Alright, alright, I know. I have got to get caught up on my Stand-up Specials. Let’s get to it then with my look at the HBO Comedy Special: SAM JAY: SALUTE ME OR SHOOT ME. It debuted on HBO on September 23, 2023. Take in the trailer before I get going.
Now, this Atlanta girl was noted as being a Saturday Night Live writer and went straight to a series of her own off of that, called PAUSE WITH SAM JAY. You might of heard of it or watched it right on HBO. We did. She also did a series, called Bust Down, on Peacock where she played a cook in a casino. Now, she seems to be circling back to the stand-up circuit, which seems to be a flip on how it is all usually done. Most comedians, I believe, work the clubs hard until they get a filmed gig or two, then graduate to series work. But, not Sam Jay. After a few years on the boards, she landed at SNL and then worked backward. But as she’d likely tell you, it’s all good because there is no “right way” to do your thing, just do it.
And she does just that In her first HBO stand-up special at a locale called Brooklyn Steel. It is a converted steel plant in Brooklyn, NYC most noted as a music venue but Sam Jay fits nicely in the space with multi-level seating and three bars. So, the 41-year-old comedian gets her set going and by the end of it all, I guess, we are either to salute her or shoot her depending on whether we liked her set or not.
She has a great conversational style, and she just isn’t talking to her homies but to all of us, and sometimes directly to someone in her audience. She has a great rapport. She listens to their reactions and acknowledges that they get her, or asks a woman not to be offended as she’s only speaking the truth. Nice. Her conversations are also not ultra-blue language; not an F-bomb every other word, you know.
She shares with us her engagement and how she must now “care” 24-7 and that she is the “man” in the relationship and how that adds special responsibilities like the trash. Then she opens it up to larger societal observations. She talks of ’empathy” and the power it holds if you can master it. A great message is brought up in a casual, comfortable way that doesn’t seem to be preached to you but is presented in a way that you, the viewer, are part of the conversation, even though you are not uttering anything but laughs.
As a result, I actually prefer her ease of conversation in this special as opposed to PAUSE WITH SAM JAY, which I did pass comment on before. Do I salute or shoot? I salute Sam Jay’s presentation! Find the HBO Comedy Special: SAM JAY: SALUTE ME OR SHOOT ME on the HBO Hub of Max.
