Name: Big Jay Oakerson Learned Comedy In Black Rooms | Are You Garbage
Uploaded: 2024-11-10T14:00:17.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Big Jay Oakerson Learned Comedy In Black Rooms | Are You Garbage' from Are You Garbage Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Big Jay Oakerson Learned Comedy In Black Rooms | Are You Garbage' from Are You Garbage Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-10. Transcript available.

I always say that's one of my favorite things.
It's so funny how long you need to kind of get comfortable on stage
as you move through this or whatever.
But I'm saying when you get on now, not comfortable is the wrong word,
but take a second to kind of warm into it and stuff, what you're doing.
I didn't know any of that.
So I would go up there and just, like I said,
a new five minutes every week, I thought, for sure.
And I was holding myself to it and then adding more and more.
I was just learning.
I was like, oh, they seem to like it if I really yell that punchline.
The only thing I didn't do was pick up the vernacular.
I always just kind of talked the way I talked.
But, I mean, how much I was mimicking,
which is what I did a lot when I was a young comic too,
when I would see somebody I liked, I would kind of almost like,
I guess probably on purpose, but not like pick up their canes,
but even like the Mike Cold or whatever the fucking thing.
So it's like this tape, what I love about my set on it that I have
is a sleeveless shirt.
Oh, my God.
Malone Sport, which is a big and tall brand.
So that's the incarnation of Jay Oakerson at this time,
when you first got there.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So what would you categorize that as?
Like style?
This wasn't the hip-hop Jay Oakerson.
No, this is hip-hop.
This is hip-hop Jay Oakerson.
Yeah, yeah.
No, it's the benefit I had over Kurt.
Kurt was a leaps and bounds, world's better writer of jokes.
He's dressed normal.
Than he was.
But he would go up there.
You'd take this in just a Coral Malone jersey comes up, by the way.
Malone Sport, big and tall.
But hey, and Kurt would go up there and like have these great jokes.
And like it just didn't matter because like he would get up there right away
and they'd go, look at his khaki pants wearing, goofy motherfucker.
And then Kurt would just be like, so hey, guys.
I was walking down the street the other day.
Yeah, the scouts are firing guys for being gay.
They're just going to his joke.
And he had such good jokes.
But they just wouldn't.
And this one set I have of Kurt that's great is he's going.
And it's actually not a bad set.
The joke's doing well, but you just see his thing.
He's just frozen in place telling his jokes.
And we've been at this club 4,000 times at this point.
And he asks after every punchline that goes good, he's hoping to God that's his
out.
So he asks if the light is for him after every single.
Any light.
Talk about looking for a club.
There was the red light, direct center.
You knew what the light was, but he would go, he goes,
hey, a lot of the cab drivers always smell like they're wearing the same cologne.
Calvin Klein's hoagie.
And then they would laugh.
And then he'd go, is that for me?
Is that for me?
Guys, can we wrap this up?
Somebody lighting a cigarette in the back.
Oh, keep going.
Okay, I'll keep going.
And then he would just like start his next joke.
And then after that joke, is that another one?
Okay, I'll do another one.
Me, I am Chris Rock, bring the pain, walk in the stage, pacing.
And this motherfucker right here, and this guy right here.
And oh man, this guy right here goes, you know you're going to fuck that bitch
later.
You know you're about to fuck that bitch later.
If a bitch is going to fuck you, she lets you know.
And I'm just doing like, aw.
Did you ever use the stool as a telephone?
No, never telephone.
That's a good move.
That is a good move.
What?
Never telephone.
That's a home run right there.
But I fucked it so much.
You humped it, yeah.
I fucked it.
I did a lot of sassy head movement.
It was so many misdirections.
It's all you have is like the most basic level of comedy.
And what year is this?
99.
99?
That's when I started, yeah.
And then my first show.
Jesus.
My first show away from the Laugh House, Ture says to me.
Now, were you doing any rooms of white people at the time?
I didn't even know what the.
That didn't even.
You're just doing the Laugh House.
Also, I was like, where else do you go?
Picking up like, oh, this is so-and-so.
After like, you know, a year or so.
Were there bar shows in Philly back then?
So, I wasn't in that circle.
I didn't know the Scarpatti.
I didn't know him.
You didn't know the comedy works?
I didn't know the comedy works.
Scarpatti?
Andy Scarpatti.
He owns, there used to be eight comedy works.
The one, the.
And Paul something, the other guy was.
No, they're not comedy works.
Comedy cabarets.
Yeah, comedy cabarets.
We were trying to ask you about that.
Did you ever do the Northeast Room on the boulevard?
So, that's what was funny was.
Then we started figuring out, oh, there is some play.
Doc Watson's had like a mainstream open mic that I would go do.
Now, what's funny was, we do that first year.
We're just doing black shows.
And who's the crew?
Meet Kurt and Kev.
And did you guys meet there?
Yeah.
I started.
Three weeks later, Kevin started.
And then me and him became kind of immediate friends.
And then Kurt started like three weeks after that.
Like a few weeks after each other.
This is 1999.
1999.
Jesus.
And yeah, it was so weird.
And then Kurt, what's funny was, Kurt had these jokes.
So, when Kurt got to, we're doing a year of this black club where Kurt's
struggling.
I'm learning how to do pretty well.
His jokes are great.
It's like swinging with two bats.
This isn't taking away from Kurt.
The jokes are so brilliant.
Yeah, of course.
Especially for his age.
And he's learning how to perform a little bit more and stuff.
I always say the most saving grace for Kurt, I remember this vividly.
I mean, the week before I met Keith, and I don't think it's exaggerating by
much.
Before I met Keith Robinson, it was like kind of the catalyst to get me and me,
Keith, or
me, Kurt, and Kevin all up to New York.
Right.
He was the kind of guy who pulls that out.
A week before that, Kurt got to the laugh house one night and was telling me,
he goes,
I'm going to try this new thing tonight.
And he goes, and I swear the wording was, you know when you're taking a doo-doo
in the
bathroom and you hope nobody notices your shoes?
Because they know they're going to notice.
And I was like, doo-doo?
I go, oh no, Kurt, you're starting to, like, you're starting to waver on what
you're, I'm
like, I'm already doing what you're doing.
I'm a lost soul.
I'm already doing this.
Like, don't do what I'm doing.
Because I'm going up there.
I'm already like, DJ, put that song on again.
I would slap my mama to this fucking song.
And I'm doing it.
You're doing that?
Yes.
Oh, Jesus.
You got a pant leg rolled up?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All my jeans, too.
Yeah.
It was, yeah, I went for it.
One time I wore a Warwick Dunn jersey and some wide receiver gloves.
Wait, what?
Yeah, I'm.
It was so much.
Wide receiver gloves?
Gear's hot, dude.
Gear's hot.
Gear's hot.
Gear is dope.
You guys, you just go.
Hold on.
You just keep progressing.
You got, like, a mouth guard and a helmet on.
Blue 42.
He goes, that was a hell of a set.
Take the snaps off.
Woo!
You're pulling.
He still wears gloves.
You got the Gatorade bottle?
Hold on a second.
Okay, now we're getting into it.
Sure.
So, you went to a sporting goods store and said, give me a pair of wide
receiver gloves.
Yeah.
And you wore them.
I was at Modell's.
Modell's.
Got to go to Modell's.
Well, Modell's, before women knew things about sports at all, you can go to Modell's.
And go get a $350 real Eagles jersey, the highest level stuff, switch tags and
bring it to a girl.
They don't know.
They're like, wow, these Jordans are only five bucks.
And you're like, crazy, right?
This store is the best.
That's, I mean, you, that's next level dirt bag.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A little label switching.
Well, when we used to go, my friend figured out, they worked at a drugstore and
they had a shrink wrapper and they had a machine that could open up Sega
Genesis games.
The actual cartridge and take out the chip itself.
Wait, what?
Wait, the cartridge.
So, you know, like a Genesis cartridge, right?
Yeah, sure.
There's these screws, a special thing you can do.
Yes, in the back.
And you can take it out.
So it comes in half.
It comes in half and you can just take out like the game is a chip.
Yeah.
No plastic around it.
And then put the plastic back, put it back in the case, shrink wrap it at work,
and then bring it back to Toys R Us and just get money back or whatever.
It was.
That's not bad.
Crazy scams.
It's a good scam.
How would you play the game, though?
It could just plug in, but it didn't have like, it didn't say whatever.
It didn't say, yeah, it just looked like a bunch of, it looked like a micro,
like an SD card almost, but like this big.
And you'd have to like push it to the top.
Yeah, put it to the top and just play NBA jams.
So we, oh, so what I was dressing like was just everything I saw.
I, this was coming off of, it's a very interesting time in comedy that I came
in.
Very.
Because it was coming right off of, but still very popular was Def Jam style
comedy.
Of course.
Black comedy was the boom at that point.
Comic View was doing numbers.
Huge, yeah.
Def Jam was killing, making stars out of these guys.
I mean, Chris Tucker, all those people came out of Def, so that was a thing.
Everybody murder.
I knew enough to be self-deprecating, that's all I really had, to keep him on
my side.
But it's still like, you know, and if you're going to be eating a bitch's pussy,
you've got to be eating it all like blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, you have to, it's like, it's like a braggadocious, it's what the rap
was at the time.
Sure.
Everything's like, I got money, I get pussy, I'm rich, I blah, blah, blah.
I got money, I got money, I got money.