Actress, stand-up comedian and Emmy award nominee Leslie Jones performed live comedy for a nearly full house at Keene’s Colonial Theater on Friday, March 28.
Jones, a veteran of “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show” and various films including director Paul Fieg’s 2016 comedy “Ghostbusters” was joined by fellow comedian Lenny Marcus, with whom she co-hosts the podcast “The Fckry with Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus.” Marcus performed a short stand-up routine as an opening act and is a fellow alum of “The Daily Show.”
The performance was part of a larger comedy tour that brought Jones and Marcus to venues throughout New England, including a performance at the Nashua Center for the Arts that took place the previous night on Thursday, March 27. Jones’ performance at The Colonial marked her final show of the tour in New Hampshire.
In 2024, Jones was awarded Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series by the NAACPs Image Awards for her work on “The Daily Show.” In 2021, she received Best Comedic Performance from the MTV Movie and TV Awards for her work in the romantic comedy “Coming 2 America”, as well as receiving Best Female Action Hero at the Women’s Film Critics Circle Awards in 2016 for her role as Patty Tolan in “Ghostbusters” (2016).
The performance, which was sponsored by Great Eastern Radio, is part of a larger tradition of bringing prominent acts to the Colonial’s stage, according to Executive Director Keith Marks.
“We’ve had national and international names throughout the years. The theater is 101 years old, and we’ve been around since the nineties as a non-profit arts organization,” said Marks.
“Prior to that, we’ve had nationally touring acts like Bonnie Raitt, Phish, B.B. King, so [The Colonial Theater] has been on the map for a while in terms of bringing in national artists,” added Marks. “One of the things we love is bringing a wide, diverse swath of artists such as children’s programs, comedians, international talent.”
Marks expressed hope for a deeper relationship with the Keene State College community.
“We’re really excited about the future of the organization, and hopefully we can bring Keene State students out to experience what we have to offer,” said Marks.
Community member Marlon Gonzalez is a fan of Jones and said he was excited to see she was performing in Keene.
“We just wanted a fun night here locally, and we heard she was coming and wanted to see her perform. It was our first time seeing her performing live, and her material was funny and struck a chord with a lot of things that are going on,” said Gonzalez. “She was absolutely hilarious.”
Gerit Quealy traveled from New York to see Jones perform.
“I saw her show in New York, and I saw her show in Washington, D.C., and wanted to see her here too to see if it was the same. The last third of the show was different, and I thought it really rocked,” said Quealy.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at
rpacheco@kscequinox.com
