Metal Life Exclusive Interview With Comedian Jason Salmon

Metal Life Exclusive Interview With Comedian Jason Salmon

With guest appearances on New Talent Showcase, Orange Is The New Black, 30 Rock, and more, plus nearly two dozen theatre/live performances to his credit including, but not limited to, Jaws: The Musical (wait..how? Now I have more questions…) plus doing stand up, it’s safe to say Jason has had an extremely diverse career in the entertainment industry.

On the heels of launching his first live stand up titled Force Of Nurture (available on iTunes and right here) and the accompanying European tour, Jason slowed down long enough to handle a few questions from yours truly, and they are definitely worth your time.

Metal Life – How’s the tour going?

It’s going great. The schedule is a little exhausting, but we are touring through Germany on a bus now, so I have my own sleeping quarters and that should help. In a 24 hour  period on Veterans Day, I got to perform for troops at one base, visit the Luxembourg American Cemetery (a beautifully serene place) on the 100th anniversary of the armistice of World War I, and then perform at another base that night to another group of very appreciative service men & women. Comedy doesn’t always give you that level of fulfillment.

Metal Life – What countries are you going to be performing in, and what are you looking forward to most about touring Europe?

We’ve been in The UK, Germany, Turkey, Kosovo, Italy, & Luxembourg. We’re still going to Portugal, Romania, The Netherlands, Belgium and Poland.  The best part about touring Europe for the military is that we’re getting to see parts of the countries that most tourists don’t. I just ate Bratwurst and hash browns at a German truck with a ceramic cow in front of it. That was awesome.

Metal Life – You recently released Force Of Nurture in mid October which hit #1 on iTunes by month’s end (congratulations BTW) but is that your first live comedy recording, or do you have other specials out there waiting to be found?

Thanks. This is my first live comedy recording. But if somebody wants to see more of me, I’ve done a lot of YouTube videos (YouTube Channel: Jason Salmon) – several as a Cowboy who explains why we have certain Holidays. If you’re curious about holidays but not a stickler for accuracy, those might be your cup of tea.

Metal Life – At what point in your life did you decide to throw away reliable, consistent income and start working in the entertainment industry?

I moved up to the northeast for an engineering job and soon realized I hated it and knew no one. So I started taking acting classes in NYC (mostly to meet women). It worked… and started me down that path. The combination of enough luck to make some (not much) money early on as an actor along with an utter hatred of my job, gave me just the right amount of delusion to make the decision pretty easy.

Metal Life – Speaking of the industry, what is the best/worst piece of advice someone gave you about surviving in entertainment?

I think the best advice I’ve gotten was An old comic who told me, ”Do this only because you love it. If you’re doing it for fame or money, it will break you in half.” And it helps to periodically remember that this is something I love to do (especially in those times when it’s trying to break me in half). The worst advice I’ve ever gotten is a tie between every person whose ever said something to me and then followed it up with the phrase, “you can use that in your skits if you want” I will never use any of that…and stop calling it a skit.

Metal Life – How do you handle hecklers while on stage? Have you ever had someone try to get into an altercation with you after a show over a joke?

Most heckling is just people forgetting that they’re not in their own living room and I like to keep the energy positive so, unless a heckler is being aggressive toward me, I try to just lovingly chide them like a parent. The main thing is to not let them derail the show. No real altercations to speak of, but one dude approached me angrily after a show, unhappy with some of my political humor. I asked what he didn’t find funny. He said, “No. It was funny. You just shouldn’t joke about that stuff”  I have to be honest, when he said it was funny, nothing else mattered.

Metal Life – Finally, besides the tour promoting your new album, what other projects do you have in the works?

I’ll be releasing a new podcast in January and just finished a screenplay that I’ll start shopping around too. Other than that I’ll just be searching for new ways to make myself giggle.

 

Metal Life – Thanks again Jason! Good luck on the tour and we wish you much success with Force Of Nurture. Cheers!

http://jason-salmon.com/