Emmy-winning comedienne, actress, voiceover artist, TV hostess and voice/incarnation of enthusiastic realness Leslie Jones is an icon for the wild and weird moment we’re all living in. The Tennessee native is coming to Nashville following the triumphant launch of her new weekly HGTV program Roast My Rental, a pragmatic show built around knowing exactly how much criticism people need to hear to get their homes and business plans in order. As funny and acerbic as you might expect, it also allows Jones to be an emotionally complex reality TV host, which isn’t an archetype the genre tends to uplift.
You see it in her stand-up specials (the most recent, Life Part 2, dropped in October of last year on Peacock) and the characters she brought forth during her time at Saturday Night Live. But it’s in her work covering the Olympics, recapping Game of Thrones back in the day on Twitter and as a Daily Show correspondent that you get what makes her such a dynamic presence: Jones is real. She doesn’t fake enthusiasm, she doesn’t pull punches, and she’ll tell you the truth, even if it hurts a little.
The Scene spoke with Jones by phone in advance of her Sept. 12 performance at TPAC’s Polk Theater.
Have you ever walked into a rental property for the show and then had to turn right back around and leave just because it was unsafe?
Yes. Actually, the episode that just came out is the one that almost broke me.
That’s horrible! I love what you do on that show, because not only do you go into these places and rightfully tell the folks who are running things about themselves, but you help them. They’re better off when it’s over than when they started, but the essential part of the process is that they needed somebody to tell them the truth about themselves.
Exactly. I think it’s just that a lot of people, they see their homes and their spaces all the time, and they become blinded to what is going on right there. A lot of people don’t smell their homes — they don’t smell the mildew, or see the dust or the crooked curtain.
Because of habit.
You would be so surprised.
People can get used to anything. But you and the show’s designer Jasmine Roth are doing good things for people — really helping them.
And we try to do it in a very affordable way. There’s so many things you can do, so many touches that you can do. We try and give them Leslie’s Tips, because there’s a lot of little things that they can do that don’t cost that much money. And there’s a lot that people haven’t tried because they don’t know about it.
Something else that I really like about what you and Jasmine do in transforming these places is that when you reveal what’s been done, you show how much it costs. And reality TV doesn’t usually do that, because they’re trying to keep that secret, like with who actually owns the space.
Right. We’re trying to speak to and help people who have homes and want to better them. We want to help people, middle-class people who just want to have something generational to keep going for their families; we’re talking to them. Honest people who work all day and who sometimes don’t necessarily keep up in the way that you have to with these places. Some of the stories and places we’ve shared have been very touching and emotional, and these aren’t grifters. They’re just in need of a little bit of help.
It just takes that little bit of guidance. And that’s what I dig about your comedy as well, because it’s also built on that little bit of guidance behind the laughs. And shame on me for not realizing this, but when I was researching for our talk, I didn’t realize you were from Tennessee.
Memphis, Tennessee. Absolutely.
And I know as a military family, y’all moved around a lot, but do you have any kind of special Tennessee feeling?
Memphis is actually where we also ended up living after my father’s time in the military. I was born there, but also ended up back there. But I will always remember Memphis — playing football on the street, riding my bike to the community center, running through the sprinklers, eating ice cream, just being out and doing things. We didn’t stay inside, because that was a punishment. I have so many of those kinds of childhood memories of Tennessee.
As a performer, is it more fun for you to just throw down onstage, or when you do voice work, like for animated projects and such?
Definitely onstage. Definitely. I need that instant gratification, to hear someone laugh out loud or to put a smile on their face. That will always be my go-to. If I don’t do anything else in this business, I will always be a stand-up comedian.
