A conversation with some of the Just For Laughs 42 comedians
Jay Pharoah, 31, is a Saturday Night Live alum working on his second stand-up special which he will be showcasing at JFL42, in Toronto, on September 24.
The Strand : What’s your process for developing impressions?
Jay Pharoah: It varies from character to character…I typically watch interviews of the person for like hours and just try to pick up on what they keep doing repetitively, like what’s repetitive, what’s the pattern? Then I’ll watch what other people will do and I’m like, “Okay, they did that? Let me stay away from that phrase.” I don’t wanna come off as a clone because I want to be the original person of this.
Do you use the physical embodiment of characters as a steppingstone for your impressions?
Yeah, definitely. I mean that’s the first thing you get to see. If someone is a hundred yards away from you, and you can’t hear what they’re saying, you can pick [it] up because of how they’re moving. That will be one of the first observations that you’ll see, like the body will begin to change. When I turn that on at first it definitely puts me into character even before I say something. Like people start seeing that character even before I even start the dialogue, which is a sign of you really embodying the character.
Do you ever catch yourself [in your stand-up act] trying to put your impressions to the side and doing more ‘traditional’ or observational jokes?
I would say over the last four or five years, definitely since I recorded Can I Be Me?, there’s a super switch in the material. Impressions used to be the punchline for me but now they’re just the sprinkle, like I don’t need them. But I know people come out and that’s what brings them out. That’s what goes viral every time, it ain’t exactly me just riffing in the club, or whatever. I’ll do that and be like, “Yeah”, and put it up and it’ll be like twenty thousand views and then I’ll put a freaking impression up and it’ll be three hundred thousand, and I’m like “Yo, what the hell?”.
For that reason, do you think coming into comedy as an impressionist is a bit of a double-edged sword? You get a lot of exposure right away, but people begin to pigeon-hole you for your impressions?
Yeah. I mean with people that’s all they see from me. And of course, for the general population, all of them have seen my viral impression videos. When you come to my show, you see a stand-up show, you get a different experience, you get everything. You get observational humour, pop culture, family stories, everything that’s really poppin’ right now–my experiences. What you do is you just you gotta reel people in with your three-point shot. Bam! That’s my three–that’s my Steph Curry. But then when they come to your show, you dunk, you shoot from the foul line–swish–you know, alley-oop; you do all of that. You show them that when they come. Then when you have cultivated a bigger audience they know you underground wise for being a stand-up comedian. Cause I feel like I’m known more underground for being a stand-up comic even though people know I do it, or whatever, but I’m just saying most people are like “Ah nah, I don’t want to see this, I want to see the voices”. However, you take opportunities that you do have, and you show all your skills. So I would say the next special that I put out you’ll see the transition; you’ll see the growth, you’ll see more than just impressions that are not the punchline which are just sprinkled in to say, “Hey, I can do this, I know you want to see it so I’m gonna do it but, here, let me show you this is why.” And I think it’s the next special–the next couple of specials–that will really turn people into Jay Pharoah fans to know, “Oh, that’s what he does, that shit’s tight shit. I get it. Ok, that’s dope”. I hope they will see they like that. You know, Twitter’s a bitch.
I can’t wait for that to come out.
Yeah, man. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be Toronto–fun–I hope Drake shows up.
Have you met Drake before?
(Laughs) Hope he shows up, I hope Kawhi Leonard shows up. I know he’s leaving but he still gotta be living in Toronto. He still got a freaking condo out there; I know he does. He ain’t leaving yet, he’ll still be back-and-forth.
It’s such a difficult scenario too because he did so much for our team but now, we have to go “Okay, bye”.
He is the Jesus of basketball; he saves teams. That’s what he does. He needed to go to the Kings. He needed to save the Bills–go to the Suns. Like there’s so many teams he could be saving, so, he is Jesus, just like Drake. Drake is the Jesus of the rap world.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
