Comedian Leslie Jones cannot believe she’s famous. She actually said this in her latest standup special, “Life Part 2.” She asked the audience hypothetically, “Why would they give fame to me? Why? I still go to 7-Eleven in my pajamas.”

Jones sat with The New York Times to talk about her comedy special, her rise to said fame, being the oldest newbie on “Saturday Night Live” and more. 

Jones said that her rise wasn’t instant. After her friend entered her into a college “Funniest Person On Campus” contest at Colorado State University and she won, she spent years building material. This was because the then-up-and-coming comedian, Jamie Foxx, gave her some real talk. In her memoir, “Leslie F*cking Jones,” she said Foxx told her, “Go live your life and make some material — because right now you have none.”

Jones essentially quit comedy for 6 years while working odd jobs — from justice of the peace to bartender and cook — and allowed the comedy she lived to fill her pages. One of those odd jobs was a summer league basketball coach for 10- to 12-year-old kids at the local Y.W.C.A. The kids' small and mighty voices, were among many, who encouraged Jones to get back into comedy. 

Comedy legend Chris Rock later helped open doors for Jones. She detailed a story about chasing him down after a show, asking him for contacts. He told her she wasn’t ready. But in a phone interview with NY Times, Rock said, “Leslie is hilarious. She was always ready. The world wasn’t ready for Leslie Jones.”

Later, Rock urged Jones to audition for “Saturday Night Live” creator and producer Lorne Michaels even though she’d never performed nor written sketch comedy. Rock’s cosign was enough for Jones to join the show as a writer and cast member at 47-years-old. 

“I didn’t understand until I got there that being 47 was ‘older people,’” she said, laughing about being on a show where Kenan Thompson, who was 11 years younger than her, was considered the oldest cast member. “I was not the grown-up in the room. I never was. Kenan was the grown-up in the room. The only thing that I did was show them that at my age, you’re not old.”

It’s because of her time on “SNL” that Jones became known for confrontational humor. Jones would turn trauma into sharp material. 

In the interview, Jones also addressed racism and the online abuse she faced after her appearance in ‘Ghostbusters.’ Jones asserted that if people laugh, they’re listening. “I still can’t hate nobody, because when people come at me, I just feel sorry for them. To me, the fact that racism still exists is just maddening, because at this point, racism is being uneducated.”

“You know, I have a lot of MAGA people that are my fans because I speak their language,” Jones went on. “My demographic of people is, like, from 18 to 74. I have humor for everyone — I, at least, try to. When I’m writing my jokes, I write them like a human woman, because if it makes me laugh, it’s gonna make everybody laugh. I want to make everybody laugh.”