February 21, 2023 • 56 mins
The Daily Show's first guest host Leslie Jones 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
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the podcast that goes beyond
the scenes of topics and segments that ed originally on
The Daily Show. I'm your host, Roy Wood Jr. Very
special episode today, and when I say special, first off
of you watching the video of this, you can see
where and I knew multimillion dollar podcast facility right here
(00:30):
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. It's like. This is
what you have to think of this podcast. That's this
podcast is like you're not 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,
(00:51):
you ain't got to do none of that Ship to
Table was talking about today, we're willing into TV and
we're about to watch Faces of Death and a couple
of R rated movies. I don't know if that analogy
completely connects. Joining me today though a two wonderful, wonderful guests.
Um First up, he is one of the co hosts
(01:11):
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 they it's still pronounced like that,
the no, no no, no, yes. He is acclaimed stand up
comedian and writer Lenny Marcus, Lenny, how you doing, Thanks right,
(01:32):
Thanks for having it. We took out the vows for
the kids, but we we still pronounce it but the
kids and that voice you here is a wonderful, wonderful
stand up comedian or do we just do comedian and
s and l alum. But more importantly for the sake
of this podcast, she was the first guest host of
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
like a little acoustic crown right on top because you
can just say you're a comic. You know what I'm saying,
you know, yeah, but comedian comedian When you call me
a Penny, ask for now and call me a pen Andy. Uh,
you know what, what I'm okay, what I'm going to
do is violently attack you first, and then I'm gonna
say and that chemistry that you see between these two
(02:38):
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
(02:59):
I don't know if it's a writing duo, I don't
know what the hell, y'all. All I know is that
when you two are together, it is magic. And when
you came into this whole situation, well, first off, give
us a little bit of the backstory, lass of how
you and Lenny met, because it's important that people understand
your dynamic, and then how that dynamic came into the
(03:19):
Daily Show. Because I'm telling y'all, you two or some
shit we never had in this building that that makes
me emotional. I'm gonna be honest, that makes me a
little emotional inside. Um, you know, I always I always
had a vision of my career because that's you know, virgo.
It's just like that. I always knew what type of
steps I wanted to take, and when I got good enough,
(03:40):
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'd 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
(04:01):
through what it takes to actually get that type of partnerships.
Like I've had a lot of people that I wrote
with and it didn't work out or it just it
they wasn't even secure, it just 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
(04:23):
writing everything together, doing everything together, doing all the jokes together, righte,
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 going to go through. It's like a circuit.
It's like you make the wish and then it goes
(04:44):
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 Seller. I came in
there one night, I think, 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 going to tell probably because
Lenny doesn't smoke weed, but this is what this is.
(05:06):
The fragments of the story that I remember is that
he was sitting there and there was ragging him about
him marrying his girl. And I was like, oh, what
is your girl? And he comedians will attack you for
being in love. Yeah, well they were just ragging him.
They were ragging him and saying, yo, you should marry her,
like she's hot and woo. And I think he showed
me a picture and I was like, oh, yeah, motherfuck
(05:26):
you stupid, like marry or whatever, right, And then I
think I left a year, came back the next year
they had got 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 him. And he
was like like right now, and I was like, yeah,
(05:46):
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. And 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
(06:08):
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.
(06:28):
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,
(06:51):
just so I could describe you to the people we
all know. You know, Leslie Jones sixty three, six fours back,
Lenny looks how he sounds. Lenny's taller than me. But
you know what was so crazy Roy that he wrote
(07:12):
the jokes down so precisely, And I was like, this
motherfucker is a nerd too, and it's like fucking love
nerds and that's connected to daily Okay, So, Lindy, how
much of that, how much of Leslie'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 change. Yeah, yeah,
(07:34):
but it's it's pretty close. And yeah, she took me
to this Yankee game and you know this, I don't,
I don't. You don't want to give lines to somebody
coming off stage right, you know 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 this Yankee game. I don't think you know
(07:54):
those seats right, they're right behind home play 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 was just like, one day
I'm gonna sit in those fucking seats. And she's like, hey,
(08:17):
you want to go to the game. I was like,
I know those seats and it's happening right in real time.
So the seats is that great? So I manifested the seats.
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,
(08:38):
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 to
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 say. I literally had to say, hey,
(08:59):
I know's gonna sound 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
(09:21):
Daily Show and Lenny being the words Smith and I
would say, less you are probably a little more jazz commedically,
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 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
(09:41):
was your expectations? What was your approach. What was you
all as plans? Because you're also you also have the
burden of being the first mother, the first person to
guest host. It mean, 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
(10:04):
on the road, Roy, I did an hour in twenty minutes.
You know how black comics do, right, and I really
thought I was the ship. 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 comedians should hell you.
(10:28):
They shouldn't make a statue out of you. So I
come on 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 are you even 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
(10:50):
it was like, well, that's what it felt like. I
was laughing because I was laughing. I was like, I
was like, I was like, this is motherfucker Like, no,
this motherfucker ain't telling me. I know the fuck I've
been doing comedy whoo whoo. 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
(11:12):
French 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'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
(11:34):
and go stick to this like this is this is
the script stick. 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 at 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,
(11:56):
when you come into the building 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 what did you heard about
the show? What did you hear about? Well, I know
the show. It's a brilliant show. I know I watched
it when John did it. You could tell how funny
(12:18):
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 we have. We've worked with other production companies
before that we didn't like. So anytime you go into
(12:39):
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
(13:03):
more than you. A bomb is coming in. You guys
don't even know that this explosions 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 S and L. Of course,
my experience doing the updates with SNL was very helpful.
(13:26):
Yea being behind this desk and he's right. We didn't
have prompters. We had Q 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
(13:46):
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 if
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,
(14:06):
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 ify it. You know what I mean. How
we're like, can I ask to a degree, how your
preparation different for SNL versus the Daily Show? Okay, well y'all,
(14:28):
y'all both have that schedule. But what I would say
for the Daily Show is, we know everybody I know
from ESNL, they'd be texting me at three thirty in
the morning on a weeknight time about hit at Home.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's I'll say. I'm saying for
the day of show, it's like, oka your days start
to like three yeah, and then the SNL is six
(14:51):
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 lead, 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
(15:14):
I'm just like, Okay, I'm gonna die, like I'm gonna
die like we was home every night by eight. Yeah,
it's very efficient here, very I don't even know if
you guys appreciate how efficient, because I don't think that
y'all even understand how efficient y'all are. They waste resources,
nobody knows what's up. Yeah, but here everybody seems to
know every you know, it is a tight ship. I
(15:37):
would say. The experience at the desks 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 writing. She would be like, oh okay,
(15:58):
so yeah, because people get attached to joke. No, I
think it's funny. No, And we've been there to joke, Roy,
We've been understand. I've had jokes that that people be like.
I'd be like, I'm retiring to 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 s and L they was cutting them jokes,
(16:19):
I was like, you're killing me. But then you start
loving the cut to cut just like the clean jokes
are not your children, they're your step children. You gotta
love them but a little while, and then before a
little while and they're not even your step children. They
just kind of like you, like you said the substitute teacher,
These motherfuckers you don't really want. You guys also write.
I mean the writing here is so strong. Yeah, if
(16:41):
you cut something, it's like, great, you already have ten
killers beforehands 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, um
during your week you came on the same week of
the month with King Dick Statue in Boston, but from
(17:02):
a certain angler looked like a dick of an actual money.
Now it looks like he's going to Stephen 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
(17:23):
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
get 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 saven trust me. And then she takes
(17:43):
one look at it, 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, get us
in the seat, and then she'll take it and say, yeah,
I like that one, and it's 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
(18:04):
know the core of what I've been trying to do
on stage and everywhere with my comedy. I want to
I want to actually say what needs to be said
to you, but still make you laugh about it. That
does that make sense? Like 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
(18:25):
real and honest shit and really make it funny. You know.
I really like, how can I 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 that they're
(18:48):
doing some fucked up shit like or you know, calculing
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, And I so do that.
This does how I tell you those comics that you
(19:10):
know what I mean, like, he's part of the like
the I like brutal ass whoopings, but I like them
to be ass whoopings. That makes 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 not. She does it in
a really fun way a lot of the times. But
(19:31):
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
(19:52):
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, and months, and mean it's like, yeah,
they should get help. I'm done, you know, but she
will stick to this and then when we come in
and we get it, and we have this huge, amazing,
(20:14):
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
(20:35):
the net. You know, other writing staffs 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 um,
you Thurst and over moist chestnut ass and we got
to talk a little bit about you and guests were
gonna talk a little bit more about Leslie Jones, the
(20:58):
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 podcasts and also um part
of the team. You're now in the Daily Show history,
You're now part of the IMDb. Patient, do we technically
(21:20):
call you the first black woman to host The Daily Show?
I feel like you're black history now. I feel like
you get a stamp. Oh shit, I am I. I
am trying to think of anyone, even in a guest
host capacity, and unless Jessica Williams did it there, I
can't think of another person. Wow, I'm the first to
do some shit. Yeah, you're gonna put that into history
(21:43):
books and run to Santas to take it out. Let's
talk about about the guests. Ye, Now, you had Charlemagne
the God yet Morris Chessnut Morris, Yeah, Alexis McGill, Johnson
presidency of playing Parenthood. When it came to preparing for
(22:03):
these conversations like playing 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 Mane, not
Morris Chestnut, we already know what it is. You was
just chocolate head trying to see it in person. Emma
(22:26):
Tendis was in his face singing, we're gonna edit that
out because I'm sorry, mel Moreis chest and his 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
(22:48):
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. And that's why your hall our sen
(23:10):
of youall, hall one o 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 him, you know what I'm saying,
Like and then too having like some actual interest in
(23:31):
what's going on, like you know, you know, Marris Chestnut
has been around forever son like, and I don't think
nobody really ever given him flowers like he should yet
does that make sense? Like he's been still working, still
working hard, always on the show and always looking good.
So I just and and I don't think people give
(23:52):
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 rights, yes, drama yes, yes.
And then what he did for 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 the show. For
(24:13):
the planned parenthood LINEA 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 understood. This is a
whole factory going on over here. We understand that you
(24:35):
gotta dick and you got semen and all that bullshit
to deal with. But we got a literal baby making
machine inside of us, like and and those things. If
they're not if they stink, you're not around for that.
You're 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,
(24:57):
like like like like I give this example all the time,
truck drive. It has come to the factory, they dropped
the ship 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 elected Basically, Okay, you know, I'm
just saying. I'm just saying, that's right. He's right, That's
(25:18):
exactly what you're trying to say. What I've been finding, too, 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 is four men.
(25:39):
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
our 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
(26:00):
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? 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. People,
a lot of people don't know shit like these are
the stuff. A lot of planned parenthoods don't even give abortions,
(26:21):
and and the ones that that do give abortions, they
also give a sectomies. They also do other medical shit,
like the one that's in fucking Brooklyn in New York.
Brooklyn was my motherfucking 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
(26:43):
it's like, people don't know that shit. 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 a guest 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, men, men
(27:05):
need therapy. I don't give a fuck, And me and
Lenny talk about Lenny always rose his eyes when I
say this, my eyes? You do you fucking roll your eyes?
Like when? When? When? When guys go into a fucking appointment.
And I'm saying this to mail doctors to use for
you to say to your mail 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,
(27:27):
how are you feeling mentally? Do you get what I'm saying?
I mean, that's nothing wrong with that, but like because
don't care. Yeah, but they're 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,
(27:51):
why I 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 men 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
(28:13):
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
(28:35):
through like you are going through it, like to be
put into this story that we have of the prince
and the damns are 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 and damn mascoment. That's a fucking
lot without the dance. But do you give what the
(28:56):
fuck I'm saying. See see you can't even dance but
get 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 fucking
be like, yeah, maybe I need to go, Maybe I
need to go take care of that. But he was great.
(29:19):
That was the point. Yeah, Yeah, Charlotta Magne No, and
Charlemagne was surprisingly great because I thought he was gonna
be I thought he was ever thought. I thought he
was gonna be mean. I really did thought it was
gonna 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 Charlemagne because I don't want that
(29:40):
to happen. I thought that was gonna be like that.
But he was actually fucking awesome to me. Breakfast Club
Charlemagne is different from any other show. Charlomagne, especially if
you're talking about mental health, which eating wrote two books
on the ship, so that's his that's his ministry. So
I love you, he said so from the conversations you've
had with the guests. Let's switch over to the conversations
(30:02):
you had with the correspondence. Now setting up those chats,
because now you're dealing with different personalities in a way. Sorry,
she doesn't say roy Dad, don't say y'all called correspondent.
Test because in the real news world, the mother fucking leader,
(30:22):
what's called co stars? No, that's like the show you're on,
a fake nude show. Play a reporter. You act like
I watched you watch the way you'd be yelling at MSNBS.
They was called correspondents. I just send people up on
the screen. Never reaped the ship at the bottom one
(30:42):
of I'm dealing with they always say They always say
minister fari con or represent executive director CEO of the correction.
They don't say corresponded. Okay, so now I know correspondent.
So in pairing the desk chets, talk to me, how
(31:08):
were you trying to figure out the dynamic of how
Leslie would navigate this because 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. Leslie and I kind of
went through, but I definitely had an idea coming in
what I wanted Leslie to have relationship. She knows you
(31:29):
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. Yeah
she did listen to me, woman, But it's always I
(31:53):
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 sister.
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 a dance. Bam, there
it is right. Don't say no, don't say the first,
(32:15):
don't say I'm so says, don't say And then with Desi,
I really just wanted to treat her like the little
silly white girl that's my friend that I really want
to help this white girl want to I want to
help you so much because you really are in trouble. Well,
we had that. That was his idea, that was we
have a friend that we did this on supermarkets. Yeah,
(32:36):
and she's and Desi's very similar. So I was like,
and we couldn't do it in that short 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
(32:57):
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. Yeah, and then me knowing Costa, yeah,
and me knowing Costa and knowing how like arrogant, Like
not arrogant, He's not arrogant, but he's just like his
comedy presence is fucking Mike Costa. Like you can y'all
go back to the La Club. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, yeah,
(33:19):
I want to treat him, but I want but I
wanted to be not to where we hate Costa. I
want Costa to have a rope of 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
(33:40):
like I wouldn't be mad at 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 in corn and Costa,
(34:01):
you know she was gonna break up with you because
you're a Cory 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's 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,
(34:24):
that's why we loved about her. She's like ten friends
and 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 hit It for Home with Leslie Jones
and Lenny Marcus. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be
(34:46):
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 her partner. That's my MP our voice.
But I like the whole introduction of the first You
have a great ease behind the microphone, for sure. You
(35:07):
know just this young woman is uh. I'm going to
talk a little bit Leslie Jones about her struggles and
her time and to Ghet over 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 them one times when I was like, thank God,
I am a comic, like and I'm not scared to
(35:28):
do this, like you know what I'm saying, seven Lounge, Fairfield, Alabama.
So Lenny, Yeah, for whatever reason, Leslie is in Birmingham.
When christ 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 any time, any place. She just wanted to go, Hey,
(35:52):
let's just go hang, is there a mike. I'm like, Leslie,
this is Birmingham on Christmas Eve? There is no comedy
club both 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 shit from
Aaron Aaronov Drive. In front of the old pizza hut,
there was a spot called the Seven Lounge. It was
(36:14):
the only open spot within that shopping plaza of every
other store is out of business. Seven Lounge holding the
lining out the door on christow full of black people
and up we're just going to watch stand up and
then one of them come up to Leslie. You want
to go and bless the people with a little bit
(36:34):
of time, It would be your honor. Hey, you know
she's not trying to perform, but you know the comedian,
and you yeah, let me go on up there. She
goes on stage and it was raining the whole night
and it's fucking leaking. The lad is leaking on stage
and people are breaking buckets up where she's mid Joe
and I'm tearing these motherfucker's up to roasted the room.
(37:00):
She didn't even do a joke. She just went up
there and said this shit raggedy. Good night. Yo. 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 mike.
I remember going to San Bernardini or I had a
gig in San Bernardini and we got there and that
(37:21):
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 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 Karryokavs. Like, let me do some time.
If I'm not funny, you can have his fifty dollars. Right, Yo,
(37:42):
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 have taken He was like,
I didn't 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
dollars and gave me fifty more dollars and then bought
(38:02):
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 microphonecause if you
really do, if you're really about your shit, you will
do your shit. I have performed on the street. I
(38:25):
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 role naturally into being in
(38:47):
that chair because there's a lot of the aspects of
stand up. You cannot use 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 insulate.
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
(39:08):
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 just it's not without the tool Beth 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 ship. Watch Lucille Ball watch
(39:30):
Carol Burnette. You know exactly what joke they're telling without
them even talking. Carol Burnette 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
(39:53):
the same stuff keeps rolling around and it doesn't seemed
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
(40:16):
be damned if Leslie Jones did not stand out on
that sidewalk on a rainy Birmingham night and chop it
up with the 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
(40:37):
at that level where you are in the game. You're
not even invite you can't even get backstage of the
comedy club in Birmingham to talk to somebody that's on
your level. So that level of mentorship and just get
to and I mean it's less. 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 this show, and I know
(41:02):
Chris Rock is 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
(41:22):
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,
(41:43):
I don't worry about you. And when you hear that,
it just puts you. It's like, oh, 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, Like when I when
I did my first update, When I did my first update, man,
(42:04):
I ripped that fucking that that dress show. Oh homie,
you think the fucking live was the dress is always
better than than the live to meet the dress for
the people. Oh my god, I didn't address that shit
just I'm talking about like fucking rattling motherfucker's was running
through the building like, oh fuck, who is this bitch?
Who was this bitch? Who is this bitch? Lauren called
(42:25):
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 motherfucking spot. Bitch.
You motherfucker can't tell me shit right. He called me
in that office and he was like, I'm so glad
that you did good doing a dress. Now do that
shit live. Get the fuck out. I tell you something,
(42:49):
Let me tell you something. I went in the hallway
and I can't. I almost felt like I had on
a uniform because I was like, all right, coach, that's
fucking good. You want to live, so let's go my
fuck Like it was like you had just let me
fucking like that's so. I like, like when he said that,
(43:12):
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 too. 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 if what can I do?
(43:32):
I'm like just sometimes very little tweaks or you know whatever.
But I'm not the Bobby Knights 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 shit I like to. Okay, but
then how did you How were you able to be
(43:55):
in a place where you could accept criticism, oh or
critique except critique, not critics, 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.
(44:15):
And then here comes this throwny dude that a comedy
feller with a slice of pizza in his hand to it. Nah,
it's not like that, honestly, Honestly, you if you're a
real comic, and I'd say this to everybody that does
this this craft and even the old heads or whatever.
If you're a real comic and you really love this craft,
I mean, you do this craft like I would do
(44:38):
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 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
(45:00):
way I could write it like like I am not
I make myself lad, 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
(45:23):
this is no I don't know 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 tacts 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 comics. You're gonna give
different tags to these white comics. These white comics gonna
(45:44):
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 funny. You're 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
(46:04):
motherfucking good, and you cannot do that by yourself, Jesus,
until people understand to reach out to the motherfuckers that
are going to help you, Until you make a train,
you can't. There's no eye in making it. Well, there
is two eyes, but okay, there's no I in success.
(46:28):
I should say that you can't do that ship 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 whoo whooping, and
like okay, well who helped you do that? Like yeah,
like make it. I can't explain it. It's just like
(46:51):
we need to learn how to grow, and the only
way to learn how to grow is to actually depend
on someone else said could help you, am I yeah,
I 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 struggle with
(47:13):
that to help to get help. Trusting yeah, trusting you
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 wurk, fuck you, Nick, 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
(47:34):
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 Sama tries to 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 micers
give me lines, you know what I mean, Like, thank
(47:56):
you very much, you know what I mean. It's like,
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? And she did it and
it's been successful. So points for Leslie. The podcast is
(48:16):
the fuckery and what y'all doing? The fun we're gonna end.
We're gonna end a little um where you all talk
about a lot of different current events and it's actually
a really good podcast because it gives a really good
winding to the dynamic of YouTube but also politically how
you two tend to see the world and current events.
So we're gonna do a little couple of fun reads
(48:38):
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 like a crossover episode like Chicago Fire,
Chicago PD. Okay, okay, First up, Rihanna's Have Time performance. Okay,
well I okay. First of all, because you went on,
you went in on, stephen A Smith say, and but
(49:00):
Rihanna was wonderful. I still wouldn't say what stephen A.
Smith said. I still wouldn't say that, but I 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 hold pregnant and then all
of the little white dudes in the white suits look
(49:21):
like that was some point of it. Yeah it, ohbody,
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
(49:43):
seed in her So the entire performance she got it bregnated. Okay, Okay,
which means which means somebody bust, bust, somebody roll dog
in the stadium. Exactly busted then in the middle of
the Not only that, I don't know my thing on
that is like multiple billions of points for shit. I
(50:05):
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 ken
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 this all time.
(50:25):
Both of us would fall off that platform. I don't
know how it would happened. They would have to change,
they would have to change wrap me to restlers 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, black, black, look at what
(50:46):
you got last? What say you? Since y'all missed this
topic on the show, because it came up in the
new cycle after your week at Coming Gone All, Ron
de Santis putting the end to African American AP history courses,
doing Black History Month. Mine, he's trying to get rid
(51:09):
of the stop the bokes. They have a stop Woke act. Well,
anything that makes white people feel bad. They gotta make
that ship illegal. And that's what the 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 then you don't need to learn this what we
(51:30):
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
Michael Max 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 fucking racist. You are a racist.
(51:52):
You are a motherfucking racist, and please pronounce, please announce
this ship while he's doing a speech. You are a
fucking racist. Ron the shit toast. You are mother fucking racist.
I'm not following that ditto, Okay, you know, well the
podcast is by the way, we'll be in Florida for
(52:15):
two shows saying about it. My fuck Florida fuckers need
to just float the fuck off into the fucking water
like fuck y'all. But after we perform, so we'll be
in Tampa and s come get we can't smoke, come
get the smoke. To be fair, the Santa's only one
Florida by like two points. There's a lot of good people,
(52:35):
you know. But and then you know what, and that's
what makes me mad though, that there are a good
a 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 sit your fucking ass, your complacent
fucking ass, and think that motherfucker's is gonna straight and
shit off of you. Get up off your ass, because
(52:56):
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're a dumb ass motherfucker, leslie,
you will be running. Sick of it. I'm sick of it.
(53:17):
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 makes you a fucking idiot?
Wait one more? One more? Sorry more, No, you're on
the floor. I'm letting you flow. I know when to
be quiet. Please last one. Welcome to my world, Roy
(53:37):
Chinese spy balloons fairer foul? How dumb are we? Fucking stupid? Ah? Wait,
let me tell you something. Right a Reagan president Carter
would have shot the ship. They would have shot it.
What they all shotgun went out there, but they all
fucking gun and shot that fucking balloon down. How fucking
(53:59):
dumb are you you? Dude? I mean, do you know
how many countries think that we are fucking complete idiots? Oh,
it's just the balloon. It's not doing nothing, and they're
mad at us now like the girlfriend gaslighting us. They're
gas lighting us like they're sitting back to him, sitting
(54:19):
in the pieces and sit some bullets that's inside of
that motherfucker. Don't listen. I couldn't be the president. I'm
telling you right now, yo, let me tell y'all, motherfucker something.
You've seen another balloon over this motherfucker? See what the
fuck happened. You see what the fuck happened? When I
say I love y'all, man, Broy, you are fucking the
best man. That's so funny that you've been through my
(54:42):
life periodically and just great. Yo. We used to let Leslie,
I used to live in the same apartment complex. Oh
my god, No, no, no, no, that's right, German way.
I think I maybe saw you twice as you still
with that girl. No, yeah, I didn't think that was
gonna last night. I saw y'all in the elevated once
(55:04):
and I was like, damn, that nigga looked like a prisoner. Okay,
and now it's time to go. Now, it's time to go, lady, situation.
Tell them my business business. The podcast is the Fuckery
catch Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus on tour. It is
(55:24):
one of the best stand up shows au there right now, Leslie, Lenny,
thank you for going beyond the scenes. Thank you, 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,
you know what he probably was fucking up. That's probably
(55:45):
why he you know I was sucking up. I will
on that. Let's stop talking. They playing the music. Listen
to the Daily Show Beyond the Scenes on the iHeartRadio app,
(56:05):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the podcast that goes beyond
the scenes of topics and segments that ed originally on
The Daily Show. I'm your host, Roy Wood Jr. Very
special episode today, and when I say special, first off
of you watching the video of this, you can see
where and I knew multimillion dollar podcast facility right here
(00:30):
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. It's like. This is
what you have to think of this podcast. That's this
podcast is like you're not 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,
(00:51):
you ain't got to do none of that Ship to
Table was talking about today, we're willing into TV and
we're about to watch Faces of Death and a couple
of R rated movies. I don't know if that analogy
completely connects. Joining me today though a two wonderful, wonderful guests.
Um First up, he is one of the co hosts
(01:11):
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 they it's still pronounced like that,
the no, no no, no, yes. He is acclaimed stand up
comedian and writer Lenny Marcus, Lenny, how you doing, Thanks right,
(01:32):
Thanks for having it. We took out the vows for
the kids, but we we still pronounce it but the
kids and that voice you here is a wonderful, wonderful
stand up comedian or do we just do comedian and
s and l alum. But more importantly for the sake
of this podcast, she was the first guest host of
(01:55):
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
(02:17):
like a little acoustic crown right on top because you
can just say you're a comic. You know what I'm saying,
you know, yeah, but comedian comedian When you call me
a Penny, ask for now and call me a pen Andy. Uh,
you know what, what I'm okay, what I'm going to
do is violently attack you first, and then I'm gonna
say and that chemistry that you see between these two
(02:38):
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
(02:59):
I don't know if it's a writing duo, I don't
know what the hell, y'all. All I know is that
when you two are together, it is magic. And when
you came into this whole situation, well, first off, give
us a little bit of the backstory, lass of how
you and Lenny met, because it's important that people understand
your dynamic, and then how that dynamic came into the
(03:19):
Daily Show. Because I'm telling y'all, you two or some
shit we never had in this building that that makes
me emotional. I'm gonna be honest, that makes me a
little emotional inside. Um, you know, I always I always
had a vision of my career because that's you know, virgo.
It's just like that. I always knew what type of
steps I wanted to take, and when I got good enough,
(03:40):
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'd 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
(04:01):
through what it takes to actually get that type of partnerships.
Like I've had a lot of people that I wrote
with and it didn't work out or it just it
they wasn't even secure, it just 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
(04:23):
writing everything together, doing everything together, doing all the jokes together, righte,
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 going to go through. It's like a circuit.
It's like you make the wish and then it goes
(04:44):
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 Seller. I came in
there one night, I think, 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 going to tell probably because
Lenny doesn't smoke weed, but this is what this is.
(05:06):
The fragments of the story that I remember is that
he was sitting there and there was ragging him about
him marrying his girl. And I was like, oh, what
is your girl? And he comedians will attack you for
being in love. Yeah, well they were just ragging him.
They were ragging him and saying, yo, you should marry her,
like she's hot and woo. And I think he showed
me a picture and I was like, oh, yeah, motherfuck
(05:26):
you stupid, like marry or whatever, right, And then I
think I left a year, came back the next year
they had got 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 him. And he
was like like right now, and I was like, yeah,
(05:46):
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. And 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
(06:08):
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.
(06:28):
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,
(06:51):
just so I could describe you to the people we
all know. You know, Leslie Jones sixty three, six fours back,
Lenny looks how he sounds. Lenny's taller than me. But
you know what was so crazy Roy that he wrote
(07:12):
the jokes down so precisely, And I was like, this
motherfucker is a nerd too, and it's like fucking love
nerds and that's connected to daily Okay, So, Lindy, how
much of that, how much of Leslie'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 change. Yeah, yeah,
(07:34):
but it's it's pretty close. And yeah, she took me
to this Yankee game and you know this, I don't,
I don't. You don't want to give lines to somebody
coming off stage right, you know 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 this Yankee game. I don't think you know
(07:54):
those seats right, they're right behind home play 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 was just like, one day
I'm gonna sit in those fucking seats. And she's like, hey,
(08:17):
you want to go to the game. I was like,
I know those seats and it's happening right in real time.
So the seats is that great? So I manifested the seats.
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,
(08:38):
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 to
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 say. I literally had to say, hey,
(08:59):
I know's gonna sound 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
(09:21):
Daily Show and Lenny being the words Smith and I
would say, less you are probably a little more jazz commedically,
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 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
(09:41):
was your expectations? What was your approach. What was you
all as plans? Because you're also you also have the
burden of being the first mother, the first person to
guest host. It mean, 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
(10:04):
on the road, Roy, I did an hour in twenty minutes.
You know how black comics do, right, and I really
thought I was the ship. 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 comedians should hell you.
(10:28):
They shouldn't make a statue out of you. So I
come on 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 are you even 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
(10:50):
it was like, well, that's what it felt like. I
was laughing because I was laughing. I was like, I
was like, I was like, this is motherfucker Like, no,
this motherfucker ain't telling me. I know the fuck I've
been doing comedy whoo whoo. 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
(11:12):
French 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'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
(11:34):
and go stick to this like this is this is
the script stick. 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 at 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,
(11:56):
when you come into the building 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 what did you heard about
the show? What did you hear about? Well, I know
the show. It's a brilliant show. I know I watched
it when John did it. You could tell how funny
(12:18):
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 we have. We've worked with other production companies
before that we didn't like. So anytime you go into
(12:39):
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
(13:03):
more than you. A bomb is coming in. You guys
don't even know that this explosions 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 S and L. Of course,
my experience doing the updates with SNL was very helpful.
(13:26):
Yea being behind this desk and he's right. We didn't
have prompters. We had Q 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
(13:46):
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 if
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,
(14:06):
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 ify it. You know what I mean. How
we're like, can I ask to a degree, how your
preparation different for SNL versus the Daily Show? Okay, well y'all,
(14:28):
y'all both have that schedule. But what I would say
for the Daily Show is, we know everybody I know
from ESNL, they'd be texting me at three thirty in
the morning on a weeknight time about hit at Home.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's I'll say. I'm saying for
the day of show, it's like, oka your days start
to like three yeah, and then the SNL is six
(14:51):
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 lead, 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
(15:14):
I'm just like, Okay, I'm gonna die, like I'm gonna
die like we was home every night by eight. Yeah,
it's very efficient here, very I don't even know if
you guys appreciate how efficient, because I don't think that
y'all even understand how efficient y'all are. They waste resources,
nobody knows what's up. Yeah, but here everybody seems to
know every you know, it is a tight ship. I
(15:37):
would say. The experience at the desks 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 writing. She would be like, oh okay,
(15:58):
so yeah, because people get attached to joke. No, I
think it's funny. No, And we've been there to joke, Roy,
We've been understand. I've had jokes that that people be like.
I'd be like, I'm retiring to 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 s and L they was cutting them jokes,
(16:19):
I was like, you're killing me. But then you start
loving the cut to cut just like the clean jokes
are not your children, they're your step children. You gotta
love them but a little while, and then before a
little while and they're not even your step children. They
just kind of like you, like you said the substitute teacher,
These motherfuckers you don't really want. You guys also write.
I mean the writing here is so strong. Yeah, if
(16:41):
you cut something, it's like, great, you already have ten
killers beforehands 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, um
during your week you came on the same week of
the month with King Dick Statue in Boston, but from
(17:02):
a certain angler looked like a dick of an actual money.
Now it looks like he's going to Stephen 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
(17:23):
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
get 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 saven trust me. And then she takes
(17:43):
one look at it, 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, get us
in the seat, and then she'll take it and say, yeah,
I like that one, and it's 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
(18:04):
know the core of what I've been trying to do
on stage and everywhere with my comedy. I want to
I want to actually say what needs to be said
to you, but still make you laugh about it. That
does that make sense? Like 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
(18:25):
real and honest shit and really make it funny. You know.
I really like, how can I 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 that they're
(18:48):
doing some fucked up shit like or you know, calculing
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, And I so do that.
This does how I tell you those comics that you
(19:10):
know what I mean, like, he's part of the like
the I like brutal ass whoopings, but I like them
to be ass whoopings. That makes 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 not. She does it in
a really fun way a lot of the times. But
(19:31):
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
(19:52):
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, and months, and mean it's like, yeah,
they should get help. I'm done, you know, but she
will stick to this and then when we come in
and we get it, and we have this huge, amazing,
(20:14):
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
(20:35):
the net. You know, other writing staffs 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 um,
you Thurst and over moist chestnut ass and we got
to talk a little bit about you and guests were
gonna talk a little bit more about Leslie Jones, the
(20:58):
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 podcasts and also um part
of the team. You're now in the Daily Show history,
You're now part of the IMDb. Patient, do we technically
(21:20):
call you the first black woman to host The Daily Show?
I feel like you're black history now. I feel like
you get a stamp. Oh shit, I am I. I
am trying to think of anyone, even in a guest
host capacity, and unless Jessica Williams did it there, I
can't think of another person. Wow, I'm the first to
do some shit. Yeah, you're gonna put that into history
(21:43):
books and run to Santas to take it out. Let's
talk about about the guests. Ye, Now, you had Charlemagne
the God yet Morris Chessnut Morris, Yeah, Alexis McGill, Johnson
presidency of playing Parenthood. When it came to preparing for
(22:03):
these conversations like playing 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 Mane, not
Morris Chestnut, we already know what it is. You was
just chocolate head trying to see it in person. Emma
(22:26):
Tendis was in his face singing, we're gonna edit that
out because I'm sorry, mel Moreis chest and his 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
(22:48):
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. And that's why your hall our sen
(23:10):
of youall, hall one o 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 him, you know what I'm saying,
Like and then too having like some actual interest in
(23:31):
what's going on, like you know, you know, Marris Chestnut
has been around forever son like, and I don't think
nobody really ever given him flowers like he should yet
does that make sense? Like he's been still working, still
working hard, always on the show and always looking good.
So I just and and I don't think people give
(23:52):
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 rights, yes, drama yes, yes.
And then what he did for 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 the show. For
(24:13):
the planned parenthood LINEA 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 understood. This is a
whole factory going on over here. We understand that you
(24:35):
gotta dick and you got semen and all that bullshit
to deal with. But we got a literal baby making
machine inside of us, like and and those things. If
they're not if they stink, you're not around for that.
You're 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,
(24:57):
like like like like I give this example all the time,
truck drive. It has come to the factory, they dropped
the ship 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 elected Basically, Okay, you know, I'm
just saying. I'm just saying, that's right. He's right, That's
(25:18):
exactly what you're trying to say. What I've been finding, too, 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 is four men.
(25:39):
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
our 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
(26:00):
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? 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. People,
a lot of people don't know shit like these are
the stuff. A lot of planned parenthoods don't even give abortions,
(26:21):
and and the ones that that do give abortions, they
also give a sectomies. They also do other medical shit,
like the one that's in fucking Brooklyn in New York.
Brooklyn was my motherfucking 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
(26:43):
it's like, people don't know that shit. 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 a guest 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, men, men
(27:05):
need therapy. I don't give a fuck, And me and
Lenny talk about Lenny always rose his eyes when I
say this, my eyes? You do you fucking roll your eyes?
Like when? When? When? When guys go into a fucking appointment.
And I'm saying this to mail doctors to use for
you to say to your mail 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,
(27:27):
how are you feeling mentally? Do you get what I'm saying?
I mean, that's nothing wrong with that, but like because
don't care. Yeah, but they're 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,
(27:51):
why I 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 men 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
(28:13):
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
(28:35):
through like you are going through it, like to be
put into this story that we have of the prince
and the damns are 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 and damn mascoment. That's a fucking
lot without the dance. But do you give what the
(28:56):
fuck I'm saying. See see you can't even dance but
get 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 fucking
be like, yeah, maybe I need to go, Maybe I
need to go take care of that. But he was great.
(29:19):
That was the point. Yeah, Yeah, Charlotta Magne No, and
Charlemagne was surprisingly great because I thought he was gonna
be I thought he was ever thought. I thought he
was gonna be mean. I really did thought it was
gonna 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 Charlemagne because I don't want that
(29:40):
to happen. I thought that was gonna be like that.
But he was actually fucking awesome to me. Breakfast Club
Charlemagne is different from any other show. Charlomagne, especially if
you're talking about mental health, which eating wrote two books
on the ship, so that's his that's his ministry. So
I love you, he said so from the conversations you've
had with the guests. Let's switch over to the conversations
(30:02):
you had with the correspondence. Now setting up those chats,
because now you're dealing with different personalities in a way. Sorry,
she doesn't say roy Dad, don't say y'all called correspondent.
Test because in the real news world, the mother fucking leader,
(30:22):
what's called co stars? No, that's like the show you're on,
a fake nude show. Play a reporter. You act like
I watched you watch the way you'd be yelling at MSNBS.
They was called correspondents. I just send people up on
the screen. Never reaped the ship at the bottom one
(30:42):
of I'm dealing with they always say They always say
minister fari con or represent executive director CEO of the correction.
They don't say corresponded. Okay, so now I know correspondent.
So in pairing the desk chets, talk to me, how
(31:08):
were you trying to figure out the dynamic of how
Leslie would navigate this because 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. Leslie and I kind of
went through, but I definitely had an idea coming in
what I wanted Leslie to have relationship. She knows you
(31:29):
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. Yeah
she did listen to me, woman, But it's always I
(31:53):
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 sister.
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 a dance. Bam, there
it is right. Don't say no, don't say the first,
(32:15):
don't say I'm so says, don't say And then with Desi,
I really just wanted to treat her like the little
silly white girl that's my friend that I really want
to help this white girl want to I want to
help you so much because you really are in trouble. Well,
we had that. That was his idea, that was we
have a friend that we did this on supermarkets. Yeah,
(32:36):
and she's and Desi's very similar. So I was like,
and we couldn't do it in that short 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
(32:57):
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. Yeah, and then me knowing Costa, yeah,
and me knowing Costa and knowing how like arrogant, Like
not arrogant, He's not arrogant, but he's just like his
comedy presence is fucking Mike Costa. Like you can y'all
go back to the La Club. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, yeah,
(33:19):
I want to treat him, but I want but I
wanted to be not to where we hate Costa. I
want Costa to have a rope of 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
(33:40):
like I wouldn't be mad at 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 in corn and Costa,
(34:01):
you know she was gonna break up with you because
you're a Cory 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's 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,
(34:24):
that's why we loved about her. She's like ten friends
and 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 hit It for Home with Leslie Jones
and Lenny Marcus. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be
(34:46):
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 her partner. That's my MP our voice.
But I like the whole introduction of the first You
have a great ease behind the microphone, for sure. You
(35:07):
know just this young woman is uh. I'm going to
talk a little bit Leslie Jones about her struggles and
her time and to Ghet over 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 them one times when I was like, thank God,
I am a comic, like and I'm not scared to
(35:28):
do this, like you know what I'm saying, seven Lounge, Fairfield, Alabama.
So Lenny, Yeah, for whatever reason, Leslie is in Birmingham.
When christ 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 any time, any place. She just wanted to go, Hey,
(35:52):
let's just go hang, is there a mike. I'm like, Leslie,
this is Birmingham on Christmas Eve? There is no comedy
club both 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 shit from
Aaron Aaronov Drive. In front of the old pizza hut,
there was a spot called the Seven Lounge. It was
(36:14):
the only open spot within that shopping plaza of every
other store is out of business. Seven Lounge holding the
lining out the door on christow full of black people
and up we're just going to watch stand up and
then one of them come up to Leslie. You want
to go and bless the people with a little bit
(36:34):
of time, It would be your honor. Hey, you know
she's not trying to perform, but you know the comedian,
and you yeah, let me go on up there. She
goes on stage and it was raining the whole night
and it's fucking leaking. The lad is leaking on stage
and people are breaking buckets up where she's mid Joe
and I'm tearing these motherfucker's up to roasted the room.
(37:00):
She didn't even do a joke. She just went up
there and said this shit raggedy. Good night. Yo. 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 mike.
I remember going to San Bernardini or I had a
gig in San Bernardini and we got there and that
(37:21):
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 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 Karryokavs. Like, let me do some time.
If I'm not funny, you can have his fifty dollars. Right, Yo,
(37:42):
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 have taken He was like,
I didn't 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
dollars and gave me fifty more dollars and then bought
(38:02):
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 microphonecause if you
really do, if you're really about your shit, you will
do your shit. I have performed on the street. I
(38:25):
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 role naturally into being in
(38:47):
that chair because there's a lot of the aspects of
stand up. You cannot use 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 insulate.
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
(39:08):
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 just it's not without the tool Beth 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 ship. Watch Lucille Ball watch
(39:30):
Carol Burnette. You know exactly what joke they're telling without
them even talking. Carol Burnette 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
(39:53):
the same stuff keeps rolling around and it doesn't seemed
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
(40:16):
be damned if Leslie Jones did not stand out on
that sidewalk on a rainy Birmingham night and chop it
up with the 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
(40:37):
at that level where you are in the game. You're
not even invite you can't even get backstage of the
comedy club in Birmingham to talk to somebody that's on
your level. So that level of mentorship and just get
to and I mean it's less. 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 this show, and I know
(41:02):
Chris Rock is 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
(41:22):
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,
(41:43):
I don't worry about you. And when you hear that,
it just puts you. It's like, oh, 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, Like when I when
I did my first update, When I did my first update, man,
(42:04):
I ripped that fucking that that dress show. Oh homie,
you think the fucking live was the dress is always
better than than the live to meet the dress for
the people. Oh my god, I didn't address that shit
just I'm talking about like fucking rattling motherfucker's was running
through the building like, oh fuck, who is this bitch?
Who was this bitch? Who is this bitch? Lauren called
(42:25):
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 motherfucking spot. Bitch.
You motherfucker can't tell me shit right. He called me
in that office and he was like, I'm so glad
that you did good doing a dress. Now do that
shit live. Get the fuck out. I tell you something,
(42:49):
Let me tell you something. I went in the hallway
and I can't. I almost felt like I had on
a uniform because I was like, all right, coach, that's
fucking good. You want to live, so let's go my
fuck Like it was like you had just let me
fucking like that's so. I like, like when he said that,
(43:12):
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 too. 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 if what can I do?
(43:32):
I'm like just sometimes very little tweaks or you know whatever.
But I'm not the Bobby Knights 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 shit I like to. Okay, but
then how did you How were you able to be
(43:55):
in a place where you could accept criticism, oh or
critique except critique, not critics, 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.
(44:15):
And then here comes this throwny dude that a comedy
feller with a slice of pizza in his hand to it. Nah,
it's not like that, honestly, Honestly, you if you're a
real comic, and I'd say this to everybody that does
this this craft and even the old heads or whatever.
If you're a real comic and you really love this craft,
I mean, you do this craft like I would do
(44:38):
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 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
(45:00):
way I could write it like like I am not
I make myself lad, 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
(45:23):
this is no I don't know 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 tacts 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 comics. You're gonna give
different tags to these white comics. These white comics gonna
(45:44):
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 funny. You're 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
(46:04):
motherfucking good, and you cannot do that by yourself, Jesus,
until people understand to reach out to the motherfuckers that
are going to help you, Until you make a train,
you can't. There's no eye in making it. Well, there
is two eyes, but okay, there's no I in success.
(46:28):
I should say that you can't do that ship 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 whoo whooping, and
like okay, well who helped you do that? Like yeah,
like make it. I can't explain it. It's just like
(46:51):
we need to learn how to grow, and the only
way to learn how to grow is to actually depend
on someone else said could help you, am I yeah,
I 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 struggle with
(47:13):
that to help to get help. Trusting yeah, trusting you
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 wurk, fuck you, Nick, 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
(47:34):
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 Sama tries to 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 micers
give me lines, you know what I mean, Like, thank
(47:56):
you very much, you know what I mean. It's like,
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? And she did it and
it's been successful. So points for Leslie. The podcast is
(48:16):
the fuckery and what y'all doing? The fun we're gonna end.
We're gonna end a little um where you all talk
about a lot of different current events and it's actually
a really good podcast because it gives a really good
winding to the dynamic of YouTube but also politically how
you two tend to see the world and current events.
So we're gonna do a little couple of fun reads
(48:38):
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 like a crossover episode like Chicago Fire,
Chicago PD. Okay, okay, First up, Rihanna's Have Time performance. Okay,
well I okay. First of all, because you went on,
you went in on, stephen A Smith say, and but
(49:00):
Rihanna was wonderful. I still wouldn't say what stephen A.
Smith said. I still wouldn't say that, but I 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 hold pregnant and then all
of the little white dudes in the white suits look
(49:21):
like that was some point of it. Yeah it, ohbody,
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
(49:43):
seed in her So the entire performance she got it bregnated. Okay, Okay,
which means which means somebody bust, bust, somebody roll dog
in the stadium. Exactly busted then in the middle of
the Not only that, I don't know my thing on
that is like multiple billions of points for shit. I
(50:05):
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 ken
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 this all time.
(50:25):
Both of us would fall off that platform. I don't
know how it would happened. They would have to change,
they would have to change wrap me to restlers 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, black, black, look at what
(50:46):
you got last? What say you? Since y'all missed this
topic on the show, because it came up in the
new cycle after your week at Coming Gone All, Ron
de Santis putting the end to African American AP history courses,
doing Black History Month. Mine, he's trying to get rid
(51:09):
of the stop the bokes. They have a stop Woke act. Well,
anything that makes white people feel bad. They gotta make
that ship illegal. And that's what the 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 then you don't need to learn this what we
(51:30):
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
Michael Max 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 fucking racist. You are a racist.
(51:52):
You are a motherfucking racist, and please pronounce, please announce
this ship while he's doing a speech. You are a
fucking racist. Ron the shit toast. You are mother fucking racist.
I'm not following that ditto, Okay, you know, well the
podcast is by the way, we'll be in Florida for
(52:15):
two shows saying about it. My fuck Florida fuckers need
to just float the fuck off into the fucking water
like fuck y'all. But after we perform, so we'll be
in Tampa and s come get we can't smoke, come
get the smoke. To be fair, the Santa's only one
Florida by like two points. There's a lot of good people,
(52:35):
you know. But and then you know what, and that's
what makes me mad though, that there are a good
a 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 sit your fucking ass, your complacent
fucking ass, and think that motherfucker's is gonna straight and
shit off of you. Get up off your ass, because
(52:56):
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're a dumb ass motherfucker, leslie,
you will be running. Sick of it. I'm sick of it.
(53:17):
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 makes you a fucking idiot?
Wait one more? One more? Sorry more, No, you're on
the floor. I'm letting you flow. I know when to
be quiet. Please last one. Welcome to my world, Roy
(53:37):
Chinese spy balloons fairer foul? How dumb are we? Fucking stupid? Ah? Wait,
let me tell you something. Right a Reagan president Carter
would have shot the ship. They would have shot it.
What they all shotgun went out there, but they all
fucking gun and shot that fucking balloon down. How fucking
(53:59):
dumb are you you? Dude? I mean, do you know
how many countries think that we are fucking complete idiots? Oh,
it's just the balloon. It's not doing nothing, and they're
mad at us now like the girlfriend gaslighting us. They're
gas lighting us like they're sitting back to him, sitting
(54:19):
in the pieces and sit some bullets that's inside of
that motherfucker. Don't listen. I couldn't be the president. I'm
telling you right now, yo, let me tell y'all, motherfucker something.
You've seen another balloon over this motherfucker? See what the
fuck happened. You see what the fuck happened? When I
say I love y'all, man, Broy, you are fucking the
best man. That's so funny that you've been through my
(54:42):
life periodically and just great. Yo. We used to let Leslie,
I used to live in the same apartment complex. Oh
my god, No, no, no, no, that's right, German way.
I think I maybe saw you twice as you still
with that girl. No, yeah, I didn't think that was
gonna last night. I saw y'all in the elevated once
(55:04):
and I was like, damn, that nigga looked like a prisoner. Okay,
and now it's time to go. Now, it's time to go, lady, situation.
Tell them my business business. The podcast is the Fuckery
catch Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus on tour. It is
(55:24):
one of the best stand up shows au there right now, Leslie, Lenny,
thank you for going beyond the scenes. Thank you, 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,
you know what he probably was fucking up. That's probably
(55:45):
why he you know I was sucking up. I will
on that. Let's stop talking. They playing the music. Listen
to the Daily Show Beyond the Scenes on the iHeartRadio app,
(56:05):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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