Ian Jensen

Today I am interviewing Ian Jensen, a comedian born in Washington State who has been doing comedy for seven years. To find out more about Ian, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I performed in plays during Jr high and High school. I was the comic relief character or the "dork". This was the only way teachers could help me relieve my bad behavior aside from the detentions office, which I appeared regularly - a detention favorite! College was different because there was alcohol and other sheltered students experiencing freedom for the first time. That's how fraternities are born. We started ours from scratch. Since it was in Hawaii it wasn't filled with the typical all white athlete/rapists but a lot of really cool guys that wanted to have fun. That helped me stay in college for 5 years taking lower level credits, not getting a degree, and really super cool police record. I wasn't interested in anything specific at college. I tried taking acting classes but acting seemed like a worthless degree and the professor was a pompous ass. What a surprise, a professor being a pompous ass.

I moved to Oregon and tried computer animation at University of Oregon, thinking that would be a sidestep into movies. The admissions office told me I had to stay out of school for a year to get residency. So I dropped out. After working at an all you can eat pizza buffet in Eugene for 9 months I got impatient and moved to Portland. I was able to find an animation house and started working on some projects as an "intern". The animation thing was a lot like comedy in New York - not getting paid for endless hours of work that doesn't amount to much. I got to work on a theater trailer that was in Regal cinema's. It was a film strip that you rode on like a train and candy would fly around so you would by popcorn and crap. It was actually less cheesy than the stuff I see now.

A little before I left Portland I was riding on a bus thinking about what I need to do with my life. The only thing I do regularly is think of funny things like jokes, characters, situational stuff. I tried doing a set at a middle eastern restaurant called Zorba's(?). It was fun and I did well. The producer there was pretty cool and the comics were nice. A few months later I moved to San Francisco to try and get closer to comedy. So in short, I couldn't figure out anything else to do with my life.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

I would say the first time I performed in San Francisco was my real first time. I went to a small coffee shop, really excited and friendly so I was doomed from the start. It was my turn to do a set. After saying some "jokes" I took my clothes off, stuck my underwear in my buttcrack and ran around like a monkey. I even went into the street to enhance the "edginess" of this genius idea I thought would SLAUGHTER in a coffee shop filled with 9 comics and a barista. When I came back I put my clothes on and since I was the last comic all the comedians started filing out of the room like brain dead drug addicts at an AA meeting. They didn't share my excitement. I was looking at them with this "desperately seeking approval" look on my face. Like they were going to all stand up and applaud like my mother. Then tell me what a good boy I am. One guy said, "oh yeah, funny" because he knew what the rest of my life was going to be like. It was sad, painful and awesome.

What is the meaning of life?

Shit I don't know. Don't kill yourself.