Jay Pharoah

“A rap is a tweaked version of comedy, because comedy came first. People weren't spitting before they were doing comedy. Comedy has been relevant for years. It's the same art form, pretty much. Discovering that and applying it, I think that has made my stand-up better.”

“In the clubs, it's all out and you can say whatever as the character. TV has standards.”

“I will definitely drop bars, but that's, like, a few minutes of my show. I do a part of my set where I do that, and then I'll get back to the jokes. All the older people will look like, 'What the hell is happening?' The younger people are cheering, and the older people are like, 'I'm scared. I don't know what's going on.'”

“I'm a chocolate guy.”

“I'm known for impressions and family stories.”

“I went from 250 to, like, 175 in three and a half, four months. And then I ended up graduating with honors. I went from a 2.4 to a 3.06 in a year. It's funny how those two are related. I don't want to say that if you lose weight, you'll get smarter, but... well, it worked for me.”

“I am the product of hustlers who taught me how to do it. They gave me a hustler's ambition. Not a bad thing to get from your parents. But hustling only gets you so far. You have to trust yourself. And you have to be ready to fall on your face and be okay when it happens.”

“I feel like I appreciate and love myself a lot more than I used to. At one point, I would look in the mirror; I just hated what I saw... and finally, when I was 17, I built some confidence, and now I try to keep that confidence going.”

“Most people think I'm from New York or something. I was, like, 70 pounds heavier than what I am, and I didn't get no girls... I was definitely more on the deep fried crab than I was on the baked chicken side.”

“The best comedians and the best rappers can make you laugh and can make you cry... I believe I've been blessed with that gift to make you do just that.”

“I've never seen Kendrick Lamar crack a joke, and I've met him, but I'm sure he's hilarious, too, just because he's so good at rapping. J. Cole is a funny guy as well. Drake is funny. But who's the funniest guy I've met who is a rapper? I would say 50 Cent.”

“Making people laugh is the greatest gift you can give, so I'm never going to stop that.”

“When I got to the stage, it was like a release, you know what I mean? Because it was like, 'Oh, people like me. People like me. They're listening to what I have to say. They're not judging me on how I look; they're judging me on what I'm saying.' So to me, that's what's worth it, and that's what comedians have.”

“You've got to know how to hustle. I got a lot of inspiration from my parents. My father was definitely a hustler. With six kids in the house, you always got to be hustling. And my mom, she's got sick work ethic.”

“Snoop Dogg is hilarious. T.I. is really funny. Who else? 50 Cent is hilarious. Jay-Z is funny. I've met him, but he's funny in interviews. He was funny when I saw him, too. Ludacris is funny. Everybody is. Rappers are funny, a lot of them.”

“I've been rapping since I was 13.”

“My family has always supported me a thousand percent. My sister once sold her jewelry so I could pay for gas money to get up to New York for a show. And that's amazing. But you get too much of that, you start depending on it.”

“Comedy did a lot of things for me. I mean, 'SNL'? Not too bad. Not too shabby with this comedy thing. I have really worked on my comedy and really upped it some notches.”

“The black comedians meeting? Oh yeah, we hold one every year at Eddie Murphy's house.”

“My mom always tells me, 'You need to take a week for yourself and just chill,' but I don't, man. If you want to be successful, I don't think you should take a day off.”