Sarah Cooper
Sarah Cooper may be the only comedian to go viral without saying a word. Her TikTok President Trump impersonations made her lip-syncing legend. In the wake of her viral fame and her first Netflix special, “Everything’s Fine,” Cooper talks about finding her voice in the pandemic as a stand-up comic.
How has your comedy evolved since you went viral?
So much happened in 2020, it was just crazy for my career. I didn’t expect those videos to take off. But they actually changed my life. I was able to get my Netflix special. I was able to auction my books for TV shows. Then in 2021, I actually went for a divorce. All this stuff happened where I asked myself questions like, “What is really important to me? How do I want to spend my time?” And I realized I didn’t really want to spend my time married anymore. And so I ended up doing that and now I’m spending a lot of time with my family. They’re Jamaican; they live in Florida. So I have a bunch of material from my mom and from everybody giving me advice throughout this divorce. Even if you take something that’s kind of sad, like a divorce, and find the humor in it, that’s really what this pandemic has been about for a lot of comedians.
Can you see yourself doing lip-sync content on Trump again or are you over it?
There was a moment when I was making these videos, and I was walking on the street and the car drove by, and the guy pointed at me and yelled, “Hey, it’s Trump!” I was like, “Oh, no what have I done?” I hate this person yet now I’m, like, associated with him. I always wanted to do comedy, I always wanted to perform. Yeah, I made these videos, and I was lipsyncing, and I was performing and I was editing them and doing all this stuff, but I really don’t want to keep doing that. He just says the same thing over and over. I think I’d kill myself if I had to do that anymore. But there’s a funny persona in there that I captured. Like, this ignorant guy who thinks he knows everything. That sort of persona was fun to play, especially as a woman, especially as a Black woman.
Talk about the new book you’re releasing and the shows you’re developing off of your previous books.
I have two books that are being developed and I also have an audio book coming out in June called “Let’s Catch Up Soon.” It’s an Audible Original I wrote between 2019 through 2021. It’s kind of a memoir about how I’m an introvert but how I actually became an extrovert during the pandemic. Now I just want to go out all the time. I mean, edibles helped as well because I started doing those in the pandemic.
Sarah Cooper performs at 7 p.m. at the Bourbon Room, 6356 Hollywood Blvd.