm a dumb. And if Keenan was there, he probably would have told me to take the shit off. Cause I would have. I didn't know it was my cute jacket. So afterwards, when we come out, everybody got the picture. I was like, this motherfucker really is famous. He grabs me and pulls me, and I got the picture. Cause I remember Maxine Waters came up and showed me this picture. She's like, what the fuck is this? And I was like, maxine, I can't explain to the ancestors right now. Cause you know, Maxine, Maxine talk to the ancestors every day. Yeah, man, Trump was crazy. Trump was crazy. That was some crazy week. Crazy week. Like, he wouldn't let nobody touch his hair. You know, he had a special hair person to come in. Yeah, I'm telling all your shit. You better hope I don't tell the real shit.

[Toure]

Well, let's tell me something.

[Leslie Jones]

I ain't gonna tell you on camera.

[Toure]

Like what?

[Leslie Jones]

Cause they'll probably kill me.

[Toure]

Like what?

[Leslie Jones]

I ain't gonna tell you. Cause you gonna get on camera, they gonna be like, leslie said it now. I'm canceled. These Trump is now trying to kill me now anyway.

[Toure]

Do you have any other Trump stories?

[Leslie Jones]

No, I have no more Trump stories. I'll tell you when the camera go off.

[Toure]

But we were going into how you got to playing him.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, damn. I ain't answer that.

[Toure]

We started to answer that.

[Leslie Jones]

See, why you let me go on a tangent? Oh, that was a good tangent.

[Toure]

That was a good tangent.

[Leslie Jones]

No, it's just that they didn't want me to play him. Was the funny part about me. I was like, we're a joke place. Why wouldn't we tell jokes? What's so offensive about me playing Trump?

[Toure]

No, you're right. They would always put a white man to portray him.

[Leslie Jones]

I mean, they let Kenan played a black version of him, like, you know, in. What's the show that Taraji does? Power. They did, like, a Trump version of that.

[Toure]

But, like, I mean, we starting to see women getting dressed up to play men in the administration.

[Leslie Jones]

That was one of the main things I told him when I came there. I want to play some kind of male character. And, you know, I wanted to play somebody male. I always was writing myself as the dude in the.

[Toure]

It's inherently funny as Trump.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. They always wanted to put the man in the dress, which I never wanted to let the girls dress up like the men, which is hilarious. So wait, that's why I play Samuel L. Jackson.

[Toure]

What was your favorite SNL bit or moment?

[Leslie Jones]

It's too many. Oh, my God. When I played the ninja, and my eye wouldn't stop tearing for some reason. Like, she had did my makeup, and the tear kept coming out my eyes. So I killed Taryn in the sketch. I killed Taryn. And then the camera caught me, and I was going down real slow, and that tear was going down my eye. We were laughing so fucking hard. It was just. I know. See, it's an inside joke. See, that's when Lauren hates those, but.

[Toure]

Hates what? When?

[Leslie Jones]

Inside jokes. He hates when people write jokes about shit that only us laugh about.

[Toure]

Right. He hates that shit because it's supposed to be for the audience.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. And he's like, that's really pretentious. You're just really showing off now. Like, stop. Like, write some shit. Like, you know, So I would always write inside shit. And he was like, only people who get that joke is the people that work here.

[Toure]

And he hates when you break.

[Leslie Jones]

He doesn't hate it. He doesn't prefer it. But if you remember this sketch that I did with. Who's the dude that's in Pineapple Express with Seth Rogen? What's that dude name? Who? Yes.

[Toure]

James Franco.

[Leslie Jones]

James Franco spit blood in my mouth. And real blood. No, but I didn't know that. The fake blood looks so real. Like, I know. They was like, oh, Les, we gonna do a sketch with some blood? I was like, yeah, man, that shit. And I was just like, already on the. And, like, every time he would cut himself, I was just like, oh. And then I came up, and he precisely spit that fake blood into my mouth. And I threw up in my mouth, but I didn't want throw up to come out on live, so I swallowed it. So I'm standing there trying to get off the stage, and if you look at that sketch, Kenan's grabbing me like this, and I'm like, no, no, I need to get. I need to get off this. If you go look back at that stage and Franco and Kate are in tears, I'm like, you. I was so fucking mad, but it was like a Lucille Ball moment.

[Toure]

Yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

It was fucking crazy.

[Toure]

That's fucking nuts.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah.

[Toure]

So that's the moment you were proudest of no.

[Leslie Jones]

All my updates. All my updates. All of my updates. The Handmaid's Tale 1 was one of my favorites. Anytime I got to flirt with Colin, anytime I got to insult Che, it was my, like, just anything that was just, like, with my friends, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I loved when they put me in on somebody, I have to say. It's like, it was like, for basketball for me, like. But I loved the practice still. I loved of the practice and the playing. So it was like every Saturday night, no matter what was going on during the week, Saturday is fucking showtime, baby. I would wake up like, it's game day. It's game day. Get the game meal going. You do stuff that only you do on game day, you know, eat a gang of sandwich.

[Toure]

Did you do it three times in a row on Sunday, a Saturday that I. What, do you do the show three times in a row? Yes.

[Leslie Jones]

Rehearsal, right? We do a rehearsal, we do a dress, and then we do the live.

[Toure]

Is there. Is there a different one for the.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, well, the rehearsal is stuff that might. This is the lineup for right now. By dress, maybe two then already got cut. So you start with like, 12, then maybe two, then got cut, and then they start figuring out the time, and they're like, oh, cut this, put that here. Oh, we'll do that next week. So by the live 12 sketches is cut to eight. So. Yeah.

[Toure]

So, okay, why did it end? Did you walk away or did they say, enough of you?

[Leslie Jones]

No, I was me. It was time for me to go. I made the decision that it was. If I did not leave when I left, I wouldn't have been able to leave.

[Toure]

Why?

[Leslie Jones]

What do you mean? Because it's like I was getting older. You can get settled into stuff like that. And they wasn't really using me the way I wanted them to use me. They was making me a character of myself. And I just didn't see them changing, which they don't have to. They're a successful industry, and I wanted to do more. I want to do more. I want to write. I want to. And I can't. I couldn't do that there. And New York, I know y'all New Yorkers are going to hate me for saying this, but it's hard to live here. I get. So I was so sick when I left.

[Toure]

What do you not like about New York?

[Leslie Jones]

It's just like, I can't really find the food I need to eat. Like, you know, healthier food. And I know, look, he's rolling his eyes. Don't roll your fucking eyes, you fucking asshole. It's just real hard. It's disgusting here. Like, I came here with no sinuses. Now I have sinuses. Like, my first sinus infection, which I thought was sexual. When she said it to me, I was like, no one's fucking me in my nose. I know that they're freaky out here in fucking New York, but I don't do that. Like, she just looked at me like, oh, wow, you SNL people are so funny. Take these antibiotics. But, yeah, you know, it's just. I'm a Cali girl. I was a Cali girl before I came here, so. But I love New York, though. When I'm here, I celebrate. New York Knicks is my team. Yankees. It will always be my team.

[Toure]

Where'd you grow up?

[Leslie Jones]

Well, I was born in Memphis, Tennessee.

[Toure]

Okay.

[Leslie Jones]

And then we came to LA when I was, like, 14. And then I was raised there in Linwood. Compton. Compton.

[Toure]

So kind of Memphis kind of Compton. You said Compton.

[Leslie Jones]

Memphis. Yeah. I went to high school with Suge Knight.

[Toure]

You went to high school with Suge?

[Leslie Jones]

And had the biggest fucking crush on him.

[Toure]

You did?

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God. He was a football player and Coach Carpenter was the coach. So I begged him, can I be his teacher's aide? Because Suge would come in there every lunch period and get his lunch. And one time he winked at me. And I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. But then he tried to talk to my cousin, and then I didn't talk to him or my cousin, like, for three months.

[Toure]

Did he do anything wild at school? You were the same year?

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. No, he was older than me. He was a senior. I was a. I think I was a sophomore or something like that. Yeah, he was older, though. So he had the barge shag. Is it.

[Toure]

Is it hard to say I'm leaving snl? Even as you intellectually know it's the right thing? It's like, yeah, you're part of a big institution.

[Leslie Jones]

See, that's the thing, though. Like, when you think back to that, that's not what you're thinking when you're going through it. You're thinking, my health. I'm older. Like, if I was in my 20s and 30s, they would have had me about 10, 15 years. But I was 52, and I was like, shit. Like, I gotta. Like, if I don't leave right now, they're not gonna change.

[Toure]

Cause it's a hectic life.

[Leslie Jones]

It's a hectic life. And again, they was making me a character of Myself. It wasn't something that I wanted to do other stuff.

[Toure]

What is the character of myself? Like, what is the character meaning? Meaning that what is the sketch that you were like?

[Leslie Jones]

It's like, less. Leslie looked. When I saw the Leslie look. When I saw the Leslie look, I was like, okay. That's okay to be like Chevy Chase and all of them to have something like that. But I wanna be able to leave this place and do other shit. And am I gonna be able to do that if they always put me as the black girl that's running after a white dude? If they gonna do that. If every sketch you see me, I'm getting mad or either I'm beating somebody up. Do you get what I'm saying? So that's a character of myself. So for a little while, I had to, like, there's a Leslie Jones type. Yeah, she's mean, she's rugged, she's aggressive.

[Toure]

I don't want that.

[Leslie Jones]

Exactly. I want to be able to play. I used to tell them, hey, I want to be one of the muskrats that sings like, no. Well, Leslie, if Leslie Jones is in your scale, well, don't write it like that. And I'll play it like you want me to play it. I don't have to be the whole thing. But, see, again, that's me not knowing that I'm the temperature of the room.

[Toure]

Mm. So I have to respect that I'm the temperature of the room as I am trying to get the room to be what I want it to be.

[Leslie Jones]

And it was never gonna be that, because I'm always, like you said, I'm gonna be bigger than life. I'm going to be that. So no matter how docile and I've done it, you know.

[Toure]

What happened with the live tweeting you were killing was great. They pulled you into Rio, you came back, and then.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, you mean for the Olympics?

[Toure]

Yeah. And then they told you to not do it.

[Leslie Jones]

It was so political. But it really came down to FAA shit, right? So think about it. I'm Leslie Jones. This again, not knowing who the fuck I am. I'm Leslie Jones, and I'm watching the Olympics. When the Olympics are actually happening and they haven't aired it yet. So imagine them going, yo, bitch, you showing all the results before we can show it.

[Toure]

Oh, oh.

[Leslie Jones]

Just.

[Toure]

You're ahead. So you're fucking up the broadcast. Cause you're so big. Oh, oh, oh. Well, yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

So there then lies them going, well, then work with me, motherfucker, because I'm bringing People to. Yeah.

[Toure]

Cause as we Talked about on TikTok, you were doing what Snoop did in the Paris Games. You were doing that in 2016. Yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

No one was fucking with the Olympics until I put up this, started putting up films of me watching it.

[Toure]

Just. Can we call it the character that you were playing in the culture as the live tweeter, who is very excited. Very pro America. Very pro. Our athletes, they gave an actual job of that to Snoop. And you're like, why not me? I've been doing this, and I am associated with this.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, no. Not only Snoop. I was talking to Kenan about this. But Snoop, Kenan, and Kevin. So y'all thought three black men could do what one black woman was doing for fucking free? I was doing that shit from my living room on my off days of SNL that you don't get much of. And the thing. The prize that you give me is fly me over there. That's not a fucking prize, motherfucker. Like, I'm not.

[Toure]

Rio's a good one.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, no, I had fun. Not saying I didn't have fun. I went to pee on chain too. That shit was fun. It was great. I was able to take my writer myself. It was great. But, like, when they started doing that shit, it was like, oh, well. It felt like a Jay Z moment. Like, y'all don't appreciate me. Y'all don't appreciate me. I'm outta here. I was like, n you driving in a Maybach. The fuck.

[Toure]

You are appreciated. So if I had. If I said, okay, you gotta choose one. Your favorite rapper.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, God.

[Toure]

One. I don't want a whole history of hip hop.

[Leslie Jones]

I can't. I can't pick one. I can only pick what I'm doing. Three. Oh, my God.

[Toure]

Or you're gonna be in top five two. So let's go.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God. So are you. Are we still doing that?

[Toure]

Are you still doing top five two?

[Leslie Jones]

Is that gonna be a two? He'll probably call me. I didn't know that that was going. See, now. Now I'm gonna be texting Chris like, oh, okay, motherfucker.

[Toure]

Don't say it came from me, though.

[Leslie Jones]

I'm gonna say to Ray, don't say.

[Toure]

It came from me.

[Leslie Jones]

The Philip Michael Thomas looking nigga.

[Toure]

No, he's mad at me.

[Leslie Jones]

Don't mention Chris. Why Chris mad at you? Because of what? Please tell me. Is it because of the Will Smith shit? Ooh, tell me. Ooh, tell me.

[Toure]

I mean, I just. I.

[Leslie Jones]

Tell me what your opinion is about that.

[Toure]

I was not sufficiently all about Chris's side.

[Leslie Jones]

Ok?

[Toure]

I. I mean, and I'm just tweeting and writing essays. It's like, who cares who? But I mean, I was like, you know, you talking shit about a nigga's wife in front of a billion people. Like, we gotta handle it here.

[Leslie Jones]

Okay, so we can't handle it. How we gonna handle it in private now? This is. We're comedians. So I have beat motherfuckers down. Like, the joke that he told, it would be different if he said, you bald head bitch. You is an ugly bald head bitch. He comp to Demi Moore, who was fucking hot as fuck. And no, this is what I'm saying. When we're doing comedy, we're so fucking. And he's up in front of a fucking audience trying to entertain. But let me say this.

[Toure]

Who did he joke about right before that?

[Leslie Jones]

I don't even know.

[Toure]

Antonio Banderas, who was nominated for an award, right? He talked about somebody else who was nominated for an award. And then he went to Jada, who's basically a civilian.

[Leslie Jones]

Was she right there? Was she right there?

[Toure]

But in that room, she's a plus one comedian.

[Leslie Jones]

The convenience ain't thinking that. They thinking, she right there. She right there. She right there. I would've fucked with her, too.

[Toure]

But see, the thing that you think that wasn't written.

[Leslie Jones]

No, no, I think that that's a comedian thing. I think it's a comic thing. And I think it's like, yeah, I'm fucking with you. And I don't know the history between them too, but I'm a comedian. If I was up there, I would have fucked with her, too. I don't know if I would have said GI Jane, but I'd have been like, aye, what the fuck is up? Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna say something. Set it off, bitch. Let's set it.

[Toure]

We could agree if Will had gone up there and, like, put his arm around Chris and was like, she has alopecia.

[Leslie Jones]

No, no, no, no. What should have been done? Because this is where I am with it. I'm mad at both of them that y'all did that shit at a white event where they already don't want us there. Why the fuck would you bring Compton into motherfucking Beverly Hills? Handle that shit. At the after party. Fight at the after party where nobody can actually see it. You went up. Listen to me, Listen, hear me out. You went up on stage and you physically fucking assaulted someone. Fucking. Just to show that, oh, I'm gonna defend my fucking wife. And oh my God, I'm your wife. I don't give a fuck about you. If I let you do that, not in front of everybody. Hey, baby, nah, nah. We get that nigga later. Cause you not finna ruin your motherfucking career because you wanna hit this nigga now. And if she really was a smart bitch. And when he said GI Jane, I would have stepped in and said, who's writing it? Who's writing it? I definitely can play GI Jane. Come on, play the fucking game, cuz. Now you now it's like, do we like will anymore? Do we like, like for real? It's a fucking war that distracted us from with bullshit over a fucking joke. That wasn't even that fucking bad. It wasn't bad. Look, he didn't like the slave joke. He said he feels bad that I feel that way about myself. But it's like, yeah, hilarious. Like, it's like. No, but it's a. You need to understand, comics are into self deprecation.

[Toure]

Yes.

[Leslie Jones]

And they're also into making a person laugh at themselves. Now, some people are not that good at it. Some people are really good at it.

[Toure]

Why you point at me?

[Leslie Jones]

No, no, no, I'm saying like, you know when you're doing this, but when Chris was up there performing. No, and this is real talk. This is what he did, a joke. You address him afterwards. Because he slapped this man in front of everybody. His children, his mama. Do you know his children was fucked up by that shit? Like, Chris had to go into counseling with his children for that. Do you understand? Like shit like that. Like, this is what I be want black people to do to just take a second. Cause everything we do, like you did that shit at the Rap Awards, nobody's gonna give a fuck.

[Toure]

Right, right, right.

[Leslie Jones]

You did that shit at BET Awards, Nobody's gonna give a fuck. But you did that shit at the fucking Oscars. I was mad at both of them. So I just think that. And I'm not saying that there's we need to shuck and drive and shit. But if you're saying you wanna be in them rooms, know that. Me, I had to learn how to that my raising my hands sometimes it's scary to motherfuckers. Yeah, raising my voice, it's sometimes scary to motherfuckers. Now I'm not saying that I'm not gonna be who I am, but I'm gonna know when to apply myself. Hey, I'll see you the fuck after the show. And you handle that shit at the after party. Hey, nigga, don't be talking about my wife. You say anything else about my wife, I'm gonna slap the shit out of you. That's all that had to be done, cuz. That walking up on stage and physically assaulting somebody put you in a whole nother state for me. Oh, you ain't got no fucking cool, son. And I was pissed off at Jada. I said, how you let your man do that? Hey, baby, you think your wife would let you do that? She wouldn't. She would grab you. She'd be like, hey, calm your motherfucking ass down. We in public. Fuck that. Oh, he defended his wife. Y'all niggas get on my motherfucking nerves. We ain't at the fucking. What's that place? The Red Onion. You remember Red Onion? Used to have a five dollar drink. Fuck outta here. Have some goddamn coof. Is that how you say it? Yeah.

[Toure]

Yeah. I do appreciate that Chris was chill after he got smacked, right? Like shit, yeah, man. Like, he was extremely professional.

[Leslie Jones]

A fucking great black man.

[Toure]

From that moment on, he handled me.

[Leslie Jones]

No harm. I would have bopped that motherfucker in the back of his head while he walked away. Fuck you, motherfucker.

[Toure]

Which would have made it worse.

[Leslie Jones]

Let me tell you what I would have did after I cracked the joke. And this is what I said to Chris the whole time. I said, nigga, he had five feet before he got to you. Yeah, nigga, you ain't telling me. I wouldn't have ran around that stage like Crip. I will. Calm the fuck. Will you finna hit me? Will you finna hit me? Will.

[Toure]

He had no idea that would have made.

[Leslie Jones]

That would have. He had no fucking idea. He said, do you know how big that nigga is? Yeah. And then plus, you thinking that he probably finna come and say, don't. Hey, man, don't do that now.

[Toure]

Okay? Okay, so let's take it to a comedian.

[Leslie Jones]

Give me my child up my Pampers.

[Toure]

Let's head it to a comedian level. All right, who was funnier about what happened at the Oscars, Chris or Dave?

[Leslie Jones]

What do you mean?

[Toure]

Like, Chris and Dave both have done jokes about it. Like, here's my comedic take on that night.

[Leslie Jones]

I think. I don't. I think Dave said something. I forgot what Dave said.

[Toure]

I forgot what Dave said too. But I remember feeling like Dave's take was way smarter.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, it's. Well, Dave didn't get smacked. I mean, he did get attacked by somebody, but he didn't get smacked by Will. Smith. So of course it's a different take.

[Toure]

But I mean, like, a year later, Chris puts together his whole thing.

[Leslie Jones]

It took him a year to get over that shit. You got assaulted in front of everybody at the Oscars. Do you understand? Steven Spielberg saw you get the shit slapped out of you. Can you imagine the nigga who did Color Purple and had to watch Danny Glover slap the shit out of Whoopi Goldberg every motherfucking day? And then he see that fucking shit. Like, white people look at that shit as straight abuse, yo. Like, we gotta look at that factor. That shit should have never happened. I don't. I can't believe people have an opinion past that. Oh, shitty. Or shitty. And I did it. Oh, shitty. Had. Defend this woman the fuck out. Where the fuck we at? What, you gonna take a glove off and slap clap, clap. Get the fuck outta here. Y'all. Y'all sound stupid. Y'all sound stupid. Jesus Christ. And they. And they can't edit that shit out, right? So what you doing? You took a fucking decision and walked up there on that stage, you five feet, three feet. You ain't think, oh, shit, let me stop. Cause that would have been funny, too. And then just walked off. That would have been funny too. And been like.

[Toure]

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

That would have been funny as fuck.

[Toure]

Yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

It definitely wouldn't have been on the level that it is now. Cause both of them kind of not ruined, but. Cause Chris is still working. But what don't. Nobody would fuck with Will.

[Toure]

Will was still working.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, he working. But is anybody watching that shit?

[Toure]

I don't know.

[Leslie Jones]

And then my thing is, you still could have squashed it when you went up there for your fucking trophy and been like, that shit was fucked up. Like, I want to address that. I am so, like, do you get what I'm saying? You went up there and with some shit, like, I feel like I gotta defend the black woman. N. What? What? By slapping another black man? The fuck kind of reason are you? Serena. Daddy in there? Lord, Father God. Craig, walk to that. Y'all get on my motherfucking nerves. I said it. What time is it? Okay.

[Toure]

Are you okay?

[Leslie Jones]

No, I'm good. Don't get me started in here. Philip. Hey, this is Philip Michael Thomas. I don't give a fuck what you say.

[Toure]

When I was reading about your come up.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, my God.

[Toure]

I was like, Chappelle noticed it, Fox noticed it, Rock noticed it. But the industry is not noticing it, right? And they're giving you opportunities, and it's not. It's not. The spark isn't happening. But they're like, she got something. I see it. And then it turns around and obviously you become Leslie Jones.

[Leslie Jones]

Right.

[Toure]

Is it that the audience caught up to you or you figured out, here's how I serve them the right way?

[Leslie Jones]

I think it's a little bit of both. I think it's a little bit of me adjusting and being right for the time, right in the space where it needed to be. You know, I feel like I came exactly in to show what black women can evenly do. And now I even feel like now the skills that I learned from there is gonna put me into another space to show black women what they can do. I think it's a little bit of both. I think it's a little bit of both and definitely a lot of bit of me being out there, you know? So I think it's a little bit of both.

[Toure]

Just the experience, the time.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both.

[Toure]

Oh, thank God. I asked the question before we fell into the Chris Rock conversation. The question was. No, that was amazing. The question was about rappers.

[Leslie Jones]

Oh, God. I was trying to get away from that. Okay.

[Toure]

No, I thought you wanted to talk about that.

[Leslie Jones]

Okay. Kendrick right now for sure is my. Is just like my dude and he's from where I'm from. It's just like my dude just a symbolism of his whole. So it's just. I love a lyrical motherfucker. Rakim is definitely in there. KRS 1 definitely in there. I'm gonna tell you, I was a Tupac head until I went to New York and heard Underground Biggie. And I was like, ah, ah. You know what I'm saying? So Big Daddy Kane is definitely gonna be in there. Then we got MC Light, Queen Latifah like this. I can't name one. There's too many things. But right now, too, Glorilla.

[Toure]

Love Glorilla.

[Leslie Jones]

And I commented. Cause you said that. Is it Tyler, the creator, how you say? The kind of click, the clo. What is it? Kind of Komakopia cornucropia. I like the one he does with Glorilla. That sticky for sure.

[Toure]

Oh, I love that song. I love that song.

[Leslie Jones]

The rest of it is okay. I felt. But I felt like Glorilla made that album where every. Everything that came on, I was just like, I fucking love that bitch. I love me some Glorilla. And we both from Memphis, so I'm like, yes. So, you know, and then you got like, Megan is very lyrical. I would love her to get different lyrics.

[Toure]

What do you mean?

[Leslie Jones]

I just feel like she can rap too good. Like, somebody told me this. I'm way funnier than the jokes I'm writing right now.

[Toure]

You are funnier than the jokes you're writing.

[Leslie Jones]

I was way funnier than the jokes I was writing. I think she's way too. More talent for the jokes, for the raps that she's writing.

[Toure]

Wait, what does that mean? That's deep. You are funnier than the jokes you're writing.

[Leslie Jones]

Because it was like, I'm doing these fucking jokes, but my talent of doing them is way better. And you just wasting your time on this shit. Like I was doing Price is Right shit. Like, the fuck are you doing that? Why you not talking about your life? Why you not talking about real shit? You know that you can actually perform? Like the slave draft. I had that shit in the book somewhere, thinking, I'm gonna get at the Whoopi Goldberg and she's gonna do that joke. I wrote that for me, the big woman joke. I did this joke about being a big woman, being 6ft tall, having big feet. Who gonna do that shit? And you over here doing this goofy ass shit. I had somebody in Amsterdam tell me a comedian. He was like, you're so fucking funny. You're so much funnier than your jokes. And I was like. At first I thought it was a conclusion compliment. Until I went home and I was like, I think that motherfucker shaded me. That's fucked up.

[Toure]

But that's part of like.

[Leslie Jones]

But it made me get into my fucking shit.

[Toure]

You have that comedic energy. The phone book comedian who can read the phone book and make you laugh. So if you're gonna write out a.

[Leslie Jones]

Joke, if you gonna have that type of talent, why waste it on doing street shit? Yeah, make it go. Take it next to the next level. And when you're first starting, get to.

[Toure]

This level, which is some Richard Pryor shit.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, you have to get to that level. And then you, like, you walk around. Like you said, walk around that corner and be like, fuck, yeah. I need to write some shit that's about me. Corey Oakham. We was in the airport. Even though I can't stand Cory right now. Cause he's just such a fucking. What the fuck is wrong with you? When did you become the person that you become anyway? Fuck off. But we was in the airport, and me and Corey always fighting. He talked about my feet one time, and I didn't talk to him for two years. But we was in the airport one time and he Was like, well, you should be talking about your feet. He was like, you should be talking about. He was like, you play basketball? I didn't even know that. Why you not doing jokes about that? And that's some real shit. Real shit. Like, you just gotta. I feel like Megan, thee stallion is fucking dope. She looks dope. She should have. I just. Whenever I'm rapping, I wanna fucking rock. I wanna be able to say this shit. I can't say nothing. She said, only thing I say get my wig twist like Effie. And I can't even say that shit right. You know what I'm saying? Give me something I can like, I'm a savage. Like, I like that song when she did it with Beyonce. Oh my God, that was my song. Yeah, but you know, I can't sing to the rest of the shit. I'm sorry. See, that's wrong. Okay, who else? Who else? Female. Oh, Dolce Dochi's the shit. Now. Let me tell you why I like Dochi. Dochi is a badass looking bitch, but she got this wake up, get your takes up. It's just so like, if I was a dude and a rapper, I wouldn't take her. I wouldn't take her on. I'd be like, nah, I'm not finna battle this bitch. No, no, this bitch, she looked like she can come off the dome with seven. And then she's really creative. Like that thing she did on Stephen Colbert with the.

[Toure]

I just like with the braids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Leslie Jones]

Women is. Women is killing hip hop right now. If you for sure.

[Toure]

100%. 100%.

[Leslie Jones]

And it's hot. Then Satan's asshole in this.

[Toure]

I'm so sorry.

[Leslie Jones]

What's it.

[Toure]

What?

[Leslie Jones]

I can't even say your name?

[Toure]

What.

[Leslie Jones]

What's.

[Toure]

What's going on with you now? What is the dream for the next five years?

[Leslie Jones]

To work. To steadily work. Now I know what it is. Now I know what the mission is. The mission never was to be famous and be this, this and this. The mission was to steadily work. To steadily have some stuff out there to do. To steadily have a job. The mission was never to be the funniest or the most famous. The mission was always to be able to pay to buy your aunt house in Memphis. You know, that's what it is, working. As long as I can be able to come in here and say, hey man, I got my special coming out. I got just so the show with Larry Wilmore. I'm gonna be a coach. I got a play that I'm doing next. That's what you wanna hear? You wanna hear that I'm about to be the greatest person in the world? You wanna hear that I am booked and blessed, and that's what I am.

[Toure]

What's the Larry Wilmore show?

[Leslie Jones]

It's about me. It's about when I used to coach kids at the ymca.

[Toure]

What network?

[Leslie Jones]

We are gonna see, okay? We haven't sold it yet.

[Toure]

I love Larry Wilmore.

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah, we wrote some really good shit.

[Toure]

He's brilliant.

[Leslie Jones]

He is amazing. He is. He is. And my special's coming out. It's called Life Part two.

[Toure]

Where.

[Leslie Jones]

Well, we already shot it, right?

[Toure]

Where'd you shoot it?

[Leslie Jones]

We're selling that right now, too.

[Toure]

Okay, so you don't know where you're.

[Leslie Jones]

Gonna be trying Netflix or Hulu, but you know how that goes. We gonna see who go.

[Toure]

How come there's not, like a Leslie Jones show?

[Leslie Jones]

I hope. I'm so glad you get the Lenny laugh. I don't know. Let's figure that out.

[Toure]

I mean, shouldn't there be?

[Leslie Jones]

Well, just like you said, like, people gotta catch on. Like, you know, some people done caught on, but not everybody, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, to me, I feel like I should have. I should not be the Tonight show, but the show after the Tonight show. You know what I'm saying? Because all you seeing right now is white men in blue suits doing the same monologue. You want to see Arsenio again? You know, Arsenio was one of the best hosts out there. Johnny Carson. I love Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson was funny as fuck. But, like, now you just get a lot of tricks and, oh, they're famous people.

[Toure]

But it doesn't even have to be a talk show. It might be a sitcom. It might be a new innovative format. I mean, there's so much a substack.

[Leslie Jones]

You have that I'm gonna do that. And I didn't know what it was. Every time you would say it, I was like, well, what's a substack? I get so tired of these motherfuckers. Is that another platform? The fuck? Cause I like. Cause you kept saying, I gotta go to my sub. I was like, I ain't finna do all that. Say this shit on TikTok. That's the one. I know how to work.

[Toure]

No, I mean, there should. There should. There should be something. Some network, some community.

[Leslie Jones]

We're working on something. We working on it. We working on it. We working on it.

[Toure]

See that?

[Leslie Jones]

Yeah. And I'm pitching a celebrity temp agency. Also. So I'm gonna definitely call you to come and temp somewhere.

[Toure]

Are you kidding?

[Leslie Jones]

That would be so fucking funny.

[Toure]

Yeah. Are you kidding? You call me to do anything. Thank you so much.

[Leslie Jones]

Thank you.

[Toure]

You're wonderful.

[Leslie Jones]

I had so much fun.

[Toure]

That was awesome. Thanks so much to Leslie Jones for a great interview and thanks to you for watching. Toray's show gives you fuel to power your dreams. Because you can use your dreams like a rocket ship to blast you into a life you never imagined. You can make your dreams a reality. Maybe this show can help. You can find me on TikTok orayshow and on Instagram orayshow. Torre show is written by me, Torre, and produced by Ashley Hobbs. Our editor is Ryan Woodhull. Our booker is Ray Holiday and we're distributed by DCP Entertainment. And we will be back next Wednesday with more amazing guests because the man can't shut us down.