Jay Pharoah performing these nano-impressions of famous celebrities is pretty funny and so on point that you can’t help but laugh. From Obama to Will Smith to Jay-Z he manages to capture every nuance of the character in just those few seconds that each bit lasts. In fact he does it so well that you can hear his voice change from one character to the next with the kind of precision that a lot of people simply can’t accomplish. Some try but don’t manage to pull it off quite as well since it takes a real mastery over your own voice and vocals to really get it down to the point that you can hear the difference in pitch and tone.
Pharoah though is obviously that talented and has possibly practiced that long with some of these voices to get it them down just perfectly. Characters like Chris Rock and Chris Tucker might seem simple since you might have to heighten your pitch and whine a bit, but really when you try it the sound just doesn’t come out right unless you really manage to get their emotions in there as well. Being able to perform different voices is a recognizable skill since a lot of people throughout the era of cinema and comedy have been making a good living off of it. But the difference between playing a part and really sounding like the character is the difference between night and day. Take greats like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, who have managed to spoof a lot of different characters and made people laugh without cease. They’re great, don’t get me wrong, but their pitch and timbre is almost always the same, it doesn’t change from one voice to the next. Being able to change those qualities is difficult since you’re essentially changing your voice to something different than it’s supposed to sound like.
Now you might argue that Pharoah isn’t so much changing his voice as he’s finding characters that have close to the same pitch and tone as his own, but that doesn’t really account for the fact that he sounds just like each character. If he was doing an extended imitation of those characters his own pitch and tone might shine through eventually, but for this small representation each one seems spot on to the point that you couldn’t possibly tell it wasn’t them if you were closing your eyes. Many people might still argue with that but the matter of opinion that goes into it is just something, subjectively, some people tend to agree to disagree on.
Honestly though he nails the attitude and character of each voice so well that you can’t help but think that he’s spent some time studying each individual he parodies and has found the best way to mimic their voices. His delivery is great to since he’s found a way to to emulate them in what many people should be able to see is how they might react in a certain situation. He’s just awesome, that’s all I’ve got to say. (mic drop)
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