Shalewa Sharpe on Starting Stand-up at 37
Comedian Shalewa Sharpe got her start later than most — but she told Brut that her life experience gives her an edge since she's a "fully formed person."
Spotlight is on Shalewa Sharpe
Comedian Shalewa Sharpe got started later than most. By the time she stepped on stage Sharpe found that her life experience was the secret to her comedic voice. Through her comedy, Sharpe hopes to illuminate that life experience and challenge the preconceived notions of younger people.
“A lot of comedians will say like the first time they went up they killed. And then the year after that they bombed. I would not be cocky enough to say I killed. I will say it went well. So the first two jokes went well. And then as I'm continuing to talk in the back of my head I'm thinking, "Oh, now I have to do this for the rest of my life." I decided I wanted to be a comedian at 15 and the first time that I did stand-up comedy I was 37. So I'm slow. I'm a little slow. I had no plan. I had no… When I was a kid if you asked me what I wanted to be when I got older, when I grew up I would say I wanna be an adult living in a one bedroom apartment. That was it as far as planning. But that's just what I was doing was just being someone in their 20s and then someone in their 30s who was still trying to act like they were in their 20s and then someone who's like, "I'm older than that. I need to calm down." And then had a relatively steady work where I had my weekends free and I was like, "What do people do on the weekends?" Because up until then I'd always kept like a couple of jobs. And so I said, "I'll guess I'll try comedy since I wanted to."
On August 19th, New York comedian Shalewa Sharpe (as seen on HBO's 2 Dope Queens, Comedy Central's The New Negroes, The Tonight Show) released her second full-length album So You Just Out Here? on Little Lamb Recordings.
Brut.
Spotlight is on Shalewa Sharpe
Comedian Shalewa Sharpe got started later than most. By the time she stepped on stage Sharpe found that her life experience was the secret to her comedic voice. Through her comedy, Sharpe hopes to illuminate that life experience and challenge the preconceived notions of younger people.
“A lot of comedians will say like the first time they went up they killed. And then the year after that they bombed. I would not be cocky enough to say I killed. I will say it went well. So the first two jokes went well. And then as I'm continuing to talk in the back of my head I'm thinking, "Oh, now I have to do this for the rest of my life." I decided I wanted to be a comedian at 15 and the first time that I did stand-up comedy I was 37. So I'm slow. I'm a little slow. I had no plan. I had no… When I was a kid if you asked me what I wanted to be when I got older, when I grew up I would say I wanna be an adult living in a one bedroom apartment. That was it as far as planning. But that's just what I was doing was just being someone in their 20s and then someone in their 30s who was still trying to act like they were in their 20s and then someone who's like, "I'm older than that. I need to calm down." And then had a relatively steady work where I had my weekends free and I was like, "What do people do on the weekends?" Because up until then I'd always kept like a couple of jobs. And so I said, "I'll guess I'll try comedy since I wanted to."
On August 19th, New York comedian Shalewa Sharpe (as seen on HBO's 2 Dope Queens, Comedy Central's The New Negroes, The Tonight Show) released her second full-length album So You Just Out Here? on Little Lamb Recordings.
Brut.