Comedian, actress, and host Leslie Jones kicks off a new year on The Blackest Questions with advice on being true to yourself. She gets candid about the racism and misogyny plaguing Hollywood and explains how she deals with the haters. She also talks about her memoir and shares personal stories about her early career as she discusses prominent Black history makers in the entertainment industry.
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Panama Jackson: [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Dr. Christina Greer: Hi, and welcome to The Blackest Questions, which is a trivia game show meant to teach us more about Black History. I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer, Politics Editor for theGrio, and currently a Moynihan Public Scholars Fellow at City College in New York.
In this podcast, we ask our guests some of the Blackest questions so we can learn a little bit more about them and have some fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black History, past and present. So here’s how this works. We have several rounds of questions about us, Black History, the entire diaspora, current events.
You name it. And with each round, the questions get a little tougher. And the guest has 10 seconds to answer. If they answer correctly, they’ll receive one symbolic Black fist and hear this. And if they get it wrong, they’ll hear this. But we still love them anyway. And after the trivia questions, there’ll be a Black bonus round just for fun.
I like to call it, Black Lightning.
Our guest for this episode is comedian, actress, and [00:01:00] author, Leslie Jones. You know Leslie as a standout member of Saturday Night Live, and her hilarious standup comedy specials, the latest being, Time Machine.
Leslie Jones: Do you know what I’ve noticed lately who haven’t been having fun? The fucking 20 year olds. My funnest night in my 20s, I started at work doing shots in the back.
Dr. Christina Greer: Leslie has also starred in films like Ghostbusters and my beloved, Coming to America sequel. And now, Leslie is getting personal with her fans in her memoir, Leslie F-ing Jones. Hello, Leslie. Thank you so much for joining The Blackest Questions. I’m so excited.
Leslie Jones: How you doing? I’m listening to your intro. I was like, okay, first of all, her credit says, I am smart. Okay? I am educated. I know stuff.
Dr. Christina Greer: You’re an author, okay? Like, for those of us who are watching the podcast, not just listening on, you know, theGrio app or Spotify, like, our books are next to each other. We’re
like sisters. We’re book sisters. It’s so cute, right?
Okay, so are you ready for question number one?
Leslie Jones: [00:02:00] No, because your class is probably hard as hell.
Dr. Christina Greer: It is. They are. But… My students love me because it’s all about being on an intellectual journey together. So this is what we’re going to do together.
Leslie Jones: Okay, but do everybody be failing it though?
Dr. Christina Greer: Oh yes, of course. Sometimes people fail. But you know, as you say in your book, you know, there’s like, failure is just one more step to obviously fulfilling our greatness. So sometimes we have to.
Leslie Jones: Oh no, I would beg you. I’d be like, Chrissy, come on, what I gotta do for extra credit?
Dr. Christina Greer: And I would say, first things first. We ain’t friends.
Is Dr. Greer Professor Greer? That’s what I would tell him. Not you, but to students. And when they say Ms. Greer, I say, listen, Ms. Greer is my mother.
Leslie Jones: Okay, um, excuse me. I’m so sorry, Dr. Greer. Please, I will write two, two reports. Please just give me extra credit.
Dr. Christina Greer: And then, you know, then they take you out for tea and we can, we go through things.
Okay, let’s get started. We are ready. Question number one. I know, I can feel it. You’re going to ace it. This actor has been a part of nearly 300 [00:03:00] projects, including hit television shows like Oz, Twin Peaks, and Quantum Leap. But he’s best known for playing the character Winston Zedmore. Who is he?
Leslie Jones: Oh, I know this, Jesus.
Oh, I know this. Um, um, um, um, the dude that played, uh, in the Ghostbusters. The Black dude from Ghostbusters. And I’m looking right at him, I can’t think of his name. Oh, oh my God, he’s gonna kill me. I cannot think of his name! Oh, I can’t think of his name. The Black dude from Ghostbusters. I can’t think of his name.
Dr. Christina Greer: I think we can give you half of a point, but it’s Mr. Ernie Hudson, also a friend of the podcast.
Leslie Jones: So Ernie is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet in your life.
Dr. Christina Greer: He really is. He came on the Blackest Questions and did very well, but he grew up writing. Did you know he grew up writing short stories, poems and songs?
Leslie Jones: Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: Guests here on the Blackest Questions a few months ago and he told us all about his life. I encourage everyone to go back and listen to that episode, because he was a gem. And he has a true love of the theater, just like I do. [00:04:00] But when he was just a teenager, he moved to Detroit, to join the oldest Black theater in the country, becoming the resident playwright at Concept East.
He also studied acting at the prestigious Yale School of Drama. And he’s been a part of hundreds of television shows and movies, including Ghostbusters.
Leslie Jones: Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: And he also made a cameo in the remake back in 2016 as your character’s uncle.
Leslie Jones: Yep, that’s my uncle. Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I couldn’t remember his name.
That’s old people thing.
Dr. Christina Greer: Listen, and I tell people this all the time. When I go on my Grio siblings podcast and they ask me the simplest questions, I don’t know what it is about my nerves. I’m like, I know. I know it. I can see it.
Leslie Jones: It’s just, it’s like, I can see the person and I was like, I know his name. I know his name.
And I wanted to say Tyrone so bad. It’s so terrible. Oh.
Dr. Christina Greer: I remember him from The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and I loved him in that.
Leslie Jones: Ooh, that’s right.
Dr. Christina Greer: You remember?
Leslie Jones: I don’t understand that like a lot of our Black actors from back then, they used to do everything, right? Sing, dance, everything.
Dr. Christina Greer: Well, I really want to see you in something dramatic.
Leslie Jones: Me too.
Dr. Christina Greer: After reading your–
Leslie Jones: You know, I want to play a serial killer or something. [00:05:00]
Dr. Christina Greer: Ooh, I think I really wanna see you play someone who’s like a really layered and textured like mother or sister, like or best friend, you know, in like a real, like you and Niecy Nash I think would kill it.
Leslie Jones: Mm-Hmm. .
Dr. Christina Greer: Like you and Regina, Regina Hall or Regina King, I think.
Leslie Jones: Oh, how about me and Tom Hanks?
Dr. Christina Greer: Listen, I read that in, in your memoir and I was like, I could see it.
Leslie Jones: Mm-Hmm. .
Dr. Christina Greer: I could totally see that. Like Tom Hanks is the. Well, don’t forget, I know John Hanks from Bosom Buddies.
Leslie Jones: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: So, I feel like the comedic timing between you two, but also the dramatic gravitas that both of you are bringing from your life experiences, I think would be phenomenal.
Leslie Jones: It could be really good. It could be good.
Dr. Christina Greer: So, when we had Ernie Hudson on, he was pretty vocal about what he felt like was some of the racist treatment that he’s experienced on film sets. Um, and I know that you talked in your memoir about some of the sexism and racism that you’ve experienced. Um, not just in general, but [00:06:00] also in, in the remake.
Um, and you talk a lot about that in your book. Were you surprised at some of… the racism and sexism and the intersection of the two that you experienced in promoting the new Ghostbusters?
Leslie Jones: I think I was more surprised that it still happens. I just was like dang. This is 2000 and something what we ain’t we haven’t come far at all?
Like what’s going on? Like well you you learned that Certain like I say institutions and stuff that you have in this business is still on on the same thing of like like they haven’t… they haven’t changed or developed or what, you know what I’m saying?
Dr. Christina Greer: Evolved in a way that–
Leslie Jones: Evolved is the word that I’m looking for.
Yeah. Because it’s like, when they say the word diversity, it feels like urban or it feels like, uh, culture or it feels, do you get what I’m saying? So it’s like, you still don’t get it. Like, we don’t like the word, I hate the word diversity. I hate it because it’s a, it’s a tool that they now use that they [00:07:00] go, you know, our stuff is diverse now.
No, what is that? What is that? So, you know, on like I’m older, so yeah, I know what my like, like now they have a word for microaggressions, which is hilarious. Cause this is something we’ve experienced our whole life and just didn’t have a name for it. We just called it white people stuff. Like, so, and, and I’m, and I’m being very honest–
Dr. Christina Greer: We called it, you know how they do stuff.
Leslie Jones: Yeah, exactly. You know how, and I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be, people be surprised that I say stuff that comes out of Black people’s mouth. I am a Black. woman who is 56. I have lived through a lot of eras. So I’m literally a 2000 year old woman. That’s what I tell people because for real, I’ve lived through the 60s, the 70s, 80s, 90s.
And now, and trust me it, when you see the same stuff, you go, Hey man, we are not in the 80s. Are you saying something 80s to me? Cause it would be like little stuff. Like, Hey, Leslie, you [00:08:00] know, we really fought for you for this part. You know, Leslie, like we really, and you’re like, no, listen. And this is what I tell people all the time.
This is why you gotta be so confident. And really know what you do. It’s, it’s really, it’s not cocky. It’s convinced. Do you get what I’m saying? Like when you’re sitting in a doctor’s office, you don’t, you want your doctor to walk in and be like, man, this is what we going to do. Whoot, whoot, whoot, I know how to do that, that, that, that, that. You don’t want your doctor walking in and going. I’m kind of good. Um, I mean, maybe, I mean, they say people who are better than me, but they say, you know, so, so like when people are talking to you like that, you won’t take that into yourself and go, oh my God, they’re doing me a favor. I should be, cause I didn’t take it like that.
Whenever they would do like, they would say, well, Leslie we fought for you. Well, you didn’t fall for me. You didn’t fight for me. I fought for me. You picked me because I was the best one for this part. The director absolutely picked me. You didn’t fight for me. Who else is up for this role that you thought was going to do what I’m doing?
[00:09:00] Nobody. It’s, it’s like a, it’s like a sanity check. Like, and believe it or not, like, Chrissy maybe a month ago, I had to check a woman in the store cause she goes, Oh, you’re so well spoken. I said, so are you bitch. So were you. I said, isn’t that funny how you made your way out the cave and learn how to clean yourself and talk.
I literally said this to her and you know what she did? She said, I am so sorry, that was not appropriate for me to say. I said, no, it wasn’t.
Dr. Christina Greer: It wasn’t. Well, because my, my response when I get well spoken or in academia, we call it articulate, right? And it’s like, well, how am I supposed to speak? What were you assuming I would–
Leslie Jones: And, and that’s, that’s the thing that we have to fight against. And I never really thought that that would, I really thought people had sense and know that there is no such thing as just a, a, a, a block or a description of a Black person, or a white person. Mm-Hmm, Like this stuff that you coming up with.
Like, you would be [00:10:00] mad if I say, Hey, you want some mayonnaise? ’cause that’s what we know you white people to do is eat mayonnaise. Like, like you would be like offended. You should be. That’s it. Do you know what I’m saying? Like, I know you don’t want no seasoning on this. Yeah. I know you want to, you want, let me give you this bland chicken.
Cause I know you don’t like, well, do you get what I’m saying?
Dr. Christina Greer: Why is stereotype theater okay when it comes to Black people?
Leslie Jones: Exactly. So, so when people are talking to me and they’re doing that, like, so when they were coming at me like that, you know, you’re not fighting for me. I am Leslie Jones. And this is what I, one thing that I used to always make clear to the, you guys, listen, I used to tell him all the time SNL definitely gave me the platform to become who it is I am but I brought something to SNL too and listen I have been doing comedy long enough for me to say that I have a services I am a freelance artist that is coming and renting out my services to you for money.
You [00:11:00] don’t own it. It’s just like if I brought a tractor and you want to use my tractor, it costs this much money and you could keep it for this amount of time.
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. But what I also thought was really fascinating about your memoir is that, you know, so much of it is how I live my life as well. And I’m not a comedian or a standup, but it’s, I’m interviewing you too.
You’re not just interviewing me. It’s my life. I want to know if I want to be in this place. So it’s like as much as I may think I want this job when I come in. I’m actually looking around and seeing, do I want to be here? There’s a lot of assumptions that I would, Oh, I would love to be here. It’s like, no, no, no, the street goes both ways.
Leslie Jones: Yeah, but you know, that’s what I’m saying. It’s like, you need to, you need to definitely specify who you are because there is kids that come in there. And should be in that position of like, I’m here to learn and woo, woo, woo. But I had developed a skill and I’m, I’m grateful, but I ain’t [00:12:00] grateful. Like, like you, I like you did like desperate, like nah son.
I was doing comedy before I got here. I will go back to doing comedy because that’s my skill. And, and and this is why I tell kids that’s not a confidence or something that you just are given. You have to build that. You have to earn that. And not from just people, for yourself. You have to earn it from yourself to be confident enough to go, Hey man, that’s not how we rocking.
But, but yeah, like. Like, I’m a Black woman, I’m six feet tall, I have natural hair and no, I know that your boyfriend is Black and you have an interracial child, but that doesn’t mean that you can do my hair. I’ve had people tell me that, Oh, I have, I have a Black friend. Oh no, my home girl is Black. That does not mean you can do my hair home girl.
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. Now, now Leslie, how do you, you know, I really, I really thoroughly enjoyed your memoir. Before we go into the next question. What do you think people will be most surprised at when they read [00:13:00] your memoir?
Leslie Jones: How serious I can get at moments or how very real and vulnerable that I’m, um, that I’m willing to open up and they need to understand this is the person that I am now.
Oh my God. If I quantum leap back, I would be like, holy shit. You’re pretty cool. Like, how did you get so damn cool? I thought she was a dumb ass. You’re at 21. You was a dumb ass. You are holy. Where, when did you learn this? When did you become so empathetic? Oh, when did you become this person? This is crazy. No, seriously.
Dr. Christina Greer: You know, I will say, I agree. When I read your memoir, I felt like. Um, A, I was getting to know you in like a, uh, in a much more serious way and B, I thought this book was so helpful, yes, for women, but obviously for Black women, because it’s also, it’s like, listen, I’ve done things where it’s like, some people might consider them mistakes.
Some people might consider them like, you know, lessons learned, [00:14:00] whatever, but it’s forgiving, loving, trusting oneself. So then it’s like, and I can then step into my truth because I’m a, a work in progress. Like none of us are perfect. And so being at one point you had a line that was like, you know, I wish I could be like kind to my former self, which is something I’m always trying to remind myself and my students.
It’s like, be nice to yourself first. Cause that actually gives you empathy for other people. And you sort of see this journey of Leslie being nicer to Leslie. And de facto, being more empathetic and kind to the people around you. So we’re helping you in this journey. I really thoroughly, I just, I can’t recommend it enough.
Leslie F-ing Jones. I can’t say the proper uh title on the podcast.
Leslie Jones: A lot of people don’t realize that there are, they are a person. I, it’s the way to explain that is that, um, when we buy gifts for people, we’ll really go out our way to buy a gift for a person, but then we were buying [00:15:00] for ourself we go, oh no, you can get the cheap one or how you, when you wash your head, like when someone else um, someone else does your hair, it may hurt, you may be tender headed, but when you do your own hair, you don’t really feel it because you’re doing it to yourself. It’s almost like you don’t feel yourself as a person, and you just live as a functioning thing until you do come into, it’s almost like you come into your life where you go, Oh dude, dude, I have things that I like.
Oh, I don’t like when my food is spicy, right? Oh, I don’t like to sleep this way.
Dr. Christina Greer: Oh, you know what?
Leslie Jones: I like this–
Dr. Christina Greer: This shirt no longer brings me joy.
Leslie Jones: Exactly. That oh, wow. I don’t like this the way that this, like I have feelings and then you didn’t, then there’s a part of you that freaks out because you go, it’s almost something that’s being introduced to you as another person cause you’re like, Oh shit. Now I got to start making that person. And I don’t want to spend time doing that. That sounds, that seems very, um, it seems very selfish and it [00:16:00] seems very like, no, that’s the engine you’re supposed to work on. Like–
Dr. Christina Greer: What’s fascinating though, is when you start doing that, there’s certain people who can’t accept it.
Leslie Jones: Oh, see, that’s the thing that we have a problem with. Stop giving a fuck about other people. Like they’re not part of your equation. You don’t go to sleep with those people at night. When you get up in the morning, you don’t see that person in the mirror. You see you. That’s who you deal with. You are your worst enemy, not the motherfuckers on the outside. They are just dogs barking at your parade. Have you ever seen a parade stop for a barking dog? Not fucking once.
Okay, we’re going to move on to question number two. Obviously the two of us could sit here and talk about this all day. We will be right back. You’re listening to the Blackest Questions.
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Dr. Christina Greer: And we’re back. Okay, are you ready for question number two?
Leslie Jones: Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: I feel it. We’re gonna get it.
Leslie Jones: Okay.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. At the age of just 13 years old, this singer, songwriter, became the youngest person to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This person is also a musician. a producer, and has won nearly 30 Grammy Awards. Can you name this performer?
Leslie Jones: Stevie wonder.
Dr. Christina Greer: That’s right. So, Stevie Wonder, whose real name is Steveland, was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950. He was born six weeks premature and was placed in the hospital incubator that had too much oxygen, which caused him to go blind. But that didn’t stop Stevie, who was a star in his church choir at 8 years old.
By the time he was 11, he was signed to Berry Gordy’s Motown Records. And because of his age, his song [00:18:00] royalties were put in a trust that he couldn’t access until he was 21 years old. Instead, Steve and his mother were given a weekly stipend of 2. 50 while they were on tour, which is about 25 today. As I mentioned, at the age of 13, he had his first number one song with Fingertips Part 1 and 2, and it featured a young Marvin Gaye on the drums.
The single was simultaneously number one on the R&B chart, which was the first time that it ever happened. And over the next roughly 60 years, Stevie has recorded nearly 30 studio albums, has 30 number one hits, has hundreds of producer and songwriter credits. Has a net worth of about 200 million dollars, and I don’t know if you knew this, Leslie, it’s the 50th anniversary of my favorite Stevie album, Innervisions.
So when we were thinking about Stevie, I thought it was pretty interesting that you all had, you and your family, had this connection to Stevie Wonder, and your father was hired by Stevie to run his radio station in LA. Which is what brought you all out there. So tell us a little bit more about that.
Leslie Jones: You know, what’s so crazy about Stevie Wonder and, and, and, and for the evolution for [00:19:00] me with him is when we were in Memphis, the thing that was, uh, the hit was That Girl.
That Girl was a hit and I was into Stevie, but like, I didn’t get into Stevie until I was in college and somebody played Innervisions for me and I heard Visions of my mind and I thought. Holy cow. This guy.
He is literally a poet. He’s like, he’s like, and then, you know, delve really, but as far as for the history of my family, like, yeah, he met my father and felt that my dad was a chump and he fell in love with my father and brought him out here to California to work at KGLH as an electronic engineer or, you know, DJ and promotions and stuff like that.
And he was always with Stevie. I [00:20:00] remember my favorite story that my dad told me about Stevie, that they were getting out of car. They were getting out the car, getting ready to walk into the radio station. And this really pretty girl walked past and Stevie whispered over to my dad. He was like, yeah, she fine. Huh? And my dad was like,
How do you know? Can you see Stevie ? ? He said, I think that man can see .
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. Well, you know, there’s a whole conspiracy on the internet that Stevie Wonder can see.
Leslie Jones: Um, that’s, well, visions of my mind says it. He’s like, he knows that the leaves are green. You know, there’s things that he can see. You know what I’m saying?
Like, I, I, I love Stevie Wonder. I think he’s–
Dr. Christina Greer: I, I, yeah, he’s, he’s brilliant. Now, did you ever want to be, I know you’ve sort of followed in your father’s footsteps for a little while and sort of worked in radio. Um, did you ever want to be a musician?
Leslie Jones: Or no, my dad thought that my dad thought… that’s so crazy.
Everybody asked me that. But my dad did think that I was going to be a [00:21:00] musician because I knew music like he knew music. Like I was just very young and I listened to everything that he listened to. It’s so funny when we lived in Fort Bragg. Um, in this apartment, I remember this apartment, I remember my room, God, I don’t even know how old I was, but I, in my closet, I had this net, this fish net that I hang, hung and I would spray with, uh, the, the psychedelic.
The fluorescent spray. So at nighttime it would, uh, it would, you know, show up when you close the door. It just like, and I would put the hits of the week cause my dad would give me records. So I will put the hits of the week inside of the net. So whenever my friends would come over, they would be like, Oh, that that’s that.
Then I’ll be like, yeah, I’ll play the hit of the week. Oh, I was so corny. Oh my God. That’s so corny.
Dr. Christina Greer: I love a good memory. I love a good memory.
Leslie Jones: But that’s so corny and, but, but it’s, it’s like my dad would buy me instruments and he, he bought an organ once and only thing I [00:22:00] learned how to play was Silent Night.
So I would play Silent Night every time he, when he got ready to sell it, he’d go, Leslie, come out here and play Silent Night. And I would come out and put that little and then play Silent Night. He bought me a guitar and I sold it to my cousin. So at that point he was like, You don’t, you don’t wanna be a musician.
Huh? And I was like, nah. I mean, I just like music, you know what I’m saying? I didn’t even wanna be a DJ.
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. Well, I think, you know, before we go to break, I just, I do think that there’s something though about the, the timing and the melodic sort of cadence and rhythm of your comedy that does have sort of a, a rhythm to it.
Leslie Jones: Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: That hearkens back to, I think your foundation in the music that you talked about.
Leslie Jones: Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Christina Greer: Memoir–
Leslie Jones: Absolutely.
Dr. Christina Greer: With you and your dad.
Leslie Jones: Absolutely.
Dr. Christina Greer: We’re gonna take a quick break. I want to remind our listeners to like us on YouTube and subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. I’m talking with THE Leslie Jones, the author, Leslie Jones, we’ll be right back. You’re listening to The Blackest Questions.[00:23:00]
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Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, we’re back. You’re listening to The Blackest Questions. I’m with author, comedian, and actress, Leslie Jones. Leslie, are you ready for question number three?
Leslie Jones: Yes, I am.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. Question number three. This actor, comedian, and singer… Is one of only three men to be nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year for two different acting projects.
One was for Best Actor, the other was for Best Supporting Actor. Who is he?
Leslie Jones: You said actor, senior, singer…
Dr. Christina Greer: And comedian
Leslie Jones: And comedian. Ooh, [00:24:00] Jamie Foxx.
Dr. Christina Greer: That is correct.
Leslie Jones: Oh, and I almost said, I almost said Denzel Washington. I was like, Denzel can’t sing.
Dr. Christina Greer: No, and I don’t, I don’t know about Denzel’s standup either.
Um, I’m not, I’m not trying to diss Denzel and Mount Vernon, but I don’t know much about Denzel’s standup. Um, I don’t want, I don’t want to have a Mount Vernon– I liked it. That’s true. I don’t need no Mount Vernon smoke. I don’t. Cause Denzel, you know, a Fordham alum, I’m a professor at Fordham, I don’t, I don’t need that smoke.
Um, but Jamie was born in Terrell, Texas, playing piano and singing in his church choir, and was a star quarterback of his high school football team. When he was a teenager, his dream was to play for the Dallas Cowboys. And he landed his first Hollywood gig on the sketch comedy show, In Living Color, where most of us…
We’re first introduced to him. Since then, he’s had his own TV show. He starred in dozens of movies, most notably Ray, which won him an Oscar for Best Actor. He’s also had a successful musical career, releasing five albums and having two number one hit singles. So, Leslie, like so many comedians, You’ve worked at this for years before, you know, really making [00:25:00] it big and you got some really great advice from Jamie Foxx early on that you talk about in the book.
Leslie Jones: I think I was about 17, 18 and I left college to become a comedian and went up and my friend was getting me the spots. I got a spot where Jamie Foxx was going to be the headliner. At the time, you know, he wasn’t Jamie Foxx. He was just a really good comic that’s probably about to blow up. And, um, yeah, man, I bombed it.
When I watched him perform, it was just like, Oh, wow. I did not know that there was other comedians that can be as funny as Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. Like, Oh my God, this guy, this, the cadence that he’s doing, that’s what I want to do. Cause his cadence was, was exactly the same, like very real, very honest.
You knew he was talking about his life. Like it wasn’t like he was just telling jokes. So. Uh, honestly, I was with my home girl and I got my home girl to, you know, not seduce, but, you know, just kind of get the, the, the [00:26:00] promoter to, to be like intern, you know, cause the promoter was his friend. So we ended up at Fat Burgers.
And I remember this cause I think I flirted with him at first cause Jamie was fine. I think I flirted with him at first, but then I saw that he wasn’t really, he wasn’t really into that. Like I always tell him, I know I was part of Wanda. I’m probably, he was like, no, are you stupid? But. But I just remember him saying you are he was like how old are you and I think I had just turned 19. He was like you 19.
He was like 19? He was like you have no idea what you’re doing. He was like you don’t know shit. You don’t have nothing to talk about. He said all you had to talk about is your high school years, which nobody wants to hear about yet, because you don’t know how to tell those jokes. Even the little joke, you try and tell about your uncle.
You don’t even know your uncle. Cause if you knew your uncle, you’d be able to tell that joke better. And if you had been on stage a while, you will know how to tell that joke. He says, stop telling jokes and, and [00:27:00] go and live life. So he was like, you, you, you gotta go have something to talk about. So go live life.
Like go get fired, go get hired, go get your heart broke, go break some hearts. Like just go make mistakes. And, and yeah, that was 1987. And I, I, yep, I did exactly that and started back up in 1993.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, well listen Leslie, I know we gotta get you out of here, but we’re gonna play Black Lightning really quickly, okay?
It’s like, now this is, there’s no right or wrong answers, you just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind.
Leslie Jones: Oh my god.
Dr. Christina Greer: Ready?
Leslie Jones: Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, here we go. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Leslie Jones: Oh, gum chewing, mint gum chewing.
Dr. Christina Greer: Mmm. What’s your favorite dish to cook?
Leslie Jones: Ooh, uh, ooh, eggs.
Dr. Christina Greer: Give us one item on your bucket list.
Leslie Jones: Ooh, ooh, ooh, to play a villain.
Dr. Christina Greer: Ooh. Uno or spades?
Leslie Jones: Ooh, spades.
Dr. Christina Greer: Would you rather watch professional basketball or [00:28:00] college basketball?
Leslie Jones: College.
Dr. Christina Greer: Favorite thing to do in Los Angeles?
Leslie Jones: Well, I should say WNBA. Um, actually go to the WNBA games!
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, and give us a comedian we should keep our eye on.
Leslie Jones: Ooh, oh there’s so many.
Ooh, ah, uh, ooh, uh, ooh. And they’re coming to me and I’m like, ooh, uh, that person. Uh, ooh, um, um. Um, ooh, um, ooh, god, Eleanor, Eleanor, she’s going to be so mad at me. Eleanor Kerrigan, and it’s a white girl from Philly, but she’s funny, she’s funny as hell. I mean, really, and I know they’re going to be like, girl, you’re on a Black show.
I’m so sorry, it’s just like the names are not coming to me, and I’m looking right at them. To hear more, uh, Tony Baker, um, those are like, people are just like, really just. Okay, they don’t care. Well, sorry.
Dr. Christina Greer: No, that’s okay.
Leslie Jones: If I forgot you, I’ll think of something later [00:29:00] and I’m gonna be like,
Dr. Christina Greer: Well, you know what, when the episode comes out, you can tweet and you know, I’m always thinking about like Marina Franklin and Pat Brown.
Leslie Jones: Yes, Marina.
Dr. Christina Greer: You know–
Leslie Jones: Yama Mika, Yama Mika Sanders, Yama Mika, that’s who you need to watch out for. That’s who I’m saying right now. Yeah, and I know she’s gonna be, she’s gonna be so, Yamaneika, Yama Mika and she’s gonna be like, girl, you never say my name, right? But it’s Yamaneika Saunders .
Dr. Christina Greer: Yama Mika.
Leslie Jones: She is. So funny, so funny.
Dr. Christina Greer: Yeah, she’s great.
Aaron, Yamaneika, Marina, and Pat–
Leslie Jones: And, and, and Cookie Hull too. Sorry.
Dr. Christina Greer: Oh goodness. Okay. So thank you so much for playing along with us and for our listeners right now and pick up a copy of Leslie’s new memoir, Leslie F-ing Jones. Oh, Leslie, please promise you’ll come back and spend a little more time with us.
Leslie Jones: Yes. Yes. I hope I got, I got all my questions. Right. So
Dr. Christina Greer: Almost, and we’ll make sure Ernie Hudson knows that we love him.
Leslie Jones: Ernie, I’m so sorry. I just got an old moment.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. Alright. Thank you all. Um, and we’ll talk soon, Leslie. [00:30:00] I want to thank you all for listening to The Blackest Questions. This show is produced by Sasha Armstrong and Jeffrey Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our Director of Podcast.
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