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Can I Be Me?

Jay Pharoah

Showtime · 2015 · 62 min

A sketch performer integrates celebrity impressions into his stand-up debut.

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Jay Pharoah built his early career on being other people, making his name on Saturday Night Live with precise vocal mimicry of Barack Obama and Jay-Z. The title of his 2015 Showtime hour, Can I Be Me?, sets up an expectation that he is stepping out from behind the voices. He doesn’t fully abandon them, but he figures out how to use them as structural tools rather than standalone acts. Instead of standing at the mic and delivering an isolated impression, he slides into character for just a few seconds to punch up a narrative.

Filmed at The Cutting Room in New York City between his fifth and sixth seasons on SNL, the set maps his technical skills onto club comedy. He uses Chris Rock’s cadence to explain the behavior of old men while recounting his teenage years washing dishes at Golden Corral. Later, he channels a Gollum and Smeagol split-personality argument to describe the specific paranoia of eating weed cookies. Pharoah frequently drops into voices like Dikembe Mutombo or Dave Chappelle just long enough to swat away a joke or act out a quick reaction before returning to his own perspective.

The set list

9 bits

  1. Dangerous weed cookies and Gollum dialogue

    Recreates an internal dialogue between Gollum and Smeagol in the mirror after eating a weed cookie, transitioning into an impression of Dave Chappelle safely getting baked.

  2. Washing dishes at Golden Corral

    Adopts Chris Rock's voice and cadence to illustrate how older men behave while recounting his past job as a dishwasher.

  3. Snapchat frustration

    Muses on modern social media apps, venting that he cannot use Snapchat to masturbate because posts vanish within seconds.

  4. Kanye West's phone call after the VMAs

    Details an 11-minute lecture received directly from Kanye West following Pharoah's impression of him at the VMAs, redeemed by one ridiculous phrase Kanye said.

  5. One Direction fandom at SNL

    Recalls witnessing real celebrity mania when 200 young female fans were uncontrollably screaming and passing gas during an SNL film shoot.

  6. Rap impressions and live freestyle

    Deconstructs rappers by performing Drake lyrics, comparing Lil Wayne's voice to a cricket, questioning Eminem's anger, and then spitting an original rap verse promoting his SoundCloud EP.

  7. Barack Obama and Eddie Murphy as president

    Brings out his celebrated Barack Obama voice near the end of the hour before quickly transitioning into his fantasy scenario of Eddie Murphy serving as president.

  8. Concerned white women named Karen

    Runs a recurring routine about a particular type of anxious white woman that pays off unexpectedly in the room.

  9. Surviving childhood bullying and developing impressions

    Opens up about weighing 250 pounds at age 17 and having no friends, explaining that he developed impressions because he had to invent people to talk to.

How it plays

Tone
Lively, candid, and dynamic.
On stage
High-energy, charismatic standup and master impressionist balancing rapid-fire vocal mimicry with personal reflections and hip-hop delivery.
Pace
Fast-paced and energetic, interspersing standup stories with brief, punchy one-to-two-minute impressions and spontaneous musical act-outs.
About
celebrity culture, relationships, hip-hop and music, social media and technology, childhood bullying and weight loss, family

What the critics said

Mixed critical response: Entertainment Weekly gave the special a C+, criticizing its conventional joke topics and calling it unfunny despite Pharoah's high charisma and spot-on impressions; conversely, The Comic's Comic praised his vocal precision, rapping, and vulnerability in revealing himself beyond his SNL work.

In the room: An intimate, enthusiastic club room crowd at The Cutting Room.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: allmovie.com, vulture.com, thefutoncritic.com, filmcentrum.nl, ew.com, thecomicscomic.com, themoviedb.org, shorefire.com.

Backstory

Filmed during New York City's Ebola scare at The Cutting Room, a club familiar to Pharoah from late-night Saturday Night Live after-after parties.

Details

Released
Taped
2014, The Cutting Room, New York
Runtime
62 min
Where
Showtime
Director
Ryan Polito
Topics
After
Jared (2024)

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