Jon Reep: The Last Comic Standing
January 20th, 2008 Posted in ComedyThose of you who didn’t see this season of “Last Comic Standing” may not recognize the man officially named the BEST stand-up comic in the world, but perhaps you remember him as the Dodge Hemi guy (“That thing gotta Hemi?”) or maybe from his regular supporting role in the hit sitcom “Rodney”. Either way, all you need to know about Jon
Reep is that he is all-pro when it comes to comedy and voters around the world backed up that claim with his recent “Last Comic Standing” win.
Jon has been in the comedy game for longer than you might think, more than ten years actually. He is a good time southern boy from North Carolina (“I’m from Hickory!”), and made his start there in a small town. “I started in Raleigh, while I was attending North Carolina State University. There was a comedy club there called Charlie Goodnight’s. I had always thought about doing comedy. My dad was the class clown in his time. I got the award in my time and my littler brother after me, so it seemed pretty natural. The problem is, That isn’t even a real possibility when you live in a little town like Hickory. It’s just something you see on television and in the movies. It’s not even a real job. It’s not like you can go to your guidance councilor and say, ‘Hey! I want to be a comedian.’ You would get your start right there, because they would laugh you right out the door.”
Jon is a big time sports fan, and it was only an unlikely turn of events one day at a Carolina Panthers game that made him realize he really did have some kind of infectious spark. “Once, a bunch of buddies and I went to see the Carolina Panthers play. During the time-outs they would play music so I would get up and dance in my seat. After doing this several times my audience got bigger and bigger. It went from my friends laughing at me, to the whole row laughing at me, to the entire section laughing at me. I heard one old lady say, “Move, I can’t see. What’s he doing now?” So after half-time my friends decided I should go stand on the hill behind the goal post so the whole stadium could see me. Well, a player got injured and they started playing music for like 5-10 minutes straight. So I started dancing again. And the whole stadium was into it. The place was going nuts. I would do a move then point to one side of the stadium and they would cheer – then another move and point to the other side of the stadium and they would cheer. I did the Hulk Hogan move where I put my hand behind my ear. It was huge. Then the Panther mascot (a.k.a. Sir Purr) came over to me and invited me onto the field. So I went out on the field and started doing the worm on the five yard line. Then all the cheers turned to boos. I thought maybe they don’t like the worm, but just then 3 cops grabbed me up by the back of my pants (wedgie style) and carried me off the field (check out the video on Jon’s website, www.jonreep.com). The cops didn’t see the mascot invite me out onto the field, but the crowd did and they were giving the cops hell. Throwing beer cans at them yelling, “Let him go! Let him go!” It was at that moment that I decided I might try a career in comedy.
After this experience, once Jon had moved to Raleigh, (which at a population upwards of 400,000 is about 10X the size of Hickory), he got his chance to check out some real comedy action. “I went in the club and I remember seeing this girl on stage with the place packed. She told a joke and the room just exploded. I fell in love right there and knew I had to try it. I tried a few open mic nights and worked my way up to house emcee.”
Jon was still a student by the time he was featuring at Charlie Goodnight’s and other venues across the south. “If I could make it to do a comedy night over the weekend and make it back by Monday for class, I did it. That process started over 10 years ago, around ’95 or ‘96.”
Jon is a college campus favorite, and paid a lot of his dues there, as many comedians do. Regular college shows, like corporate engagements, are niche markets that many 
performers may not even realize exist. “I was doing comedy for about two years before I realized there was an official college circuit. My first exposure to that market was through a guy named Josh Wainwright, who was with Group H Entertainment at the time. I was young and energetic and he thought I would be a good fit for colleges.”
After his first showcase, Jon immediately began booking dates at colleges all across the country. This new and fresh market turned out to be both a training and proving ground for Jon, who wasn’t immediately prepared for the shift of being the main act. “I think it was a real boost for me. When I showcased for my first convention, I only had about 30 minutes of solid material. This was fine for the showcase, because I only needed 15 or 20, so I felt pretty confident that I could do well there. The problem came with my first real booking. I went in to these colleges where I had go in and do an hour. Problem was, I didn’t have it (laughs).”
Being every bit the wild and daring personality he seems to be on stage, Jon decided to go for it. “Being a stand-up comic is a huge risk in itself. I think most comedians are risk-takers anyway, because just choosing this profession is a huge risk in itself. I mean, the first couple of years I did comedy, I wasn’t making any money and pretty much living out of my Suzuki Sidekick, but why not? I knew that once I got there, I could hold my own. I was like, ‘I’m just gonna wing it and see what happens.’ So I did and for me, doing those first gigs at colleges was a great way to turn myself into a headliner. It is pretty much like learning how to swim by jumping into Niagara Falls, but I loved it. It is a great place for any comic to grow and learn their craft.”
Part of the appeal, Jon says, was the fact that many college dates being relatively low profile. “The good thing is that unlike a lot of clubs, there won’t be a talent scout sitting in the back watching like a hawk; there are going to be a few college kids there that just want to laugh and have a good time. There won’t be other comedians there judging you, or a club manager telling other bookers that you aren’t ready yet. You can go hide, make pretty good money as a nobody and get good at what you do.”
Every comic has the dream of making it big and landing roles on film and television. Obviously this is a long shot for any performer no matter how talented, but this is especially true of comics who are in small and underexposed markets. That’s why in 2000, once he was on his feet and more experienced in the game, Jon headed out west. “I moved to California in 2000, so for three years before that I was doing dates not just in the southeast, but all around the country. I would have a gig in Fargo, ND one night and have to drive to Myrtle Beach, SC for a show the next night. When I finally moved to California, the major things started picking up for me. In this line of work, if you want to make it on film and TV, you almost have to make that move.”
His original intention wasn’t to move to L.A., but in 1999, he was invited to the Montreal Comedy Festival and did very well. “I was a fresh face and things went great, so all of a sudden I had meetings with people like CBS and Ron Howard’s company Imagine Entertainment’s television division. I walked in there and they were like ‘Okay, we think you are funny! Now, who’s your management, who’s your agent?’ I was like ‘Uh, me?’ They thought that was pretty funny, but they did encourage me to move to Los Angeles and start auditioning.”
Jon knew that his Hollywood dreams were a long shot in the best light and he gave himself a realistic time in which to accomplish certain goals or he would cut his losses. “When I
moved out west, I gave myself two years. I told myself that if I wasn’t on TV in two years, I was leaving California and I would just focus on being a road comic and give up on TV.”
But, that obviously isn’t the way things worked out. Luckily, not long after his arrival in Hollywood, Jon landed a spot. “I got on a show called “Late Friday” on NBC. It came on at like 2 o’clock in the morning and was nothing but straight stand-up. I did 7 or 10 minutes and it went really well. In my head, that gave me an extension on my self-imposed deadline and gave me an excuse to keep hanging out in L.A. It was pretty encouraging.”
Jon obviously has talents that aren’t all directly tied to stand-up; he was even a theater major in college. “Even when I was doing stand-up at night, I was acting in the day during school and working behind the scenes on all sorts of productions. I even had a part-time job at a TV station. That gave me some unique experience when it came to being a comic auditioning for acting parts.”
Around this time, Jon parted with Group H Entertainment because they weren’t best served to handle his affairs on the west coast, so he found a home with the then Joey Edmonds Agency. “He booked me at colleges all over the country, but he also introduced me to a commercial agent.”
As a member of Jon’s team now dedicated strictly to getting him commercial spots, this agent was able to broker the deal that would launch Jon into the public eye, and become the most successful corporate advertising campaigns a motor company has ever seen. “The first commercial job I got was with Dodge. That led to a whole string of successful commercials and gave me a little bit of recognizability. We did six national commercials and they were incredibly successful for Dodge. I was in those commercials running from 2002-2007. We shot an initial three and I was offered a deal for three more. It even went so far that my partner in the commercials got killed and they had a nationwide search for a new partner for me. They actually found a lady and we shot two more commercials, but they never aired because Dodge in general has been going through a lot of changes and are readjusting some of their messaging. But all in all, those commercials were a huge part of my life and people remember those commercials. For whatever reason, they just turned out to be great.”
Jon holds a record now due to those advertisements, which he is especially proud of. Not only because of his success with them, but because he was able to help make it an incredible success for Dodge as well. “The first commercial I did sold more trucks than any other one automotive commercial selling its product in the history of television commercials. That is the reason they kept me around and we kept making them. I am really proud of that.”
Jon says whether it is a commercial or a starring role in a feature film, every bit of 
exposure helps and he is truly grateful that he was able to take part in what he did. “When you perform comedy at a club and have no credits at all, you need to use anything you can to get people in that door to see your show. You need to win new fans and show the club owners, booker and agents that you have some juice and can fill seats and if I can use a commercial for that, great. Just being ‘The Hemi Guy’ has gotten a lot of people into the comedy clubs. It’s funny, because for the last four or five years I have been doing stand-up, no one knew me as a comic. Everyone thought I was just some guy from a commercial that tried out for a part and then tried stand-up comedy, which couldn’t be more wrong. At least it makes everyone pleasantly surprised when they get to the club and realize I actually have an act.”
“Last Comic Standing” was more successful this year than ever. With open auditions in five cities throughout the U.S., the producers had tons of great American comics for the show, but this time that wasn’t enough. Taking the project worldwide, “LCS” also held auditions in Canada, the U.K. and Australia; tons of great (and some not so great) comics showed up. Fortunately, it has always been the great ones that make it. “From what I was first told (according to the producers) about the show, it has never really been geared toward amateur comedians. They have always had the show open to anyone who wanted to try out, and most of the time the pros make it, but it just happened that most road-touring comics didn’t feel the need to do it. This year was different. They really wanted to put a focus on finding better and more seasoned comics. The show was only about stand-up; they didn’t put us on a boat or a house to live together in. We all got our own hotel rooms. In addition, the prize money went from $50,000 to $250,000. All of those things factored in together made me decide to give it a chance.”
Jon says from the show’s inception, the premise didn’t rub him right, but he came around. “I never liked the idea of comedy as a competition,” he says. “I always thought it looked kind of weird and stupid.” Jon does have a personal experience to back up this assertion. “I did Star Search back when Arsenio Hall was hosting it and didn’t have a great experience being judged by people like Ben Stein, Wynonna Judd and Nick & Aaron Carter. You know, real connoisseurs of comedy (laughs). I told myself ‘I am never doing comedy as a competition again because it looks dumb when you are onstage doing comedy, trying to be all cocky and confident and then when you are done, pleading into the camera, begging for votes. It looks desperate and weird. But once I found out about the prize money and the amount of exposure I could get, I figured I’d give it a shot (laughs). I didn’t really think I would win. I thought I was good enough to win, but I never thought it would happen. Hollywood doesn’t seem to cater to us blue-collar redneck types, but clearly America does. Just look at Larry The Cable Guy. I knew if I could get in that top 10, once America and the world had a chance to vote for me, I would have a pretty good chance.”
Now, Jon has redoubled his efforts on touring. “I am touring a lot more and now its more fun than ever. I get to play bigger venues like theaters and more established larger comedy clubs and the crowds have been great. People know me now and the house is packed. They’ve all come to see what the big deal is and it’s a great show and I love it.”
Expect to see more of him in film and on television as well. Jon has a spot in the upcoming film Harold & Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay, sequel to the popular Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. The 2nd film will be released on April 25th. He is also working on a project film with Rodney Carrington, Toby Keith and Ted Nugent that is TBA.
Jon has been doing corporate engagements for some time now, starting with his very successful relationship with Dodge and is well equipped to cater to any client’s specific needs. He almost always works clean (and certainly does upon request!) and has even done custom engagements for corporate clients, working them into the show. He’s got energy, he’s funny and now he’s famous! Invite Jon Reep to perform at you next event.
BOOK IT!
T.J. Markwalter
Pacific Comedy
(818) 980-9307