Fun
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Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Quick. Name your favorite Sasheer Zamata character on Saturday Night Live. How about your favorite sketch of hers?
I know, right?
Little wonder, then, that SNL gave Zamata such short shrift onscreen for her farewell during this weekend’s 42nd season finale, seeing as she was all-too-often overshadowed during her three and a half seasons in the cast, either by the debate that preceded her hiring, or by the subsequent hiring and promotion of Leslie Jones. You might not still even know how to pronounce her name. As she well jokes about.
At least we have Pizza Mind, released this March on Seeso, to find out what Zamata is capable of on her own and can give us a piece of her mind.
In her first solo stand-up special, she leans into her plight as a black woman on SNL with a bit about how a supposed fan of Zamata confuses her instead for Kerry Washington – when, of course, Washington starred in a sketch mocking the show for not having any black women in the cast. That moment, plus earlier comments made by Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharaoh, prompted protests that prompted SNL creator Lorne Michaels to hold special auditions which led to the hiring of Zamata and Jones.
Zamata herself wasn’t known for stand-up before SNL, having garnered critical attention first for her work with the improv trio Doppelganger (which also featured Nicole Byer, later of MTV’s *Loosely Exactly Nicole and FOX’s Party Over Here) and then her own webseries.
So it’s also no surprise that what makes Pizza Mind shine isn’t so much the stand-up but the way she reframes her performance, whether through talking to herself via multiple personalities a la Black Swan, going animated, or playing against herself in dramatic re-enactments.
Because Saturday Night Live relies quite heavily on celebrity impersonations, you might expect Zamata to have mastered more than a few herself. On the show, she portrayed Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, and Rihanna, among others.
“Some people come to my shows, expecting me to do SNL, or be SNL? I don’t really know. But the demographic has definitely changed since I’ve been on the show,” she says. There’s a funny awkward moment before this re-enactment, though, when the New Orleans audience doesn’t automatically applaud her mention of SNL.
Which only proves how real her struggle was inside 30 Rock, and how her decision to not apologize for making it weird for confused fans was the correct one. And so she also enjoys joking about racial issues, especially since the 2016 presidential election. A stereotype of black woman as life coach makes no sense to Zamata, since white men have figured out the secret to success long ago. “Show me your ways, white man! Give me those secrets!” She hasn’t picked a white life coach just yet, although she does joke about predominantly dating white men. Even if she feels the need to change them. And especially if that makes her wonder if she’s just fixing them for their next girlfriends. “You should thank all the exes who came before you,” Zamata reasons.
People also shouldn’t claim to see color, she argues, but instead see how differently people of different races are treated by society, so they know their privilege and can use it for good. Similarly, Zamata questions the old American idea of our nation as melting pot, because as she notes, melting and assimilation dissolves the original flavors. Her alternative? Think of America “more like a pizza.” All ingredients distinct, held together by grease.
Seeing color allows us to ask questions about where the black characters are on The Jetsons or in Disneyland, why Zoe Saldana ends up painted other colors for movies and why Idris Elba should or could be James Bond. Black people need better role models in sci-fi and action movies, and Zamata’s family knows that firsthand, as we learn the true origin of her first name is not African, but Trekkie.
Even though she may not have shined or gotten enough of a chance to shine on Saturday Night Live, something tells me Zamata will live long and prosper in show business, like others before her (see: Michaela Watkins, Casey Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, and Sarah Silverman, for starters).
She can act, she can sing, she can improvise. She does most of this in a musical number finale that cheekily references her not even needing a ghostwriter to help with her first solo special.
Now that’s some real peace of mind.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
