I'm still so young in stand-up years,
that I feel like I'm still probably figuring out
what my point of view is.
♪ ♪
Like I have jokes about, like, my mom died when I was a kid,
and I have jokes about that.
You know, and then my dad got remarried and we moved,
and part of the reason I started writing about that
was because this is some life I've lived.
It was just a lot that happened very early on
that kind of made you feel out of place and different,
and I think that's like the perfect fertilizer for comedy.
♪ ♪
- I went to Target not too long ago,
and when I went in there, like, I went to the register
and the girl looked at me and she was like,
"Um, how do you know when you're ovulating?"
And I was like, "Ma'am, we are in Target.
"Um, you can have that kind of conversation at Walmart.
"Like, you know, we don't talk like that here.
This is Tar-jay. Tar-jay is classy."
[laughter]
♪ ♪
The first time I ever got on stage was in 2002.
- You're a little teapot?
Is that what's going on right now?
- But yeah, but I can remember, like,
there were some jokes,
I'd say, it was probably around 2012-ish or so
when I started telling those jokes where I was like,
"Oh, I--I think I sound like myself.
"I think this sounds...
"this is a Mia Jackson thing.
Mia would say this thing."
But this is the problem,
I did not know the answer and I feel bad.
So as a woman, I was like,
"I've got to tell her something."
So I was just like,
"Girl, you can feel the eggs when they drop."
Um... [laughter]
And then when people started coming up, like...
I'd have, you know, some jokes that people would quote,
you know, and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, am I-- am I a stand-up now?"
She looked at me and she was like,
"Thank you," and I was like,
"Holy shit." Like--like she believed me.
Like I could tell this lady anything, right?
But I'm a good person, so like I--I walked away,
but I did get sad 'cause I was just like,
"I cannot believe we did not want universal healthcare
because this lady needs it, okay?"
Like she needs to be able to talk to a professional
because I'm not gonna always be there, you know?
[laughter]
- A lot of comedians spend a lot of time
doing what they think
the audience is going to think is funny.
But when you start doing what you know to be your truth,
and just because I'm a funny guy telling it to you,
now it's a whole different ballgame
because now I control it.
'Cause whether you laugh or not,
it doesn't affect the way I tell you this story
because it's my truth.
You know what I'm saying?
And that's the difference, uh, between, to me, you know,
telling jokes and doing stand-up comedy.
[somber music]
- Hurricane coming, huh, bruh?
Bring it on, dude.
If I go to heaven, bro, I'm good.
Do you know where we're going, man?
♪ ♪
Cheers, bro. - Thank you, sir.
- Appreciate it. Yup, have a good day.
♪ ♪
So right now, I'm taking a lot of stories
from my childhood, you know?
And it's funny 'cause I used to really hate my childhood,
it's kind of one of the things that just brought me
like a lot of depression
probably like in most of my 20s
was just leftover feelings from my childhood.
♪ ♪
But now, I'm able to really mine my childhood for things,
and--and turn them into joy.
People laugh at them,
and then it makes me feel different about it.
Yeah! Yeah!
♪ ♪
The truth of my childhood is almost rewritten in these bits
and it makes it, you know, not as painful or not as, uh,
just not as much as a hitch in--in who I am.
Our town was just poor black and poor white, you know?
Um, so I hear a lot about white privilege
and I'm just like, "Fuck, man...
missed that."
[laughter]
I mean, I knew some motherfuckers with sweaters...
[laughter]
But I was two tank tops in the winter.
You know what I'm saying?
And my black friends would get onto me, man.
They'd be like, "Look what you did to us, man!
Look what you did to us!"
I'm like, "Dude, do you think I would do all that shit
and move right next door, bruh?"
[laughter]
"Now are we gonna split these plums or not, man?"
[laughter, applause]