Saturday Night Live (SNL) star Leslie Jones revealed that it took her over ten years to perfect her craft as a comedian during an interview with The Breakfast Club Nov. 9.
Jones, 56, grew up watching the greats like Richard Pryor and Jackie “Moms” Mabley bring laughter to households across the country with their hilarious standup sets, but it took the revered comedian time to craft her own unique style and delivery at the beginning of her career.
“I still was in that mode of like, well, I want to be like Eddie Murphy, I want to be like Whoopi Goldberg, I want to be like Richard Pryor, but what I didn’t understand is that they are who they are,” Jones told The Breakfast Club hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne da God.
“That’s the reason they do the comedy that they’re doing. I’m going to have to find out who I am.”
The Ghostbusters star performed her butt off, booking shows wherever she could get an opportunity to hone in on her craft.
Jones revealed that she ultimately “bombed” a big standup gig that she had opened for fellow comedian Jamie Foxx, but after the show, the 55-year-old actor gave her a few words of advice that helped to inform and shape her journey in the entertainment industry.
“When I talked to him, he was just like, ‘You’re young. You don’t really have anything to talk about. Go out and live. Go out and discover life,'” the comedienne recalled of her candid chat with Foxx off-stage.
“‘Get fired, get hired. Get your heart broken. Break some hearts. Just go do life so you can have something to talk about.’ You know, that’s what I did. I went out and lived. And he was right because, by the time I came back, I had shit to talk about.”
In 2014, Jones joined the cast of SNL as a staff writer and eventually became a member of the iconic sketch comedy show, according to NPR. The funny girl’s sass and crude humor have made fans laugh, especially when she’s at the helm of SNL’s popular “Weekend Update” segment.
Jones has parlayed her sketch comedy career into acting. In 2016, the Memphis native appeared in Ghostbusters alongside Dan Aykroyd and SNL alum Kristen Wigg. Things came full circle for the popular standup comic in 2021 when she was cast opposite her idol, Eddie Murphy, in Coming 2 America.
While reflecting on the sweat equity that she put into climbing the comedy ranks, Jones said that she gets pissed off when “new jacks” in the game complain about having to pay their dues in the industry.
“Do a billion spots,” Leslie advised during her appearance on The Breakfast Club.
“I have performed fucking everywhere, son. I have performed in living rooms. I performed in salons. I performed in motherf—king class — everywhere. If there was a mic, I was there. You motherf—kers who’ve only been doing it for two or three years. Don’t nobody give a f—k about what you’re talking about! F—k you and do the f—king work,” the comic added before she gave a few props to stars like Pretty Vee and Jess Hilarious for putting in the time and work to build their comedy careers.
“You need to go through the steps of becoming a real professional. The first three years is just you figuring out how to even stand on stage,” Jones said.
“Ten years is when you get tired of your set. Ten years is when you go, ‘Okay, I got their attention. Now, what do I want to say?’ And by that, you got at least 20,000 sets under your f—king belt. People got to know the 10-year rule.”
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