How to go
Who: Jarrod Harris at Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub, 101 Pine St., Dayton
When: 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $12 Friday and $15 Saturday
More info: 937-224-JOKE (5653) or www.wileyscomedyclub.com
Artist info: www.jarrodharris.com
It’s hard to pin down Jarrod Harris’ comedic style. With his improvisational, stream-of-consciousness approach and ability to slip in and out of characters, he creates a fluid evening of laughs that consistently defies expectations.
Georgia boy: Harris, performing at Wiley's Comedy Niteclub in Dayton on Friday and Saturday, started doing stand-up in Atlanta in 2001 and honed his craft in the city's underground comedy scene. Aside from a period living in Los Angeles from 2009-12, Georgia has remained his home base.
Quotable pt. 1: "My voice is not easily identifiable to some people. They're like 'I don't know who you are because you do different sets. One show I've seen you be this redneck guy and the next show I've seen you be this way.' That's my voice, the fact that you don't know exactly what I'm going to do. That's my thing. I don't know what other way to describe it."
Online content: Like many comedians, Harris is a firm believer in creating original material for the Internet. He posts live clips, snippets of work in progress and other material on his YouTube channel. A former writer and voice actor on the hit web series "Action Figure Therapy," he is working on a new online project he hopes to launch later this year.
Road movie: Harris is currently putting the finishing touches on "Organic: A Comedy Tour Documentary," a new project with fellow comic Ryan Singer, who grew up in Kettering and graduated from Alter High School and Wright State University.
Quotable pt. 2: "Ryan and I are totally on the same wavelength comedy-wise. We both do nontraditional stand-up. People tend to be a little more open-minded with the fact that we're not doing set-up/punchline jokes. It's not that people are laughing any less than they would, we just have a different way of getting those laughs. We just want to do our own thing. I'm not good at writing set-up/punchline jokes. I'm better at doing characters that tell a story."
Off the stage: Harris is in a relationship with Lace Larrabee, a former beauty queen turned stand-up comedian. To blow off steam from the road, he is an avid BMX bicyclist. He's currently in the process of building Jarrod's Place, a free-ride bicycle park in Canton, Ga.
Music and comedy: Friday's show at Wiley's is straight comedy. However, Saturday night Harris will share the stage with songwriter Peter Mulvey, who will close out the evening with a special set featuring local musicians Tod Weidner and Dan Stahl.
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