Leslie Jones first shot into the public consciousness as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, but she spent decades as a largely unknown comedian before finally getting her big break at the age of 47, and it was a friend who set Leslie on the long path to success.
Leslie was a 19-year-old sophomore basketball player at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado when, unbeknownst to her, a friend signed her up for the Funniest Person on Campus contest. Leslie won despite not having prepared a routine. That was all it took. She dropped out to pursue a life in comedy.
“As soon as I touched the mic I knew that’s what I would do for the rest of my life,” Leslie told People magazine in 2020.
The next week, she was back in the Los Angeles area, where she’d moved with her family when she was a child. A month later, Leslie found herself opening for Jamie Foxx, back when the Oscar winner was still a touring comic. The show was a disaster for Leslie . But instead of getting her down, it was a learning experience for Leslie thanks to Foxx.
“It was, like, a religious feeling, watching him,” Leslie told The New Yorker. “I had never seen a real comedian before, at least not in person.”
After the show, Foxx took her for a bite to eat and shared some wisdom with the young comic. Foxx told Leslie that her main issue was that she was so young that she didn’t have anything to talk about, she hadn’t experienced enough life. Foxx told her to go get a job, go get fired, get your heart broken, and break some hearts.
Leslie took Foxx’s words to heart and put her stand-up career on hold while she sought life experience. Leslie took all sorts of jobs. She worked in the service industry as a server, a cook, and a cashier; she sold perfume at a mall; she even became a justice of the peace and officiated weddings.
Leslie began pursuing stand-up again in the mid-nineties but continued to work part time, which led to some interesting situations, for better or worse. While working at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, Leslie would get recognized for her spots on BET’s Comic View.
She went for an interview at a Blockbuster (remember those?), but was passed over because the manager recognized her. According to Leslie, the manager said, “I’ve seen you perform and you’re hilarious. I don’t want to hire you and then you quit. You just need to keep trying.” Leslie left mad, but soon realized, “Wait a minute. I haven’t made it yet!”
Those who knew Leslie knew she had what it takes to entertain the masses, but that didn’t change the fact that she continued to toil in relative obscurity, just one break away from stardom.
That break would eventually come thanks to Chris Rock, who Leslie had met in the late ‘80s when Rock was still a road comic, before he began his brief stint on Saturday Night Live.
Rock complimented Leslie after he saw her perform at The Comedy Store in L.A. in 2012, nearly two decades after she had restarted her stand-up career.
Rock reportedly told Leslie , “You were always funny, but you’re at a new level now.” Leslie responded, “You’re right. But I’m not gonna really make it unless someone like you puts me on.”
Rock made a note of it.
In late 2013, Rock had dinner with SNL creator and executive producer Lorne MIchaels. Rock told Michaels about Leslie, saying, “She’s the funniest woman I know.” Michaels decided to give Leslie a chance.
Leslie had never done sketch comedy, and she didn’t do impressions, so when she showed up for her SNL audition, she did her act, then flew back to L.A. and waited. Leslie would eventually learn that she hadn’t gotten the spot in the cast, that spot went to Sasheer Zamata. But the next day, Leslie got a call from Michaels and was offered a position as a writer, which she accepted.
Despite being 47 and a veteran standup, Leslie was nervous during her first meeting with Michaels. She wanted to impress him. In a 2022 appearance on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Leslie admitted that she thought to herself, “Okay, I’m old too. I’m, like, 47, so I should be able to say something mature.” But what came out of her mouth was, “Hey, if you want to ask somebody about me, call Eddie Murphy. He knows me, and he knows I’m funny.” To this day, Leslie cannot believe she said that.
But Leslie was too talented to keep behind the scenes. After just a few months, she was added to the cast, becoming the oldest person ever to become a cast member at SNL, but only after she realized that she had to be herself. Leslie credits longtime SNL cast member Keenan Thompson with helping her to find her groove on the show. She had been having a hard time finding her role on the show when Leslie found herself alone with Thompson, and she had him “busting up” laughing. He told her to bring that to the show.
“Then, I really wish I would have known … just be me,” Leslie said about her start at SNL. “I didn’t learn that until maybe six months into SNL that the way I was gonna win at SNL was to be me. You know, I was trying to be everybody else.”
Once Leslie felt comfortable being herself around the cast, and in front of the audience, she catapulted to stardom, going on to win two Emmys for her work on the show.
Leslie’s hard work and refusal to give up on herself continued to pay off. She’s gone on to appear in movies like Trainwreck, the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, and Coming 2 America. Leslie also served as an NBC commentator for the 2016 and 2018 Olympics, offering up hilarious analysis (obviously).
In August of 2022, Leslie launched a podcast titled The fckry with Leslie Leslie and Lenny Marcus that was nominated for Best Comedy Podcast in February 2023. Leslie also served a week as guest-host of The Daily Show after the departure of Trevor Noah.
Now 56, Leslie continues to perform standup, entertaining thousands of people every time she hits the stage. Leslie remains as bold and fearless as ever. You never know what might come out of her mouth, but whatever it is, you know she means it. “I’m just saying what everybody’s thinking. I think I’m just brave enough to say what everyone is already actively thinking,” Leslie told O’Brien. “What I try to do is, I try not to be offensive, but try to be honest. And the way to not be offensive is to be honest.”
About the author: Stephen Proctor is a freelance writer who also writes for The Cool Down, along with multiple projects currently in various stages of production. Stephen previously worked as a writer and producer at Yahoo! and Hearst Digital Studios.
Photos: Shutterstock
