Referred as “Comedy’s next great storyteller,” Jeremy Nunes stands 6’6 tall has a unique style that has been in demand for over 20 years. His comedy special, “Neighborhood Sasq-Watch” is one of the most popular and highly-rated shows. At the age of 29, Jeremy became the Alderman of his town, and at 31, he ran for Mayor and won!
Nunes hosts the award-winning comedy-meets-pro-wrestling podcast Dynamite Drop-In. Recently his latest book, You Can’t Write City Hall: What happened when a stand-up comedian got elected Mayor, has released, selling massively on Amazon.
Jeremy Nunes Talks with ScreenBinge About How He Got Into the Comedy Business.
You’ve been in the comedy business for more than 20 years. You’ve also been the Mayor of your town and even penned down a book about experiences gained from it. How did it all start?
Jeremy: Yeah, so I started out, um… I grew up in the middle of Illinois little small town right outside of Springfield, and so sort of the tradition in the small towns is that you follow in the footsteps of your father. You kind of take over the family business, and then eventually your children take over the family business, and so my family owned the trailer park in our little town
… and so my dad really wanted me to take over this trailer park, uh but I really wanted to do comedy… eventually, I kind of broke the news to him that I felt, I said you know, I feel like I can make just as much money doing stand-up comedy as running the trailer park, which was correct. I am making tens of dollars!
Did you ever doubt yourself that maybe one day I’m going to be back and tell dad that I didn’t make it? Were there any doubts? How did you get the confidence to take a chance on yourself?
Jeremy: I think that’s pretty normal in the comedy world because there’s always moments where um… things don’t go right, and you kind of wonder uh what’s the next step here for me on this! …but then you have, you know, it seems like the very next night you have this incredible night, and you’re like, why was I even thinking I would stop doing comedy.
Sometimes we’re with a group of five-six friends, and we recall some joke; but just when we’re about to pop it out, we feel it might come out as really lame and get ourselves embarrassed. How do you manage to do comedy in front of hundreds of people?
Jeremy: Oh man, that is a great question. As many interviews as I’ve done, that’s the first time somebody asked me that you know.
So generally, I mean, as you are kind of going along and the audience is with you, your confidence grows and grows, and so that’s when you can really start to take some risk… If they don’t like something that I’m kind of trying out, it’s not a big deal. I can just switch back to the stories, and the jokes that I know are solid and good.
How much part does popularity play in the comedy business? Like if someone’s really popular, are people more likely to laugh at their jokes no matter what B.S they speak on the stage? Or they’re unbiased about it?
Jeremy: Man, you have done your homework, Sir! You know I think you are 100% correct, and so I’ll start on a small level. First… okay, so you’re a new comedian but you’re not good at all… so people really don’t laugh. But, one night all your friends come there and your family, they’re all going to laugh because they know you and they want you to do well.
Right now, on a bigger scale, the same thing happens when the audience all comes because they know you and they want you to do well. They laugh, you know, all the time even when the joke’s not funny, or you didn’t even get to the joke.
Once Jeremy was walking down the street with his comedian slash actor friend, and he randomly asked,
Will you tell me if I’m funny? And I was like, well what do you mean, and he said uh when I walk out there in 10 seconds, they’re going to laugh at everything I say… no matter what, and at this point, I don’t even know if I’m funny anymore. That pretty much sums it all up!
Tell us about your new book “You Can’t Write City Hall”, it is selling well on Amazon, what’s it about?
Jeremy: The book about is me retelling the real-life experience I had, being mayor of my town…. it’s a lot of fun… and a lot of headaches to be the mayor of the town… when you’re in a small town, the mayor is in charge of a lot of stuff… so I was the health inspector, chief of police, uh… animal control officer, liquor commissioner all of these things…
so one day this guy says “hey there’s an abandoned house next to mine, and I need you to get over there because there’s a bunch of skunks living in it you need to get rid of the skunks”.
So, I was like, you know I can’t go in there uh let’s call the county and the guy says well my taxes pay for better, and I said I don’t think you pay yourself.
Besides that, Nunes has also released an Amazon Prime special, “Who’s With Me?” which is in great demand on the platform. His other appearances include The Layover, The Break-Up, Last Comic Standing, Final Witness, 2 PBS mini-series, Comcast on Demand, a National Geographic Special, and ESPN Radio.
Nunes’s primary fan base comes from Sirius/XM Satellite Radio listeners, who are just crazy about his podcasts! However, to get to this place, Jeremy had to leave his town and family business and step into the comedy business.
Loved the interview? Watch the full video to listen to all Jeremy has to tell about being a comedian and the comical experiences he faced while being a town mayor. Also, find out how this comedy champ moved to the big city with just $200 and made a name for himself!