Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Dunn.
Jon, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I actually got a pretty late start and didn’t completely commit to pursuing a career in comedy until my early 30’s. I had done stand up off and on as far back as about 2007 but didn’t stick with it for one reason or another.
The first time I quit, I had been doing comedy for a few months in Charlotte, NC during the summer after my second year of law school. When I moved back to Boston for my third year, I was so intimidated by the comedy scene there that I couldn’t bring myself to get back onstage. Instead, I would go to open mics and shows just to watch. The “local” comics there were all ridiculously talented, and at mics, I’d almost always see guys like Myq Kaplan, Shane Mauss or Joe List, all of whom have gone on to film specials for Comedy Central and/or Netflix.
I picked it back up for about a year in 2009, when I was back in Charlotte practicing law full-time, but then I wound up moving to California to take a job at a law firm in San Diego and then moved again to take a job at a firm in downtown Los Angeles. The time demands of both jobs were completely insane, so I didn’t have time to do much of anything besides work. I didn’t get onstage at all from 2010 until late 2014.
After the job in L.A. didn’t work out, a fellow comedian persuaded me to go to an open mic downtown, and I’ve been doing stand up ever since.
Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not.
For one thing, my legal career was pretty rocky and pretty short. One of the reasons it didn’t work out was that my heart wasn’t in it, and I’m much happier now that I’m doing comedy, but the fact that it didn’t go well still took a toll on my sense of who I am. That’s something that I’m currently working on. I still sometimes make the mistake of comparing myself to my classmates, many of whom are partners at law firms or tenured professors or whatever. Meanwhile, I spent most of last week sleeping on an air mattress at a Motel 6. This is actually pretty timely because I have a law school reunion next weekend.
Now that I’m focusing on comedy exclusively, I struggle a lot with personal discipline and consistency. Without some externally imposed structure or accountability, I can get pretty lazy. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to your peers in the comedy world too. I’ve found that the best way to combat these things has been to involve myself in a community instead of trying to do everything on my own. For me, it’s been crucial to find friends to write and go to shows with.
Beyond that, there’s the general truth that pursuing any career in entertainment means learning to cope with an endless stream of rejection and failure. It’s unavoidable. But there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jon Dunn story. Tell us more about the business.
I’ve only been doing comedy a few years at this point, so I’m still trying to figure out who I am as a comedian, but lately, I’ve been trying to talk about the stuff that I just mentioned. I’ve been doing a lot of self-deprecation and talking a lot about personal failures, which I hope people find funny and possibly cathartic or relatable.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Oh man. I’m terrible at this kind of question. I have no idea. Lately, I’ve been seeing articles about how big-name comedy websites are having to lay off writers and staff basically because Facebook is siphoning all their money away. People watch the videos directly on Facebook rather than going to the creator’s website, which means Facebook gets to keep all the ad revenue. Or at least, that’s my understanding. So, I guess a comedian’s long-term career prospects can depend on how things like that ultimately shake out. But hopefully, there will always be a demand for live comedy.
Contact Info:
- Website: jondunncomedy.com
- Twitter: @jondunncomedy
Image Credit:
Kimo Easterwood, Jose Troconis
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