Justin Catchens Aims to Have African American Studies Professor Hair

Thanks to the coronavirus, comedians are now trapped at home like the rest of us, so we decided that while we’re all self-quarantining, we’d do something a little different from our usual “Follow Friday” column. Instead of interviewing up-and-coming comedians we love on Twitter, we’re going live on Instagram every week to check in on some of our favorite people in comedy and get a firsthand look into how they’re handling the pandemic. So welcome to our new version of the column, now titled “Follow (From a Safe Distance) Friday.”

This week, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with the radiant Justin Catchens (UCB, BoogieManja, proudly owning a new ring light) for a virtual chat about how he’s keeping sane at a time like this. He talked about the future of giant-comedy-institution-to-successful-comedy-career pipelines, offered some sage advice to anyone thinking about hosting a virtual improv show right now (“Don’t”), and gave the very specific details of his long-term African American Studies–professor hair plans. He also explained his newest endeavor to keep himself creatively motivated: “Right now I have four gallons of eggnog in my fridge, and I’m gonna start reviewing eggnogs for the holiday season. And I know myself: I’m not gonna get too weird with the eggnog, I have too much respect for it.”

You can find Justin Catchens on Twitter and Instagram at @jaycatch.