Jeremiah Watkins: "You're the Best"

May 12, 2017

Interview

Valerie Lopez

Article

Lara Smith

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It is rare that a com­ic describes his child­hood as hap­py, but if you’ve ever seen Jere­mi­ah Watkins per­form, per­haps it wouldn’t sur­prise you. His smile is infec­tious, he uses every bit of a stage as part of Roast Bat­tles The Wave and as Mosh­pit,” a hype man for God­damn Com­e­dy Jam, and we could fill 400 words with all of his cur­rent projects. Did we men­tion he plays the saxophone?

Watkins’ comedic diver­si­ty could have some­thing to do with grow­ing up in Kansas with a mom who con­stant­ly remind­ed him, You’re the best!” And it was as a child that Jere­mi­ah Watkins first real­ized his inter­est in com­e­dy. But to a kid in small-town Kansas, who stud­ied the careers of Chris Far­ley, Jim Car­rey, and Steve Mar­tin, mak­ing it big in com­e­dy seemed like a dream that would always stay out of reach.

It was Watkins’ approach to his career that seemed to set him apart. Bomb­ing would nev­er be an end to him. He moved to Los Ange­les to pur­sue com­e­dy and there was no turn­ing back. Deter­mined to approach it like any career, I’m treat­ing this just like any­body who went to law school and now they have to find a law job.” Watkins also believes that hard work and putting in a lot of time goes a long way in the indus­try. We’re pret­ty sure that his will­ing­ness to say yes to new things and being a gen­uine­ly nice human being might also have some­thing to do with it.

Watkins start­ed with improv because get­ting on open mics under the age of 21 was a chal­lenge. He start­ed standup as soon as he turned 21, but hav­ing that improv skill in his bag of tricks has giv­en him an edge at get­ting in on some incred­i­ble projects. Each step that Watkins has tak­en in his career has seem­ing­ly opened a door to the next incred­i­ble thing. Recent­ly appear­ing in a sketch on Jim­my Kim­mel Live (starts at 10:25) and hav­ing not one, but two shows on Com­e­dy Cen­tral, Jere­mi­ah Watkins will soon be a house­hold name.

If you’re in the Los Ange­les area, you can check out Jere­mi­ah Watkins’ show, Stand-up On The Spot at The Com­e­dy Store, the sec­ond Tues­day of every month. Not going to LA? Then check out Watkin’s pod­cast The Build­ing Years or hear him as a reg­u­lar on the Kill Tony podcast.

Vis­it his site, jere​mi​ah​watkins​.tv for appear­ances and activities.

For more infor­ma­tion about Zip Zap Zop, vis­it ZipZa​p​ZopEn​rich​ment​.com

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Jeremiah Watkins