Sponsored by the Student Association Programming Board (SAPB), Zamata — known for her acclaimed work on “Saturday Night Live” — performed a stand-up set for over 100 students.
“It took a while for me to realize that [comedy is] actually what I really am passionate about,” Zamata told Pipe Dream. “It just took me doing things that were really fun — and made me feel good — to find out that I should be doing this all the time.”
Throughout her performance, Zamata, an activist and feminist, entertained the audience with clever anecdotes and portions addressing heavy topics like racism, gender inequality and rape culture.
The opener for the show was Vicky Kim, treasurer of Bing Stand-Up and a junior majoring in electrical engineering. Kim’s comedy revolved around student life at BU.
“What I’ve learned in college so far is that long-distance relationships are never worth it,” Kim candidly told the audience. “College is the time to explore your sexuality. If you’re tied down, you’ll never learn that you like being tied up.”
Kim’s jokes about sex and sexuality primed the audience for Zamata’s act, which honed in on issues surrounding female sexuality, specifically for college students.
“I just really want women to stop treating their private parts as if it’s a separate entity from their body,” Zamata said.
She lamented the shame women feel to own their private parts by comparing it to owning a house. By analogizing a basement to a woman’s vagina, Zamata asked the audience if they would feel comfortable having men just walk into their home and go into the basement, even though the women themselves have never seen it or been down there.
“You don’t know what’s there, but you’ll let other people down there, sometimes strangers!” she said. “A stranger could walk right into your house not even look you in the eye and just go to the basement. And you’re like, ‘I don’t know. Seems fun, but I don’t know.’ Get down there!”
To start her commentary on racial stereotypes, Zamata joked about a Korean girl at her college who assumed Zamata knew every other black student. Zamata, shocked by this assumption, responded by asking if the other girl knew every Korean person at the school — the other girl’s response was “Yes.”
“It’s a good thing we kept talking, because if that conversation ended two seconds before that point, I would’ve left being like, ‘That racist piece of shit,’ and she would have left being like, ‘What’s wrong with this antisocial black girl? She’s not hanging out with her friends!’” Zamata said.
Yaa Takyiwaa, a senior double-majoring in integrative neuroscience and comparative literature, said she connected with Zamata’s feminism.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Takyiwaa said. “I love that she incorporated a lot of life lessons that are really helpful to us as women specifically.”
Zamata finished her final bit with an example of a date she was on, where the guy told her she had “resting bitch face.”
“’Oh, that’s so funny that you say that — this whole time we’ve been talking, I’ve noticed you have resting rape face,’” Zamata responded. “‘I also noticed that my nail color changed, and thank you for the compliment!”
Raina Kamdar, the variety chair of the SAPB and a senior majoring in psychology, said she was thrilled with the performance and the good turnout.
“I think it went really well,” Kamdar said. “We got a big crowd and she was amazingly funny.”