Jordan Jensen’s comedy is tough to categorize, identical to the remainder of her. And whereas that’s typically how we like our humorous individuals — layered, nuanced, tortured — it tends to wreak havoc on the precise lives of the comics themselves. Not fairly becoming in a field (though she positively is aware of the best way to construct one) has mainly been Jensen’s schtick since beginning. She grew up in upstate New York, raised in a heavy-construction household that included three lesbian mothers and a dad who died when she was younger. Due to that unconventional background, she says her degree of hormone-fueled boy craziness blended along with her rugged capability to swing a hammer and mainly turned her into “a gay man.” Someplace in her teenagers she hit a “fat mall goth” section that by no means left her, even after changing into a preferred comic worthy of a Netflix particular. Combining her interior Sizzling Matter teen with freak-flag feminism and alpha-male power, her type makes not becoming in really feel like one of many coolest issues you are able to do — as a result of it’s.
On a latest Saturday night time, earlier than her new Netflix particular “Take Me With You” drops Tuesday, Jensen ready herself for one final run of weekend exhibits earlier than ranging from scratch with materials for a brand new hour. Earlier than going onstage in entrance of a crowd of a suburban crowd on the Brea Improv, the comic’s Zen-like confidence felt like yet one more factor she’s constructed from the bottom up, alongside along with her comedy profession … and possibly a patio deck or two. However onstage, her love of all issues spastically bizarre and macabre makes her humor a enjoyable and scary mission to unpack for followers and unsuspecting “normie” audiences alike.
How does this second earlier than your Netflix particular “Take Me With You” drops really feel for you? Are you previous the nervousness of it?
I can’t see the numbers, so if it tanks, I received’t know — so I like that. I’m barely dissociated as a result of it’s already been achieved, so I really feel good; I don’t really feel anxious about it now. I used to be positively anxious main as much as it. However the second that night time [of filming it] was over it was a aid.
And also you filmed it in New York Metropolis [at the Gramercy Theatre]. However the place did your comedy profession really begin?
My profession actually began in Nashville, after which I moved to New York after a 12 months. I’m initially from upstate New York. I grew up in Ithaca after which I moved to Buffalo and began making an attempt to do comedy. I moved to Buffalo as a result of my good friend turned paralyzed, and I moved there to be close to right here, after which I mainly began doing open mic in entrance of her paralyzed physique as a result of she wasn’t allowed to run away. Then my dad died, and I used to be going to maneuver to New York Metropolis and as an alternative [some friends of mine living in Nashville] stated I ought to come stay with them, so I did that as an alternative for a 12 months and actually bought into comedy there earlier than finally shifting again to New York.
Did doing comedy in Nashville allow you to develop your profession?
Undoubtedly. I met [comedian] Dusty Slay, who helped me out. Lucy [Sinsheimer] from [the comedy club] Zanies bought me all this characteristic work, and I drove my truck throughout the South.
What’s prefer to hit the touring circuit laborious as a younger comic?
You do an open mic and somebody says you might be on a present, and out of the blue you assume you’re sizzling s—, and each step of the way in which you kinda assume you’re doing rather well, so that you’re driving round being like, “I’m on tour,” and making bizarre tour posters, and also you’re not even taking a look at people who find themselves at a distinct degree; you’re simply making an attempt to do essentially the most you are able to do at your degree. So, for me, it was the identical as it’s now. I’m on tour each weekend, and I’ll come again dwelling and hit the [open mics] and get my materials and go off once more. Although I used to be dropping cash on the highway, I felt like I used to be a touring comedian.
You’ve got jokes in “Take Me With You” about going by way of a ”mall goth” section. Are you continue to a goth child on the within?
I stayed in a little bit punk period in Nashville and dabbled in being all the pieces from punk to goth to hippie to no matter was the form of my physique at the moment. However Nashville being much like the place I’m from, which is Ithaca, the place I labored as a carpenter, it reaffirmed which you could be a grimy carpenter, and that’s additionally kinda cool. So I stated I’m simply gonna gown like I do at work. So I ended being full goth in ninth grade after I needed to get a boyfriend.
Judging by the blood-red stage design to your particular, I’d say you’re nonetheless a little bit goth. What was your thought course of for a way you needed your stage to look?
I’m obsessive about “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and with Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a personality, this weird alien making an attempt to slot in with humanity and he’s this stunning [trans person], you don’t know if he’s a person or girl — and I really feel similar to that. I don’t really feel transgender, however I do really feel like an alien. So I needed it to really feel like I had scrapped collectively a set to mainly placed on a present for my bizarre alien crowd. And I needed the purple within the curtains to be harking back to interval blood, reproductive organs. I needed or not it’s actually gnarly, and with the development netting, I’ve a development background, so I needed it to seem like someone stated, “You’re doing a Netflix special” and I’m only a bizarre creature going, “OK, time to do my big day!” and the stage crew did a fantastic job with that route.
Have been you working in development proper up till you began doing comedy full time?
Yeah, I constructed homes with my dad and mom and I’ve roofed. I’ve achieved mason work and landscaping and stuff. However in New York I did reworking, so I’d do issues like flip a crepe store right into a hair salon. So it was like flipping locations in New York and making them hip and classy. And no person ought to’ve employed me; there’s nothing higher than an all-male development crew, and I used to be one girl. Individuals had been simply so pleased with patting themselves on the again for hiring a girl that they didn’t discover I took 4 instances so long as a daily crew — and I employed a variety of day laborers.
In your particular, you discuss battling the lesbian power that you just get labeled with in comedy, however I’m guessing that additionally occurred within the development gig?
It’s at all times been that method as a result of I used to be raised by lesbians they usually [didn’t] know the best way to increase a female little one; they only raised me to be of their development crew. And my dad needed a son so I turned his son, so I’ve at all times been tremendous boy loopy and in addition so boy loopy in that I look and gown like a boy. So I’m mainly a homosexual man … it’s not solely being a girl that’s within the trades, however when you’ve got any form of power that’s utilitarian, you’re homosexual and that’s at all times been an issue for me. As a result of I’ve preferred automobiles or effectivity and constructing issues, and I’ve by no means understood dressing up with make-up and jewellery.
“I’m obsessed with ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and with Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a character, this bizarre alien trying to fit in with humanity and he’s this beautiful [trans person], you don’t know if he’s a man or woman,” Jensen stated. “And I feel very similar to that.”
(Mindy Tucker)
As a New York comedian, what’s your notion of the L.A. comedy scene proper now?
The L.A. scene has much less of a fireplace underneath its ass, nevertheless it has the identical quantity of excellent comics — or roughly the identical quantity due to the inhabitants distinction. However the distinction between doing comedy in L.A. and doing comedy in New York is should you don’t write a brand new joke in New York each week, everyone is aware of. Whereas in L.A. they will chill extra — they’ve a canine, they’ve a hike, they will do ayahuasca, and there’s extra to life than comedy.
However in New York, you will have 10 individuals dwelling with you and it’s important to take a practice each day, and also you’re so comedy-focused since you’re making an attempt to climb out of that life and into the comfortable place of L.A. In order that they’re simply pretty much as good, however New York comedy is far more prolific, however [in] L.A. they’re simply as humorous. Like Josh Johnson, I don’t assume that man is popping out of L.A. As a result of we’re making an attempt to get to the place the L.A. persons are — they’re comfy and have a pleasant home they usually’re gonna be OK. However in New York we’ve dedicated our lives to being depressing in order that we hold producing.
What’s a notice that Netflix producers gave you earlier than the filming technique of your particular that you just didn’t comply with?
Netflix was like, “All that stuff that’s f— up about your family, put that way sooner in the special,” and I ended up not doing that as a result of the way in which I do my common set I attempt to ease them into that. As a result of when should you’re sitting there as a watcher, listening to all of the stuff I say about my dad, you must be unfastened. Netflix was like, “Just put it up top because it’s your story,” and I made a decision I’m simply gonna go it how I usually do it, as a result of I get it that it’s my story, however I can think about turning that s— off so quick as soon as your hear a few of that stuff. Identical to, “No!” So I’m making an attempt to get you to grasp me after which letting it rip. The primary half-hour is my story, nevertheless it isn’t about being raised by lesbian mothers and having the lifeless dad. I simply needed to gamble and never do the entire nearer very first thing and do a ramp-up as an alternative.
Contemplating you’ve now achieved getting a Netflix particular, do you assume you’re nonetheless as hungry as you had been earlier than?
I assumed the starvation would flip down a bit, nevertheless it doesn’t as a result of as quickly because the hour is completed, you simply have all this stress to provide you with a brand new hour, and the entire thing comes right down to efficiency. Whenever you’re onstage, you need to be giving them a very good present. So though I can relaxation on my laurels, I can’t do something from the particular; I don’t need them to observe the particular on Tuesday and see repeats. So I really feel higher on myself, however there’s no much less drive. The particular didn’t do what I assumed it will do; I assumed it will make me much less of a love addict, I assumed it make me much less determined to have individuals’s affection, nevertheless it doesn’t do s—. The one factor I care about is that girls from Center America who usually are not disgusting mongrels see the particular. I would like males and normie ladies to see the particular — that’s why Netflix is essential. As a result of my viewers is all freaks, however I want nonfreaks to see it to allow them to really feel freaky for an hour. That’s all I would like.
