Jay Pharoah Quotes

As a teenager, in my songbook, I used to script what my lighting would be like. I used to dance in my roo;, it was like putting myself in a trance, and making myself feel good about things, almost like a private ceremony of begging people to like you.

I never felt comfortable in real life very well. It's always been an awkward kind of thing for me and so when I hit the stage I just sensed freedom. I sensed, 'Here's a place that I can have all the experiences of life and not feel uncomfortable about it.'

I first started acting in primary school, just doing little plays. And from the moment I began, something just went 'click' inside me. Suddenly I wasn't shy anymore. Instead I felt confident and happy. I can remember the enormous sense of relief it gave me. I loved the feeling of making people laugh.

I feel so much at home onstage and so comfortable in my body.

I love playing in front of people. I feel powerful, 'cause I don't have to really say anything - I'm just singing.

I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

People don't know what it's like standing up there onstage, when you have a wall of people smiling at you.

I never got nervous performing my own material.

I'm actually not an exhibitionist at all. When you get onstage and you get under the lights playing music, I feel more hidden and more alone than anywhere else. You hide behind your music and let your emotions come out through the music.

I feel most free onstage. The audience, it's an abstraction. You don't really see anyone out there, but you feel the audience inside you.

In front of a big group of people, in front of cameras, to be in my body and be in that moment, I feel the way that I've always wanted to feel - like a real pop star who is not holding anything back.

I'm just getting my sea legs. The first time you make them laugh, you're like, 'Oh my God - that just happened.' Then you're like, 'I made them laugh. I've earned this.'

There is something about being on stage that's a release for me. It gets my mental energy out.

We put so much of ourselves onstage and we work so hard, that I never get tired of people telling me 'you're awesome.'

I play shows sometimes, and if everything's connecting, I start blabbing to the audience about anything. Between songs, talking about things in my personal life, or whatever. But there are other situations where I feel a little closed-off. It's really kind of a day-to-day thing.

Everything that I hate about myself goes away when I was onstage.

It's only when I'm on stage that I really come to terms with the fact that other people are hearing my most inner, darkest thoughts.

The more comfortable I got onstage, the more comfortable I got expressing myself in a physical manner. And it almost shocked people - 'Oh, is there something happening?'

The only thing that I would say to anyone doing late night shows is - it took me a couple years then - but when you leave the studio, it's over. That's what you really have to do. After a long time, I would be like, "Maybe I shouldn't have said this," or "Maybe I shouldn't have shown this." But eventually, I got to, "Ah, f - k it." That's what it was that night, tomorrow's the next night.

Hearing a whole entire room sing back to me, 'I guess it's true I'm not good at a one-night stand,' you know, I just can't explain the feeling. It's unreal. You feel like you've just read your diary to thousands of people and they've gone, 'It's okay. We still love you.'

Half the time, when I first run onstage, I can't look directly at the audience just because of self-consciousness. It's human nature. Sometimes you feel like the man, and sometimes you don't. But sometimes that self-conscious energy is good for the show, it draws people in more.

I like to talk to the audience once the show starts, as much as possible, and feel connected to them. I don't feel quite as nervous when I do that because, then, you feel like they're on your side.

You're basically getting on stage and asking people, 'Do you guys like me? Do you like who I am?' But you grow pretty thick skinned. And the less scared you seem, the more people like you anyway.

When I was on stage, I was like, 'This is alright. This is good.'

There was a time in my life when I'd only sing. In my initial years, I didn't ever speak on stage, forget acting. Eventually, my confidence as a performing artiste grew.