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Eventually, on the feed of every social media app are clips of popular comedians doing some crowd work, but your favorite comic’s favorite crowd-working comic is veteran Big Jay Oakerson. Big Jay, considered the best “sit down comedian” in the business, brings the essence of unapologetic personality and no-limits style in all of his work, whether it be hosting his Sirus XM show The Bonfire, entertaining across multiple podcasts, or leading his latest two-part special, Them/They.
Them/They is made up of two separate hour-long specials of exclusively crowd-worked content. The first half premiered on YouTube Feb. 20 and amassed over 1.1 million views and counting.
Titles of chapters within the first half of the special include “Interracial Couple,” “One Arm Man” and “Interracial Couple Pt. 2.” And there’s more where that came from. Following the positive reception of Part 1, the highly anticipated second half They is set to premiere on YouTube today (April 20).
Big Jay’s years of experience allow him to connect to crowds and deliver non-stop laughs in this special. Even though Jay touches upon topics that can be considered uncomfortable, he walks that fine line as a true professional, being able to maintain the funny no matter the subject matter.
Big Jay spoke with DECIDER to discuss the process behind his work and preview what to expect from his latest release.
DECIDER: For someone who hasn’t seen your work, what should they expect from They and you as a comedian in general?
BIG JAY OAKERSON: For me as a comedian in general I’d say it’s always gonna be dirty [laughs]. You can always expect it’s gonna be dirty in some capacity. That was comedy that I was drawn to when I was younger so much, but what I try to say is, it’s palatable dirty. I like that people come that I don’t expect to be there because I did somehow make it palatable for them.
When I first started being dirty when I was younger, it was definitely for shock because you get a reaction out of people when you do dirty stuff, whether they like it or not. But over the years, because it was kind of the comedy that I was always drawn to myself, I was like, how could I do it so there’s a strong chance if you bring your 60-year-old mother with you she still likes it somehow.
When you go into recording a special, which is all crowd work, do you have a plan or is it a blank slate?
No, with these, particularly, we went to do a crowd work special so I knew it was gonna be no material and all crowd work, which if you tell the crowd that, the crowd knew what they were there for, so the crowds are much more forgiving … that was the easiest prep. There was nothing to do besides get the stage the way we wanted it, the lighting and everything, but that was the beauty of it. When it comes out, it doesn’t spend any of my material. I don’t have to write a whole new hour of stuff.
How important is the information the crowd gives you for the show’s success?
Luckily, I’ve learned that if you ask people enough questions, you find that everyone’s weird, and the people who are purposely weird to be noticed tend to not be the most interesting people. It’s just asking a guy who looks like your dad’s friend enough questions, you find out he’s weird as shit, also. The idea is to get quickly beyond the ‘What do you do, where are you from,’ and ask something far more intrusive.
Is this your favorite special yet?
Yeah, I think this showcases most of what I like to do in comedy. That’s why I love radio and broadcasting so much, too. I think it scratches the same itch as comedy for me… It’s my favorite because I couldn’t believe looking for one hour of material out of four hours of show; I was surprised at how much we had. They were just on board for it. It was great.
It’s the most excited I’ve been besides my first special, whenever I did Comedy Central Live at Webster Hall. That was like a 17-year culmination of material but never able to be put on TV or anything, so that was very exciting, but beyond that, I’d say, yeah, it’s cool that I have the opportunity to be able to do this.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
They premieres tonight on YouTube at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
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