Daily Inspiration: Meet Jake Daniels

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Daniels.

Hi Jake, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started touring April 1st, 2015. Before I started touring I managed restaurants. While managing restaurants I got sick with cancer and decided to pursue a different career path in stand-up comedy. Since then I have done over 300 road dates a year. I have performed in Dominican Republic, Mexico and Canada. I have 2 comedy specials. Both were on Amazon Prime, however, only 1 is available there now. The other (the oldest one is available on Youtube) I also raise money for several different charities benefiting people/children with cancer and our US Combat Veterans. I currently reside with my fiancé, Rachel and her 15 year old daughter and 2 cats, Zeus and Breadstick.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When you first start doing comedy you think you are better than you actually are. You put yourself in spots where you burn bridges because you don’t do the time required for the venue and just aren’t funny enough or ready. This results in getting banned from places and trying to rebuild those bridges later which isn’t always easy.
Furthermore, Being on the road away from people I love and care about is really hard. I miss out on things with my fiancé and our family and also things with my kids and grandkids. They say in life that no matter what you do you are always sacrificing something to do something. That to me is true in everything that I do.

I also taught myself to play the saxophone about 5 years ago. I made that part of my act as I open each show with name that tune and interact with audience members. I’m pretty decent at playing now but I know when I first started trying to learn something new and not giving up because it sounded like rabid squirrels trying to sing.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a stand-up comedian, Magician and Musician. I specialize in entertaining audiences everywhere no matter how big (15,000+) or small (10+).
I most proud of the fact that I can go into any audience no matter the age or nationality and entertain them for over an hour and help them to forget about whatever problems they are facing in their everyday life for that hour. I like to be an escape for people. I don’t talk about politics as I believe that if people want to hear/read about that they have their news outlets or sources to go find it. People just need to be able to laugh. Studies show that most adults might laugh 15-20 times in a day. I know I make people laugh more than that in an hour. Not just chuckles but hard belly laughs. I enjoy the challenge of doing that consistently.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was a shy kid. I’m deaf so I didn’t talk very well. I still wear hearing aids to this day and should for the rest of my life. I always loved sports. I still watch football religiously. I can be found cheering on any team on any level if I know there is a live game going on. While in Canada I like to go watch hockey. Watching people grow and learn things has always been one of my favorite things. In school I was good at math until they put letters in it. I was horrible at English and still can’t spell very well. When I was young I always wanted to be so good at everything, and spent countless hours trying to learn but I was never good enough or I had to stop doing what I wanted to do and go to speech therapy. I enjoyed collecting football/basketball and hockey cards.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jokersandjester.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelonejesterjakedaniels/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartbrokencomedian/
• Twitter: https://x.com/JDanielscomedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jokersandjestercomedytour