Sam Jay, Cocoa Brown, Kim Fields And Zainab Johnson Talk Tackling Comedy as Black Women at ESSENCE Film Festival
essence.comPAUSE with Sam Jay and Bust Down), Kim Fields (star, The Upshaws), Zainab Johnson (standup comedienne, star of Upload), and Cocoa Brown (standup comedienne, star of 911), weighed in on the state of Black women in comedy and their individual journeys to the top of the game.Speaking about their beginnings in the comedy lane, both Johnson and Jay said pushing past their complacency into something new showed them their purpose as professional funny ladies.“I personally believe that I can be good at most things, because I can learn a lot,” Johnson said, admitting that she was unsure of her path for quite some time. “And I was good at a lot of stuff.
But the first time I did stand up, it felt different. It was like ‘oh…this is THE THING.’ So I kept going.” “I was at kind of a crossroads in life, and felt that I wasn’t living to my full potential.
I was trying to figure out how I was going to break out of the rut I was in,” Jay said of her journey into standup and comedy writing. “I always wanted to do it, but I was kind of afraid of it.
But I was in a place of ‘you’ve got to face your fears head-on,’ and the thing you’re afraid of is probably the thing you need to walk toward.
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