Rising Stars: Meet Jake Steward of Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Steward

Jake, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m the son of two puppeteers on what was essentially a Christian version of Sesame Street, so I was exposed to theatre and comedy at a young age. My dad especially is funny and incredibly crafty- not in like the sneaky sense, but literally a craftsmen; building puppets and props and sets while writing the weekly scripts for his ministry. Scripts that would almost always be thrown away on the day in favor of improvising the story instead.

I grew up in North Carolina where I kept diving deeper and deeper into comedy, basically immersing myself in anything comedy I could get my hands on: movies, tv, old HBO standup specials, reruns of SNL on Comedy Central, you name it. All of my pop culture references are at least 20 years older than I am, which I attribute to the amount of I Love the 80’s I watched on VH1.

I ended up going to UNCWilmington for a very practical Acting degree, which is where I met up with some like-minded comedy nerds and together we started the award-winning sketch team, Pineapple-Shaped Lamps. Well, what we actually started was a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast that was so popular the theatre we performed at asked us to do a weekly comedy show, and *then* we became the award-winning sketch team. We toured across the country doing comedy in every type of venue from sold out convention centers to half-empty dive bars. In 2017 I moved to LA where I’ve studied and performed at UCB, Second City, The Comedy Store, and several more half-empty dive bars. I’m currently hosting and producing a live comedy gameshow called ‘SPYgames’ at The Pack Comedy Theater in Hollywood.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s generally been a smooth road! Is that too boring for an article? I could make up some drama if that’ll sell more copies.

I’m currently focused on producing SPYgames. It’s the little show that could and has been steadily gaining momentum, with each show getting better and better. If I had to put a label on our biggest hurdle it would, ironically, be publicity. Which is where VoyageLA comes in! And here we are now. Wow, look at us.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am really proud of SPYgames; it’s a very fun and ridiculous show with as high a production value that an unemployed comedian can manage. We draw a lot of inspiration from British panel shows like Taskmaster and 8 Out of 10 Cats, as well as some American shows like Dropout’s Game Changers and Make Some Noise. Every month we bring in a new group of comedians and have them compete in frustratingly silly challenges like drawing a self portrait while blindfolded or throwing frying pans at targets across the stage.

But I also want to mention, I don’t host this show alone! I brought in my friend Spencer Taylor to co-host the show with me. She’s a terrific comedian and has written for several great sitcoms like Mixed*ish and Animal Control. We have almost completely opposite stage personas which brings a very fun contrasting dynamic to the show. She continues to surprise and impress me month after month. We’ve been doing SPYgames for three years now, which equates to about 30 episodes and over 150 games played and as a result my closet is overrun with ping-pong balls, plastic cups, finger puppets, and pictures of esteemed character actor Gary Cole.

I feel like when I’m hosting this show I am fully in my element, utilizing a lot of skills I learned from watching my dad produce Sonshine Safari (S-O-N, because Jesus, do you guys get it? It’s a pun. Very high-brow.) as well what I learned from producing sketch comedy for fifteen years. It’s a lot of prop building, improv, jokes, stupid little games, and a surprising amount of graphic design; it’s like my whole life has been building to becoming the host of SPYgames. Which as I say that out loud is actually deeply sad– but I’m just going to push right past that and bury those feelings deep inside as we continue talking!

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Life is hard. Often too hard. Comedy makes it just a little bit more palatable. And if I can provide that for others by forcing comics to catch bean bags in a bucket that’s strapped to their head, then that’s a day well spent.

Pricing:

• Ticket prices $10

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/folksnxtdoor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/folksnxtdoor

Image Credits
Stage Action photos of the show all taken by Ian Zandi; the white studio photos taken by Caleb Dollar; the poster photo with the green jacket and blue/black background taken by Eric Carroll