"Hey you guys, it’s Leslie. I’m excited to share my story with you.
Now, I’m gonna be honest: Some of the details might be vague because a b*tch is fifty-five and she’s smoked a ton of weed. But while bits might be a touch hazy, I can promise you the underlying truth is REAL. Whether I’m talking about my childhood growing up in the South, my early stand-up days driving from gig to gig through the darkest parts of our country and praying I wouldn’t get murdered, what Chris Rock told Lorne Michaels, that time I wanted to shoot Whoopi Goldberg on SNL, and yeah, I’ll tell you all about Ghostbusters and the nudes and Supermarket Sweep and The Daily Show . . . I’m sharing it all in these pages. It’s not easy being a woman in comedy, especially when you’re a tall-*ss Black woman with a trumpet voice. I have to fight so that no one takes me for granted, and no one takes advantage. These are the stories that explain why. (Cue the Law & Order theme.)"
With a foreward by Chris Rock, Leslie's story was put out by Grand Central Publishing on September 19, 2023.
The summer of 2016 was when we saw the all-female Ghostbusters in theaters. That's when I became an instant fan of Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. It lead me back to watching Saturday Night Live weekly (a show I'd watched on and off since the 70's) where my enjoyment of both their comedy grew immensely.
Leslie is a big personality - both in physicality and charisma. In my opinion, she's a hilarious force of nature. She is the type of person who is totally transparent - she is who she is. If you've seen any of her stand-up, you know she keeps it real and uses her booming voice (often cursing) to bring home her points. With her, audiences need to either get on board for the wild ride or get out of the way. That's what I enjoy about her. And her autobiography embodies all those traits.
I learned a lot from her book - about her family life, about her being an athlete in high school and college, about her comedy inspirations (some were a very pleasing surprise) and her early career. I did not know she started out on SNL as a writer before being made a cast member. I appreciated catching up on her work after she left SNL in 2019 (I was very bummed when she ended her run there).
Leslie is definitely one of those people who I think I would really get along with if I were friends with them. I still follow her on Twitter; you can never tell what she'll be up to or talking about in short video clips. I know I'll always be a fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment