We were lucky to catch up with Jake Solomon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jake, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

I don’t have an agent. I have had about 6 agents while living in Los Angeles and none of them cared about me getting work more than myself. To this day, I’ve booked everything myself without a rep getting me in the door. I used to focus so much on getting an agent or manager, but I’ve realized that if you can put together a professional-looking reel and headshot, you can get opportunities.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got my start doing standup comedy in Cleveland, Ohio. My college had an open mic night and I decided to sign up — as soon as I finished my awful set, I knew I wanted to keep doing it! Comedy is my biggest passion and I’ve now been doing standup, sketch comedy, and writing since 2010. Comedy has opened the door for standup, writing, and acting opportunities. I will typically book commercial acting gigs, and freelance writing jobs where a comedy sketch is needed.

Although comedy is my foundation, the project I am most proud of was a dramatic short film I acted in and wrote (Breakout) about what someone with acne experiences. I struggled a lot with acne during college and underwent a treatment of Accutane, so to complete this film was cathartic and the most meaningful work I’ve done so far.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My end goal is just to make a living off of my creativity. Comedy is my biggest passion, and I love creating comedic content of all forms. While I should probably have my goals be something more specific, I would love to do standup comedy, writing, hosting, acting, or anything where I get to create comedy full-time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I learned was to view fellow comics as peers instead of rivals. This was a huge shift of my mindset. I come from a sports background and I’ve always been ultra competitive. Early in my standup career, I would find myself rooting against fellow comics on stage and hoping they had bad sets because I wanted to be the best. I was a ‘hater’ as the kids would say. It was an arrogant and ignorant view, but it’s how I approached standup especially if it was a comedy contest. As I continued to do standup, my “competition” became my friends, and I realized that I didn’t need others to fail in order for me to succeed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.iamjakesolomon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeitorleaveit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/YouPeople216
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jakeitorleaveit