Glendale-born comedian Jack Jr. will perform at the Alex Theatre for a hometown special taping.
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A birthday, a graduation and a homecoming all rolled into one.
That’s the feeling comedian Jack Assadourian Jr. — better known as Jack Jr. — gets when he pulls up to the Alex Theatre in Glendale, a landmark awash in renovated Art Deco glitz, its bright marquee popping with neon magic days before he tapes the biggest comedy special of his career. As a local kid growing up near the theater, he would walk by and stare in awe at the 1,400-seat venue that showcased vaudeville performances when it opened in 1925. He never dreamed that one day he’d be able to bring a sold-out crowd of mostly Armenians and Mexicans together to laugh about themselves without a fight breaking out — a feat that could only be accomplished by one of the city’s native sons.
“This is my hometown, I went to elementary school here, I was born in Glendale,” he said. “What better way to come back home full circle and shoot a special at a theater where I used to walk by as a kid and go, ‘Wow, what is this?’”
After a lifetime working at his parents’ comedy club, the HaHa in North Hollywood, and producing comedy shows since 2013, Assadourian said he’s finally starting to make good on his pursuit to be heard with a voice that’s authentically his. For a long time, he thought being a biracial comic meant he had to choose between his mother’s Mexican heritage and his father’s Armenian roots in order to find an audience. But on May 17, at his live special taping, Assadourian’s hour of comedy will tap into both parts of his background as well as his unique perspective as a kid who grew up immersed in the less glamorous side of the comedy business.
“I want people to know my story,” he said during dinner at Frida in Glendale at (where else?) the Americana. “I’m not a spoiled little kid whose parents own a comedy club. I was a kid whose dad told me I had to work scrubbing dishes, cleaning floors. So, after the past 16 years of me doing stand-up comedy, this is like my graduation.”
Assadourian, who turns 40 just two days before the special taping , said he grew up very Mexican, primarily raised by his grandmother on his mother’s side. “My Armenian side wasn’t really present because they were in Lebanon and Beirut, and Armenians are scattered all over different countries because of the genocide,” he said, referring to the Armenian genocide of 1915. His father, Jack Sr., came to the U.S. in 1975 and married his mother, Tere, who was born in Mexico, and his family mainly spoke Spanish at home.
When he got older, Jack Sr. enrolled his son in an Armenian private school so he could learn the language and the culture. But when he started doing comedy, Jack Jr. still favored his Mexican side. He was inspired by comics like Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Felipe Esparza and many others.
“As a kid, you’re always kinda told to pick a side,” he said of his dual ethnicity. “I always got asked, ‘What’s your last name?’ and I said, ‘Assadourian,’ and people said, ‘Then that means you’re Armenian, not Mexican.’ So it was hard to be both.”
Unable to perform during the COVID-19 pandemic, Assadourian spent time at home writing more Armenian-influenced material. When lockdown lifted, he started hosting a Middle Eastern comedy night that quickly found support from a live audience and on social media.
He said he recently learned how to combine the Mexican and Armenian jokes. “When you go to my shows, now you see Armenians and Mexicans — these are cultures that hated each other when I was in high school. They would beat each other up. They weren’t allowed to date each other. I’m making this whole new [angle for my comedy], which is crazy.”
L.A. comedian Jack Jr. (Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
Last year, he sold out three headlining gigs at L.A.’s biannual Netflix Is a Joke Festival — two shows at the Belasco Theater and one at the Bourbon Room. He’ll be performing on a national, 18-city headlining tour and is even planning a show in Yerevan, Armenia, in July at the Hard Rock Cafe. He now plans to mentor several up-and-coming comics, just like Fluffy guided him when he was younger.
“If I can help other comics get seen by agents or managers, I wanna help. I’m actually managing three other comedians right now,” he said. “I love the business side of this and helping people, and it’s good karma as well.”
Though he’s now a seasoned road comedian, he gets the biggest laughs at home, performing at local Glendale venues like the Brandy, where he hosts monthly pop-up Armenian Mexican comedy dinners with his chef pal, Armenian food content creator Ara Zada, working out his new material. It’s that local audience that’s now supporting him by showing up to pack the Glendale landmark he used to walk by in amazement as a kid.
“To have that pressure is a welcomed challenge, I love it,” he said.
As for what lies ahead after the special wraps, his dreams remain as big and bright as the Alex marquee.
“This year is gonna open doors,” he said. “I feel like I’m gonna hook something big.”
Jack Jr. performs at the Alex Theatre (special taping) at 8 p.m. on May 17. Tickets and info are available here.
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