Sam Jay flips the script in her first Netflix special

Vulture

In Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning, the lesbian SNL writer tackles everything from gender, biology, trans people, queerness and bodies to her annoyance with Greta Thunberg. "Do not mistake my praise for Jay’s boldness as a disregard for her craft," says Kathryn VanArendonk. "None of 3 in the Morning would exist if she weren’t so happy to walk onto a stage and poke at all the things that are uncomfortable to poke. But none of the special would work if it hadn’t been so painstakingly built this way, either. Her storytelling and timing chops are most obviously on display in the running/returning story about traveling with her girlfriend; it’s exactly the kind of joke that’s dialed in so tightly that it manages to come off as loose. And yes, there are bits of the hour that don’t hang together quite as well, a few transitions that could’ve been tied down more firmly. They’re tiny, though, in the larger scheme of things. In all, 3 in the Morning is so funny and smart and well done, full of bluster, pride, and insight. I would’ve happily hung around to listen to Jay sneer and smirk and wink and scoff her way through another hour."

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• 3 in the Morning is the result of roughly two years of Sam Jay performing and sharpening her material: "A lot of people do not know my standup at all," says Jay. "I'm about to shake a lot of people's hands and I didn't want to come out like, 'You should already know who I am.' Because that's not how I feel."
• Jay, who started her standup career in the basement of a dingy Boston pizza shop eight years ago at age 29, says of her Netflix special: "I went in 100%. I was always gonna tell the jokes I wanted to tell. And I was always gonna talk the way I wanted to talk. I’ve always done comedy for me. Comedy was my gift to myself. Like ‘Hey, you owe yourself to try this and be your true, authentic self.’”
• Here are the three jokes that made Sam Jay's career