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James Edwards: You were born in Montenegro, raised in the concrete jungle of New York City, then ditched that scene for Austin, Texas. What was the breaking point in New York?

Leonarda Jonie: My breaking point in New York was Covid. I watched people who I knew become informant agents who wanted to know why I wasn’t wearing a mask. One day, I was out to lunch with a friend, she was Eritrean, and she had three of her friends – all black – come to meet us for lunch. At this point, I wasn’t very racially conscious, but one of the people there made it a point to bring up the fact that I was White when I was criticizing Democrats. She also said I had only criticized “people of color,” which I pointed out was false, as I had criticized both Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi. It was at this moment that I realized New York was at a tipping point, and I was not safe there, specifically because I was White with budding conservative values.

Edwards: Moving from New York to Austin put you in the heart of a new comedy frontier. What was the difference there?

Jonie: Austin was still liberal, but compared to New York, it seemed like a conservative stronghold. There was actual free speech there. I could make fun of trannies without someone wanting to kill me. It was also open. New York was shut down for so long, much longer than the rest of the country. Austin was up and running, and at the time, many comedians were similarly fleeing from liberal hell holes. We were all tired of being censored and shut down, so in the early days, Austin had a lot of promise. Sadly, it didn’t last.

Edwards: You slam modern sensitivity culture like it’s the enemy it is. From your perspective as someone raised in a different world—Albanian roots, upbringing in NYC—do you see the woke left’s obsession with feelings over facts as a uniquely American decay, or is it spreading everywhere?

Jonie: I would say it’s my Albanian roots, coupled with the fact that I internalized the pioneer spirit of America. The early Americans were frontiersmen. I believe the decay is not uniquely American, as we’re seeing it in Western Europe and even in parts of Eastern Europe. It’s a consequence of the liberal ideology that places equality as the supreme value, even above truth and definitely above your own people. There is something inherently rotten built into this ideological framework that crushes your ability to recognize and speak the truth about the way the world is when it contradicts what they want the world to be.

Edwards: You’ve mocked the left relentlessly and torn into their sacred cows. As a woman in comedy who’s not afraid to punch back, what’s the biggest hypocrisy you see in the so-called feminists who scream about empowerment but demand safe spaces and censorship?

Jonie: They only want women empowered to the extent that they will parrot back the controlling narrative and act to enforce cultural Marxism. When a woman does not echo their sentiments, they want to crush her as vehemently as they do men. This is usually when they will begin to identify her as a “White woman” with all the privilege that entails, as opposed to just a “woman” with its accompanying victim status. They do the same thing to black people who don’t parrot the race hustling ideology they want them to believe in, although those individuals are quite rare.

Edwards: Your comedy forces people to confront uncomfortable truths—whether it’s cultural taboos, political absurdity, or personal failings. You’ve built a huge following—hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Instagram and tens of millions of views—by being what the media calls “the most offensive female comedian out there.” In an industry where comics get neutered, how did you decide to go full throttle on the taboo stuff instead of watering it down for the blue-check crowd?

Jonie: Since when is comedy’s job to comfort anyone? Comedy is supposed to make you laugh. That’s it. That’s the only requirement: make you laugh. Whatever else you want to put on top of that is your choice, but if you fail the requirement – make people laugh – it’s not comedy. One common way comedians have done that is by pointing out absurdities and making fun of ridiculous aspects of society that we all pretend aren’t ridiculous.

Now, some people choose to make comedy a vehicle for propaganda. In the 80s and 90’s, this did not prevent comedy from being funny because the dominant culture – White, conservative, Christian America – was being attacked, so you could say anything and the more offensive the better, because again, they were using it as a vehicle to subvert the White majority order. Now that the cultural Marxists with their bullshit ideologies about race and sex equality are in power, they demand that you only use comedy to continue enforcing that structure. But how is that funny? You can’t be funny if you aren’t allowed to make fun of absurdities, and cultural Marxism is built on absurdity after absurdity. So now we’re in a “The Emperor Has No Clothes” situation, and the very people who are supposed to be pointing it out are out there reinforcing the lie and attacking anyone who dares to do so.

I’ve chosen to use comedy as a vehicle to tell the truth, and because our world is so steeped in lies and we’ve been lying for so long, sometimes just telling the truth is funny because everyone knows you’re not supposed to say certain things. My challenge as a comedian is often: how do I tell the truth and do it in a funny way? I could absolutely still be funny and stay within the lines of propaganda – the approved narrative – but I’m not interested in that. If I’m going to sell my soul, I might as well do it within a much more secure and lucrative profession. But I’m not interested in selling my soul. I’m interested in being free and setting other people free.

Edwards: Clubs and venues have started canceling your shows, fellow comedians throw you under the bus, and the outrage mob labels you dangerous. You’ve called yourself “the most canceled comedian in America right now.” Does that fire you up more, knowing you’re hitting nerves the safe, corporate-approved acts never touch?

Jonie: It’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I often wonder if there was a more intelligent way I could have gone about this so that I didn’t make it so hard on myself to do my job – telling jokes in a comedy club. On the other hand, when someone gets pissed off at me just because I’m saying something their cultural training tells them I shouldn’t be allowed to say, I want to tell them to fuck off. I’m not going to lie, it’s really satisfying to see all these loser comedians who threw me under the bus not be able to sell 5 tickets on their own. I want to go up to them and say, “I’m not the reason you suck. Even if I didn’t exist, no one would be coming to see you. Maybe instead of focusing on destroying me, you should focus on building yourself up, and then you wouldn’t need to worry about me.” But they choose activism – a fake kind of activism of trying to censor their competition because they know they don’t have what it takes to be a good comedian, and they’re avoiding confronting themselves.

Edwards: You’ve taken the heat—cancellations, blacklisting, the whole playbook—and come out swinging harder, building a loyal fanbase that packs houses (when allowed) and shares clips like wildfire. What keeps the fire burning when the establishment tries to memory-hole you?

Jonie: Two things: the first is the absolute retardation of the culture around me. The anger I feel at the insanity and the fact that I’m supposed to be okay with it lights a fire in me to oppose it. The second thing is the people who come to my shows and watch my content. I get 100x more messages of support than I do of hate. That tells me that I am not alone. That there are way more people who see things the way I do, and I am acting as a voice for the unheard.

Edwards: As we mentioned, you were born in Montenegro and raised in the so-called “melting pot” of New York City, witnessing first-hand what “diversity” does to communities. What message do you have for native-born Americans who feel like strangers in their own country, watching everything they built get handed over to outsiders?

Jonie: My heart is heavy when I see this happening to Americans. I have been adopted into America. That is the truth. America adopted me, and it was a huge gift that allowed me to become a fully actualized human being. That is the gift of America to those it embraces and those who embrace it. I am nearly certain that had I been raised in my country of origin, I would not have been able to become what I am now because the structures to do so do not exist there. My people, for various reasons, did not build those structures. There is also a certain ideology – again, the American pioneer – that lives in the air of America that allows a person to become fully actualized. Not every culture has that, not even every European culture. This is something that is uniquely American, and I do believe, sets it apart from everyone else. So when I see outsiders coming in and raping the fruits of this culture without feeding the soil that allowed those fruits to blossom, it enrages me. And on top of that, destroying the very structures that allow them to profit, all while hubristically chanting about their own superiority. I want to join the Americans in their crusade against these invaders and these traitors. It’s like, how dare you? Americans are a people and a race. They are not an idea. Not everyone can just “become” American. That’s about as ridiculous as saying everyone can become “Irish,” “Albanian,” or “French.” The cultural Marxists want to advance this new talking point, and notice they only do it for European cultures. How interesting that they deny the “Africanness” of the Afrikaneers. Then suddenly, race and biology are extremely real.

To native-born Americans who feel like strangers in their own country, I have boundless compassion. They did not ask for this. They did not ask to be overwhelmed by foreigners and have their country hollowed out by them. But I say the spirit that led your ancestors to conquer this land and create one of the greatest civilizations ever to exist still lives on in you. Despair will just hand your enemies an easy victory. So never despair. Take hope to the grave with you if you must, but you have to find the will to live and the hope that you will one day be the land of the free again.

Edwards: Where can people watch you, and are you scheduled for any public appearances in 2026?

Jonie: They should go to my website: www.LeonardaIsFunny.com. I have all my tour dates and content, including bonus content, there. And they can find me on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter at @LeonardaIsFunny.

This article was originally published by American Free Press – America’s last real newspaper! Click here to subscribe today or call 1-888-699-NEWS.

When not interviewing newsmakers, James Edwards has often found himself in the spotlight as a commentator, including many national television appearances. For more than 20 years, his radio work has been featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines worldwide. Media Matters has listed Edwards as a “right-wing media fixture” and Hillary Clinton personally named him as an “extremist” who would shape our country.