Leslie Jones, The Daily Show's first guest host, is back for a special episode to chat about her week behind the desk. Leslie sits down with host Roy Wood Jr, along with her co-host of The fckry Podcast, Lenny Marcus to discuss how SNL prepared her for this role, what advice Chris Rock gave her, why she wanted to tackle men’s mental health on the show, and the backstories she created for each of the Daily Show correspondents. Also, find out her thoughts on Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance, Ron DeSantis, and the Chinese spy balloon.
Original air date: February 21, 2023
Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the podcast that goes beyond the scenes of topics and segments that aired originally on The Daily Show. I'm your host, Roy Wood Jr. Very special episode today, and when I say special, first off, if you're watching the video of this, you can see we're and I knew multimillion dollar podcast facility right here in the heart of the Daily Show studios. I can tell you where we are, but then I'd have to kill you. Here's what this podcast is like. This is what you have to think of this podcast as this podcast is like you know, in school, you got your school teacher who give you the information that's the Daily Show. This podcast is the substitute teacher who comes in and go yo, y'all, ain't gotta do none of that shit. Today was talking about today we willing into TV and we about to watch Faces of Death and a couple of R rated movies. And I don't know if that analogy completely connects. Joining me today though a two wonderful, wonderful guest. First up, he is one of the co hosts of the Fuckery Podcast. I don't know if I'm supposed to add that you in there, because I know that y'all like for search engine optimization. You can't spell fuckery all the way out, so the career.
It's still pronounced like that.
The no, no fuckery. Yes. Uh. He is acclaimed stand up comedian and writer Lenny Marcus, Lenny, how.
You doing, Thanks Roy, Thanks for having me.
We took out the valves for the kids, but we we still pronounce it.
Fair for the kids. For the kid and that voice you hear is a wonderful, wonderful stand up comedian or do we just do comedian and snl alum, But more importantly for the sake of this podcast, she was the first guest host of the Daily Show when we came back after Trevor Noah's departure and uh, I don't know it, also as a co host of The Fuckery Podcast Leslie Jones.
Nice, nice see. I used to hate comedian. Now I actually like it.
Why, I don't know. I think you earn it.
Oh that's interesting.
You're in comedian or you're in comedian comedian.
Yeah, it's like a little acoustic crown on top.
Because you can just say you're a comic. You know what I'm saying, you know, Yeah, but comedian comedian is when you.
Call me a penny, ask for now and call me a penity.
Oh you know what, But I'm okay. What I'm going to do is violently attack you first, and then I'm.
Gonna say all that and that chemistry that you see between these two right now, that is what they have been for years. These two are also what do I call, y'all? Is it writing partners? Is it producing partners? Because you do so many projects together and I know that there's a lot of what Leslie touches that Lenny Marcus's fingerprints are on, and Les I know it's vice versa so like. Because I don't know if it's a right duo, I don't know what the hell y'all are. All I know is that when you two it together, it is magic. And when you came into this whole situation, well, first off, give us a little bit of the backstory last of how you and Lenny met, because it's important that people understand your dynamic and then how that dynamic came into the Daily Show. Because I'm telling y'all, you two of some shit wein't never had in this building. I selling that that makes me emotional. I'm gonna be honest. That makes me a little emotional inside.
You know.
I always I always had a vision of my career because that's you know, virgo is just like that. I always knew what type of steps I wanted to take, and when I got good enough, I was like, if I get a writer, I want to be like one of those writing teams that's like you know that, like when we go down in time, they be like, you know, these two people wrote together and they created this, this, this and this, and I had that idea in my mind. And when you really try to force an idea, you end up either force it or either you think. And you have to go through what it takes to actually get that type of partnerships. Like I've had a lot of people that I've wrote with and it didn't work out or it just it They wasn't even secure, it just didn't it just didn't vibe. And to find Lenny, and it's so crazy that everything that I used to fantasize about, I used to fantasize having this writing partner and we would just be like writing everything together, doing everything together, doing all the jokes together, write movies and stuff and and do and it's like to hear you say that, it just it's like, oh shit, Like the fucking dream. People need to understand the dream that you have. Don't go through the fucking path that you think is gonna go through. It's like a circuit. It's like you make the wish and then it goes out there and finds its path to you. So it could be anything. It could happen any type of way. Me and Lenny met at the cellar. I came in there one night, New York City, Yeah, comedy seller. I think I came in there one night. He was sitting at the table and I I think people were This is how I remember, but Lenny's gonna tell, probably because Lenny doesn't smoke weed.
But this is what this is.
The fragments of the story that I remember is that he was sitting there and they was ragging him about him marrying his girl.
And I was like, oh, what is your girl?
Like comedians will attack you for being in love. Yeah, well they was just ragging him.
They was ragging him and saying, yo, you should marry her, like she's hot and woo woo. And I think he showed me a picture and I was like oh yeah, motherfucker you stupid like Mary or whatever, right, And then I think I left a year, came back the next year they had gotten married. I performed and Lenny came down and gave me some notes. He was like, Yo, you know these are some good you know tags, I got some tags to your jokes. And I was like, oh yeah, let's go around the corner and do them. And he was like like right now, and I was like, yeah, fuck that, let's go like and we went around and I was like, like, I think it was like shit, maybe like at least seven of them fucking hit. I think it was like all of them him. I was like, oh shit, this dude, this dude like and then I saw his set and I was like, oh fuck, this motherfucker's hilarious. And then we went to a Yankee game and I'm telling you, Roy, I don't fun I didn't fuck with baseball before Lenny. We sat there at that and Lenny made me love baseball. And I'm telling you, I and me and my assistant was laughing like NonStop, like it was so like he was saying funny shit that was just like so grown it grown jokes, like I've hung around people before.
You know what I'm saying.
I've hung around people before and they'd be silly and you go, I gotta laugh at that goofy shit, you know, but Lenny was grown.
So that's And for the people who don't understand comedy, Lenny, Yeah, what you did that night at the comedy Seller. Yeah, it's fucking insane. Yes, you could have got cussed the hell out because just so, just so I could describe you to the people we all know, you know, Leslie Jones six three six fourist Lenny looks how he sounds fifty.
Lenny's taller than me.
But you know what was so crazy Roy is that he wrote the jokes down so precisely, And I was like, this motherfucker is a nerd too, and it's like fucking love nerds.
See, and that's connected to the day we Okay, so, Lenny, how much of that? How much of Listener's story?
The the It might be a little out of order, but it's very It's close enough, and I'll take it. And because when she tells it every time, it kind of changes, like the events change every time and the daughter change. Yeah, yeah, but it's it's pretty close. And yeah, she took me to this Yankee game, and I you know this, I don't.
I don't.
You don't want to give lines to somebody coming off stage right, you know that they're not in the space.
Hears how to do your job better. Twenty year veteran.
Yeah, I got to know that person really well. But she took me to this Yankee game. I don't think you know those seats right, they're right behind home play Lord Michael seats.
All right?
Yeah, seriously, that's you know how she says the circuit comes to you and the whole thing, that whole mess which she was talking about circuitry and spirituality.
No, I that's not me.
I'm mess.
I was just like, one day, I'm gonna sit in those fucking seats. And she's like, hey, you want to go to the game. I was like, I know those seats and it's happening right in real time.
So you manifested the seats. She manifested the UN's right.
Is that correct? So I manifested the seat.
So I get to the seats, I am A tear is like rolling down my eye and I'm like, how do I how do I pay this woman back for this? And the only way I could think of, you know what, I'll stick my head in, I'll watch the set, and if I have anything to say, you know, maybe I'll just say hi, you know, and I go and watch the set.
I'm like, I think I can. I think she's got a.
Couple a lot of stuff here, and so I started taking out a pen and started writing stuff real quick. I wrote like ten things down. She comes off and I'm waiting for the punch in the face roy I said. I literally had to say hey, I know it's gonna say hey good. She's like, hey, good to see I go. Do you want a couple of lines maybe? And she's like, I was waiting for get the fuck out of my face. No, she goes yeah. I'm like really, She goes, yeah.
You all meet, you go to the baseball games. You have this wonderful journey over the next seven eight years of just making dope ass content right when you get the call for the Daily Show and Lenny being the wordsmith, and I would say, less, you are probably a little more jazz comedically, and I don't say that as an oh no, you're very much. You have an idea, you play around with it, but in the TV. You have the constraints of time. Now you also know what you want to say, but you're trying to figure out the funniest way to say. What was your expectations, what was your approach? What was you all's plans? Because you're also you also have the burden of being the first mother, the first person to guess host it me, the first person to come back to kick down the doors, to re establish this brand. This is the twenty five year brand.
Well, first of all, First of all, Lenny.
The first time Lenny saw me on the road, Roy, I did an hour and twenty minutes. You know how black comics do, right, And I really thought I was the shit. I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna come off stage and Lenny's gonna be like, oh wow, I didn't know that you was walking Messiah.
I literally you know, you know, you know that's how cocky.
I was like, Oh yeah, he's gonna be like, I don't know why you you hell hell.
Comedian, shit, hell you. They shouldn't make a statue on me.
So I come off stage and I'm sweating and shit just knowing I ripped, and Lenny was like, what the fuck was that? He was like, why the fuck you ain't get off stage at fifty eight minutes? What the fuck nobody wants to see you? After fifty eight minutes he was like, you said, motherfucker like seventy two?
What the fuck?
Like he went off on me, like off on me. So it was like, well, that's what it felt like. I was laughing because I was laughing. I was like, they laugh ain't tell I was like, I was like this motherfucker like, no, this motherfucker ain't telling me.
I know the fuck I've been doing comedy.
Woo wah woo.
But see what I what one thing that I will admit about myself that I've always admitted to people is that I am a.
Wild bucking horse.
Like I'm not afraid to kick the fucking franch thing down and run in the field. I'm not afraid to buck off a motherfucker that I don't want on me. I will jump feet first from the building. That's who the fuck I am, you know. So, Lenny is the guy who is the lion Tamer. He's that's what I call him. I call him the lion Tamer. He knows what I am, and then he'll put it down and go stick to this like this is, this is the scripts and that.
And that's an important dynamic because the thing about the Daily Show is that the structure of the show. We also don't have a lot of time. The morning meetings, that nine, rehearsals at three, you don't have a lot of time. So you have to figure out very stickily how you want to do stuff. So Lenny, when you come into the building, yeah, and I feel like you have having that more of a sense of structure. But you also don't want to lose. We don't want to lose what Leslie does. Right, What did you anticipate coming into this, Like what did what did you heard about the show? What did you hear about that?
Well?
I know the show.
It's a brilliant show. I know I've watched it when John did it. You could tell how funny the writing staff is.
They get it.
And my expectations were pretty high. And I was like, can we meet your level of expectations because you know, she's she doesn't do a lot of prompt to work. There's a lot of prompt to work in that she doesn't do, you know, like we've worked with other production companies before that we didn't like. So anytime you go into a new arena, there's so much to happen within, you know, getting to know people and working with people, and then you know she's got to do Like with the correspondence, you got to do like a two person thing here. So there was a lot coming in. I was like, wow, there's a lot of bells and whistles are you know? But with her there's always two things that play.
One is she's.
Gonna everything she's bringing. She is bringing way more than you. A bomb is coming in. You guys don't even know that this explosion is about to go off. When I come in, I'm thinking, okay, just I have to let her do that thing, let her explode with the talent, and let me just figure out how to make it all work around her.
That's that's what that staff did, and you know SNL. Of course, my experience doing the updates with SNL was very helpful as being behind yeah, being behind this desk, and he's right, we didn't have prompters.
We had que cards.
So whenever you do the prompter, you gotta get that person on the same rhythm as you. And I always feel stupid when I read out loud, So I always try to memorize a lot of stuff. So I try to tell them not to change too much. But I try to memorize a lot because I don't like to look like I'm reading and it's just it's it was a lot of shit. It was a lot of shit. But I'm gonna tell you that fucking, that fucking writing staff, that crew, it's so much different than any thing I've ever experienced. It was the first time I was able to come in and actually be talented. I didn't have to write, I didn't have to direct, I didn't have to point, I didn't have to do none of that shit.
You did, right, And we wrote for yourself.
Well, you know we could, they can, We could lay it out for and then she'll Leslie Fayett, you know what I mean?
How were like, Can I ask to a degree, how your preparation different for SNL versus the Daily Show?
Oh okay, well y'all, y'all both have that schedule. But what I would say for the Daily.
Show is, wel everybody I know from SNL they be texting me at three thirty in the morning the week, not talking about hit it home.
I'm like bench I've been in the bit.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's I'll say, I'm saying for the day of show, it's like, oh kada.
Your day start to like three thirty and alfa.
Yeah, and then the S and L is six days a week, six days a week. It's six days a motherfucker week. We only get Sunday off. And they give you the thing of like mental like, you need to forget last week. It don't matter what the fuck happened to you, you need to forget last week. And it's it's a brutal hard it's a hard like I didn't feel that at the Daily Show. I didn't feel like it was such a hard schedule to where I'm just like, okay, I'm gonna die, like I'm gonna die like we was home every night by eight.
Yeah, it was.
It's very efficient here, very I don't even know if you guys appreciate how efficient, cause I don't think y'all.
Even understand how efficient y'all are.
Times they waste resources, nobody knows what's up. Yeah, but here everybody seems to know every you know, it is a tight ship.
I would say the experience at the desk and learning how to cut jokes and stuff. I think SNL got me prepared a little bit for the Daily Show for that because it was so easy, Like I think, I think Jim was like so surprised every time she would come up and go, okay, so we're gonna cut this and then we're gonna put this, and I was like, yeah, that sounds about right, and she would be like, oh, oh okay.
So yeah, because people get attached to joke, I think it's funny.
And we've been there, Joe Roy, We've been understand. I've had jokes that that people be like. I'll be like, I'm retiring this joke. It's like what you're gonna put it in a glass thing, like on top of your fucking on your wall or some shit like you know, jokes be like baby stuffs. When I first started essen ol neighbors cutting them jokes, I was like, you're killing me. But then you start loving the cut. The cut just like clean.
Jokes are not your children. There your step children. You can gotta love them but a little while, and then but for a little while, and.
They're not even your stepchildren.
They just kind of like you, Like you said the substitute teacher, These motherfuckers tomorrow.
You don't really want to.
You guys also write. I mean the writing here is so strong. Yeah, if you cut something, it's like, great, you already have ten killers beforehand.
And y'all wrote for me like y'all wrote for me, like not at me.
Okay. So then to that point, the topics that were thrown at you during your week you came on the same week of the morning Luther King dick statue in Boston from a certain angler looked like a dick of an actual money. Now it looks like he's going to Steven A. Smith versus Rihanna. George Santos was in the mix. What did you all discuss the two of you internally in terms of what you wanted to say specifically, because the show is giving you a little bit of range of going, Okay, this is your chance to say whatever you want to say to America. But then and what did you want to say specifically? And also was there any top of you like I can't get into that right now.
We go, well, like Martin Luther King when it came up on the board and we went through it, and I go, that is in I don't care what happens in the other room. Trust me, She's gonna love this story. That's why the final sabag trust me. And then she takes one look at her She's like, yep, you know, so I kind of know what she's gonna like. I can get us in the I'll get us in the stadium and very close to the seats, you know, I get us in seat and then she'll take it and say, yeah, I like that one. And so it's way it's easier for you guys if I just do that and she can sleep.
Broy whenever I'm doing stuff like that, which has been like the nemesis of the I don't know the core of what I've been trying to do on stage and everywhere with my comedy.
I want.
I want to actually say what needs to be said to you, but still make you laugh about it. Does that make sense? Like, like this is some horrible shit, Like our job as comedians is to make you laugh, you know what I'm saying, But it's also to be very real and honest, Like to take that real and honest shit and really make it funny. You know, I really like, how can I make how can I explain it? Like whenever I talk about somebody in the audience, I try to make them laugh harder than everybody else. Like I'll be talking about them, but I'll be making them laugh at themselves harder than everybody else. The only time that I hit a person so hard is if they're doing some fucked up shit like or you know, calckling me or whatever. But most of the time, I'll start hard on you and by the end of it, you'll love me because I've made you laugh about yourself and you take a joke.
Now, you take a joke to work and you go, man the comedian last night, he really got me.
He said that, And I so do that, doesn't I tell you those comics that you know what I mean, Like, he's part of them, like the I I like brutal ass whoopings, but I like them to be ass whoopings that make sense.
It's part of her talent for sure.
That's that's God given in some ways, like what she's saying, and a lot of comics don't figure that out, and she she does it in a really fun way a lot of the times. But we also she definitely keeps her ear to the ground, you know, to the ground of issues that happened in the world. So we've been trying to write this bit for her interact about men's mental health. And so we've been talking about this a lot on the podcast whatever. And when we came in here, they're like, Hey, is there any long piece you want to do? And immediately she's like, I always I want to talk address men's mental health. And because that doesn't get addressed so little topic topics like that, like just whatever we're going through in our lives in that specific time, it bugs her for weeks, you know, at months, and mean is like, yeah, they should get help. I'm done, you know, but she's will stick to this. And then when we come in and we get it, and we have this huge, amazing, brilliant writing staff that will help her make what she just said. It's she's not done in a mean way. It's done in a helpful way and a really funny way. And the two of us were just blown away with, Yeah, this is what we've dreamed of for her. You know, our writing staff that's really bright and can actually play the play tennis with her, hit the ball back over the net. You know, other writing stuffs that we've worked with or anything. They don't they have, They wouldn't have the first idea what to do. And everybody here was psyched when she said that.
They're like, yes, Well, after the break, I want to talk a little bit about you, Thurston over Morre's chestnut ass and.
Let's talk it.
We got to talk a little bit about you and guests. We're gonna talk a little bit more about Leslie Jones, the first guest host on The Daily Show to start twenty twenty three. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We are back Lenny Marcus and Leslie Jones of the Fuckery Podcast and also part of the team. You're now in Daily Show history. You're now part of the IMDb Patie, do we technically call you the first black woman to host a daily show? I feel like you're black history now. I feel like you get a stamp.
Oh shit, I even am I am.
I the first.
I am trying to think of anyone, even in a guest host capacity, and unless Jessica Williams did it there, I I can't think of another person.
Wow, I'm the first to do some shit.
Yeah, we're gonna put that into history books. In Ron de Santas to take it out.
Let's talk a lot.
About the guests.
Yep.
Now you had Charlemagne, God got Morris chestnuts, you had Alexis McGill Johnson, Presidentcy of playing parenthood. When it came to preparing for these conversations like planned parenthood, that's not that's not a light conversation. You can make it funny, but the issues that they're addressing with women's reproductive rights is a very serious issue. Did you all because like Charlotte Mayne, not More's chestnut. We already know what it is.
You was just chocolate.
Trying to see it in persons was in his face.
We're gonna edit that out because.
I'm sorry, Melore Morse Justn's wife.
No, that's like having that's like having a chocolate cake on account and going people don't like that cake.
What was the what was the balance of serious to silly that you all that you don't leslie that you and Lenny sat down and decided on with your approach to the interviews, Because I find interviewing to be to me, I don't think it's anything that everyone can do, but I think that an interview is only as good as the curiosities of.
The host.
Are your hall our citing your hall one on one.
That's the way you interview somebody, You interview them like everybody at home is thinking the same question.
Everybody at home. Everybody at home.
It's like, you know, you make you make those questions like that's what I would have asked him, That's what I would have asked, you know what I'm saying. Like and then two, having like some actual interest in what's going on, like you know, you know, Morris Chestnuts been around forever son like and I don't think nobody really ever giving him flowers like he should get.
Does that make sense?
Like he's been three years, still working, still working hard, always on the show, and always looking good. So I just and I don't think people give enough credit to beautiful black men like that.
I don't think that. I just don't think they get a lot of credit.
But also positive scandal right yes.
Yes, yes, And then what he did for that that the best man, that role that he played, It's just it's great. I just I thought that that needed to be I wanted that to be my first show on show for the planned parenthood line will tell you it's another subject that I'm always talking about I'm always talking about planned parenthood because people don't people don't understand women in their bodies. You men, you will never fucking understand. This is a whole factory going on over here. We understand that you got a dick and you got seemen and all that bullshit to deal with, but we got a literal baby making machine inside of us, like we and and those things. If they're not if they stink, you're not around for that. You just around to take our shit away instead of being around to help us clean up the stadium. Do you get what I'm saying, Like I don't understand? Yeah, yeah, like like like like I give this example. All the time, truck Dry come to the factory, they dropped the shit off, and they get the fuck out the factory. They don't stay and try to run the factory. No, they don't. They get the fuck out. They go to the next factory.
With elect Republicans.
Basically, Okay, you know, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, that's right, He's right, That's exactly what you're trying to say.
What I've been finding to Roy is such obviousness that I didn't you know, I am smart and grown. I didn't know a lot of people ain't smart and grown. Like I didn't know that men didn't know that you can go to planned parenthood. Do you know how many men didn't know that they were allowed to go to planned parenthood and that it's four men. So that was the real angle I wanted to take, because that was like, if y'all know it's for y'all too, maybe y'all wouldn't be so quick to fucking X out eye shit.
You know what I'm saying. It was very personal.
We've talked about this, she had mentioned somewhere along the line, like we know people don't even know It's like people think it's an abortion, that's it. Yeah, and and they don't even know the services. So literally, the first question I was asking, and I have it on my paper, is what other services do you provide?
And like, let's ask that first.
Let's get that.
I mean, let's say the obvious things, like people people, we think that everybody know everything. A lot of people don't know shit like these are the so a lot of planned parenthoods don't even give abortions, and and the ones that that do give abortions, they also give vasectomies. They also do other medical ship like the one that's in fucking Brooklyn in New York. Brooklyn was my mother fucking jam like I could go there when I was actually sick, sick, like that was a hospital that planned parenthood. There is fucking incredible. So it's it's like people don't know that ship.
And she's had experience with this, so now.
And my will, I'm leaving them in my trust. That's how much I think as far.
As the guests go, that's a slam dunk.
And then and then Charlemagne was he's been talking about mental health, like we have a guy and he was terrific.
Me and me and need therapy.
I don't give a fuck, And me and Lenny talking about Lenny always rose his eyes when I say this, you do you fucking roll your eyes? Like when when? When when guys go into a fucking appointment. And I'm saying this to male doctors to use for you to say to your male patients. One of your questions, like when you said this to Lenny, one of your questions should be, hey, how are you doing mentally? Yeah, hey, how are you feeling mentally? Do you get what I'm saying, I mean, that's nothing wrong with that, like because I just don't care. Yeah, but they supposed to. And that's the fucking problem. They're supposed to because if a woman came into that doctor, that same doctor and acting up, they would be like, how is your mental?
Do you get what I'm saying? No, that's real fucking talk, though, Roy, why did that piece? Was? I?
Honestly, and I tell Lenny this all the time, I always look on the other side of the joke, you know, I always look on the other side of shit like me literally are fucking going through it like y'all motherfuckers are going through it. And honestly, I don't think that you have been given the permission to get help for that. Whenever I say to Lenny or when I say to another man, the first thing men think is like, I'm not crazy. No, this has nothing to do with you being crazy. This has to do with you being able to talk about what the fuck is going on with you, just like for a woman. You know, I really don't think men understand that women do understand what you motherfuckers are going through like you are going through it. Like just to be put into this story, that we have of the prince and the damsel in distress, and then you're supposed to save the women, and then you're supposed to be the manor house and you're supposed to Oh, you're supposed.
To be so god damn masculent.
That's a fucking lot without the dance, But.
Do you give what the fuck? I'm see see you can't even dance, But do you get.
What I'm saying?
Like, I honestly feel like if we start putting that out there more that I think that dudes would would would be.
Like, yeah, maybe I need to go, Maybe I need to go take care of that.
But he was great.
That was the point, Yeah, Charlamagne.
No, And Charlemagne was surprisingly great because I thought that he was going to be I thought he was I thought he was going to be mean.
I really did thought it was going to be mean. I don't know why I met him. I thought you've done, but I had not.
I think I maybe met him in other places, but I always see those clips and I'd be like, oh, I don't want to argue with Charlamagne because I don't want that to happen. I thought that was going to be like that, but he was actually fucking awesome.
To me, Breakfast Club Charlemagne is different from any other show Charlemagne, especially if you're talking about mental health, which he didn wrote two books on the ship, so that's his that's his ministry.
So I loved you.
So from the conversations you've with the guests, let's switch over to the conversations you had with the correspondent. Now setting up those chats because now you're dealing with different personalities in a way.
Sorry, Roy, y'all call correspondent.
Yes, because in the real news world the.
Leader was called co stars.
No, that's like other shows.
You're on a fake nude show.
Reporter. You act like I'm watching you watch.
The dude, the way you be yelling at MSNBC. I didn't know that they was called correspondence. I just send people up on the screen. You never read the ship at the bottom. When they always say they always say minister.
Faara con or.
Represented Executive Director CEO of the couestion.
They don't say corresponding. Okay, So now I know correspondent.
So in pairing the desk chats, to me, how were you trying to figure out the dynamic of how Leslie would navigate thosecause for the people who don't know, you know, it's it's the fake live hit of the reporter out on the location.
This was important to me personally.
I don't know if I less and I kind of went through, but I definitely had an idea coming in what I wanted Leslie to have relationships. She knows you for years. I know you for years. Right, we don't know who Desi. But what if we did know them? What if Leslie has been doing this? Like what if she had another level of this where she had.
A relationship and and I helped him with this too.
Yes she did help me as.
The black woman listen listen, but it's always I always like to make up a whole story of what the fuck is going on, like with me and the person. So with Desi, I was just like, that's the sist. Let that bitch go. Like I was just because they had us going back and forth, and I was like, absolutely not, let me come in say what I need to do, and then let Desi do her thing, because I want the sister to have the dance. Bam, there it is right the first don't say. And then with Deasi, I really just wanted to treat her like this little silly white girl that's my friend that I really want to help. This white girl wants I want to help you so much because you really are in trouble.
We have that. That was his idea, that.
Was, we have a friend that we did this on supermarkets. Yeah, and she's and Desi is very similar. So I was like trying and we couldn't do it in that short of time. But I'm like, Leslie, what if you could actually try and help her?
Now?
With with with Costa, Costa was like I wanted opposite Colin. I knew because the first thing that people do is go, oh, you're gonna be in love with the white dude. No, I want this to be a hate but I don't want it to be because we fucked around. I wanted to be because he fucked one of my homegirls and then me knowing Costa and me knowing Costa and knowing how like arrogant, Like not arrogant, He's not arrogant, but he's just like his comedy presence looking my Costa like you can y'all go back to the l A Club. I feel like, yeah, I want to treat him, but I want, but I want it to be not to where we hate Costa.
I want Costa to.
Have a rope up, Like no, the bitch he was fucking with was crazy too, So like why is Costa the way he is because he's fucked with bitches like this?
Does that make sense?
So like it's a whole story and we're friends, like because it's like I wouldn't be mad of him at him if we weren't friends.
Let's just talk about the eggs, okay, Because as I was saying, the shortage is severe, but if you look closely, you'll find that it's not all it's cracked up to be.
You so corny, Costa. You know she was gonna break up with you because you were a corny mother, right.
You know that?
Right?
Look, Look, I'm trying to be a good sport here.
I came all the way out here to this farm that you sent me to.
I got feathers all over my suit. It stinks, you know what. You know what I tell you what stinks. My girl had to go to therapy after you.
Yeah, because she has multiple personality disorder.
Yeah, that's what we loved about her. She's like ten friends in.
One after the break, I want to bring it home. I want to talk a little bit about mentorship and what advice you got from people outside of The Daily Show, about your journey into guest hosting The Daily Show. Round and third and headed for Home with Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We are bringing it to a close. Here a wonderful conversation with the first guest host of twenty twenty three on the New Daily Show, Leslie Jones and partner. That's my NP your voice, But I like.
The whole introduction the first you have.
A great ease behind the microphone for sure.
You know just this young woman is. I'm gonna talk a little bit with Leslie Jones about her struggles and her time in the ghetto.
Man, you gotta tell them when you when we was in Alabama and you took me to this comedy that was That was one of the one times when I was like, thank God, I am a comic, like and I'm not scared to do this, like you.
Know what I'm saying. Seven Lounge in fair Field, Alabama. So Lenny, for whatever reason, Leslie is in Birmingham when Christmas.
Ain't Kat lived there.
I ain't know she had no times to Birmingham. And this is how much of a comedian Leslie is on some fearless I don't care where I perform anytime, any place. She just wanted to go, Hey, let's just go hang is there a mike. I'm like, Leslie, this is Birmingham on Christmas Eve. There is no comedy club open. But it just so happened to be one hood spot over in Fairfield and it's literally there's a shopping plaza and you can google earth this ship some Aaron aronoff drive in front of the old pizza hut. There was a spot called the Seven Lounge. It was the only open spot within that shopping plaza. Of every other store is out of business. Seven Lounge holding up Lyne out the door on Christian full of black people and up we're just going to watch stand up. And then one of them come up to Leslie, Hey, you want to go home? Bless the people with a little bit of time will be honor the head. You know, she's not trying to perform, but you know the comedian and you yeah, let me gone up there. She goes on stage, and it was raining the whole night, and it's fucking leaking is leaking on stage, and people are breaking buckets up of what she's mid joke, and.
I'm tearing these motherfuckers up too.
She roasted the rum. She didn't even do a joke. She just went up there and said this shit raggedy good night, yo, and loved it.
Yo. Let me tell you, the one thing that I have learned about this game is that I think I might be a little crazy, especially when it comes to the mic. I remember going to Sam Bernard Dinner or I had a gig in Sam Bernard Dinner and we got there and that nobody showed up. So the man paid me, but he was like, we ain't gonna have no show man. I got in the car. I was like, yo, let's drive around. Let's find somewhere to fucking go up. We found this karaoke club. I went up to the bar. I gave a lady fifty dollars.
I said, listen.
I was like, let me have some time. She was like, we don't do comments like we're doing karaoka. I was like, let me do some time. If I'm not funny, you can have this fifty dollars right, Yo, went up and I fucking When I say, the dude that was with me, he was like, my balls went inside of me. Was like you you have taken He was like, I have no balls now. He was like what you just said. I went up, grabbed a mic and when I say, ripped that fucking club in half.
I went back to the bar.
That bitch gave me fifty and gave me fifty more dollars and then bought us all drinks. She was like, anytime you ever want to go up, I was like, you got to be And if I ever had a comedy contest, that would be one of the fucking things is that I would drop you in Arizona.
Go get a set, show up, and go up. Find some create a microphon.
Because if you really do, if you're really about your shit, you'll do your shit. I have performed on the street. I have performed in the hallway. I have performed in barbershops, beauty shops. I have performed in churches. I have performed in halls. I have performed in actual hallways.
I have performed son So how does that translate then into the hosting? Like what are the skill sets Lenny and Leslie that like from stand up that roll naturally into being in that chair because there's a lot of the aspects of stand up you cannot use, yep, your batman without the tool belt to a degree low key yeah, when you're in the chair, So what tools from stand up kind of tree.
I think the timing translates immediately. You know, she has a great ear for it, you know time. And also she plays off the crowd well, you know when you cut back from one of those packages and it's ridiculous.
Just her face. She's so expressive with her face, so you can get a laugh. You can get a laugh off your face. You can get a laugh off just waiting.
Yeah, because it's not without the tool bet thuh roy if you got your face, like when I first started, I would do an hour of mirror time. I just like it's some Lucille ball shit. Watch Lucille Ball, Watch Caraburnette. You know exactly what joke they're telling without them even talking. Caraburnette could literally have you hollering for fifteen minutes and not say a motherfucking word. That's face. That's face. And then plus two like again, the world is in an obviousness. Now, this is what I told my friend the other day. I say, I feel like we're in the matrix and they haven't updated us because the same stuff keeps rolling it around and it doesn't seem like people are not understanding that this is the same thing.
The thing that I will say about that night at the Seven Lounge, like it was a hood spot, it was a very it was. It was ghetto as hell, but everybody who was there came to laugh and they laughed. Every comedian that was there was appreciative. And then I'd be damned if Leslie Jones did not stand out on that sidewalk on a rainy Birmingham night and chop it up with them comedians for an hour. Because comedians, and this is me being a comic from Birmingham, we don't get access to comedians like you at the level that you were, because this is this is peak SNL at this point. We don't get access to comics like you at that level where you.
Are in the game.
You not even invite you can't even get backstage at the comedy club in Birmingham to talk to somebody that's on your level. So that level of mentorship and just get the community. I mean is lest comics still talk about it to this day. They still talk about that Christmas Eve at seven Lounge. So when it was time for you to get it vice for this show, and I know Chris Rock has kind of popped in and out, like I don't know what relationship you and Chris Rock have on some friendship shit, but I know professionally he's always been somebody that's been a fan of your craft. Was there anybody you talked to outside of the Daily Show that helped you to prepare for what would happen once you were in the chair?
Well, you know, I did talk to Chris.
Chris was one of the first people that I was like, how do I And he was like, he was like, this is literally what he said.
He was like, he just laughed.
He goes, I never worry about you, dude, Like, I never worry about you. He was like, just be yourself, don't try to be John, don't try to be Trevor. Just be who you are. He was like, it's you'll be fine. He was like, I don't worry about you. And when you hear that, it just puts you. It's like, how can I put this, Lauren could do that to me really good too.
Lauren was good at that.
Like I love coaches, I love coach I love coach talk. When I when I did my first update, when I did my first update, man, I ripped that fucking that that dress show. Oh homie, you think the fucking live was the dress is always better than the live to meet the dress.
Rehearsal. Oh my god, I did that dress.
That ship just I'm talking about like fucking rattling motherfuckers was running through the building like, oh fuck, who is this bitch? Who is this bitch? Who is this bitch? Lauren called me in his office. He called me in his office because he knew that my fucking head son. I was like, I didn't came in. I didn't found my mother fucking spot.
Bitches.
You motherfuckers can't tell me ship right. He called me in that office and he was like, I'm so glad that you did good during a dress. Now do that ship live. Get the fuck out, I tell you something. Let me tell you something. I went in the hallway and I can't. It almost felt like I had on a uniform because I was.
Like, all right, coach, let's fucking good. This through the one on Live son.
Let's go mother fucked like it was like you had just let me fucking like that's so I like like when he said that, it was just like you're my star player, go play like that's that's that's gets me repped up, you know what I'm saying. And Lenny's good at it, toude. Lenny's always just like just do what you do, boss.
Yeah.
I mean I'll give her at the table like between the things, like she's asking me what can I do? And like just sometimes very little tweaks or you know whatever. But I'm not the Bobby Knight school of yelling at people.
Lenny goes too yelly. I like that you're yelling. You're yelling too much. Bring it down, do this? Hey, Like I that's that's the ship I like to Okay.
But then how did you How were you able to be in a place where you could accept criticism, Oh a critique, Accept critique now, Christmas, because that's a hard thing as a comedian because for twenty the first twenty years and your shit, it's just you. You are your writer, you are your editor. No one can tell you done because my jokes and my instincts got me to this point and then here come this throwny dude that the comedy seller with a slice of pizza in his hands of it.
Nah, it's not like that, honestly, honestly, you if you're real comic. And I'd say this to everybody that does this this craft and even the old heads or whatever. If you're real comic and you really love this craft, I mean, you do this craft like I would do this craft even if they weren't paying me roy if they I would do if it came down to the world and I'd be the world comic like not getting me, I would fucking do it because that's how much I love comedy. And if you really love doing it, you always want to get better. So yeah, after twenty years, I was like, all right, I didn't. I didn't wrote the joke. Everyone which way I can write it? Like like, I'm not I make myself laugh, but shit, I want to make myself. I would see other comics and I would see the direction that they're going, and I go, see, I'm not there yet. That's why I'm not. So I need someone else other than me to come in.
Now.
It wasn't about me not picking another black female or another and I'm this is no.
I don't want no shade on black comics.
But I do believe that we all kind of think of light because I would get tags from them and they would be the same tags that I would have come up with. So when you have someone, and this is why I tell black comics all the time, you need to do white clubs. Go do the mainstream clubs because you're you're different type of comic. You're gonna give different tags to these white comics. These white comics gonna give different tags to you. They're gonna give you different branches. So Lenny's a whole different person outside of my bubble that's gonna show me something that I'm not even seeing. So that might be even way funnier, like oh shit, that's how you take it to the next level. So the way that I get to being able to take a critique is that because I want to be so motherfucking good, and you cannot do that by yourself, Jesus, Until people understand to reach out to the motherfuckers that are gonna help you, Until you make a truit, you can't. There's no eye in making it well, there is two eyes, but there's no eye in success. I should say that you can't do that shit by yourself. I know you think you can, but you won't be the best like I would. I don't even want to say this, but whenever I see certain people and they post going I look what I did, woo woo woo woo, whooping, and like, okay, well who helped you do that? Like y'all like make it. I can't explain it. It's just like we need to learn how to grow, and the only way to learn how to grow is to actually depend on someone else that can help you.
Yeah.
Perfect, But also she what she's saying now is so rare. You know this, like stand up com comedians very lonely people not lonely.
But they like to work alone. You're your own writer, director, producer, everything.
And I struggle with that.
To help to get help, trusting YEA, trusting you for sure.
Rodney Perry.
Rodney Perry would give me tags and I would get mad at him, like because because he would be like, yeah that tag Burke, Fuck you nigger, I thought of it. You know what I'm saying, Like, you go through that stage, but then you get to the stage of like, yeah, I want to see something else other than this joke to.
Go outside you. Most of the time, you got to get something for somebody you respect. You know what I mean.
If somebody says something to you, if Chris Rock wants to give you a line, you're gonna try that line the next time out right, if Joe shmul tries the line. But you know what I always said, you should be open to anything. And believe me, if people have taken full advantage. I've had open micas give me lines. You know what I mean, Thank you very much, you know what I mean. It's again, you just have to be nice about it. But she is so open in a different way to me. And I've had a lot to give out there and nobody tapped into it for all those years and she's like, why what is going on? Well, and she did it and it's been successful. So points for Lesley.
The podcast is the Fuckery and what y'all do on the fun We're gonna end. We're gonna end a little.
All right.
Where you will talk about a lot of different current events. And it's actually a really good podcast because it gives a really good window into the dynamic of you two, but also politically how you two tend to see the world and current events. So, uh, we're gonna do a little couple of fuckeries of the week here, let's do it.
How are we doing? We had a week here?
Well, we just you know, we just want quick one, like a crossover episode like Chicago Fire, Chicago p D. Okay, okay, first up, Rihanna's halftime performance.
Okay, well I okay, First of all.
Because you went on, you went in on steven A. Smithson, I say, but Rihanna was wonderful. I still wouldn't say what stephen A. Smith said. I still wouldn't say that, but I was. I was surprised that she was pregnant because she had just had the baby, so I thought the baby was like two months old, and I was like, oh, wow, is she getting rid of the baby fat or something like that. But then she hole pregnant and then all of the little white dudes in the white.
Suits looking like that was the point of it. Yeah, it's oh somebody, dude, somebody broke it down and they said that Rihanna's performance. If you look, she's walking out in the red with all of the background dancers looking like sperm, and by the end of the performance, she is alone away from the sperm, and we see clearly that she has the seed in her So the entire performance she got it pregnated. Okay, okay, which means which means somebody, somebody went raw dog in the stadium exactly busted.
And that not only that, I don't know my thing on that is like multiple billions of points for ship I would never do.
Okay, they raised her how high is she?
She was way high in the air.
Are you kidding me?
Like, if you just said, you know what, she can't be here right now, can you just step in?
I'd be like, oh, thanks.
No, I mean because they kept raising and raising, and I was like, oh my god, that's the reason she's not moving, because she's up in the fucking the hair.
She's gonna fall.
Leslie and I talk about it all the time. Both of us would fall off that platform. I don't know how it happened.
They would have to change, they would have to change.
Rapp wrestlers have died from half that height.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, I'd be like, get me out of get me out.
Of here, umbrella out of here, Like oh, look at what.
You got last fuckery last what say you? Since y'all missed this topic on the show because it came up in the news cycle after your weekuld come and gone all. Ron DeSantis putting an end to African American AP history courses doing Black History Month. Mine, he's trying to get rid of us, to stop the books. They have a stop Woke act. Well, anything that make white people feel bad, you gotta make that shit illegal, and that line, that's.
What it fucking is starting to feel like it's just like your obviousness, your obvious racism is just so disgusting. It's fucking disgusting. So you, oh, it's it, don't You don't need to learn this what we don't need to learn while fucking little white kids is still going around calling kids nigga and school like we that shit's still going on. Like I'm telling you that Malcolm xIC and Martin Luther King literally can walk into this world and not see a motherfucking difference. So you fucking tell me that like you used to be a history teacher, you are a fucking racist. You are a racist. You are a mother fucking racist, And please pronounce, Please announce, this shit. Why he's doing a speech. You are a fucking racist ron the ship toast. You are mother fucking racist.
I'm not following that, diddo.
Okay, you know well, the podcast is the fucking ship.
By the way, we'll be in Florida for two shows saying about it.
Mind fuck Florida. The fuckers need to just float the fuck off into the fucking water like fuck y'all.
Man.
But after we perform, so we'll be in Tampa and Saint Juteris, come get ahead.
We can't smoke. Come get the smoke.
To be fair, Santu's only one Florida by like two points at people.
And then you know what, And that's what makes me mad though, that there are a good lot of good people. There's a lot of good people in this whole fucking United States of America that don't believe in half the ship that's being done. But you fucking lazy, you shit your fucking ass, your complacent, fucking ass, and think that motherfuckers is.
Gonna straighten ship off for you.
Get up off your ass, because we are the motherfucking people. We are the motherfucking people. If you're paying fucking income tax and you're not voting. Use a dumb ass motherfucker. I said it.
That sounds like a political campaign. You a dumb ass motherfucker.
Sick of it. I'm sick of it. They need to be told straight out how you pay taxes and not and not vote. What kind of that don't make you smart? That make you a fucking idiot?
Wait? One more?
One more?
Sorry, one war? No, you on the flow.
I'm letting you flow. I don't when to be quiet. Please last one.
Welcome to my world, Roy.
Chinese spy balloons, Pharaoh foul.
How dumb are we? How fucking stupid? Alway, let me tell you something. Ronald Reagan, President Carter would have shot the ship.
They would have shot it with their own shotgun, went out there with their own fucking hunting.
Gun and shot that fucking balloon down. How fucking dumb are you? You, dude?
I mean, do you know how many countries think that we are fucking complete idiots.
Oh it's just a balloon, it's not doing nothing.
And they're mad at us. Now, like the girlfriend, they're gaslighting us. They're gaslighting us.
We went to blo they're sitting back to them, sitting in the paces and send some bullets that's inside of that motherfucker. Don't listen. I couldn't be the president. I'm telling you right now. Let me tell you'all, motherfuckers.
Up another balloon over here.
You've seen another balloon over this motherfucker. See what the fuck happened? You say, what the fuck happened?
When man, Roy, you are fucking the best man.
That's so funny that you've been through my life periodically and just great.
Yo. We used to Lenny, Lesli and I used to live in the same apartment complex. Oh my god, No, no, no, no, Wade, that's right, Sherman Way.
I think I maybe saw you twice and you still with that girl. No, yeah, I I didn't think that was gonna last night. And I saw y'all in the elevated one scene, I was like, damn, that nigga looked like a prisoner.
Okay, and now it's time to go. Now, it's time to go, you know, I said, old ladies situation and tell him a business.
Business.
The podcast is the Fuckery. Catch Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus on tour. It is one of the best stand up shows out there right now. Leslie Lenny, thank you for going beyond the scenes.
And thank you for taking us beyond the scenes. Baby.
To the girl in Los Angeles, Leslie said that not me.
Listen, I ain't trying to fuck up nobody's ass man. You know, girl, you know what I you He probably was fucking up. That's probably why he You know.
I was fucking up. I will want that. Look, stop talking, they playing the music. Listen to The Daily Show Beyond the Scenes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.