Kyle Kellams: JJ Barrows' stand-up is funny but also reflective. She uses personal experience as a starting point for her stories about perseverance, aging and just getting along. JJ Barrows will perform at the Jones Center in Springdale Friday night, Feb. 20, as part of the venue's Center Stage comedy series. She says that if there is a vulnerability involved in her stand-up, it's a natural progression of how she came to comedy.
JJ Barrows: I don't think it started with the intention. I don't think I was like, "Oh, I'm going to do comedy and be vulnerable." I think the only way I just knew how to show up on the stage was just to be myself. And I think what I loved about comedy was when I shared my insecurities, people laughed because they have their own insecurities. And I think I found this aha moment where I finally don't have to pretend to be someone else. I can just be honest about who I am, and there's humor in that. But then there's also, you know, hard stuff in that which everybody can relate to. And so I just found, for me at least, including that in what I do, and it just worked. And I find I'm able to be more funny if I'm able to talk about some of the tougher stuff, because it just loses its power a bit when you talk about it and when you can kind of laugh at it first, I think.
Kellams: And is there something also about telling other people — a group, probably mainly of strangers — who can find that sort of, I don’t know, common ground?
Barrows: Yes. I think I do it both for them and for myself, because I think it's very also healing for me when someone after the show is like, "Oh my gosh, me too," or "I feel the same way," or "I have been there," or "Just hearing you say that really normalized that for me." I mean, sometimes I'll address rehab or depression or, you know, whatever. And I think for some people, it's literally just having it feel a little more normal than just so much of a stigma. I think I do it for both of us. I do it for the audience, and I do it for myself a little selfishly.
Kellams: I think I should put in this disclaimer right now: You're funny. Your shows are funny. People may have heard the first two minutes of our conversation — what are we getting into?
Barrows: Yeah. Welcome to my TED Talk.
Kellams: When did you first want to get on stage?
Barrows: To be honest, I didn't really want to get on stage. If we're talking about being vulnerable, I was going through a very dark, hard season of life. But I had enough tools in my tool belt to know I need therapy right now, I need consistent therapy. I could not afford it at the time. I kind of googled other methods to just kind of get out of your head or get unstuck. And something that kept coming up was an improv comedy class. And so I said, "Oh, six weeks — that'll last me longer than two hours, I'll try it." And it was cheaper than a two-hour therapy session. And so I went with the intention of thinking, we're doing this group activity, kind of play and have fun and whatever. The improv class was full. It ended up being a stand-up comedy class. And I thought, "Oh, it's probably the same thing." I mean, that's how foreign comedy was to me at the time.
And so the first day of class, the teacher had everyone get on stage and say why you're taking the class. And everyone that got up there either wanted to be a comedian, had always just been a student of comedy, loved comedy, loved Robin Williams — they had all these really great answers. And I was like, "Oh my God, what do I say? How do I fit in?" And I couldn't think of anything, so at the last minute I was like, I guess I'll tell the truth. And I was like, "Honestly, I just needed therapy and I couldn't afford it." And the whole class laughed and the teacher was like, "That's funny." And I was like, "Oh, I was being serious." And he was like, "That's even funnier." And it was that aha moment where he said, "Some of the best comedy is based on the truth, because we all have our stuff. And if you can be honest about that, there's going to be something in there that's healing not only for you, but for other people."
Kellams: One of my favorite things you talk about is when you had gotten a job with Alaska Airlines and it taught you something about geography.
Barrows: I, for a better part of my life, thought that Alaska was next to Hawaii. And I did not discover that that was not true until I was 28 years old, when I was hired by Alaska Airlines and I was told I was going to be stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. And I was stoked because I was like, "Man, which island do you think we're going to be close to?" And it was a very humbling moment. But the beautiful thing about telling that story is you'll get people that think you're an idiot, but the amount of people that have said, "I thought the same thing.”
Kellams: Well, and to be fair, the reason is you see maps when you're a kid. And there's the contiguous 48 and down there, you know—
Barrows: They're off to the side by themselves hanging out — Alaska and Hawaii, they look like little warm buddies down there.
Kellams: What I love about that is maybe we don't all share that incorrect fact, but we all can relate to something we found out later than our peers or our friends, and we go, "Ah, totally."
Barrows: Yeah, life's full of them. Like the car light on at night — I thought it was illegal because that's what my parents told me. You can't have the car light on at night, it's illegal. And probably honestly till maybe a few years ago, because a friend's kid was in the car and I was like, "Oh, we can't have it on at night because it's illegal." And someone was like, "Oh, you tell him that too?" And I was like, "Well, isn't that a thing?" And they're like, "No, no, that's just something parents tell their kids." And I was like, "Wait, really?"
Kellams: I guarantee you, I grew up in rural Arkansas — we all thought that. We thought two things: You couldn't drive with the dome light on at night and you couldn't drive barefoot.
Barrows: You couldn’t drive barefoot. That’s another one.
Kellams: And we never bothered to look that up. We just took it as fact because somebody told us.
Barrows: Yeah, it's so true. Life's full of them. And that's what I love about comedy — you can kind of find these funny little quirks about life, things that whether it's old wives' tales or things your parents told you, it triggers a memory in their mind, something of their upbringing. And so I love how it can kind of fuse people together with their own life experiences and kind of connect us in a way.
Kellams: You've written a couple of books, and I started to read the first one. Let me see if I get the title right — "It's Called a Spade”.
Barrows: Yeah.
Kellams: I started with the first one after I'd watched your stand-up and I was like, "Oh, OK." I mean, there are funny moments, but there are also very serious moments. And I wonder, is talking about some of your anxieties or insecurities on stage different than putting them down on paper?
Barrows: I think so. I think especially the first book I wrote before I found comedy, and I think some of it I was still very much in the middle of some of the stuff I was going through. And I used to think you can't really share your story until you have the happy ending to share, you know — beginning, middle, end. Everyone loves a good, whether it's a recovery story or underdog story, victory story, whatever it is. And I remember just kind of being in the middle of going through some of the stuff and I thought, how many people, though, are out there that think they have to have this kind of big finale in order to just share their story or what they're going through? What would it look like to just talk about it kind of while you're in the middle of it, and maybe I'm not the only one — again, that mindset.
And so I think when I write, because it's not in the moment in front of people and it is kind of like me processing my thoughts, I do think I lean more towards the heavy stuff. That's why even to me, doing comedy is funny. I was never the "I want to be a comedian and I'm so funny." I was definitely more the emotional kid. Feel all the feelings. It's OK to cry, you know, be sad, don't stuff it — that's kind of more me. But I love having found humor on my journey, and I find I can laugh harder if I've kind of processed the pain. And I also don't take things as personally because I've dealt with it. And so I think when I write, I kind of dig a little bit more deeper into the tougher stuff. I think I'm way more vulnerable. I think I'm vulnerable on stage, but I'm vulnerable in a way that I've prepared it and I know — having tested things out in front of live audiences, I kind of know where the line is — versus I think when I write, because I don't have to make eye contact with someone, I say even more.
Kellams: That makes total sense to me.
Barrows: Yeah.
Kellams: Well, we cannot wait to see you in Springdale. And hey, have you gotten to play Hawaii yet?
Barrows: I have not. It's on the to-do list. Hawaii and Alaska — those are two I would really love to do.
Kellams: JJ, you'll be at the Jones Center. Thanks so much for your time.
Barrows: Thank you so much for having me.
JJ Barrows will perform Friday, Feb. 20, at the Jones Center in Springdale as part of the venue's Center Stage comedy series. She spoke with Kyle Kellams earlier this month.
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