Comedian Jay Pharoah walked up to Hot 97 and had a very interesting conversation with Rosenberg and Laura Stylez about his departure from Saturday Night Live, remembering Charlie Murphy and more.
If you’ve missed him on SNL lately, well it is for good reason. He’s been off the show for six months now, and while he respects the people that got him here he feels he could have done more if given the right opportunity.
“You go where youre appreciated,” he said before later elaborating. “They put people into boxes. And they want you do what they expect you to do.”
Pharoah is known for playing former president Barack Obama in different sketches. He feels the SNL writers and producers didn’t take advantage of election season by showing more of the character on the show.
“For the last year and a half they did no Obama sketches. Let me do my character and they will be fine. And they didn’t want to do that.”
He also feels that he would have been fired following his comments of having a lack of black women presence on the show.
“When the hiring of the black woman happened, and I was at the audition and me speaking up they were ready to get rid of me in 2013.”
Pharoah was also close to the late Charlie Murphy and shared a personal story about the comedian.
“He was like my uncle.”
The comedian is at Caroline’s this weekend For more information go here.
Watch the full interview below.