Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you put aside twenty five cents every week for
a year, what could you get at the end A
few cups of coffee, maybe a candle, Or you could
get a year of the best reporting from all over
the world. Go to Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty
four right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for
twenty five cents a week for your first year. This
(00:22):
is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long.
Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty four.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The
Roku Channel your home for free and premium TV is
giving you access to holiday music and genre base stations
from iHeart all for free. Find this soundtrack of the
season with channels like iHeart Christmas and north Pole Radio.
The Roku channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon, fireTV,
(00:51):
Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku Mobile app on
iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and
turn up that year with iHeart Radio on the Roku Channel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Happy Streaming.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
After the movie Free Willy became a hit, word got
out that the star of the film, a killer whale
named Keiko, was sick and still living in a tiny
pool in a Mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged, kids
demanded his release. I'm Danielle Dragon from Serial Productions in
the New York Times comes the good Will, a story
about the wildly ambitious science experiment to return Keiko to
the Ocean. Listen to new episodes on Thursdays. Want early
(01:25):
access to the whole show. Subscribed at The Times at
ny Times dot com, slash podcast to listen on Apple
Podcasts and Spotify.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Yeah, I want the Tofu spring Rolls, except I don't
eat tofu. So do you have like a tofu flavored
chicken you can substitute in for me. It's not that
vegetable eaters are bad people, It's just that they're terrible people.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That remains. That remains one of my favorite skits of
all time. Uh. That's JP series from his video series
Awakened with JP Ultra Spiritual Life. He's wearing a headband.
You got a flower in his hair or something, and
that video was eight years old. If meat eaters acted
like vegans. It is still one of my favorite things
of all time. It's one of the only things I
(02:09):
have a good memory of because I have a bad memory.
And I'm so happy to have JP seies in studio
with me.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
Hi, JP Ross, thank you for having me.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Good to be here with you and reminiscing about those
old videos. That one always that'll always have a special
spot in my heart, that particular.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
One, I think, So was that one that kind of
blew you up? Because I see it as eighteen million views?
Or were you pretty huge already before that one?
Speaker 7 (02:34):
Well, you know, I've always been huge ross and a
big deal.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I don't know, if you know, there's nobody like me.
Speaker 7 (02:40):
You know, that was like my third most viral video,
Like there were a couple others before that. The really
started growing the audience and attention. I think that video
is the all time most watched video. I see eighteen million,
yeah yeah so on Facebook actually hundreds of million. Really,
it was just weird to watch when I put it
(03:01):
out within ten minutes looking at the Facebook views at
the time, is a million after ten minutes?
Speaker 6 (03:07):
I'm like, is there a Then you watch.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
Like refresh at every ten minutes and there's another million,
another million. It was wild to see, Like, wow, that
really resonates. I guess vegans annoy people more than I
thought you're annoying in our own ways.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Folks, want to let you know JP is playing tonight.
This is Thursday, right, Yeah, tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
It Comedy Works South.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
At the Landmark and it's all different times, and I
won't read all the times. You can just go to
Comedyworks dot com and check out the times for tonight,
Friday and Saturday and get your tickets to go to
go see JP. So I didn't tell you this before.
So my brother who has passed away, but my brother
was a vegan, but he was one of the rare
(03:51):
vegans who wasn't annoying.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it like.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
There's a joke about like, how do you know if
someone's a vegan.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Because they tell you within a minute.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, they tell you what he wasn't that guy. There's
just there's so much truth to this. So you just
talk a little as we were talking off the air
about truth and comedy.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Yeah, you know, I think truth is the most important
comedy principle there is. And you know, if you're telling
a joke that is based on truth and you kind
of dress it up so it's also funny, then it'll land,
It'll get an emotional reaction. Out of people if it's
based on the truth principle, and that emotional reaction is
gonna go in one of two directions. You're either gonna
(04:35):
laugh expressing emotions that's great, or you're gonna get offended
expressing emotions.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
And but if you're offended.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
By the joke, there is a level of truth resonating
with you, or else you wouldn't get offended. People don't
get defensive about things that are just blatantly untrue from
their perspective. So that's fun and it's fun to you know,
whether it's vegans or anything. Whenever we like self identify
with a role or a way of eating or a
(05:04):
political view, we start to lose ourselves. And then I
think it's fun to just like call that out. It's
like our egotistical nature wrapped around this identity, whether it's like, hey,
I'm a Trump guy, I'm a Kamala guy, or I'm
a vegan guy or I'm a meat eating guy.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
So calling that out is amazing.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
And like your brother who wasn't a militant vegan, that's
amazing to me. That says like he wasn't getting a
self identity based off of how he chose to eat right,
which is great.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, so you mentioned me before we started that because
I was going to ask you do you think people
get much more offended now than they used to? And
maybe we'll get to that. But you told me that
some people actually did get offended from this vegan video
and the BBC called you.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Yeah, yeah, it was wild. You know, this is eight
years ago, so you know, like people getting offended. It
was you know, ramping up and society where people get
virtue signaling points for making themselves a victim because they're
offended by something that.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Had nothing to do with them. But yeah, that video.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I was surprised, like there was backlash from it. You know,
the BBC has to interview me. I'm like, oh, they
want to interview me because this is such a funny video,
but they were trying to do a smear campaign on.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Me, like, hey, will you jp this video?
Speaker 7 (06:23):
We talked to someone downstairs who works in a vegan
cafe and she was offended.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 7 (06:29):
I'm like, yeah, I guess she's insecure with how she
and she is has every right to be offended. I
wouldn't want to talk someone out of being offended if
they are, so I didn't really play into their stick
but yeah, it was amazing, like people get offended. And then,
of course what I realized is if you talk about
anything real, someone's going to get offended. You can't talk
(06:51):
about something that's real without someone getting offended. So that
taught me like trying to avoid offending people that should
not be the or else you're just going to be
saying nothing.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
So all right, I.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Tell you what, We're gonna hit a break. JP said
he'd stick around because when we come back, I want
to I want to follow up on this in a sense,
in the last in the beginning of your career, when
I was watching stuff like the vegan thing, you were
almost never or maybe never political correct never never, And
in recent years you've been overtly political and clearly you
don't care about offending people. And by the way, I
(07:25):
don't either. I don't like this lifestyle. We're all supposed
to live, walking around on eggshells as if as if
words are violent right, which they're which they're not. So
when we come back, I want to talk to you
about why you decided to talk about politics and current
events and all that stuff, and how it's working for
you and all that. So JP Sears is in studio
(07:46):
with me, and he's at Comedy Works tonight, Tomorrow night
and Saturday night Comedy Works South at the Landmark, the
one that's here near the radio station. So you can
go to Comedyworks dot com to get your tickets. And
thanks to the generosity of mel I may have a
parent gets to give away a little bit later in
the show. Keep it here on kaa one little inside
baseball thing. Not every comedian who's really funny on stage
(08:09):
is really funny in person. There are some people who
write incredible jokes and are amazing on stage, and you
like hang out with them or have a beer or
have a meal or whatever. Like this person's a little boring.
But Jp is funny in real life, which is why
I was laughing when we started.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Thank you Ross.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
That's very good for my narcissism as a condition.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Anybody who would do videos with like tied ice shirts
and and uh and a headband and a flower in
your hair already just a hint of narcissism there.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
And the best way though, yeah, you know, narciss says
I'm it actually is the best condition, you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Know, Yeah, you're gonna have one. JP series is playing tonight,
Friday and Saturday night at Comedy Works out at the Landmark.
Go to Comedyworks dot com for tickets. Okay, so we
got about four or five minutes here. So you in
recent years have gotten much more involved in giving political
opinions and most often doing it in funny ways like
making fun of people and stuff like this. And you
(09:07):
didn't do that early in your career. So why did
you decide to get involved that way?
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Yeah, I'll give you two different answers to the same thing.
One is like my inner process. There's a great ancient psychologist,
if you will, back in the day, Carl Jung.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
He said, emotions are the language of the soul.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
So throughout my whole career, what I do comedy on
is what moves me emotionally, whether something pisses me off
or brings me incredible joy. There has to be an
emotional draw for this to pull me into the subject matter.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
But then in twenty twenty, when those there on the.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
World's changing, we're doing COVID and freedom is becoming a
political issue.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
My emotions were ramping up about that.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
I felt a lot around our freedom is being taken
away and all this censorship. So at that time, everything
was being politicized, and that's where my emotions were going.
It's what's important to me, Like freedom's my number one value.
That's kind of hanging in the ballast. So I was
just following my emotions, like okay, like I inherently have
(10:12):
always hated politics, but that's.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
Where my emotions are moving me into now.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
And also at the time, you know, it's kind of
stepping back from just the mission and making people laugh.
I had my first child coming into the world back
in twenty twenty and just seeing, ah, the world could
go in a couple different directions right now, And there's
a conversation I never want to have with my son
one day where I have to explain to him what
(10:39):
freedom was and too why his father didn't do anything
about it while he had a chance. So just following
my emotions and the mission was important to me leaving
a better world for my son, making my small little contribution.
I realized, I want to use my platform to basically
stand for humanity, stand for freedom, and therefore kind of
(11:00):
getting into the political arena on different topics was just
something I was called into.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Did you think that if you had a very strong
emotional feeling about an issue, that it would make it
more likely that that material would resonate with the audience
or was that not really in your mind and you
are just thinking, this is just really important to me,
and I want to say it whether people want to
hear it or not.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
Well, yeah, to the first question, I thought the opposite.
I thought, if I'm kind of like more bold, even
though I'm using comedy, if I'm more bold with my
beliefs in the political arena, I thought I would lose
my audience. I didn't think it would resonate because everybody
had always said, like, don't get political, you'll divide your audience.
I'm like, well, my mission isn't to grow my audience,
(11:46):
even though that'd be great. My mission is just to
speak my truth out there. But it grew my audience
a lot. So what I found was as long as
I'm saying what's true to me, it will resonate with
other people.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
There's a lot of people that.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Had similar perspectives, but their voice wasn't really represented by
mainstream media. There were a few voices representing their thoughts.
I became one of those voices. So it taught me like, yeah,
speak my truth. It always works out for the better.
First of all, you're a more free person if you're
saying what's on your mind. I think freedom's primarily an
(12:24):
inside job.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
I think, whatever you believe, if it's your real belief,
say it out loud. That's why God gave us a voice.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
So as I did that, I realized, Wow, this actually
resonates with a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
Not everybody.
Speaker 7 (12:36):
Most people stop listening to me, and that's fine. Yeah,
but yeah, audience grew. I love it, and I love
that you talk about freedom. That's my that's my north
star too. I'm politically unaffiliated. I believe in individual liberty
and you.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Know, some issues it makes me sound like a like
a liberal, like you know, let Cayse get married. I
don't care some of my business, but don't burn us
with all these regulation whatever. I don't need to get
into all that. But I love that you.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I love that you talk about freedom. Yeah, and you know,
I'm similar. I don't do the group think thing.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Like whatever the conservatives say that's what I'm doing, or
the liberals. It's like no, I'll use my god given
mind to make up my mind on where I stand
on any given topic, or if there's a politician, I
won't just support them because they're a member of the
Conservative Party. There's evil, corrupt people in the Conservative Party
as there are.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
On the uh the left. So for me it's so important.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
I love your mindset of kind of the libertarian mindset of,
like I'm going to be making up my own mind
and not doing the group think thing.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What are the best platforms for people who maybe haven't
seen your work before to find where's the best place
to find you?
Speaker 7 (13:45):
Yeah, you know, YouTube is a prime spot. I'm on
all the platforms, but YouTube's kind of my home and
my handle on YouTube is Awakened with JP.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Awaken with JP.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
JP Sears is playing at Comedy Works tonight at seven
pm and then different times that I want read right
now on Friday and Saturday. But you can go to
Comedyworks dot com and buy your tickets for any of
those shows. This is again comedy work stuff at the
Landmark down here in Greenwood Village. Man, it's a pleasure
to meet you in person. You've been making me laugh
(14:14):
for a long time and I love your freedom orientation
and thanks for doing what you doing Thanks for being here.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Yeah, thank you, Ross. I love Denver.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
It has always treated me so well and I appreciate
you having me on. And by the way, any listeners,
if you're offended by my presence, just send the hate
messages to Ross.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
He will be looking forward to receiving them. It's right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Text line is five six six nine zero. All right, JP,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
If you put aside twenty five cents every week for
a year, what could you get at the end A
few cups of coffee, maybe a candle, or you could
get a year of the best reporting from all over
the world. Go to Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty
four right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for
twenty five cents a week for your first year. This
(15:01):
is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long.
Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty four.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The
Roku channel, your home for free and premium TV, is
giving you access to holiday music and genre base stations
from iHeart All for free. Find this soundtrack of the season,
which channels like iHeart Christmas and north Pole Radio. The
Roku channel is available on all Roku devices, Web, Amazon, fireTV,
(15:30):
Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku Mobile app on
iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and
turn up that year with iHeartRadio on the Roku channel
Happy Streaming.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
After the movie Free Willie became a hit, word got
out that the star of the film, a killer whale
named Keiko, was sick and still living in a tiny
pool in a Mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged, kids
demanded his release. I'm Danielle Racon from Serial Productions. In
The New York Times comes the Goodwill, a story about
the wildly and isious science experiment to return Keiko to
the ocean. Listen to new episodes on Thursdays. Want early
(16:05):
access to the whole show, subscribe to The Times at
NYTimes dot com, Slash podcasts to listen on Apple Podcasts
and Spotify
If you put aside twenty five cents every week for
a year, what could you get at the end A
few cups of coffee, maybe a candle, Or you could
get a year of the best reporting from all over
the world. Go to Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty
four right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for
twenty five cents a week for your first year. This
(00:22):
is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long.
Washingtonpost dot com slash BF twenty four.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The
Roku Channel your home for free and premium TV is
giving you access to holiday music and genre base stations
from iHeart all for free. Find this soundtrack of the
season with channels like iHeart Christmas and north Pole Radio.
The Roku channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon, fireTV,
(00:51):
Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku Mobile app on
iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and
turn up that year with iHeart Radio on the Roku Channel.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Happy Streaming.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
After the movie Free Willy became a hit, word got
out that the star of the film, a killer whale
named Keiko, was sick and still living in a tiny
pool in a Mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged, kids
demanded his release. I'm Danielle Dragon from Serial Productions in
the New York Times comes the good Will, a story
about the wildly ambitious science experiment to return Keiko to
the Ocean. Listen to new episodes on Thursdays. Want early
(01:25):
access to the whole show. Subscribed at The Times at
ny Times dot com, slash podcast to listen on Apple
Podcasts and Spotify.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Yeah, I want the Tofu spring Rolls, except I don't
eat tofu. So do you have like a tofu flavored
chicken you can substitute in for me. It's not that
vegetable eaters are bad people, It's just that they're terrible people.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That remains. That remains one of my favorite skits of
all time. Uh. That's JP series from his video series
Awakened with JP Ultra Spiritual Life. He's wearing a headband.
You got a flower in his hair or something, and
that video was eight years old. If meat eaters acted
like vegans. It is still one of my favorite things
of all time. It's one of the only things I
(02:09):
have a good memory of because I have a bad memory.
And I'm so happy to have JP seies in studio
with me.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
Hi, JP Ross, thank you for having me.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Good to be here with you and reminiscing about those
old videos. That one always that'll always have a special
spot in my heart, that particular.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
One, I think, So was that one that kind of
blew you up? Because I see it as eighteen million views?
Or were you pretty huge already before that one?
Speaker 7 (02:34):
Well, you know, I've always been huge ross and a
big deal.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I don't know, if you know, there's nobody like me.
Speaker 7 (02:40):
You know, that was like my third most viral video,
Like there were a couple others before that. The really
started growing the audience and attention. I think that video
is the all time most watched video. I see eighteen million,
yeah yeah so on Facebook actually hundreds of million. Really,
it was just weird to watch when I put it
(03:01):
out within ten minutes looking at the Facebook views at
the time, is a million after ten minutes?
Speaker 6 (03:07):
I'm like, is there a Then you watch.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
Like refresh at every ten minutes and there's another million,
another million. It was wild to see, Like, wow, that
really resonates. I guess vegans annoy people more than I
thought you're annoying in our own ways.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Folks, want to let you know JP is playing tonight.
This is Thursday, right, Yeah, tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
It Comedy Works South.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
At the Landmark and it's all different times, and I
won't read all the times. You can just go to
Comedyworks dot com and check out the times for tonight,
Friday and Saturday and get your tickets to go to
go see JP. So I didn't tell you this before.
So my brother who has passed away, but my brother
was a vegan, but he was one of the rare
(03:51):
vegans who wasn't annoying.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it like.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
There's a joke about like, how do you know if
someone's a vegan.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Because they tell you within a minute.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, they tell you what he wasn't that guy. There's
just there's so much truth to this. So you just
talk a little as we were talking off the air
about truth and comedy.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Yeah, you know, I think truth is the most important
comedy principle there is. And you know, if you're telling
a joke that is based on truth and you kind
of dress it up so it's also funny, then it'll land,
It'll get an emotional reaction. Out of people if it's
based on the truth principle, and that emotional reaction is
gonna go in one of two directions. You're either gonna
(04:35):
laugh expressing emotions that's great, or you're gonna get offended
expressing emotions.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
And but if you're offended.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
By the joke, there is a level of truth resonating
with you, or else you wouldn't get offended. People don't
get defensive about things that are just blatantly untrue from
their perspective. So that's fun and it's fun to you know,
whether it's vegans or anything. Whenever we like self identify
with a role or a way of eating or a
(05:04):
political view, we start to lose ourselves. And then I
think it's fun to just like call that out. It's
like our egotistical nature wrapped around this identity, whether it's like, hey,
I'm a Trump guy, I'm a Kamala guy, or I'm
a vegan guy or I'm a meat eating guy.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
So calling that out is amazing.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
And like your brother who wasn't a militant vegan, that's
amazing to me. That says like he wasn't getting a
self identity based off of how he chose to eat right,
which is great.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, so you mentioned me before we started that because
I was going to ask you do you think people
get much more offended now than they used to? And
maybe we'll get to that. But you told me that
some people actually did get offended from this vegan video
and the BBC called you.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
Yeah, yeah, it was wild. You know, this is eight
years ago, so you know, like people getting offended. It
was you know, ramping up and society where people get
virtue signaling points for making themselves a victim because they're
offended by something that.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Had nothing to do with them. But yeah, that video.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I was surprised, like there was backlash from it. You know,
the BBC has to interview me. I'm like, oh, they
want to interview me because this is such a funny video,
but they were trying to do a smear campaign on.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Me, like, hey, will you jp this video?
Speaker 7 (06:23):
We talked to someone downstairs who works in a vegan
cafe and she was offended.
Speaker 6 (06:27):
What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 7 (06:29):
I'm like, yeah, I guess she's insecure with how she
and she is has every right to be offended. I
wouldn't want to talk someone out of being offended if
they are, so I didn't really play into their stick
but yeah, it was amazing, like people get offended. And then,
of course what I realized is if you talk about
anything real, someone's going to get offended. You can't talk
(06:51):
about something that's real without someone getting offended. So that
taught me like trying to avoid offending people that should
not be the or else you're just going to be
saying nothing.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
So all right, I.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Tell you what, We're gonna hit a break. JP said
he'd stick around because when we come back, I want
to I want to follow up on this in a sense,
in the last in the beginning of your career, when
I was watching stuff like the vegan thing, you were
almost never or maybe never political correct never never, And
in recent years you've been overtly political and clearly you
don't care about offending people. And by the way, I
(07:25):
don't either. I don't like this lifestyle. We're all supposed
to live, walking around on eggshells as if as if
words are violent right, which they're which they're not. So
when we come back, I want to talk to you
about why you decided to talk about politics and current
events and all that stuff, and how it's working for
you and all that. So JP Sears is in studio
(07:46):
with me, and he's at Comedy Works tonight, Tomorrow night
and Saturday night Comedy Works South at the Landmark, the
one that's here near the radio station. So you can
go to Comedyworks dot com to get your tickets. And
thanks to the generosity of mel I may have a
parent gets to give away a little bit later in
the show. Keep it here on kaa one little inside
baseball thing. Not every comedian who's really funny on stage
(08:09):
is really funny in person. There are some people who
write incredible jokes and are amazing on stage, and you
like hang out with them or have a beer or
have a meal or whatever. Like this person's a little boring.
But Jp is funny in real life, which is why
I was laughing when we started.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Thank you Ross.
Speaker 7 (08:28):
That's very good for my narcissism as a condition.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Anybody who would do videos with like tied ice shirts
and and uh and a headband and a flower in
your hair already just a hint of narcissism there.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
And the best way though, yeah, you know, narciss says
I'm it actually is the best condition, you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Know, Yeah, you're gonna have one. JP series is playing tonight,
Friday and Saturday night at Comedy Works out at the Landmark.
Go to Comedyworks dot com for tickets. Okay, so we
got about four or five minutes here. So you in
recent years have gotten much more involved in giving political
opinions and most often doing it in funny ways like
making fun of people and stuff like this. And you
(09:07):
didn't do that early in your career. So why did
you decide to get involved that way?
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Yeah, I'll give you two different answers to the same thing.
One is like my inner process. There's a great ancient psychologist,
if you will, back in the day, Carl Jung.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
He said, emotions are the language of the soul.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
So throughout my whole career, what I do comedy on
is what moves me emotionally, whether something pisses me off
or brings me incredible joy. There has to be an
emotional draw for this to pull me into the subject matter.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
But then in twenty twenty, when those there on the.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
World's changing, we're doing COVID and freedom is becoming a
political issue.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
My emotions were ramping up about that.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
I felt a lot around our freedom is being taken
away and all this censorship. So at that time, everything
was being politicized, and that's where my emotions were going.
It's what's important to me, Like freedom's my number one value.
That's kind of hanging in the ballast. So I was
just following my emotions, like okay, like I inherently have
(10:12):
always hated politics, but that's.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
Where my emotions are moving me into now.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
And also at the time, you know, it's kind of
stepping back from just the mission and making people laugh.
I had my first child coming into the world back
in twenty twenty and just seeing, ah, the world could
go in a couple different directions right now, And there's
a conversation I never want to have with my son
one day where I have to explain to him what
(10:39):
freedom was and too why his father didn't do anything
about it while he had a chance. So just following
my emotions and the mission was important to me leaving
a better world for my son, making my small little contribution.
I realized, I want to use my platform to basically
stand for humanity, stand for freedom, and therefore kind of
(11:00):
getting into the political arena on different topics was just
something I was called into.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Did you think that if you had a very strong
emotional feeling about an issue, that it would make it
more likely that that material would resonate with the audience
or was that not really in your mind and you
are just thinking, this is just really important to me,
and I want to say it whether people want to
hear it or not.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
Well, yeah, to the first question, I thought the opposite.
I thought, if I'm kind of like more bold, even
though I'm using comedy, if I'm more bold with my
beliefs in the political arena, I thought I would lose
my audience. I didn't think it would resonate because everybody
had always said, like, don't get political, you'll divide your audience.
I'm like, well, my mission isn't to grow my audience,
(11:46):
even though that'd be great. My mission is just to
speak my truth out there. But it grew my audience
a lot. So what I found was as long as
I'm saying what's true to me, it will resonate with
other people.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
There's a lot of people that.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Had similar perspectives, but their voice wasn't really represented by
mainstream media. There were a few voices representing their thoughts.
I became one of those voices. So it taught me like, yeah,
speak my truth. It always works out for the better.
First of all, you're a more free person if you're
saying what's on your mind. I think freedom's primarily an
(12:24):
inside job.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
I think, whatever you believe, if it's your real belief,
say it out loud. That's why God gave us a voice.
Speaker 7 (12:31):
So as I did that, I realized, Wow, this actually
resonates with a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
Not everybody.
Speaker 7 (12:36):
Most people stop listening to me, and that's fine. Yeah,
but yeah, audience grew. I love it, and I love
that you talk about freedom. That's my that's my north
star too. I'm politically unaffiliated. I believe in individual liberty
and you.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Know, some issues it makes me sound like a like
a liberal, like you know, let Cayse get married. I
don't care some of my business, but don't burn us
with all these regulation whatever. I don't need to get
into all that. But I love that you.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I love that you talk about freedom. Yeah, and you know,
I'm similar. I don't do the group think thing.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Like whatever the conservatives say that's what I'm doing, or
the liberals. It's like no, I'll use my god given
mind to make up my mind on where I stand
on any given topic, or if there's a politician, I
won't just support them because they're a member of the
Conservative Party. There's evil, corrupt people in the Conservative Party
as there are.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
On the uh the left. So for me it's so important.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
I love your mindset of kind of the libertarian mindset of,
like I'm going to be making up my own mind
and not doing the group think thing.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What are the best platforms for people who maybe haven't
seen your work before to find where's the best place
to find you?
Speaker 7 (13:45):
Yeah, you know, YouTube is a prime spot. I'm on
all the platforms, but YouTube's kind of my home and
my handle on YouTube is Awakened with JP.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Awaken with JP.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
JP Sears is playing at Comedy Works tonight at seven
pm and then different times that I want read right
now on Friday and Saturday. But you can go to
Comedyworks dot com and buy your tickets for any of
those shows. This is again comedy work stuff at the
Landmark down here in Greenwood Village. Man, it's a pleasure
to meet you in person. You've been making me laugh
(14:14):
for a long time and I love your freedom orientation
and thanks for doing what you doing Thanks for being here.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Yeah, thank you, Ross. I love Denver.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
It has always treated me so well and I appreciate
you having me on. And by the way, any listeners,
if you're offended by my presence, just send the hate
messages to Ross.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
He will be looking forward to receiving them. It's right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Text line is five six six nine zero. All right, JP,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
If you put aside twenty five cents every week for
a year, what could you get at the end A
few cups of coffee, maybe a candle, or you could
get a year of the best reporting from all over
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(15:01):
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Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The
Roku channel, your home for free and premium TV, is
giving you access to holiday music and genre base stations
from iHeart All for free. Find this soundtrack of the season,
which channels like iHeart Christmas and north Pole Radio. The
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(15:30):
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Happy Streaming.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
After the movie Free Willie became a hit, word got
out that the star of the film, a killer whale
named Keiko, was sick and still living in a tiny
pool in a Mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged, kids
demanded his release. I'm Danielle Racon from Serial Productions. In
The New York Times comes the Goodwill, a story about
the wildly and isious science experiment to return Keiko to
the ocean. Listen to new episodes on Thursdays. Want early
(16:05):
access to the whole show, subscribe to The Times at
NYTimes dot com, Slash podcasts to listen on Apple Podcasts
and Spotify
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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