Earlier than we sit down for the interview, Morgan Jay is in the midst of a photoshoot — posing towards a piano. As soon as he doesn’t have to take a seat nonetheless for images, he instantly begins to play an authentic tune known as “Would You Be My Dad?” the place he sings about studying methods to tie a tie.
The impulse to burst into tune is pure for the musical comic. Jay rose to recognition over the previous few years for his use of an auto-tuned microphone in his performances and viewers participation segments that went viral on TikTok. Now his recognition has transcended social media feeds; he’s in the midst of a U.S. and worldwide tour, together with two sold-out reveals on the Wiltern on April 11.
“For a lot of these people I’m their first comedy show,” Jay explains, one thing that lots of his largely Gen Z followers inform him after his performances. “So I give the people what they want from the internet, and then when they come to the show I exceed expectations.”
Jay has been performing since hitting open mics in 2007 whereas in faculty. He had early formative experiences the place he discovered methods to work with crowds, together with as an intern on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon and as a licensed New York Metropolis bike tour information.
“It teaches you how to be in front of people and be comfortable,” Jay provides. “In addition to having to entertain them, I had to make sure nobody got hit by a car.”
Comic Morgan Jay discovered to be comfy in entrance of a crowd as an intern on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon and as a licensed New York Metropolis bike tour information.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
At first, Jay’s comedy was centered round his abilities as a musical comic; he has a background in performing and choir earlier than he started to pursue comedy. However it was his tackle crowd work — the place stand-up comedians base their materials off of improvised interactions with the viewers — that bought folks’s consideration. What as soon as started as a technique to have interaction audiences throughout company comedy bookings over Zoom, Jay’s trademark is to enter the group with an auto-tuned mic and get folks to sing alongside him. The impact of the microphone provides all his viewers members the identical electro-tinted singing capacity. In the identical suave manner he can break into R&B stylings at any given second, Jay has a manner of stress-free his viewers to make them really feel comfy sufficient to sing alongside.
However the crowd work is just one part of Jay’s present. “I would say 99% of my audience knows me from the auto-tune, so when I do my full show and I sing a couple songs on guitar and do stand-up, I think they’re a little bit surprised.”
Jay says his present mimics how his viewers usually first encounters him: the chaos of a social media feed. “It helps the show go from one thing to another thing,” he says. “It speaks to that brain rot. One minute you’re looking at this thing and the next you’re looking at this thing. You want it to be dynamic.”
And Jay has definitely embraced the mind rot-affected viewing habits of his youthful viewers. He permits viewers members to movie him all through his efficiency, a rarity in comedy when locking your cellphone away in a pouch has develop into the norm for high-profile comedians. Jay’s stay reveals additionally function a digicam man that follows him all through the venue, broadcasting the footage on a big display.
Comic Morgan Jay lets the “brain rot” that comes from scrolling social media encourage his reveals.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I’ll pay whatever the cost is [for the camera setup] because it changes the show and allows me to go anywhere in the room.” Jay continues, “People love staring at a screen already. So they’re at home now.”
Jay’s high-energy act goes past the stage and even the orchestra part of his venues. He usually runs your entire size of the aisles and travels as much as the final row of the balcony, cordless digicam and operator in tow. “Every seat should be a good seat,” Jay says. “I didn’t wanna lose that intimacy that these smaller venues had of everybody being able to see me.”
Whereas crowd work is inherently intimate, Jay embraces the shape by centering his materials on intercourse and relationships. His most typical query to {couples} within the viewers is that if “they’re going to make love tonight?” And he usually says his reveals are good for a primary date (messages in his Instagram DMs — which Jay reads — inform him his reveals usually result in a second).
Once I ask Jay if he thinks he’s the go-to intercourse comic proper now, he laughs. “I’ve created this movement of the goofy gang,” he explains. “I think that goes hand in hand with being sexy because you have to be a little bit physically and sexually vulnerable to have fun, right?”
However regardless of his recognition, Jay doesn’t take into account himself a part of the standard comedy scene. He by no means hit the comedy profession marker of acting on a late-night present (though he says he would love to return to Fallon) and, regardless of residing in L.A. for 13 years, doesn’t see himself as a part of the L.A. comedy scene. He says that some L.A. venues have turned him down previously. “For them, I’m just this TikTok crowd work guy,” Jay says, earlier than quipping, “I’m not bitter, it is what it is.”
Jay skipped being an area draw to turning into a world sensation. His tour consists of a number of stops in Brazil, which he claims he’s the primary American comic to do. Jay additionally has imitators of his auto-tune crowd work across the globe, from India to Portugal.
“It’s cool to have invented a style of delivery, but it is just answering the demand of what an audience needs right now.”
Jay nonetheless embraces some conventional comedy profession strikes, together with latest appearances in TV sitcoms like “St. Denis Medical” and performing within the movie “Cotton Candy Bubble Gum,” which premiered at SXSW in March. And whereas he’s gathering clips to place collectively right into a particular, he’s prepared to embrace no matter medium his viewers favors.
“I’ve asked fans under 25, ‘What’s the last special you watched?’ And they’ll be like, ‘I don’t really watch specials,’” he says.
However after I ask Jay if he appears like he has his comedy discovered, he paraphrases David Bowie’s quote that artists ought to at all times really feel like they’re within the deep finish, barely capable of contact the underside. “I keep thinking, how much further can I take this?”
Comic Morgan Jay on the Kookaburra Lounge in Hollywood, the place he examined the inclusion of a full band in his present.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Jay’s evolution appears targeted on his stay present, which he’s remodeling into much more of a musical expertise with the inclusion of a full band that he examined on the Kookaburra Lounge in Hollywood. “I remember the smile my manager had from ear to ear [after the show]. He was like, ‘Okay, you’re going to do Red Rocks in a year.’”
Jay clearly feels indebted to his viewers. He is aware of that sure fan-favorite songs and using auto-tune will at all times be part of his performances. He places himself within the place of his viewers — and never simply bodily when he jumps from the stage — to craft a present for the trendy period that appeals to everybody, together with those that don’t know his TikToks.
“I have to be my first fan,” he says. “You have to sit yourself and be like, ‘Is this worth $70 and ticket fees?’ I think it is.” Jay then provides, “Period! That’s how the article ends.”
Within the spirit of group participation that’s develop into the cornerstone of his comedy id, Jay concludes the piece for me. And whereas it doesn’t have the digital vibrato of an auto-tuned microphone, it does sing.
