Sasheer Zamata finds her voice outside ‘SNL’
Some believe you haven’t really made it in comedy until you’ve landed a one-hour standup special. If that’s true, then “Saturday Night Live” writer and comedian Sasheer Zamata has officially made it.
Zamata, a former member of the Upright Citizens Brigade who plays a mean Beyoncé and Rihanna on NBC’s “SNL,” has debuted her first special, “Pizza Mind,” on the internet platform Seeso.
We recently sat down with the 30-year-old funny woman to discuss her special, her sketch skills and why you shouldn’t ask her to “do Beyoncé.”
Q: You were hired to appear on “SNL” in 2014 in the wake of criticism of a lack of ethnic diversity. How did you handle that?
A: That stressed me out. I kind of just stayed at home a lot. People knew too much. People would text me and be like, “What’s the process like?” “What’s Lorne Michaels like?” I was like, “This shouldn’t even be your business.”
Q: What was a favorite sketch you wrote this season?
A: The “Stranger Things” sketch that happened in the fall, where parents come and snatch a character from the woods. That came from a real thought. I was watching “Stranger Things” — I ate it up; immediately I was a fan — but the whole time I was watching, I was like, “My parents would flip if I was in the woods running around looking for monsters.” I was like, “Where are his parents? Why aren’t they concerned?”
Q: What can we expect in your first special?
A: Definitely a collection of stories and material that I’ve had over the years. Some newer stuff, too. And different mediums and art forms used to express my thoughts in different ways. Like music and songs and little sketches and characters. It’s a mix. It’s not just a standard stand-up format. I mean, there’s an hour of stand-up, but there’s also extra goodies in there, too.
Q: In it, you make fun of strangers who come up and demand impressions from you. Does it really bug you?
A: I just joke about it. It doesn’t bother me that much. But anyone asking someone to do an impression on command or tell a joke on command is asking for it. I’m not a dog.