Jesse Hensley and the Heartbeat of Comedy

All com­e­dy is about voice. Whether it’s the writer, the per­former, or some­times even the audi­ence — the voice guides you to someone’s soul, and what it is they have to say to the world.

When Jesse Hens­ley sits down with Valerie Lopez, there’s sim­ply no way to miss his pow­er­ful, addic­tive, North Texas tim­bre. (Nor would you want to). Hens­ley hails from the lit­tle not-quite-a-town of Diana, Texas. Diana is a geo­graph­i­cal cross­roads, one hour away from Louisiana, Okla­homa, and Arkansas.

Hens­ley grew up absorb­ing per­for­mances of names we’re all famil­iar with, like Mitch Hed­berg and Dave Chapelle. Still, com­e­dy wasn’t always a giv­en in his future. Two years ago, dur­ing a brief bout as an aspir­ing author, he got the bug to head to Cold­towne The­atre and try his hand behind the micro­phone. It was­n’t a home run, but it became the first step on his jour­ney to mak­ing com­e­dy a full-time passion.

Com­e­dy Wham Presents: Jesse Hensley

The ball real­ly start­ed rolling for Hens­ley after he got a guest spot at Cap City facil­i­tat­ed by one of his idols, Nate Bar­gatze. That led to open­ing spots and mul­ti­ple runs in Fun­ni­est Per­son in Austin. As he honed his style, Hens­ley found him­self trend­ing towards sto­ry­telling, one of my favorite for­mats. A great sto­ry­teller can build a struc­ture to suck you in and hold you on edge wait­ing for that sweet, sweet pay­off. It’s a craft that is a mix­ture of rhythm, refine­ment, and even a bit of math, which we know is near and dear to Valerie Lopez. His phi­los­o­phy of com­e­dy, and what it means to the bil­lions of us walk­ing the plan­et, is fascinating.

Hens­ley appears in many Austin shows, includ­ing Drink Up: an out­door, booze-themed expe­ri­ence. It runs the first and third Mon­days of the month at The Par­lor Room. In the inter­view, Hens­ley drops the secret phrase that may even score you a free drink. See more of his upcom­ing events at Last Gas Com­e­dy, and fol­low him on Twit­ter and Face­book.