Morgan Jay is giving his audience the musical sex comedy they want (and an auto-tuned microphone)
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Before we sit down for the interview, Morgan Jay is in the middle of a photo shoot — posing against a piano. Once he doesn’t have to sit still for photos, he immediately begins to play an original song called “Would You Be My Dad?” where he sings about learning to tie a tie.
The impulse to burst into song is natural for the musical comedian. Jay rose to popularity over the past few years for his use of an auto-tuned microphone in his performances and audience-participation segments that went viral on TikTok. Now his popularity has transcended social media feeds; he’s in the middle of a U.S. and international tour, including two sold-out shows at the Wiltern on April 11.
“For a lot of these people I’m their first comedy show,” Jay explains, something that many of his largely Gen Z fans tell him after his performances. “So I give the people what they want from the internet, and then when they come to the show I exceed expectations.”
Jay has been performing since hitting open mics in 2007 while in college. He had early formative experiences where he learned how to work with crowds, including as an intern on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and as a certified New York City bike tour guide.
“It teaches you how to be in front of people and be comfortable,” Jay adds. “In addition to having to entertain them, I had to make sure nobody got hit by a car.”
At first, Jay’s comedy was centered around his skills as a musical comedian; he had a background in acting and choir before he began to pursue comedy. But it was his take on crowd work — where stand-up comedians base their material off of improvised interactions with the audience — that got people’s attention. What began as a way to engage audiences during corporate comedy bookings over Zoom became Jay’s trademark move: Go into the crowd with an auto-tuned mic and get people to sing alongside him. The effect of the microphone gives all his audience members the same electro-tinted singing ability. In the same suave way he can break into R&B stylings at any moment, Jay has a way of relaxing his audience to make them feel comfortable enough to sing along.
But the crowd work is only one section of Jay’s show. “I would say 99% of my audience knows me from the auto-tune, so when I do my full show and I sing a couple songs on guitar and do stand-up, I think they’re a little bit surprised.”
Jay says his show mimics how his audience often first encounters him: the chaos of a social media feed. “It helps the show go from one thing to another thing,” he says. “It speaks to that brain rot. One minute you’re looking at this thing and the next you’re looking at this thing. You want it to be dynamic.”
And Jay has certainly embraced the brain rot-affected viewing habits of his younger audience. He allows audience members to film him throughout his performance, a rarity in comedy when locking your phone away in a pouch has become the norm for high-profile comedians. Jay’s live shows also feature a cameraman who follows him throughout the venue, broadcasting the footage on a large screen.
“I’ll pay whatever the cost is [for the camera setup] because it changes the show and allows me to go anywhere in the room.” Jay continues, “People love staring at a screen already. So they’re at home now.”
Jay’s high-energy act goes beyond the stage and even the orchestra section of his venues. He often runs the entire length of the aisles and travels up to the last row of the balcony, cordless camera and operator in tow. “Every seat should be a good seat,” Jay says. “I didn’t wanna lose that intimacy that these smaller venues had of everybody being able to see me.”
While crowd work is inherently intimate, Jay embraces the form by centering his material on sex and relationships. His most common question to couples in the audience is if “they’re going to make love tonight.” And he often says his shows are perfect for a first date (messages in his Instagram DMs — which Jay reads — tell him his shows often lead to a second).
When I ask Jay if he thinks he’s the go-to sex comedian right now, he laughs. “I’ve created this movement of the goofy gang,” he explains. “I think that goes hand in hand with being sexy because you have to be a little bit physically and sexually vulnerable to have fun, right?”
But despite his popularity, Jay doesn’t consider himself part of the traditional comedy scene. He never hit the comedy career marker of performing on a late-night show (although he says he would love to go back to Fallon) and, despite living in L.A. for 13 years, doesn’t see himself as part of the L.A. comedy scene. He says that some L.A. venues have turned him down in the past. “For them, I’m just this TikTok crowd work guy,” Jay says, before quipping, “I’m not bitter, it is what it is.”
Jay skipped from being a local draw to becoming an international sensation. His tour includes multiple stops in Brazil, which he claims he’s the first American comedian to do. Jay also has imitators of his auto-tune crowd work around the globe, from India to Portugal.
“It’s cool to have invented a style of delivery, but it is just answering the demand of what an audience needs right now,” he says.
Jay still embraces some traditional comedy career moves, including recent appearances in TV sitcoms like “St. Denis Medical” and acting in the film “Cotton Candy Bubble Gum,” which premiered at SXSW in March. And while he’s gathering clips to put together into a special, he’s willing to embrace whatever medium his audience favors.
“I’ve asked fans under 25, ‘What’s the last special you watched?’ And they’ll be like, ‘I don’t really watch specials,’” he says.
But when I ask Jay if he feels like he has his comedy figured out, he paraphrases David Bowie’s quote that artists should always feel like they’re in the deep end, barely able to touch the bottom. “I keep thinking, how much further can I take this?”
Jay’s evolution seems focused on his live show, which he is transforming into even more of a musical experience with the inclusion of a full band that he tested at the Kookaburra Lounge in Hollywood. “I remember the smile my manager had from ear to ear [after the show]. He was like, ‘OK, you’re going to do Red Rocks in a year.’”
Jay clearly feels indebted to his viewers. He knows that certain fan-favorite songs and the use of auto-tune will always be a part of his performances. He puts himself in the position of his audience — and not just physically when he jumps from the stage — to craft a show for the modern era that appeals to everyone, including those who don’t know his TikToks.
“I have to be my first fan,” he says. “You have to sit yourself and be like, ‘Is this worth $70 and ticket fees?’ I think it is.” Jay then adds, “Period! That’s how the article ends.”
In the spirit of group participation that’s become the cornerstone of his comedy identity, Jay concludes the piece for me. And while it does not have the electronic vibrato of an auto-tuned microphone, it does sing.
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