Comedian Jason Stuart moved to Palm Springs six years ago because he was looking for a parking spot and just kept driving.
He lives there now, next door to his 85-year-old mom, Gloria.
Stuart played the Laugh Factory in Long Beach last night, and the Hollywood Improv Lab on Melrose tonight, Sunday at 7 p.m. as part of a Southern California stand-up tour. BTW: WEHOonline has three pairs of tickets to the Sunday show, first come first served. Email brian.holt@wehoonline.com to claim a pair.
Jason’s been doing stand-up since 1983. He has 260-plus film and television credits. A memoir. A comedy album called I’m the Daddy and I Have Candy. A new indie film he co-wrote, directed, produced and stars in. He co-founded the SAG-AFTRA LGBTQ Committee in 2004.
“I have never stopped writing,” Stuart told us. “The stand-up never gets a day off and neither do I. There is no telling where you will get a great joke.”
He watches an enormous amount of film and television. Not casually. Intentionally. Studying showrunners and filmmakers. Always trying to become a better actor he said.
The New Film
The new film is REDLINING. Stuart calls it the project that cracked something open in him. He says working on The Birth of a Nation with Nate Parker, then Sean Baker’s Tangerine and Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange, changed how he saw the craft. REDLINING was his answer to that.
The film explores generational wealth, privilege and exclusion with an LGBTQ storyline. His co-star is Alexandra Paul, his best friend of nearly 40 years. She’s known to most audiences from Baywatch and Christine. The two met through Young Artists United, an industry group where Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Jessica Parker and Daphne Zuniga were also members.
“Who would’ve thought a drop-dead gorgeous movie and TV star would want anything to do with a Jewish gay character actor like me?” Stuart said. “She pursued me from the beginning. And the day I joined, she quietly changed the trajectory of my life.”
Working with her on REDLINING did something to the performances.
“Nothing is ever fake between us,” he said. “She made my work richer and easier in ways I’m still discovering.”
“I assumed that feeling would quiet down as I got older. Mellow out a little. Maybe take a nap,” he said. “It hasn’t. If anything, the passion is more.”
Stand-Up Has No Post
The film set is a different animal. He loves it. But somebody can always fix it in post.
Stand-up has no post.
“There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like standing alone on a stage with a microphone and making a room full of strangers laugh at something that happened to you that’s real,” Stuart said. “No cuts. No second takes. No director to save you. It’s just you and the truth and whether it lands in real time. That’s terrifying and that’s the addiction.”
“Laughter is just recognition with better timing,” Stuart said.
Coming Out, and What Followed
He came out publicly in 1993 on Geraldo Rivera’s talk show. He came out on camera and kissed Rivera on the air. The years that followed were not easy. Club bookers harassed him. Casting directors told him to his face they wouldn’t hire a gay man. The Westboro Baptist Church picketed his shows four times. A personal note here. I worked with Jason briefly as his manager back in 1999. He was a lovely human being who just happened to be hilariously funny – and slightly ahead of his time for many in Hollywood.
He kept going.
“The stage keeps me honest,” Stuart said. “You can’t fake it in front of a live audience. They know. They always know. I’m just a guy who figured out that the truth was funny. And that funny could save you.”
He co-founded the SAG-AFTRA LGBTQ Committee in 2004. Twenty-some years later he says it hasn’t gotten easier. Just harder to see.
“When we started in 2004, the discrimination was overt enough that you could point at it,” he said. “Twenty years on, the industry will cast you and then quietly cap how far you go.”
He was at the GLAAD Media Awards recently. Liza Minnelli was there. Bowen Yang. The cast of Noah’s Arc. On stage it was celebratory. Pull someone aside, he said, and you heard something else.
“When Cher sang ‘If You Could Turn Back Time,’ I don’t think this is what she had in mind,” Stuart said. “Working actors are still quietly wondering what is going to happen to our rights. My trans siblings are bearing the sharpest edge of this moment.”
“The next three years feel very long from where I’m standing,” he said.
Advice for the Next Generation
For a young queer comedian coming up right now, Stuart doesn’t offer comfort. He offers directions.
“Treat it like a sprint, not a marathon,” he said. “Get up on every stage that will have you. Clubs, coffee shops, a bar mitzvah if necessary. Figure out who you are on that stage before the audience has to figure it out for you. Because they won’t wait. They’re already checking their phones.”
The specificity of your life is what makes you funny and real, he said. Nobody else has your exact story.
“Be funny,” Stuart said.
Tour Dates
The California tour kicked off March 28 at the Ice House in Pasadena. After this weekend’s Long Beach and Melrose Avenue dates, Stuart plays the Laugh Factory in San Diego April 17 and 18, then wraps August 21 at Agua Caliente Casino in Palm Springs.
The Hollywood Improv Lab is at 8162 Melrose Ave. Sunday’s show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets at improv.com. We have 3 pairs to give away first. One pair per person. Email me now.
Jason has always been super nice every time I’ve seen him over the years. Nice to see good people winning!!
I first saw Jason in a play in WeHo in 1986. To see how talented he is, watch The Birth of a Nation [2016]. It wasn’t until his final scene that I realized it was Jason, as he disappeared into his role seamlessly.
How awesome to get up on a Sunday morning make my favorite coffee and read about someone with joy in everything they do. There are and have been obstacles + discriminations + success + hurtles and the best friend that makes everything alright. Jason Stuart’s mind is a treat to hear from. Thank you for the good start to Sunday!