Funny What Some Days Will Change

It’s Thursday September 23, 2010 and in 4 days it will be my 4-year comedy anniversary (September 27, 2010). So much has changed since that very first time I stepped on stage in the fall of 2006. As I type this, I am preparing to go and headline a room where I’ll do between 45 – 60 minutes and be the entertainment for the evening. That is mind-boggling to me, and to make it crazier, a reporter from the Baltimore Sun will be there who is currently writing a profile piece on me to highlight my hour special, Jason Weems,Vol. 1: Intellectual Property, which I’m filming on December 4, 2010 here in my hometown of Baltimore, MD.

 

The DC Improv, My Home Club

 

For every one thing that has changed over these years, I can also find examples of things that remain the same. Such as: I still get extremely nervous before each and every performance (I’m talking that 1st day of Kindergarten nervous). I still obsess over new jokes in my head, I still walk around mumbling at work writing mentally and I still feel like I’m making up for lost time. These are examples of things that haven’t changed, nor do I want to ever change either. They keep me in the moment, and standup comedy is a thriving living art form.

A funny story I haven’t shared with too many people is one regarding my 1-year comedy anniversary. My wife who at the time was still my girlfriend took me out for a celebratory dinner at an amazing Brazilian Steakhouse Fogo De Chao in downtown Baltimore. We’re enjoying our meal when my phone rings.

 

Dave Chappelle, One of My Comedy Heroes

 

It’s one of my close comedy buddies on the other end Bryson Turner saying, “Jason, Chappelle just walked into the Improv and he’s going up”. He’s speaking of the DC Improv, which has become my home club and a place where I owe everything. My lady knowing what Chappelle means to me yells, “check please” without missing a beat and we were off in high pursuit of one of my comedy heroes. To make a long story short, we make record time from Baltimore to DC, but he unfortunately changed his mind and had left by the time we parked… “Why has thou forsaken me”.

A few weeks later I’m at home on a Saturday night doing massive loads of laundry. It was one of those times when you’re forced to wash clothes. It was either Laundry or Public Nudity, Wisk or Indecent Exposure Charge—“I know it’s a tough one right”. So I’m strutting around the house butt-ass naked with nothing but a wristwatch on (don’t judge me, I was timing my loads) and my phone rings again.

 

Amazing Friends and Comedians, from left to right: Bryson, Kojo and me (Jason)

 

This time its one of my closest friends/ amazing comedian Kojo Mante on the other end. Me: “Hello.”. Kojo: “Chappelle is in the club…”. Before he could give details I was on 95 South in soggy sweatpants, flip-flops and a baby-tee (which looking back I hope didn’t belong to me). Halfway there Kojo calls and says Chappelle dipped out, and I drove back home a shell of a man. Now reminiscing over that outfit I had on, I think I started out the shell of a man.

In the 3 years since then that I’ve been performing, I haven’t had the pleasure of any more Dave Chappelle sightings but I remain hopeful and blindly optimistic. He is one of the main reasons I began comedy and has been a huge inspiration to my style of humor long before Chappelle’s show.  He’s truly a living legend, and its my hope that God will allow our paths to cross someday soon without me wearing moist trousers. “Here’s to another year of performing the purest live art form there is and to many, many more”.

“LETS GO”…[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1215958813529322429#]

Leave A Comment