The past month has been incredible to me! I met and became friends with Jay Pharoah from SNL, who is one of the most down to Earth dudes you’ll ever encounter. He and his manager both liked me so much after I featured for him at Helium Comedy club in Buffalo that they gave me another opportunity to open for him in Charlotte, NC which was my first big road gig outside of NY. I had so much fun that weekend and found myself continuously thinking “Why can’t my life be like this ALL the time?”. I got to join Jay on some radio interviews and visit TV stations where he was doing promo for the shows that weekend and his new Showtime Special. We got VIP treatment at Carowinds theme park where we skipped to the front of the line for all of the roller coasters that day and got a behind the scenes tour that afternoon before returning to the club and getting paid to make people laugh that night! Heaven right? I know! In addition, I got to do some networking and make some good connections that should lead to me securing some more road gigs in the future. I’ll also be opening for Jay on another gig coming up next month.
If this wasn’t enough to say I had the best damn month ever, I just got offered another amazing opportunity this week. I will be opening for Damon Wayans next weekend! DAMON MUTHAF***ING WAYANS!!! This is huge to me if you can’t already tell by my use of caps and excessive exclamation marks!!!!!! I love the Wayans family so much and I always joke about how I want to be a part of their family. There’s so many of them that they probably wouldn’t even notice if I just snuck into one of their family functions and tried to blend in. So it’s pretty safe to say this is a dream come true to me. One of my roommates from college texted me earlier today when he heard the news to remind me about how we all used to watch Damon Wayans’ HBO Special in the dorm. I had no clue back then that I would ever get a chance to share a stage with one of my favorite stand-up comedians.
I remember I auditioned for a spot to open for Damon at Syracuse University when I first started doing stand-up about 5 years ago. They were picking 5 or 6 local comedians to do some short sets (5 mins) at his show and I didn’t get picked. I was bitter at the time, but now I’m perfectly fine with the way things turned out. I’m a firm believer in the “everything happens for a reason” theory and I just wasn’t supposed to meet him back then. I was fresh on the scene, only about 2 months in and honestly, I sucked. I thought I was good back then because I was “killing it” at the weekly open mic (rookie delusions of grandeur), but looking back… I was terrible. I’ll probably say the same thing about my present day self when I look back at the past again in another 5 years, but the takeaway here is that with hard work and dedication, my career has come full circle. I’ve grown so much since then and put in countless hours sharpening my skills to be in the position I’m in now. I’m getting a second shot at that chance that eluded me in the beginning, but this time on a much better platform.
Helium Comedy Club
Thursday 8/27 – Sunday 8/30
Tickets available HERE!
AJ Foster Comedy 