Last Things First: Jackie Fabulous
Episode #395
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Jackie Fabulous grew up in The Bronx but went to law school in Southern California before deciding in her mid-30s to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. After some initial TV credits on Arsenio and Last Comic Standing, her comedy path began to become truly fabulous after she competed on America’s Got Talent in 2019. She moved back to The Bronx just before the pandemic, and since then has performed twice on The Tonight Show, booked gigs on Showtime’s Flatbush Misdemeanors and HBO’s That Damn Michael Che, and recorded her first hour-long stand-up special, Menoplause, released in July 2022 via Comedy Dynamics. Fabulous joined me over Zoom to talk about her life and career.
Here’s the trailer for her new special, out now!
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Last things first: Congratulations on your new special! How does it feel?
It feels good! To have me out there in the world doing more than five or eight minutes of stand-up. That's the point of it.
But that's, for would-be comedians, that's where it starts. You have to get that first five or eight minutes before you can get an hour.
Oh, yes, I wasn't allowed to do more than five minutes for quite some time in the beginning. Like literally they're like, no this is where you are. This is your sweet spot. And then once I started to, I guess, dominate the five minutes, then they’re like OK, now you can do 10. OK, now you can host. OK, now you can feature. It's a process that nobody wants to acknowledge anymore. It’s a long-ass process.
But there can be fun amid the struggle of the process. Like I'm speaking to you, right now, I'm in New York City. You're in Las Vegas. But I know that a few years ago you were in Las Vegas tooling around Sin City with Will Smith.
Oh, yeah! Yes.
Just so people know you recorded your special after you met Will Smith, but before the Oscars. But you mention both Will and Chris Rock in the special, and I'd like to know — last things first — as a legal professional, which you are: What advice would you give Will and Chris? Legally! I mean, I know you give them other types of advice within the jokes of your hour.
I forgot! Every now and then I'm like, oh shit. I forgot I talked about them so much