Jaboukie Young-White

“My parents are Jamaican immigrants and both have a multiracial background. They're Jamaican but my genetic makeup is West African, European, Asian.”

“That is what I got into comedy for, to be able to challenge myself and just grow as a comedian and find new ways to be funny.”

“I went to Catholic schools my entire life and never had anything close to a cis heterosexual sexual education let alone a queer one. Everything I learned was trial and error or the Internet or 'Talk Sex with Sue Johanson.'”

“Whatever I'm writing has seemed to be about something I don't feel I could freely express in my everyday life, and stand-up is a really effective medium for getting people to hear exactly the things and viewpoints that they normally don't want listen to.”

“I never feel like it'll be something where like, 'Aha, I've got it. I'm funny for the rest of my life. I don't need to tell jokes anymore. I just am comedy.'”

“I don't need a driver's license, my Uber driver needs a driver's license.”

“Once I started getting serious about standup I got a better handle on word economy and making jokes punchier, which translated well to Twitter.”

“For me, I didn't really have family that was in entertainment. I didn't really grow up with an uncle that's a TV writer or something, so I didn't even know that it was possible at all. I slowly learned more about it and ended up here. I want people to not be discouraged by the fact that they don't have a legacy in Hollywood that's bringing them in.”

“There's an infectiousness to comedy. It's meant to be shared and spread, so I feel like any message that you're talking about through the vehicle of comedy is going to get further than if you just straightforwardly said it.”

“Fact check: The examples of failed socialism that critics use are not socialist democracies but authoritarian states led by corrupt, ruthless, and paranoid dictators.”

“There's a lot of times when I just want to scream into the void.”

“I love St. Vincent. She is like our queer rock goddess and that's so needed.”

“When I started out in stand-up, I was already used to speaking in front of people, how to project, control my voice - a lot of learning curves I had overcome.”

“You want young people to vote, make Election Day a national holiday.”

“Living and performing in New York has allowed me to try my weirder and more experimental things.”

“I'm friends with Kehlani - she's a LGBTQ icon.”

“I think we're past the point in entertainment where you can have one thing and explode. If you have one thing, people ask, 'All right, what else?' You have to be multihyphenate.”

“But I do have one real problem with socialism: I like money.”

“On a 1 to 10 scale, I don't think that I could model, but I could definitely end a Republican senator's career.”

“Seriously, you can't talk socialism in America without going to the OG, Sen. Bernie Sanders.”