Interview: Eva Evans on Funny AF, Kevin Hart & Turning Pain Into Punchlines

Eva Evans broke out in hives during the roast, spent two years as the only female comedian inside Rikers Island, and earned Kevin Hart’s praise on Netflix’s Funny AF - but Eva Evans says she’s always known exactly who she is

Eva Evans poses on the red carpet during Kevin Hart’s “Funny AF” premiere on Netflix.

Jamaican-American comedian Eva Evans carries a style that blends Caribbean storytelling, raw honesty, and fearless humour into one distinct comedic voice every time she steps up to a mic.

Holding dual citizenship and proudly carrying a Jamaican passport, Evans represents the modern diaspora in full colour - Brooklyn grit, Jamaican wit, and punchlines rooted in lived experience. The daughter of a Waterhouse-born, Yallas-raised mother and a father from Bogwalk, St. Catherine, she says her Jamaican upbringing continues to shape the way she approaches comedy and storytelling. “I am not a Jamaican comedian. I am a comedian that is proudly Jamaican,” she echoed.

It’s a distinction that matters. Jamaican crowds, she explains, are a tough room — they come to laugh at themselves and won’t give it up easily. Eva works mainstream crowds, weaving her Jamaican heritage through the material rather than leading with it. The culture is always there, flavouring everything, but never reduced to a caricature.

“I am not a Jamaican comedian. I am a comedian that is proudly Jamaican.”

“I love how Jamaicans are very creative when painting the picture of a storyline. We have such a way with words!” Evans shared. “I definitely tap into that ancestral skill to add that wow factor in my jokes.”

That ancestral skill - the yard talk, the hyperbole, the storytelling muscle built into Caribbean speech - is not just style for Eva. It is craft. It is the mechanism by which a punchline becomes a revelation.

Evans has mined some of the heaviest places for laughs - foster care, a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, and two years as the only female comedian inside an art therapy programme at Rikers Island. This is not darkness dressed up as edgy material. This is something rarer: a comedian who genuinely believes that humour is a moral tool.

Eva Evans carries Jamaican wit from Brooklyn to the world

“The darker the subject, the more necessary humour is,” Evans explained. “Comedy is a tool God has given us to cope with the ugliness of the world.”

“I use the premise of the joke to expose the ugly of the situation - then I surprise the audience by showing them there is a nugget of comedy when you look at the situation from a different perspective. That’s the punchline.”

One of the most defining chapters of her career came during her two-year stint performing inside the art therapy programme at Rikers Island, where she was the only female comedian involved in the initiative.

“At first I was scared - but it ended up being the best crowd ever,” she recalled. “Their freedom may have been taken away, but their sense of humour wasn’t.”

Being selected for Netflix’s “Funny AF” by Kevin Hart brought a different kind of pressure. The club circuit, the Brooklyn shows she produced herself, and the Rikers programme all prepared her for the stage - but none of it prepared her for the intensity of the roast environment.

“I discovered that competitions give me a physical reaction. I broke out in hives from stress at the roast.”

Still, Evans earned praise directly from Kevin Hart himself. “Raw, unfiltered, and smart.”

She heard it. She agreed. She kept going.

Long before Netflix, Eva was producing her own shows across New York City — booking comics, selling tickets, and taking on both the financial risk and creative control that comes with it. The hustle, she explained, is very real: last-minute cancellations, slow ticket nights, and competition from larger events. Yet for Evans, ownership makes it worthwhile.

“With producing shows, you run the risk of last-minute cancellations from comics, low ticket sales, competition with other and bigger events — but having control of your own show makes it worth it,” she elaborated.

As a Black woman from the Caribbean diaspora working at the highest levels of American comedy, Evans also carries a question that often follows artists from underrepresented backgrounds: do you feel a responsibility to represent? Her response remains direct, principled, and fully on her own terms.

“I represent for myself because I am my own individual - but I do take pride in being a living example of how fun, driven, talented, and creative we can be.”

When she walks off stage, there is one thing she hopes audiences leave thinking: “Hey, she’s bold - and I want more of her.”

“Eva Evans is just getting started — so get comfortable saying my name. Eva Evans to DI WORLD.”

There is no second-guessing in that. No hedging. Just Eva Evans, exactly as advertised. “Eva Evans is just getting started - so get comfortable saying my name.”