Jay Pharoah et al.

At 7 p.m. April 8, comedian Jay Pharoah greeted the audience in the Center for the Arts (CFA) by walking out on stage in a Goku ultra instinct jacket, with no opener. The audience cheered as he landed center stage and asked a question: “Does anyone know who I am?” 

Pharoah went on to talk about college relationships and why they don’t make sense, then critiqued President Donald Trump in his jokes, with a little impression of his dance and thanked the white people in the audience for laughing at it. More impressions followed as he did a fairly long ‘Stephen Hawking on the Epstein Island,’ which had initial laughter, but received a confused reaction by the end of it. 

He then showed an impression of Former President Barack Obama, a person drowning in Dubai, UAE, as well as a “Jamindian”  — Jamaican-Indian — Kamala Harris. These jokes were met with mixed reactions from the audience, as some laughed and many looked over at their friends with a face that screamed ‘yikes!’ 

After Pharoah was done “testing the waters,” he went on to call out the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), making another statement that everyone applauded, then he did an impression of a Latina woman asking him if he wanted to be pegged, in Spanish. The set was filled with this kind of whiplash. 

After asking everyone to forgive Will Smith, and comparing Jada Smith to Tupac, he went on to speak on his experience being drugged. Apparently, drinking a glass full of liquid molly that you thought was champagne, can give you erectile dysfunction.

Next, he told the audience he had never been to a “Diddy party” to which many cheered. He critiqued how Sean Combs, more commonly known as P. Diddy, was arrested for solicitation and racketeering, instead of the assault. He then did an impression of Usher singing at a “Diddy party.”

He moved on to talking about his love of feet, which was met by cheer from the crowd. So he upped the ante, saying that he loved hot sweaty feet, which was received with shock. Continuing the shock, Pharoah did an impression of Jay-Z hiding in a tree and Kevin Hart at a “Diddy party.”

This is when the heckling began, audience members started shouting out questions from him, after he replied to one question from a group of guys he dubbed the ‘feet boys.’ The next 10 minutes were just genuine conversations about basketball, from Lebron James’ legacy, to Luka Dončić, finally ending with Pharoah doing an impression of Shaquille O’Neil and Charles Barkley making a baby.

He next strung together some act-outs of him kidnapping baby geese, talked about travelling to Greece, and shared a story of a sex worker who didn't charge him enough. He finished with impressions of every main cast member in the 1995 film, “Friday.”

Roughly 16 impressions later, he took his final minutes to really come down and get real with the audience. Pharoah opened up about his insecurities, telling everyone that they should feel okay and comfortable as themselves. He spoke about the impact of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) — now formally known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) — on his life, and how he viewed it as his superpower. He spoke about his experience with bullying, and told a story of how his naked father saved him from a bully at the bus stop. He told the audience to enjoy their college years, to have fun and just be themselves.

He then closed out the show with an impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger rapping “Is That Your Chick?” By Memphis Bleak. 

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