SATURDAY MORNING WITH SAM JAY

The closing episode centers around healthcare, wealth and surviving in America, of which the self made artist scrutinizes with thoughtful frustration. The entire show, which was immediately greenlit for a second season, is freshly profound and the comedy throughout is both outrageous and warm, attributes indicative of the creator herself. In this friendly chat between Sam Jay and Buds Digest, the sketch writer discusses coming out, the more notable side effects of edibles and the future of legal cannabis.

BUDS: Hi Sam! How's your Pride going?

JAY: It’s going! I haven't really done anything “Pride-y” yet.

BUDS: Do you have any plans for the weekend?

JAY: I'm going to the fight tonight with my brothers. And that's it, really. 

BUDS: Oh, nice. What's the fight? 

JAY: Boxing. Super-light, light-featherweight, one of those. Gervonta Davis and Mario Barrios. 

BUDS: Amazing. It'll be fun. The energy at those things is really fun. 

JAY: Yeah.

BUDS: When we were smoking weed at your house, you rolled like a pretty amazing joint. Is that your mode of smoking?

JAY: Um, lately, I like to smoke blunts but they make my throat scratchy. 

BUDS: Oh, yeah. 

JAY: So I like to switch back and forth.

BUDS: What about edibles? 

JAY: I do edibles. I just… I've been chilling… because I feel like they make me shit.

BUDS: Oh, yeah? More than mushrooms? 

JAY: Mushrooms kind of do the same. Definitely. I know they’re making me shit…

BUDS: Totally, like some light food poisoning.

JAY: I had just put that together with edibles. I'm like, I think this is making me…

BUDS: Do you use THC in any other way? THC lube or lotions or anything like that? 

JAY: I have. My friend sent me a gift. It’s weed lotion and I don’t think it did anything.

BUDS: It might be a little more placebo. How does weed relate with you and your creative process?

JAY: I think, as cliche as this is gonna sound, it helps my creativity because it makes my thinking more expansive.

BUDS: Is it something that you feel like you need to be there?

JAY: I don’t need it, but I like it. I like how I think on it. The trick is, it can become so expansive, that it's like you're thinking so macro and not micro. Sometimes it's hard to put words to the thought.

BUDS: Yeah. Or rein it in. Do you usually smoke in the morning?

JAY: I smoke in the morning sometimes. I don't think I'm a heavy morning smoker. Like it's not a ritual. But, yeah, I'll do it. 

BUDS: It’s peaceful.

JAY: It is.

BUDS: As we legalize weed and more dispensaries open, as someone who's a weed smoker before all this is happening, do you think you'll start shopping at dispensaries? Or will you stick with using a dealer?

JAY: I mean, I go to the dispensaries. I lived in LA for two years. So it's like, whatever. 

BUDS: Oh, right. 

JAY: So I’m used to that, as a process. This dude that I get weed from now has a farm. And his shit is super legit, so I think I'm gonna stick with him for as long as I can.

BUDS: Yeah, I feel the same way now too.

JAY: I was just talking to him saying, because of dispensaries and how legal it's gonna be, it's gonna turn into garbage.

BUDS: Do you think so?

JAY: Yeah, I know so. This is America. 

BUDS: Totally, like “Marlboro weed.”

JAY: That's what I mean. It’s gonna turn. “Concierge weed” is gonna become a big deal; knowing your grower and having a special connection to know where your shit’s coming from. I think it's gonna matter so much in the future because it's just gonna be everywhere and we're gonna make it bad. They’re definitely gonna add chemicals and they’re definitely gonna do fucked up shit.

BUDS: Gonna be McDonalds-ified. What about growing your own? Would you ever do that?

JAY: I mean, I would, but I know I'm not attentive enough, you know? I’d do it once and be like “that was cool!”

BUDS: Yeah, you need a lot of plant to get what we’re used to having access to.

BUDS: What is your coming out story and how does it relate to the queer person you are now?

JAY: Honestly, I didn't really come out. I just started like, dated bitches, you know?

BUDS: Ha. You're like, “deal with me now.”

JAY: Yeah, literally. Both my parents had passed away by that point. So, I didn't feel any obligation to explain myself. I was like, this is what I’m doing. I cut my hair off and I brought a girl to the family reunion and was like, ”this is my girlfriend.”

BUDS: One thing you talk about in the show is about this idea of, “will people let me be like this?” 

JAY: I thought about that, for sure. On a level of  friends… they know me as one thing, you know, will they allow me to be something else?

BUDS: How do you feel about your show now that it's out? And what’s next for you?

JAY: Ah, I  feel relieved that it's like, officially available. And I can have some space for a minute. What's next? I'm going to LA at the end of the week to shoot another show that I wrote with my friends a long time ago. That’s for NBC’s streaming network Peacock. And then I'm gonna go touring my standup, which I'm really excited about. 

BUDS: That sounds amazing. What is your live show like? 

JAY: Oh, I don't know, it’s like…how standup is? *laughs* It’s just me yelling at you.

BUDS: Nice that it's returned.

JAY: Yeah, I've been doing a lot of it lately and that has been really feeling really good.