Leslie Jones

Long before she became a break-out star on Saturday Night Live, Leslie Jones was a standup comedian honing her craft on stages across the country. She spent more than two decades learning how to command a stage, work a crowd and pace a set so that laughs explode out of the audience. Jones brings her high-energy set to town at 8 p.m. tonight at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus (1 University Drive at Natural Bridge Road; www.touhill.org). The performance is part of the school's annual Mirth Week celebration, and tickets are $35.