On the night of her stand-up debut, nearly a decade ago, Paris Sashay had a case of the nerves.“We get to the club, and there’s about 60 people and a comedian on stage,” she recalls. “He’s not having a good set, because people are not laughing and were talking.
Now I’m really scared. What if I don’t make these people laugh? So I go and hide in the bathroom.”She stayed there until her mother — along with the show’s host — coaxed her out. “I went on stage, and I ended up doing thirteen minutes.” Sashay has been a mainstay on comedy stages ever since.In recent years, she’s established herself at a number of notable comedy clubs, from the Comedy Cellar in New York to the DC Improv and the Arlington Drafthouse.
In 2018, Montreal’s Just for Laughs, the largest comedy festival in the world, designated her a coveted New Face of Comedy.“That was a great experience,” she says. “I got to be around all of the people that are the superstars of comedy” — Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, and Patton Oswalt — “and you’re there as an up-and-coming star.”Wanda Sykes not only praised Sashay after her set, she selected her for Unprotected Sets, an Epix TV docu-series highlighting comedians on the verge of stardom.A boost from Sykes was extra-gratifying for Sashay, considering they’re both D.C.
natives — and members of the LGBTQ community. “I switch between the ‘L’ and the ‘B’,” Sashay concedes.She’s grateful to her mother for being so funny. “She’s hilarious,” says Sashay. “I often run jokes by her.
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