Jon Mendoza

Based on his understated stage presence you would never guess that Mendoza has a theatrical background. However, his years as an actor are where he found his knack for getting laughs. “So much of comedy is timing and making a decision,” Mendoza says. “One of my directors was like, ‘you find weird moments that are funny that the script doesn’t necessarily dictate, but it gets the laugh’. I just learned to follow my instincts”.

At the same time he was honing his acting chops Mendoza was also carving out his niche as a playwright. After graduation Mendoza sought feedback on his ideas by any means necessary. Leaving scripts on the back of the toilet for his roommates to find would have to suffice. “It’s better than reading the shampoo bottle,” Mendoza reasons. A couple festival entries came just short of the grand prize, that being a performance at the Kennedy Center in DC. This didn’t discourage Mendoza from writing entirely; it was just a sign for him to turn his attention to one-liners. Jokes are much easier to pitch to roommates.

Straight out of college Mendoza was afforded a solitary job that allowed him the downtime to write material constantly. At 23 Mendoza began writing jokes, though actually telling them would come much later. “The deal that I’d always made with myself is that I would try it before I turned 30,” Mendoza says. “My first open mic was two months after my 30th birthday.”

Once he finally got a taste for performing, however, he wasted no time joining the competition. In 2011, only one month into doing standup and with only four open mics under his belt, Mendoza entered Cap City’s Funniest Person in Austin contest for the first time.

Mendoza’s style of short, deliberate one-liners stands out among a sea of storytellers and crowd workers. It’s not lost on Mendoza that his craft is uncommon within the current Austin and national comedy scene. It’s a style he fell into naturally, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Shorter jokes are easier to remember, but you have to remember more of them. Mendoza recalls once having to tell 52 jokes to fill 25 minutes.

Mendoza admits a preference for one-liners as they minimize the risk of dead air. “As much as I play around with silence, I have trouble telling stories on stage because I can’t deal with the silence that happens in the exposition,” Mendoza says. Enticing too is the “science” (or math) of it all; “It’s not math, but it’s not not math,” Mendoza says on the allure of writing such concise comedy.

After six consecutive years of making it out of prelims (and making it to the finals three times) Mendoza won Cap City Comedy Club's Funniest Person in Austin contest in 2018. The benefits of this achievement came swiftly in the form of overwhelming show offers and headlining opportunities. Mendoza speaks on what it was like to be a hot commodity in the wake of the FPIA win. “Right after the contest I did 25 shows in 22 days,” Mendoza says. “I got asked to do everything.” Such was his newfound success that Mendoza became burnt out on writing and performing altogether. When the pandemic put a halt on standup, Mendoza found an out; “I got about three months into COVID and I realized, not only do I not miss this, I don’t think I was having fun for the last six to eight months.”

In recent years Mendoza has begun a slow and steady return to comedy. A spot on the legendary Sure Thing (co-hosted by Duncan Carson and Brendan K. O'Grady) was his first post-pandemic appearance. When Carson launched Fallout Tonight he enlisted Mendoza as head writer and occasional performer. In 2024, Carson began teaching standup classes at the Fallout Theater. Once again, Carson issued an invitation, this time as a special guest to share his expertise with aspiring comics. A student showcase saw Mendoza performing for the first time in three years. “I closed out so that one of (Carson’s) students didn’t have to,” Mendoza says. “I was worried that I wasn’t gonna remember the jokes, but it turns out if you say something about five thousand times it permanently sears into your brain.” Being more selective about his bookings has allowed Mendoza the breathing room to enjoy writing and telling jokes again. A leisurely pursuit of standup rather than a career-focused grind has reinvigorated his love for making people laugh.