Jeremiah Watkins (Volume 8)

Record­ing from the Stephen F. Austin Hotel lounge dur­ing the 2025 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val, Valerie Lopez set­tles into her eighth inter­view with Jere­mi­ah Watkins — a record for the pod­cast. (Yes: it’s real­ly 8, the num­ber that looks like an uppi­ty infin­i­ty sym­bol; infin­i­ty is, of course, the num­ber more times we want him to come on the show!). We’ve been lucky to have Watkins so many times, but each vis­it still feels like a big ​“get” and spe­cial treat. ​“This is one of the high­lights of my year,” he admits, call­ing Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy his favorite fes­ti­val for its curat­ed chaos and com­mu­ni­ty vibe. (We can’t help but think that the year­ly sit-down time with Lopez makes the fes­ti­val that much sweeter.)

2025 sees Watkins going strong, arguably stronger than ever, with a full spate of projects — stand-up, pro­duc­tion, pod­casts, and TV devel­op­ment — each demand­ing cre­ative band­width. As he works to give us more, the sheer num­ber of projects is requir­ing more of Watkins, down to even sim­ple things like time management. 

Watkins and Lopez touch on a per­fect exam­ple of this con­trolled fren­zy : a 6:30 p.m. Stand Up on the Spot show bled into a 7:00 p.m. Dr. Phil: Live set across town, requir­ing near-sur­gi­cal tim­ing. (More on both of these short­ly.) Rolling from one show to anoth­er is stress­ful enough with­out tight time win­dows like these, but in dis­cussing them you get a feel for how he’s matur­ing some key skills to stay cool under pres­sure. ​“I’m a good com­part­men­tal­iz­er,” he says, “[I’m] try­ing to take it moment by moment”.

For Watkins, Stand-Up on the Spot remains his ​“100% cre­ative con­trol” fortress. With week­ly episodes fea­tur­ing comics riff­ing on crowd sug­ges­tions, it’s a logis­ti­cal beast. He’s adapt­ed: an AI tool han­dles rough cuts, an assis­tant refines them, and old­er sets fill gaps when gigs like Moon­tow­er devour his sched­ule. ​“Con­sis­ten­cy is every­thing with YouTube,” he notes, but sur­vival means flex­i­bil­i­ty; if it does­n’t make it big­ger, onto a net­work, he’s fine with that too, want­i­ng it to be ​“acces­si­ble to everybody”.

Watkins’ role in Adam Ray’s viral Dr Phil: Live has been a riot, as well as a riotous suc­cess. The show, most def­i­nite­ly not star­ring the actu­al Dr. Phil – and so much the bet­ter for it – rou­tine­ly sells out venues, with audi­ences drawn by big name guests, and per­form­ers who are so very clear­ly enjoy­ing the hell out of putting it on. It hard­ly feels like ​“work”, and when suc­cess called, and Dr Phil Live land­ed a stream­ing spot, Watkins remem­bers cack­ling loud­ly and think­ing: ​“I can­not believe this is the thing that got on Netflix”. 

Watkins’ newest ven­ture, Thou­sand Per­cent Pro­duc­tions, for­mal­izes a decade-long col­lab­o­ra­tion with musi­cian-come­di­an Avery Pear­son. They met at a Hol­ly­wood Improv open mic where Pear­son accom­pa­nied him on keys — they had instant syn­er­gy. ​“So many peo­ple thought we’d known each oth­er for years,” Watkins laughs. Their pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny land­ed a nation­al Ein­stein Bros. Bagels cam­paign out the gate, and now pro­duces com­e­dy spe­cials (Josh Wolf, Jack Jr.) while eye­ing films. For Watkins, it’s a director’s run­way: ​“I’ve want­ed to direct movies for a very long time” . 

Per­haps Watkins’ most per­son­al project is Red Fuzzy Rug: an ani­mat­ed kids’ pilot co-cre­at­ed with his wife, Maja, focused on social-emo­tion­al learn­ing. Inspired by Maja’s teach­ing and research, it draws on the feels and tenets of Mag­ic School Bus, and makes inclu­siv­i­ty the order of the day. ​“It’s kind of cre­at­ing a a safe space for kids on this red fuzzy rug, where – what­ev­er they imag­ine – it comes to life,” as Watkins describes it. The cast is out­stand­ing, includ­ing Tiffany Had­dish, Jodie Sweet­in, Joan­na Haus­mann, and Lib­bie Hig­gins; but keep an eye out for even more big names in the future.

For some­one I tend to think of as the embod­i­ment of ​“fre­net­ic” ener­gy, the Jere­mi­ah Watkins of 2025 cer­tain­ly does­n’t dis­ap­point. As he notes: ​“the highs are high­er and the lows are low­er”, putting an extra coat of urgency on things. With these kinds of stakes, Watkins is com­ing to peace with relin­quish­ing con­trol — selec­tive­ly. He trains edi­tors to artic­u­late his vision rather than redo­ing their work (“It makes me a stronger direc­tor”). He out­sources edits when Moon­tow­er looms. Yet some habits per­sist: he *still* writes checks for his agency, a stub­born rel­ic in a Ven­mo world. And it would­n’t be a Watkins appear­ance if Valerie did­n’t check in on the print­er (ye vaunt­ed Broth­er laser) Valerie gift­ed him years ago? ​“Third res­i­dence, still going!”, he confirms. 

Whether hus­tling between venues, pitch­ing Red Fuzzy Rug, or eye­ing stand-up spe­cials (Dad­dy and Fam­i­ly Reunion are stream­ing on Prime & YouTube), Watkins’ ethos is motion. But it’s won­der­ful to hear and see the strides he’s mak­ing in his career dis­ci­pline and per­son­al pri­or­i­ti­za­tion; try­ing entire­ly new con­cepts, know­ing when to put fam­i­ly first, and even just acknowl­edg­ing the real­i­ty that there’s a lim­it­ed amount of time in each day to make his many dreams into realities. 

He’s just going to make sure he uses every last sec­ond of it.

Fol­low Jeremiah

• Web­site
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins — www​.Jere​mi​ah​Watkins​.com
  • Thou­sand Per­cent — thou​sand​-per​cent​.com
    
• X — @jeremiahstandup
• Insta­gram
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins — @jeremiahstandup
  • Trail­er Tales — @trailertalespod
  • Red Fuzzy Rug — @redfuzzyrug
    
• Face­book — Face​book​.com/​J​e​r​e​m​i​a​h​.​W​a​tkins
• Youtube
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins — Youtube​.com/​@​j​e​r​e​m​i​a​h​w​a​tkins
  • Stand-up on the Spot — Youtube​.com/​@​s​t​a​n​d​upots
  • Trail­er Tales / Scis­sor Bros — Youtube​.com/​@​T​r​a​i​l​e​r​T​a​l​esPod or Youtube​.com/​@​S​c​i​s​s​o​rBros
  • Red Fuzzy Rug — Youtube​.com/​@​R​e​d​F​u​z​zyRug
  • Jere­mi­ah Won­ders — Youtube​.com/​@​J​e​r​e​m​i​a​h​W​o​nders

Jere­mi­ah can be seen and heard:

• Spe­cials
  • Lat­est Spe­cial: Jere­mi­ah Watkins: Daddy
  • Debut Spe­cial: Jere­mi­ah Watkins: Fam­i­ly Reunion (Ama­zon, Google Play, Apple TV)
• Pod­casts (avail­able on Youtube and your favorite pod­cast player)
  • Trail­er Tales
  • The Scis­sor Bros
  • Jere­mi­ah Wonders
  • The Build­ing Years
• Album — Regan and Watkins (2019)
• Host­ed Shows — Stand-up on the Spot at The Com­e­dy Store and around the country
• Pre­vi­ous appear­ances on our podcast
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins: ​“You’re the Best” (2017)
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins Returns, 2018 Moon­tow­er Series (2018)
  • The State of Jere­mi­ah Watkins (2019)
  • Check­ing in With Jere­mi­ah Watkins: From Father to Bros (2021)
    
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins: Still the Best (2022)
    
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins: It’s Dad­dy Time Again (2023)
  • Jere­mi­ah Watkins Checks In, Vol­ume 7 (2024)