Jay Pharoah On “7PM In Brooklyn”

Qw7y Sfrapo

Carmelo Anthony and Jay Pharoah talk “SNL”, Jamie Foxx’s support, advising Pete Davidson, and respecting Matt Rife’s contribution to comedy on “7PM in Brooklyn”.

We share this week’s episode of “7PM in Brooklyn”, a Wave Sports + Entertainment Original, hosted by NBA legend, Carmelo Anthony, and multi-talented comedian and host, The Kid Mero.

This week, the guys are joined by comedian Jay Pharoah.

In the episode, Jay shares his journey to landing a spot on “Saturday Night Live”, revealing Jamie Foxx’s advice to be more social to help him secure more sketches.

Jay also candidly discusses the challenges he and Pete Davidson faced as younger cast members, often feeling isolated due to their age gaps with the rest of the ensemble.

He also reflects on the impact of Matt Rife, highlighting how Rife’s approach is reshaping the comedy landscape and opening doors for a new generation of comedians.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

  • (12:03): JAY WANTED PROVE HIMSELF AS A COMEDIAN AFTER DOING AN “SNL” SET WITH T.I. AND 50 CENT IN THE AUDIENCE

JAY: “I’ll tell you what I remember. I remember like you’re saying, the celebrities that are there and you don’t know who’s going to be in the crowd and TI was in the crowd that night, as I remember it was T.I., I remember 50 [Cent] was there. I didn’t know they were there until the end. So I mean, shoot, I don’t know if I would’ve known. Maybe I wouldn’t have said anything…It was crazy when I watched it back…I said, lemme not joke [about] T.I, you get your ass whooping and shot at the same time…Because that’s the thing, a lot of people was always trying to disregard the things that I was saying but when I tell the truth, you got to listen and pay attention to it…it was an experience because from that point I felt like I had something to prove and I had to break barriers within myself after that just because of the caliber of comedians that I was up there with and I thought my set–I ran into New York and I was killing, I went down in the south, them niggas did not like that. I was like, oh god and my parents were in the crowd…I was like, oh shit, I told y’all not to come, but it is fine. They wanted to support me but that was, yeah, that was long, long, long, long, long time ago. We have evolved like Pokemon but I’m telling you, bro, that really made me start upping my stuff. I felt like I had something to prove–to myself, to the world, and I just wanted to be better.”

  • (16:47): JAY SAYS HIS IMPRESSIONS ARE WHAT SETS HIM APART AS A COMEDIAN

JAY: “I think that’s what really sets me apart, because there’s always been comedians that have done them. When I got on ‘SNL’ and then the videos went viral before that, they hadn’t seen certain ones or ones done before to that caliber and to the point where I could talk to you like that person all damn day and then a lot of the times people just have a couple of phrases that they use and then it’s just a little sprinkle. I give you the whole buffet, I’ll talk to you. I sit here, talk to y’all like 50 [Cent], this whole interview if I wanted to. You know what I mean?”

  • (24:26): JAY ON DECIDING BETWEEN HIS DEALS WITH FOX, SCOTT STUBER, AND “SNL”

JAY: “My sister sold her jewelry that she had. So, we had gas money to get up here to make the money. So we would stay up here for weeks at a time and then she get 10% and what I’d be getting a couple of stacks…during that time, all this stuff is going viral. By that January, 2022, I had, who was it? NBC–did an audition for them, it was called ‘Pink House’. It didn’t get picked up but what it did was it gave me a holding deal. So I got a holding deal from NBC that was happening. We still traveling up doing Chitlin’ Circuit, then Fox offers me a deal. So I got a deal with them and then Scott Stuber wanted to do a pilot for me going to a private school. We never got that going because I said, man, if he was going to do a pilot, shoot it, and we’re going to try to shop it, but if it doesn’t get picked up, you get shelved. You know what I’m saying? You’ll have to wait for years until you get another chance again. So I said, let me get on a show that I can that has a solidified fan base and I can take that fan base, get off the show and leverage it and then do my pilot or whatever. That September, ‘SNL’ gave me a deal. So it was three– it was like they were all competing and I just went with the best one man.”

  • (36:35): JAY ON RESPECTING MATT RIFE FOR HIS BREAK THROUGH IN COMEDY

JAY: “Matt Rife– you can look up to his come up. What he did, he was out during the pandemic. He was doing shows every week. I saw him out there. He was working his ass off and when you see somebody that puts in work like that, that gets it, you got to respect it. You have to respect i and for the comedy that he’s doing, he made all comedians do crowd. We weren’t doing videos with crowd work before Matt Rife was up here. Nobody was–that wasn’t really okay. You come to a show and see that, but that wasn’t something that was going to go viral. You was going to put on the net, I’m going to put that on my special, you put in whatever but the whatever moments have become–that’s what standup comedy is to the general populace and if you can move the needle like that, you gotta respect it. I respect everybody that’s able to break through and get to arenas and go to theaters and get to stadiums. Anybody, I mean Kat [Williams], I look up to Kat, I look up to Kevin [Hart]. Eddie [Murphy] did it, Eddie, of course, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, all of these guys.”

  • (39:50): JAY ON BEING AN INTROVERT AND HOW JAMIE FOXX ADVISED HIM TO BE MORE GREGARIOUS AT “SNL”

JAY: “Jamie was a fan when he was on ‘SNL’ back in 2012 when he hosted, he said, Hey man, you so God dang talented man. He said, man, why you ain’t in more sketches? I said, man, I don’t know. He said, man, maybe you just gotta party, man. When he says party, he’s like, yo, hang out with Lorne [Michaels] and all of them just see what they’re about, just survey the environment, get more acquainted with folks…because I’m such an introvert man and I’m so used to being by myself so it’s even hard sometimes. It’s hard to me to just talk to people regularly because I’m so introverted and I do it for a living. I talk to people for a living so he was saying you might want to break that and be a little more gregarious because if you are, then maybe folks will see you and they’ll start putting you on more stuff.”

  • (46:42): JAY SAYS HOW HE AND PETE DAVIDSON FELT LONELY AT “SNL” BECAUSE OF THEIR AGE GAPS WITH THE REST OF THE CAST

JAY: “I felt so alone on that show. I ain’t really didn’t have nobody, it was nobody my age. Everybody was at least five years or older than me. Pete Davidson came through. He was a few years younger than me. He’s six years younger than me. So it was like that with him too. I felt it go to him. He was like, everybody, I don’t know everybody if they like me. I’m like, look man, they like you, bro. No, I don’t know though. I’m just here. I’m like, look man, dude, listen do your weekend updates and keep doing that, keep being likable”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *