00:00A big part of my style as a comedian is that I come out as this feminine, adorable character
00:07to disarm the audience with my charm and my wit, and then I'll surprise them with the
00:15darkness that lies within.
00:16The other day, I was in the train station.
00:19A man came up to me and asked me for directions.
00:22Okay, so I gave him the wrong directions.
00:25Everything's good.
00:27I'm not Sacagawea.
00:30Right?
00:31I'm Jo.
00:33Simple as that.
00:34I like to get into difficult topics about mental health or sexual violence.
00:39I will confess things on stage to 300 people that I won't confess, like, one-on-one.
00:43My name is Jo Sunday, and I'm trying to make it as a comedian for a living.
00:53Come to Freak Latte tonight.
00:55It's going to be really special and really fun.
00:57And I'm not a TikToker.
00:59I'm someone respected in my community.
01:03I respect TikTokers as well.
01:05So I just, as I often do, debase myself on Instagram stories for the purposes of promoting my weekly
01:14open-mic comedy night.
01:21I'm Jo Sunday, and I live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York City.
01:27I moved to New York because I knew that I would already have community here.
01:33I already had so many friends who lived here, and also to pursue my hobby of comedy.
01:38I think the truth is that comedy has grown into a bigger part of my life than I ever thought
01:43possible.
01:43I was born in Ghana, which I love so much.
01:46I call myself, like, a baby immigrant because I moved to the U.S. when I was just three.
01:51In Ghana, I would speak a language called chi.
01:53I've realized lately my chi's not that good because I only learned from my mom.
01:58And so I don't know how to say, like, swear words or talk about politics.
02:01I mostly know how to say stuff like, get up, fool.
02:10Those are the covers, by the way.
02:12My childhood was, like, actually quite serious.
02:15And I was a somber kid and a melancholy kid.
02:19So mature for your age, like, that means you are a sad kid.
02:22And people are worried about you.
02:25I have white grandparents because when my parents moved to the U.S.,
02:29they were, like, adopted by an elderly white couple at their church.
02:33My white grandma, Lena, tells the story that when I was a kid,
02:37I would go up to people and I would sing them a song.
02:40They'd say, oh, great, love your song.
02:42And then I would say, so what are you going to sing for me?
02:46Hearing my grandma, Lena, tell that story to other people,
02:50I think is the first time I realized my choices could make other people laugh.
02:56And I got very hooked on that feeling.
02:58My uncle is a pastor in Ghana.
03:00And when people don't come to church, he goes to their house and asks them why.
03:10When I grow up, I want to be just like him.
03:13A community builder.
03:16I went to University of Chicago.
03:18And Chicago just is such a big comedy city.
03:21I wanted to join this improv group called Off Off Campus.
03:25Off Off Campus used to be the Compass Players.
03:29Many people from the Compass Players found the Second City, which, like, then grew into SNF.
03:34I knew I wanted to go to this school because it was so connected to comedy history.
03:39And I knew that I loved laughing and I loved being an off-off.
03:43I loved long-form improv.
03:45And we were really intense about it.
03:48We took ourselves really, really seriously.
03:50I wasn't quite good enough, actually, at improv.
03:54So I started doing stand-up because I was like, I think I need something else.
04:00I like to walk home because I like to cause drama and strife to my friend group.
04:06People hear that.
04:08They see how I dress.
04:09They tell me, get home safe.
04:13You guys know about that?
04:14Get home safe.
04:21It's an interesting one, for sure.
04:23Get home safe?
04:24Yeah.
04:25It's polite.
04:27Get home safe?
04:28That sounds nice.
04:29Get home.
04:29It's just, it's not up to me.
04:35I'm doing pretty classic, like, stand-up punchline.
04:39This is who I am.
04:40This is my life.
04:41And, like, let me find ways to tell you about it and surprise you and delight you, I hope.
04:46The lie of stand-up is always that, oh, I just showed up here by accident and I had this
04:53fun story to tell you for my day.
04:54But actually, the truth is that I've meticulously chosen every single word that I'm saying.
05:01The things that I'm saying in stand-up are extremely, extremely on purpose.
05:06And I think that there's, like, a poetry to that.
05:08And comedy's so cool because if I don't like how something went, I can go to another show
05:13the same night.
05:14I can get up the next night and do it again.
05:15And I can get up the next night and do it again slightly differently.
05:21I have a day job.
05:23I work for a health-related non-profit.
05:25That's how I pay my rent, my bills.
05:27That's how I live.
05:28In the most awesome Joe Sunday month, from hosting shows and performing on other people's
05:34shows, I think I'd make about $500.
05:36I'm a stand-up, an actor, and a writer.
05:40I think my career dream would be to be a showrunner of an amazing TV show.
05:46I'm really inspired by Quinta Brunson, Mikayla Cole, or Phoebe Waller-Bridge with Fleabag.
05:52My truest dream is to have the Joe Sunday Show, the Joe Sunday Project.
05:57My true goal or realistic goal is to be able to live in a beautiful brownstone, wear fun
06:04outfits all the time, buy all the books I want, and be able to buy the fancy jam at the
06:10store.
06:11There are so many people who want to have creative careers.
06:16There's no limit to who can create and how much we can create.
06:20But I think when it comes to having an actual career in this industry, most people don't
06:27get to have that.
06:27And it's not a normal lifestyle to have.
06:31To have it as a career, to have a staff writing job, or to, like, get to be the showrunner
06:36of a TV show, or get to act in a role on someone else's show, it's so not guaranteed.
06:42And maybe for art in general, I think you have to have a hunger about it.
06:47Like, I think it needs to be a bit of, like, this or nothing.
06:51My creative projects I'm most excited about right now, I host Body Count, a monthly show
06:58at Union Hall, I'm working on a pilot called My Hard, Hard Life as a Spy, I'm a faculty
07:04member at the Second City, New York, where I teach stand-up classes, and I host, dare I
07:10say, the best open mic in the city, called Freak Latte Open Mic, and we're gonna check
07:17it out tonight.
07:20We're legit gonna have so much fun.
07:28We're legit.
07:36Keyfos.
07:37They sell food.
07:38Clear as a.
07:38In Ghana, every story is called, like…
07:41Gloria…
07:42Multi-glorious…
07:43Rising above.
07:45Lift his name up high.
07:47Trust and obey to the Lord.
07:49It's a snap.
07:51erkennen.
07:53What makes me laugh in terms of like comedy I like to see are comedians who I can see
07:59myself in or maybe comedians who see a piece of me that I haven't even been able to see
08:05or to analyze yet.
08:07Comedy that's like musical and theatrical and crazy and risk-taking and heart-wrenching
08:15too.
08:16I'll laugh harder if I cried a second ago.
08:18Comedy really is a way that I figure out how I feel about the world and about my relation
08:23to whatever is going on.
08:25It really is a ruminator sport and there is a therapy to thinking through something and
08:31really excavating it from all angles.
08:34But by the time I'm on stage, that's not therapy.
08:38I'm in charge and I'm playing tricks on you.
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