Jon Ross • Writer/Stand-up
Jon Ross
• 1981 - Early 1990s •
Feature Article excerpt or Bio
Month 19xx · Bay area Publication • byline
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coming soon - excerpted Warren Pages in PDF
• Reviews • Pull Quotes • Blurbs •
February 24, 1985 * SF Chronicle Datebook • Bob Weider •
Are these the Top SF Comics of 1985? Survey of Clubs
Jon Ross— “has the material, style and looks to make it very big… Doesn’t waste words.” ~ Bob Ayres, Other Cafe
Jon Ross — “fresh inventive clean, topical, and has a lot of range.” ~Tom Sawyer, Cobb’s Pub `
“I can’t remember the publication, but they referred to me as “an Everyman.” I liked that. ” ~ 198X
Quick Takes
1st time on stage
Punchline Audition
At the University of Virginia, I majored in Communication and Studio Art. In the Art Department, I became friendly with a visiting professor from Cal Berkeley, a brilliant painter named Chris Brown. When I confessed that I was interested in pursuing a career in comedy, he told me that San Francisco had a burgeoning comedy scene. After graduation, I drove across the country and started going to the comedy clubs, getting the "lay of the land" and working up my nerve. I did my very first set at the Punchline. It was an open audition to get into the Comedy Competition. I didn't expect to get in, nor did I even want to--I was too green, I barely had five decent minutes of material that wasn't about college. In fact, I didn't make it into the Competition, but after my set, a veteran comedian approached me and complimented me, then asked how old I was. (I was 21, but I looked 16.) It was very gratifying, though later, when I became an established comedian and got to know him, I realized he had been hitting on me.
Self Promotion
'82 Calendar & Newsletter
Reverse: OCTOBER 1982 • NEWSLETTER Welcome to October. Okay, I know October has thirty one days, but who's counting? Since the thirty first is Halloween I figured it'd be kind of spooky if it were missing. No? Well, maybe I'll include an extra day in November. I hope you've all been enjoying the beautiful fall weather we've been having here in the bay area as much as I have. I've taken the opportunity to spend some time out at Candlestick Park to watch those red-hot Giants. I've even got tickets for the final two games of the season (we're not out of it yet). I've also gone out to the S.F. Zoo to see Prince Charles (the white tiger). It's a full life. As fine a month as September was, October promises to be even better, and I'm not basing this on some mere astrological forecast. As you can see from the Calender, I've compiled more bookings this month than last. If you are a San Franciscan, you may have noticed however, that I basically only have two engagements here in the city. The first one, on the first and second at Cobb's Pub, I'm very excited about. I'll be middle act with Bob Sarlatte. Many of my colleagues have been asking me, "Who died and made you middle act?" That notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to working with Bob, a performer I've always admired very much. The other S.. gig, on the twenty second and twenty third, is at Hart's, a restaraunt that has only just recently begun doing comedy. I always enjoy working at new clubs, and I'll be with Evan Davis, another very funny guy. The joke making business has been going very well for me. The more time I put in the better I get, and the better I get, well, the better I get. Once again, I appreciate all the support I've gotten from everyone. Thanks. FOR MORE INFO CALL 647-6469
Tough Room
… and Pizza
Jon Ross: "Warren Spottswood and I were playing a San Jose State rathskeller that never had comedy, a huge pizza-and-beer place. We had to bring our, own sound system which were these little lunchbox speakers that sounded like kazoos, for a room that held 500 people!"
Warren Spottswood: All of them clanking their silverware. You couldn't hear us past the third row.
JR: And the place is really loud, the emcee is screaming trying to get the crowd’s attention. Other than a few people up front, nobody's listening. Suddenly we hear this huge voice-like-God going ‘Ha ha ha. I’m louder than you.’ It was the kitchen order mike, okay? The emcee ran back to use it as a joke, but I said, ‘Hell let's do the show from there!’
WS: We had to do the show to get paid and so we did it from the little stainless steel counter, using the pizza mike. You'd have, 'A funny thing happened to me on the way...' and then, 'Table 48, your pepperoni special is ready!' - right in the middle of the act!
JR: And people are yelling ‘Shut up! We're trying to eat! Shut up!’ I was doing my act with my eyes closed. Then Warren goes on and throws a package of rolls into the audience, ‘Here eat this, leave me alone!’
WS: Then a woman comes up and hands me a note, and it says ‘STOP or I will kill you’ If it gets any worse than that, I don’t wanna know about it.
~SF Chronicle • December 1983 • The Nightmare Set: A Comic's Moment of Terror • Bob Wieder
Recovered detail: At one point, probably while Warren was reciting the Gettysburg Address as Bullwinkle, some drunk student ambled up to the window and raised his arm to throw something at Warren -- a napkin dispenser or a glass sugar shaker. Thankfully, someone tackled him before he could launch the projectile.
Bay Area Rooms
Holy City Zoo
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Burbs & Beyond
Cheesy feet cheese strings say cheese. Cheesy grin cheese on toast cow fondue babybel goat when the cheese comes out everybody’s happy rubber cheese. Dolcelatte airedale cut the cheese cheeseburger fromage who moved
The Comedy Talk Show
Cobb's Pub
Taleggio melted cheese cheese and biscuits. Macaroni cheese cheese and wine cheese on toast taleggio stinking bishop camembert de normandie the big cheese camembert de normandie. Ricotta port-salut airedale cheddar caerphilly red leicester cheesy grin
San Francisco
Had a Secret Weapon
To be fair, it was a special moment in the whole country's history. The comedy tsunami was washing over the entire culture. The fascination/obsession with stand-up was pretty ubiquitous. It seemed that every town had a bar that hosted a weekly comedy show. And big cities? At one point, Indianapolis had four full-time comedy clubs, two of which were located across the street from each other. Cable shows like Evening at the Improv saturated the airwaves. Hollywood agents, managers, and producers trolled the comedy clubs, looking for their next TV or movie stars. But even with all that, San Francisco was different. San Francisco was special. Yes, I think the audiences in the Bay Area were generally more intelligent and politically savvier than in other places. But in my opinion, that's not what made San Francisco unique. San Francisco had something no other city had. A secret weapon -- Robin Williams. Even after he blew up and became an international star, Robin called the Bay Area home. More to the point, whenever he was in town, he'd "pop in," and make surprise guest appearances in tiny places like The Holy City Zoo. And when that happened, it was akin to seeing a Beatles concert in a broom closet. (A club might be half-full when he'd arrive, but would very quickly be packed by the time he went on stage. It remains a bit of a mystery how this happened in the time before cell phones!) Robin would put on long, sweaty, largely improvised performances that felt as magical as witnessing a unicorn being born. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of this. Even when he was out of town, Robin seemed ever-present because of the constant awareness—by audiences, comedians, and club owners—that on any given night he MIGHT show up. On that chance alone, audiences piled into the clubs night after night. On the nights he didn’t show up, audiences didn't leave disappointed. On the contrary, they got exposed to some fantastic comedians they hadn’t previously known, but who they'd now become fans of. Robin's aura alone turned the vibrance and excitement of the San Francisco comedy scene up to eleven.
Comedy Day
Comedy's Best Day
I only tried my hand at the Competition a couple of times. I quickly recognized I wasn't cut out for it. I've always felt there was something inherently wrong, or unfair, in pitting artists against each other, choosing which one is "best." Comedy Day, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing. I loved Comedy Day. Unfortunately, I pretty much stopped going once I moved to Los Angeles, largely because I was always playing baseball on that day.
Hosting in '85
Jose Simon wants to run a family show, and material acceptable in a smoky intimate nightclub setting may not be consistent with community standards in Golden Gate Park.
“They tell us, ‘Please don’t be blue’,“ recalls Jon Ross, one of the town’s hot young comics who will be hosting a 3:10 PM, 40-minute segment. “That goes fine for about an hour. Then someone talks about shooting heroin, or a nun getting raped and the floodgates are open.“
~ Datebook • July 14, 1985 • Perpetual Punchlines in the Park by David Kleinberg
Favorite Joke
I wish I wrote
Michael O'Brien at The Holy City Zoo said he was asked in a job interview to describe himself in one word. "Unable to follow directions."
The unkindest cut of all
Comedy poaching – the use or adaptation of another comedians material or style – is a widespread and thorny phenomenon that is worth its weight in anecdotes. Consider – Jon Ross was on the road watching “Saturday Night Live” in a motel room, when a SNL comic did Jon’s “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” bit word-for-word. “I jumped straight up out of bed.
Schtickpockets • December 13, 1987 • SF Chronicle • Bob Weider
The LAugh's On Them
Not Non-Stop Jokes
The topics that today's comedians talk about aren't that different than the comic material of the past – the traumas of growing up, dating, relationships, observational and topical humor. But comics these days seem more dedicated to interpreting the subjects, offering a personal view. Jon Ross, 27 at Bay Area headliner, said “Absolutely, if you want to be successful, you have to reveal more of yourself. When you see the old comics and they say. "My wife is so fat." You have a feeling he's not talking about his wife, and he's just doing a joke. The real illusion of being able to see something you think is funny, and get the audience to see it that way so that they can laugh at it too."
Only on the stage can a comedian’s delivery metamorphose from the carbon-knocking pistons of a joke machine into a heart-thumping living person. Ross said,
“You really open up on the stage when you leave the script behind. It's when you're on the stage and don't have a plan, and for that one brief moment, you become yourself, and what happens out there couldn't happen any other way. When you combine personality and jokes you have a bazooka you can kill people with. It's powerful and dangerous."
The Laugh’s on Them • March 22, 1987 • San Jose Mercury News • Fred Reis
The Crib
No riffing before noon
Cheesy feet cheese strings say cheese. Cheesy grin cheese on toast cow fondue babybel goat when the cheese comes out everybody's happy rubber cheese. Dolcelatte airedale cut the cheese cheeseburger fromage who moved
PDF of 2 articles: Under One Roof with Three Comics, 1985 • SF Chronicle • Jerry Carroll | 3 Funny Folks share Comedy Career and Rent, 1986 • Noe Valley Voice • Jeff Kalis
A decade later
Other Cafe Style
Cheesy feet cheese strings say cheese. Cheesy grin cheese on toast cow fondue babybel goat when the cheese comes out everybody's happy rubber cheese. Dolcelatte airedale cut the cheese cheeseburger fromage who moved
Bay Area
Network Mentors
The Bay Area is where I became a stand-up. I credit all my subsequent showbiz success to my career as a comedian. All of my most significant breaks came from a comedian with whom I'd worked, become friends with, and whose respect I'd garnered. Many of those connections were made in San Francisco, though I'd say more were probably made in New York and Boston.
OTHER BAY AREA GIGS / EVENTS OF NOTE
Comedy Tonight
Nick @ Nite
SHOWtime Promo
The Bird
I have a screenplay about baseball great Mark Fidrych called, The Bird, along with a couple of sitcom pilots. Anyone who contacts me is welcome to read them
Your League Play?
Aristocrats?
AWARDS?
As a visual starting point,…
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