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Time Machine

Leslie Jones

Netflix · 2020 · 66 min

Leslie Jones yells wild midlife warnings at the front row.

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Leslie Jones has never been a comic to hide her age, her exhaustion, or her physical limits. She walks onto the stage wearing a knee brace right over her denim and spends the hour screaming life advice at anyone under forty. The hook is her willingness to yell directly into the faces of millennials in the front row, warning them about the physical decay of middle age and the sheer embarrassment of their current outfits. She treats her fifties as a hard-won vantage point for looking back at her younger self and shaking her head.

Filmed at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., the 2020 special served as her first major project after leaving Saturday Night Live. Bizarrely, it was directed by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, though their presence is mostly invisible, allowing her loud physical delivery to take center stage. Jones works the room with the loose warmth of a club comic, leading a Tevin Campbell singalong, demonstrating proper hygiene for men, and recounting a failed attempt to seduce Prince at an afterparty. Her physical commitment to stories about battling sleep apnea or fighting an ex at a dog park keeps the crowd locked in.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Seducing Prince at a Grammys after-party

    Re-enacting an extended, fully choreographed dance to catch Prince's attention while balancing the perspectives of her 20-something and 50-something self

  2. Vagina aging from angels to dragons

    Contrasting young sexuality with older womanhood using dragon imagery and shouting 'Dracarys!'

  3. Aging, sleep apnea, and not being Sleeping Beauty

    Describing entering her 30s and realizing she will not find Prince Charming, re-enacting her nightly routine dealing with sleep apnea

  4. Flicking off false eyelashes mid-set

    Removing her peeling fake eyelashes directly on stage after discussing how difficult it is for men to date her, declaring 'If you can't ride the whole time, get off!'

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    The Time Machine closer

    Imagining traveling in a time machine to tell her 20-year-old self that she is going to make it, and visiting her 90-year-old future self

How it plays

Tone
Joyfully raw, outrageous, raunchy, and celebratory
On stage
Ebullient, brash, screaming, unapologetic, keeping it 100 with knee brace on display and high confidence serving as cheerleading rather than preaching
Pace
High-energy, physically active, combustible, featuring extended dancing and shouting delivery
About
Aging and evolving from 20s to 50s, Singlehood and dating, Anxiety of 20-somethings, Health, physical aging, and sleep apnea, Vaginal humor and sexuality

What the critics said

Praised for Jones's infectious joy, huge stage presence, and sharp reflections on aging, though critics noted the directors' visual choices and cutaways were fairly conventional

In the room: Loud, supportive, cheering, with direct front-row crowd engagement

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: pastemagazine.com, allmovie.com, latimes.com, vulture.com, decider.com, nytimes.com, metacritic.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Leslie Jones departed Saturday Night Live in August 2019 to focus on her film and standup career, teaming up with Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss due to her high-profile fandom of their show

Details

Released
Taped
2019, Warner Theatre, Washington
Runtime
66 min
Where
Netflix
Director
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Topics
Before
Problem Child (2010)
After
Life Part 2 (2025)

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