Comedian follows his dream from KC to LA, and back home again for a new special
Jeremiah Watkins is the rare stand-up comedian who doesn’t use profanity in his act. Still, you’d never confuse the Blue Valley High School graduate with Jim Gaffigan.
Unlike the genial and wildly successful Gaffigan, who jokes about his weight issues and his five kids, Watkins can be decidedly PG-19. His language is not graphic, but his material can be, with mentions of sex acts and incest — even with his parents and other family members in the audience.
That was precisely the situation last December when he returned from his current home base in Los Angeles to perform at the Comedy Club of Kansas City on 103rd Street just east of State Line Road.
The plan was to film his stand-up routine and turn it into a small video. But when Watkins took the stage, he was confronted by eight relatives planted in the front row.
“That was 100% organic,” Watkins said. “I had no idea the Comedy Club was going to seat them all so close. I was blindsided. Everything you see came naturally.
“It was one of those beautiful disasters.”
Dustin Kauffman, owner of the Comedy Club, isn’t admitting he is the mastermind behind the family surprise.
“I don’t if I am (responsible) or if his mom just insisted they sit up front,” Kauffman said. “He usually asks to have them in back, as far from the stage as possible. I think it was her kind of insisting.”
In any case, the result was hilarious interplay between Watkins and his family that evolved into his new one-hour comedy special called “Family Reunion.” It will be released through Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other video-on-demand outlets Dec. 8, a week before Watkins’ 32nd birthday.
He used material from two shows at the Comedy Club to compile the special, but most came from the night his family sat in front of him. He never dialed back his approach.
“Family Reunion” shows his act, sprinkled with crude references, and his family members’ reactions to them — as well as clips of interviews with them. On hand were two sets of parents, father Ken Watkins and stepmother Jana Watkins and mother Tammy Wakefield and stepfather Robbie Wakefield, along with brother Jonathan Watkins, sister-in-law Jenny Watkins, sister Jenessa Watkins and uncle Ron Brewer.
“I always talk about my family in my act, but not with them in the room,” Watkins said. “It adds a nice awkward layer to it. It’s a different energy when the audience knows they’re in the room.”
Much of his humor relies on interactions with the audience, as Watkins pokes good-natured fun that nonetheless can lead to awkward situations. One of his primary victims in “Family Reunion” was a man who mostly stared straight ahead, arms folded, with no trace of a smile, as Watkins teased him.
But …
“He actually came up to me after the show and said, ‘That was a great show,’” Watkins said.
He’s not always so lucky.
At one show, a Green Beret was offended enough to charge the stage and slug Watkins, who also has been “attacked by one guy on mushrooms.”
Nonetheless, “Everything I do with the crowd is very playful. It comes from a fun place.”
Watkins has been in that fun place since his days at Blue Valley High School, where his focus was on acting and making short films. He said he still uses things he learned from his broadcast teachers at Blue Valley, though the high school experience wasn’t without its disappointments.
“I was not voted class clown,” Watkins said. “One of my good buddies was. I was, ‘I didn’t get it?’”
He ventured into improv at Johnson County Community College. Meanwhile, he worked in local morning radio for about a year, becoming known on 96.5 The Buzz as “Steadman” because of a comical video he had done on Oprah Winfrey’s love life. A 2008 YouTube video from the “Dick Dale Show” on 96.5 The Buzz touts his attempt at setting a world record for most cigarettes in a mouth; it did not go well.
Since moving to Los Angeles at 20, Watkins has become a regular at the Comedy Store there. He also has appeared on Netflix’s “Historical Roasts,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and other shows, and he does a podcast called “Jeremiah Wonders.”
LA Weekly described him as “breakout comedy star,” and famed comedy director/producer Judd Apatow said after seeing Watkins in a skit with the Wave Comedy Troupe, “I’ve fallen in love with comedy once again.”
The pandemic has put a crimp in Watkins’ schedule this year, but he has toured a bit, performing for socially distanced, capacity-reduced audiences such as the ones now allowed at the Comedy Club and other Kansas City venues.
“You can kind of separate the good comedians from the mediocre comedians when you’re working in front of a small crowd,” Watkins said. “That’s really challenging.”
The Comedy Club’s Kauffman said he hopes to schedule the local boy for another appearance in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile, Watkins is working on new material so he can do another special.
“Once I use material, I won’t use it again,” he said.
Just like he won’t use dirty words.
“You’d be amazed how many people come up and say, ‘I appreciate you don’t swear in your act.’ It means a lot to some people,” he said. “… I don’t ever have anybody say, ‘I wish you’d swear more.’”
