We recently connected with James Fisher Jr. and have shared our conversation below.
James, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I have been doing comedy Full time for about 2 years. it has been a trial and error process to say the least. When I first lost my office job due to lay offs, I had unemployment to help with my bills and had a lot of shows booked, tho they either paid very little or not at all. When unemployment ended, I had to make the hard choice to not only seek out higher paying shows, but decline shows that didn’t pay at all. it was a tough decision, giving up a certain level of notoriety and stage time in exchange for seeking out paid shows. But I had been doing comedy for 9 years at that point. I had built the skill to be able to not only perform, but perform well in any spot I was given. Host, feature, headliner, I was confident in my ability to do all. so I had to stick to my principles and know my self worth. it was very slow starting. I didn’t get a lot of shows for the next 6 month. I did side gigs to make up what I wasn’t getting from stand up. Sometimes unless i had a show, I wouldn’t leave my house for days just because I couldn’t afford to do anything outside of my house. but with help from family, support of friends the connections I’ve made over the years from doing good work when the opportunity presented, I was able to build up to the point i’m at now. Now my primary source of income is comedy. I still have to do side jobs to make ends meet, and some months are better than others when it comes to Monetary gain and number of shows, but I am paying my bills and keeping the lights on with comedy, and that an accomplishment for me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up singing and dancing since I was 5. I was in a youth dance group where we traveled and performed for all the schools, doing different styles of african/african american dancing. hip hop, swing and jazz dancing, disco etc. we even got to perform at disney world and on a cruise ship once. I also grew up competing in talent shows and making music with my cousins. I still have a lot of the old music we did and it makes me laugh at how bad it sounds, but also how much fun we sounded like we were having. it makes me wanna go back and do more music. I even sang and danced all through college, starting a breakdance group at DePaul University, where we would perform at many school events and attend battles around the city and at other schools.
Stand up was always something I wanted to try, but I was always to scared to do it. I was confident on stage when it came to singing and dancing, but I’d never made any one outside of friends and family laugh at all. Then I met a guy in my acting class at depaul. I took it as an elective. he was a young comedian and took me to an open mic with him. I was going to sing something, but they could not plug my music in. So i flipped through my notebook to find something to sing acapella, and I cam accross some jokes I wrote for a youtube video I wanted to do. I thought “maybe I should try these as stand up”. so on a whim, I did it, and people laughed. they laughed way harder than i ever expected them to. from that day on, I’ve been telling jokes. I still miss dancing and singing, and tho i still dabble here and there, I want to incorporate it back in my fully some how. but stand up ended up being the best mistake i could make
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I’d say the most rewarding aspect you see from being an artist is personal growth. if you do something as a hobby, you can still grow. but its not as rewarding when its just for fun. when you put your all into something you really love and care about, every new stage you reach feel monumental. whether its getting funnier as a comedian, your musicality improving as a musician, or your stories becoming more deep and meaningful as an author. it feels amazing to see all the work and practice you put in, all the sacrifices, all of the long nights and hours of work pay off in some way. because for a lot of us, it won’t pay off in fame and fortune. it may not even pay off in notoriety, opportunities or any kind of physical award outside of ourselves. and that is sad and sobering to think about. but the thing that keeps you going is the fact that you can walk on stage, perform, and when you walk off, YOU see the difference in how much you’ve changed over the years. You see that you’ve grown. You see that you are not the same performer you once were. and that self realization feels amazing
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’ve had a few goals over the years, but they always change with my situation. When I was younger and way more optimistic about life in general, my goal was to be famous. the older I got, the more “Realistic” my goals became. Suddenly I just wanted to work with certain people and travel more, not for noteriety, just to have the experience. Right now My goals are to figure out how to sustain my life with doing comedy, travel more, and create content that I am proud of that will stand the test of time. Not that The other goals disappeared, they are still there. But now I try to put the needed goals in the fore front. the ones that are going to make me happy. because at the end of the day, you have to be happy with yourself and the life you built. I know that sounds lame to some, but worrying to far in the future has backfired on me plenty of times just because life rarely goes the way you expect it or want it to go. So for now I try and concentrate on whats happening in the moment, taking care of those things while still hopeful and working towards those long term goals that may or may not change.
Contact Info:
- Website: JamesFisherjr.com
- Instagram: @jameshfjr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaudevilletv
- Twitter: @Jameshfjr2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vaudvilletv
- Other: TikTok: Jameshfjr other youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrXkUk93TxVd1OVzZDLfijA other Instagram: @Vaudeville_TV