NAME/ STAGE NAME
Jess Salomon.
Jess, mostly. My mom's from Peru. She'll call me Yessica, or Yess, Yessiquita.
Comedy goddess! People don't give me a lot of nicknames but I'm really good at giving nicknames. I like playing with names and situations. My friend Deanne is so much smaller than me. Our joke is that if we spooned it would be like wearing a backpack to bed, and so she became little backpack and I'm teaspoon.
Montreal, born and raised.
SIGN
Taurus. When I was in law school everyone's birthday was around mine. There's definitely something about the determination and stubbornness. Tauruses are argumentative. There's something to it.
DAY JOB
I am a war crimes lawyer, turned comedian. Right now I'm a full time comic. I was working for the UN in Holland. I actually left my job and decided to do comedy full time because I wanted to give it a shot for real. I just knew it was something I wanted to do. I've been writing and writing scripts and doing stand up.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE GAME?
2 years.
HOW AND WHERE DID YOU START OUT?
My really first time was when I was living in Holland. I wanted to check the club out because they had booked me on the following week, so I didn't even have things written yet. I get there and they tell me the next week is cancelled but they're like 'You can go on tonight if you want to.' I did even though I didn't have any jokes worked out.
I basically got up and talked a lot about being a foreigner, making jokes about the dutch like 'What's the deal with dutch guys and orange corduroys???' It wasn't great. I didn't actually stand in the spotlight, because it bothered me. I couldn't see anyone!
My first time here in Montreal was when I took Joey Elias' comedy class. Trevor Forestell was in my class. I was getting on stage once a week, working out 4 to 5 minutes that we would then do in the graduation class. I was limited to certain topics cause that was the format of the class. An original idea from one of those bits is something I still find is central to who I am as a stand-up comedian.
I basically got up and talked a lot about being a foreigner, making jokes about the dutch like 'What's the deal with dutch guys and orange corduroys???' It wasn't great. I didn't actually stand in the spotlight, because it bothered me. I couldn't see anyone!
My first time here in Montreal was when I took Joey Elias' comedy class. Trevor Forestell was in my class. I was getting on stage once a week, working out 4 to 5 minutes that we would then do in the graduation class. I was limited to certain topics cause that was the format of the class. An original idea from one of those bits is something I still find is central to who I am as a stand-up comedian.
WHAT MAKES YOU FUNNY?
I think that I'm a funny writer and I think the audience is always surprised by like the kind of things that I say relative to what I look like. There's comedy in that and then I hope the things that I say are funny.
I think that I'm a funny writer and I think the audience is always surprised by like the kind of things that I say relative to what I look like. There's comedy in that and then I hope the things that I say are funny.
WHAT IS THE BEST AND WORST THING ABOUT BEING A COMEDIAN?
I almost want to say they're like the same thing. It's the audience. You have this interesting relationship with the audience, like you're dependent on them in a way, but you don't want to write only with them in mind. When you get up there you want to sell what you're saying, you want to bring them on board with you. But sometimes you get sucked in to just wanting to please them. There's ways that you know you can get laughs but they're not the laughs that you really want, its not the comedian who you want to be, but it feels really good.
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR?
Making the transition from open mics to the weekends. Getting paid, that's a step. I'm doing my show off of Fringe, so I have more freedom. 45 minutes is a long time to keep people engaged. The longest I've done is 20. It's a big leap. It's probably the difference between a 10 k and a marathon. I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is the shows that I've produced and played on my own.
The Comedy Bistro, I hosted, produced, picked and booked the acts and timed it out. It was the first time I was responsible entirely for a show. It was really fun and for me it will be a chance for me to learn how to host and talk to the audience, and try not to be so scripted. I haven't had the chance to that in the clubs yet, I had to create my own space to do that. It went well so its going to be a monthly thing, the first Wednesday of every month!!!
It's great having a new goal like putting on a show for the Fringe Festival. I'd like to have a really solid hour of stand up. Just building that up, an hour in a comedy club as a headliner. I'd love to sell a TV show, be a writer. A dream of mine would be to write on The Daily Show, or something to do with political satire.
The Comedy Works cause it's been around for awhile. I love hanging out at the bar downstairs after the show. Its such a good vibe in there.
That's a tough question because there's some that I find funny but I don't want to be on a desert island with them. I just have a lot of favourites. I guess it would probably be Deanne Smith. WHY? Because she's my little backpack!
IF YOU COULD BRING ONE COMEDIAN BACK FROM THE DEAD WHO WOULD IT BE?
Richard Pryor or Mitch Hedburg, cause he was brilliant and he went too soon.
this. Then he'll tell a joke that wont go well on purpose. He'll then turn around to the wall and start putting himself down like “Youre fat, you're so ugly, you're not even normal. Ugly fat fuck, you should just go kill yourself, you're like a 34 year old virgin...." Like really putting himself down, and then he just turns around to the audience and he's like,”Yeah, so I was fuckin' this girl...” I just die over that every single time.
Write and get on stage as much as you can. The stage is a really big key. No one's going to start out by giving you paid work, but build your act up at the open mics. Eventually you have to figure out how the weekend works and what your act is when people are paying 15 or 20 bucks. They just expect a different level. You just have to be better. But the more you do it the more confident you get.
I can't imagine what you could say on stage unless you went off on a racist tirade. Or if you really go after an audience member in a horrible way that affects the business of the club, especially if you're new. It's very easy to not have you back.
Always try to make something funnier until you've squeezed everything out, until you add things and it starts taking away. Keep trying to improve it, cut some words out, get to the punchline faster, or come at things from a different angle. Add jokes after your punchline, switch up your voice, switch up your movement. Always see if there's something you can add to make your joke even better. Once you've done the most you can do, its done, move onto something new. Start that process again.
Things that surprise. When I cant see the punchline coming.
I don't like stuff that is just for shock value, I don't appreciate the kind of comedy where there isn't a punchline. The punchline is 'fuck you', or 'that's gay' or something hateful and misogynistic without any art to it. I can get into a holocaust joke, I can get into a rape joke, I can get into whatever if its a really good joke and it's the kind of person who can tell that joke. Really dumb racist, sexist shit, if it's dumb, if it's been done, if it's hack, I don't want to hear it! If I see the audience dying laughing at it I start to hate the audience. We all have jokes like that and I get that you do need to try stuff, but I don't find it funny.
DO YOU THINK THERE'S TRUTH IN THE COMEDY? CAN YOU JUDGE A PERSON BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR MATERIAL?
I think if there's truth in it its probably better comedy. The more you can be honest on stage, the more original it is, the better your comedy becomes. But that's not easy to get to. Put it this way, if I don't like a person's style of comedy, I could never get with that. I don't think that guys are the same way. It just turns me off so much when I see them on stage. I can love another person and be friends with them even if I don't like their comedy, but I couldn't sleep with them.
FAVOURITE COMEDY FILM?
This may not be my favourite movie of all time but it is in the vein of dark political satire, Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
IF YOU WERE IN A BAND WHAT KIND OF BAND WOULD IT BE?
I would love to be in a jam band. I used to really be into the Grateful Dead , Phish and the Alman brothers, my comedy would be like that. Jamming with a looseness to it, maybe with a little bit of jazz. Long and a bit messagey but not in a bad way. You know, something that appeals to people who are stoned. Someone said this to me once, I think it would be a good slogan for a poster or something: “I feel stoned when I listen to your comedy.”
SO IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF JESSICA SALOMON
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