Comedy Roundtable

Jordain Fisher - Comedian/Actor seen on The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, BET and the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival (Recorded Live at the Punchline Comedy Club)

Comedy Roundtable Season 8 Episode 80

Actor and comedian Jordain Fisher took time out from performing on stage at the Punchline Comedy Club with Craig Robinson and friends to pull a chair up to the Comedy Roundtable.

Since becoming a comedian at the age of 17, Jourdain has found enough success to keep from working at his family’s funeral home business and his star is only rising. He has written for Viceland, 50 Central on BET and most recently, The Tonight Show. Jourdain was highlighted as one of 2018’s New Faces at the prestigious Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, was a finalist in 2017’s Stand Up NBC in Los Angeles, has participated in Atlanta’s Laughing Skull Festival, was a finalist in North Carolina’s Funniest Competition and consistently headlines at clubs and colleges across the country. He has also performed on The Tonight Show and Comedy Central.

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Ladies and gentleman, comedy roundtable these are great questions. Yes, good comedian a math question. Really good question. Thank you. This is so much fun, you guys. Oh, that is a good question. And that lightning round was so fun. That's a really good question. comedy fans Khan versation enthusiast. It is a brand new episode of the comedy roundtable. Pull up a chair settle in. We have a great conversation for you this episode. Let's get this party started. Jamie Pendel Jamie, Hernan Adam. Hey look at you getting in on the game. I appreciate that. Usually, you're so negative about him giving me the big intro. I just figured people deserve to hear it in stereo. I didn't even know that our podcast was available in stereo. Yeah, it is actually. And actually, if you put the SAP button, it's available in Spanish. We have saved a cheer for you our listener and we've also saved to cheer here at the roundtable for our guest this evening. Jordan Fisher. We are in the landmark diner immediately adjacent to the punch line comedy Club. You've been here with us all week. So Sunday night last show. This visit is the format of the show we do some rapid fire kind of questions. Okay. You pick the topic, we asked the questions. Not all of the topics will ultimately be used. You have three choices. And two of them we'll use Okay. All right. So I'm guessing or your topics are pancakes or waffles? Analytics, or mood music, mood music. Alright, mood music starting with Jamie. What is your pre show music that gets you ready to go on stage? Good question. So I'm going probably Hip Hop r&b. So I'm going to be listening to like Kendrick or something like that. Or I'm going vibey with like Krung Ben who is this kind of like psych rock kind of band. Very just set the tone just sentence it really set the mood kind of kind of deal. It's no it's not very vocal, heavy. It's just a basis of drummer and a guitar. And they are fantastic song for when you're gonna be with a lady. That's totally different. You know, it's funny. I've never really put on music for that. Oh, really? No makeout tape. You wouldn't want to have it be the same song because you get confused and then start the wrong way. Yeah, opening line and we make the sounds of love. Not the music. That's right. We make the music. He That's right. That's right. All right. Jamie has playlists for the different events in his life. He's very he's already has his funeral playlists pretty well set? You have your funeral playlist? Yeah, that's interesting. And so he wants to be very specific mean, he's very specific about events in his life. So what's the song that you would have one on your birth playlist? Had there been one and two on your funeral playlist? Cheese. Wow. Okay, my birth playlist. See, that just makes me think of like the songs that I love the most, which are like human nature. That's a good song, and then do that thing by Lauryn Hill. Also great. Yeah. Do you remember what was playing when you were born? Absolutely not. Yeah. Yeah. My death playlist. Dream on Aerosmith. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna go with that. So dream on is that played? Like, as the caskets walking down? Yeah. Bringing out Yeah, wouldn't that be going out? Yeah. Going out. How cool would that be? Actually? Very, very, very tough. Yes. All right. So I am just say before you say that, if you had a recording in the casket that was playing the song from within the casket and be like a pre recorded singing that that would be amazing. Yes. Of using. pre recorded I'm not you know, they cast me on a big screen. Open. I've got my own funeral music video. That's just like, arms wide with doves flying by now. A marketing move. I am about to shark take the shit out of a great idea. Okay, here we go. What if you come onboard QR codes on tombstones. And when you're in a cemetery, you could hit the QR code and actually learn about the person. That'd be pretty cool, actually. Right? Whoa, I be cool. I thought you were gone with your final music video. Like you're just like, you know, is 78 years old or whatever you just do like a last video shoot with somebody Yeah, you get to choose your song or whatever. And they play that ephemeral. Like, again people can make it funny. Like if whatever whatever their personality style is, they did that thing where they animate old pictures now so if you take somebody that's probably seen that final music video should be surprised though for the family right now. And it's like the seven year eight year old with like the models you know, hanging all over him and everything one of those father daddy, daughter, father daughter dances at a wedding where they like start none. They go into some court choreographed routine. You're saying the daughter is in the music video is the models with that? It's a little creepy. You're being creepy. That was the wrong way. 100% And that was weird. You misunderstood. MGM is doing a thing now where you go around to their different hotels and you find a QR code somewhere in the hotel. It's like a treasure hunt that they do for in Las Vegas. That was pretty cool. But at the Bellagio, they made the QR code out of plants. It's in the little atrium in the Little Dan the right way. No, it's like, it's like the the QR code is growing. It's literally a live QR code that's growing implants out in the wall. Works. There's just like this aggravated gardener who's having like everyday, everyday, meticulous bonsai tree stuff. Yeah, I thought it would be so creative. Just working my tail off. Well, that was a pretty cool idea. Yeah, because I'm worried about people swapping stickers on our gate gravestone to be honest with you, I think it's a low risk. I don't think it was a risk. I actually think there's a high risk role risk. Alright, so mood music. My question related to mood music is Do you find that music has a greater ability to improve your mood or negatively impact improve completely improved? I'm a big music music person. My dad was a music major in college Yeah. And you know, I grew up in a very musical household. And then just like from listening to, you know, hip hop and stuff so much of hip hop is just samples of old school shit right so I love all of it across the board. Yeah, I it always improves my mood, you know, especially family background though was in the girls Yeah, we own a funeral home. Oh, wow. Can we can talk to some people well, hold on a second. I probably may know them thinking about I might have approached that differently so cavalierly. Yeah one of my closest friends when we were in high school, he used to kind of always walk around you know, eyebrows down you know, kind of serious order. And we we listened to all the time it always be like hard Hip Hop shit. Yeah, I was like, bro, try some of this. Try some of this. Try that. Right, you know, like lighter things. And he was like, You're right. It really does like change your mood. I was like, yeah, if you're listening to like, I'm angry all the time. You're probably gonna be angry right time. You're gonna be aggravated. You gotta listen. Yes, spread it out. Can you eat breakfast and listen to Slipknot at the same time while it's I can Alright, we're gonna put some mood music under this as we close out the segment but don't wander away too far. We're gonna be back with our next segment with our guest Jordan Fisher comedy roundtable we'll be right back nice convenient coming to the stage man he's actually from North Carolina but he's here for you tonight everybody please give it up for the very funny Mr. Jordan Fisher come on by Jordan Fisher Yeah, I'll do it. First off black people we have to stop blaming white people for our problems all right, it's a big deal for us and why people got stopped creating so many problems I've done my research on why people have you watching Game of Thrones and things like that. And all types of potions and elixirs you know I shows like that exists Walking Dead and Game of Thrones because white people ain't got no natural predator you just got to make up stuff sitting there like zombies and dragons Oh my word Can you imagine the world we live with problems? Oh just save us Khaleesi I Naked and Afraid so why don't I show brah know how good your life got to be that the only way you can feel fear is go the woods job dangling out black people ain't doing no negative Ray we go outside every day clothing suspected this is no will Jordan make it past his routine traffic stop this Wednesday on clothing suspected I've actually been hanging out with a lot of white people lately because I've been spent a lot of time in Harlem guys are spreading on change. It's a lot different now. Even the crack has a different crack isn't switched out the merchandise was in the barbershop the other day this crackhead came in and tried to sell me a dragon egg they hey man I got these dragon eggs for you. Like dragon egg. The yeah man the whole bag of nice they clean they appeal a good quality. You got bad stuff. I was like Brother these avocados how much you sell on these for man? He's like 50 cents apiece. I was like, Man, that's a great deal, right? Know how much you can give him he's on the white market you are so hit so short my friend was I try not to think about that race stuff too much but does seep into my mind every now and again. I think it's because of where I was raised. I was raised in the south. I teach things differently as a young black kid in the south, like I'm from a place called Greensboro, North Carolina, and and in Greensboro. We had a planetarium and I love space. I'm infatuated with it. I love Spacely. Oprah loves bread. So I would get geeked up because of the planetarium. I'll be like, Yo, this is dope. We're going to the planetarium. I can't wait we get to learn about space. And they say no, Jordan, you're gonna learn about slavery. How, and they project stars onto the screen, and they say the slaves will use the stars as a roadmap of sorts. When they were trying to navigate their way to the North. They'd sing songs they say when the first quail calls to carry you to freedom, follow the drinking gourd. I remember that song just in case of emergency. So Trump pressed that button. I'm out here huh Northstar DeMarcus follow me. I know a place in Harlem where it gives them dragon eggs. Alright, welcome back to comedy roundtable. Jamie Bendele, Jamie Hearn and Adam Hey, our guest this evening is comedian Jordan Fisher. We are here in the Platonic comedy Club. The remaining two topics are analytics, or pancakes or waffles. See? I'm interested by analytics because what the hell? So yeah, let's go analytics and great beyond the void of knowledge. No, I hear you. All right, starting with Jamie. All right. I was told to shorten my questions. Okay. There was a general memo sent to the comedy roundtable family, but I believe it was directed right at me doing follow up questions. Okay. follow up questions. I think we should shorten the questions. But elongate the interest to the questions. Yes, that sounds like yes, Jordans on it was happening. I always feel like your questions should be there like hypotheticals, ask them expert witnesses. Doctor, I'd like you assume the following facts. Get comfortable? Yeah. Okay. All right. Is there room for analytics and stand up comedy? Do? No, I know, I'm hard. No on that. Right. Yeah. Because that takes all the pure joy out of it. Nobody wants to really break down. People are already breaking down comedy enough as it is. What did you mean by that was? Did they mean? Are they on my team? Are they on the opposing team? It was just a joke. Right? It's telling a joke. I wasn't trying to take aside on any of whatever the jokes topic was. But the last thing we do is bring it in math. Yeah. And then we don't want to bring in the math. And then also, I think about it from a business standpoint of where, you know, streaming platforms now are looking at all these analytics on whether somebody enjoys a show or not. And instead of just letting it be organic and natural about like, oh, this audience likes this thing. We're looking at when did they pause? When did they did they play the next episode immediately? Or do they come back to it a week later? Did they do this do that? And it's like, bro, that now you're just canceling a show after first season that everybody liked? Just because it didn't match up to the analytics that y'all said the whatever goofy system that is. Algorithms love the show, but they're right at the end of episode one. And then they had to, you know, had a week. Right that morning. The cat? Yeah, all right. Yeah, analytics and TV and movies have kind of, you know, taking an element of comedy away from those things. Like don't don't mess with stand up at this point. Yeah, no, no, people are already overanalyzing stand up. And I think, you know, the, and also every comedian is a different style, like where it's like, somebody might have long stories that have a big punch. Yeah, then it goes back in. But that's their style. And that's what makes them so great, is that it's a build versus, you know, the SAM morels that's just like, boom, joke, boom, joke, boom joke, you know, that kind of person. So a couple people in the showroom with clipboards taking down data that would negatively affect things. Oh, my God, I would ruin it. I don't want to see a red.on each of them. Right. Enough. Yeah. You were so against analytics that you're gonna bring in your own sniper? Yes. Yeah. I'll bring it oh haters part of my team. I say no, it's interesting that you say that. So I agree with the idea that analytics, depending on how it's defined, is actually always used by comedians. Sure. Right. So there so there is a portion that says this work or this word is better than that word? Yeah, right. it. And I would argue that that is a analytics, right? So it's not devoid of analytics. It's just not put into hardcopy stats. Right? Right. Yeah. Right. But if comedy club owners started using analytics, who they brought in, there's a, there was a company that actually pitched like a software that you could use to analyze comedian sets that will really make a determination as to whether that was good or not. And whether whether it were liver sufficiently, those people don't know comedy this, right, because it's like, also to like, comedians were growing in real time, right. And a lot of people are, you know, comedians, it's all you're experiencing things for the first time and then learning in that time. So if some company took stats on a committee on their first headlining weekend, or you know, their early their first year to headlining, and then they're getting all these, like soso reports, because they're learning and it's like, oh, I'm doing my hour for the first time. And then clubs, look at the papers like, oh, well, Alex, don't say he's that great. It's like, just might have fucked over the next Richard Pryor. Whoever, right? And they show up on a bad night. Yeah, even even Richard and Carlin had to go through their growth, right? Like, even though they were killing, they didn't have they, it took them years before they had generational shifts. So it's just yeah, to me, I'm just like, you just have to let comedy be caught. Let the labs prove it. And that's all because the crowd also affects your show, right? So a lousy crowd is going to mean the show is not gonna be as good necessarily. I mean, not that you're not a pro. You know, control it. Yeah. Yeah. No, it happens. I mean, sometimes you never know. It's just a group of 50 people get together and I decide they're all gonna suck as a unit. You don't know until you get up there. We're kind of bad individually, but you put us together and we're never we didn't talk about this. We just knew we walked in together. We are shitting on want to be a good night. What's your analytics? All right. So we had analytics, we had pancakes and waffles. I was kind of skirting the line on this question. And my question to you was, what do you think the analytics of breakfast are? When it comes to pancakes on vacation? What do you think the increase in pancakes is when you're on vacation versus a straight up breakfast? It's a strictly Americans, strictly Americans? Is it a 25% increases to 50%? Is 100% increase in pancake ordering when on vacation versus normal life? I mean, this is the this is the stuff that changes the world. So I know that people tuning in delicious cakes. Well, I'll just I'll give waffles in the same category. But they're kind of like the a little bit decadent breakfast. I think it's fair to say I still say 25 or 25% increase, I think a 25% increase. I don't think the increase is huge. Just because what I'm factoring in is somebody's personality. Yeah, so regardless of where they're eating, whether they're on vacation or not, I think that some for breakfast Yeah, you're either sweet or savory person could call so I think that still holds true. Regardless of if you're like in you know, Cancun or maybe whatever you are, you're either sweet or savory. So if you're a savory maybe Eggs Benedict, or like, whatever and then like, I think this still was great. French toast all that shit. Like, that's me. Okay, but like, I think on vacation somebody that's like doing savory breakfast they're they're indulging elsewhere. Yeah, whether it's drinking or like actual desserts. Okay, but I think if you a pancake at heart, you throw it through doing it. You're doing it. On a regular weekday going back to your house or regular we can go back to the weekend. I might order the all you can eat pancakes because I believe in myself. Yeah, I'm still getting probably just one order of pancakes. But if I'm on vacation, right? I'm going three four plates in. Right, right. Yes. What do I have to lose? I'm on vacation exact right? Like you're dieting for something else. The future? No, no. Yeah, yeah, you're there. I just think it rises with whoever's already on that team. I think they come to play for the championship. Yeah, that's right. So so vacation making championship of whatever breakfast category you're Yeah, yeah. Whatever the cereal people do. They just kept nuts. They go full on Europe. People aren't going on vacation. Cereal, they're not even living their life. People Yeah, so funny. Oh, what did the Froot Loops tastes like here? Alright. Everyone, alright, analytics, how self analytical? Are you in terms of the things that you choose to talk about onstage? Question? Okay, I'd say a decent amount. You have to have self awareness. So I think that just goes if you're like going to be any type of comic that's worth a damn, I think you should have some kind of analytical perspective to your material. So yeah, I think I do that. I feel like some comedians have very little separation between who they are in real life. Like just throwing out all their business and stuff like that, like really going for it? You know? Yeah, so I used to not do that as much. I used to not talk about myself as much on stage, like the personal things going on my life or like dating or anything like that. Because I also to him, like, I'm not like one of those comics where it's like, I'm only a comedian, like, you know, there's some comedies where it's like, that's their whole. Yeah, right. So it's just like anything that happens in their life. They're just putting it on stage. But I used to talk more about like, things are going on the world and just like, you know, current events and like, social, whatever, like between people. And I think the past administration and everything, like maybe people were like, really on edge, and taken sides and everything. So I started to see that and I was like, Alright, let me back off of that. Let me talk about me dating, things like that. So that was kind of like, yeah, that was kind of like a shift for me. Yeah, because I just say, hey, seat just came up. And Trevor Noah is leaving. All right, The Daily Show. I mean, it came open. Would you ever be like I'd love to. I'd love to do something like that. Listen, Trevor has like a $25 million mansion in California. So yeah. I'd be up there. Like we've got to talk about America. Alright, so upcoming projects, what's the what's the stuff that people should be watching, listening following for? Well, I've got an album on Spotify called Good for you. And yeah, I'm just going around telling jokes around the country. Where can we find tour date information? My website, Jordan fisher.com. And my Instagram, just go to my Instagram J Fisher comedy, links in the bio, all that kind of stuff. That's where you can find everything. I post clips on there all the time. Come to a show. We saw your ad tonight. awesome show. Really good job. Thank you. Well, for Jamie, Jamie and Adam. That'll do it for us. Put your chair back where you found it for the comedy roundtable. Jamie, Jamie and Adam we'll see you next time. Thanks guys. My dad recently got an iPhone. And he just signed up for Instagram. I'm the only person he follows He has just me and him. Sometimes it hit me up he like did you see on Instagram the other day? I'm like, yeah, it was me like whatever you saw. I made you see that shit. He doesn't know how to work the app at all. Like the other day I posted a photo on Instagram he screenshotted it texted it to me and said I like this smile this works. I wrote him an email printed it out mailed it to him. Fire Moses. I used to spend a lot of time at church growing up because my family owns a funeral home. We do we do we own a funeral home in the ghetto of one of the top 10 Violent Crime cities in North Carolina. So business is good. Like if y'all heard gunshots growing up you might have gotten nervous well we heard gunshots growing up it's gonna be a good Christmas All right, that's a PlayStation. Extra controller. All right. Good Christmas this year. Yeah.

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