Meet Jay Light | Comedian & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jay Light and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jay, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Because I feel most at home when I am trying to make people laugh.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a comedian and TV writer. I began as a stand-up comic, worked the door at the Comedy Store for about 5 years – the greatest education in comedy I ever received – and began working in TV in 2018. It was the classic Hollywood trope of someone seeing a comic they like on stage and hiring them for a job. My knight in shining armor was an Australian man who wanted to hire me for a writer’s room on a game show pilot. After about a year of burning the candle at both ends, slinging jokes by day and showing drunks their seats at night, I quit the door guy job and went all in on this new, exciting life.

I learned early on thanks to my involvement in the Store’s infamous Roast Battle that my strengths lie more in joke writing than crafting a story, and luckily I’ve consistently landed jobs in TV that require that specific skillset, from roasts and variety shows to reality competition and game shows. The reality/game show life is strange but never boring. I’ve been lucky enough to write for all sorts of people, from Eddie Griffin and Eric Stonestreet to Criss Angel and Gordon Ramsay.

At the end of the day, live performance – mostly stand-up, with a little improv sprinkled in at another formative comedy institution, The Pack Theater – is the thing that keeps my creative engine fueled. There will never be anything that can top the feeling of making a room full of people laugh. My stand-up act skews a bit darker and dirtier than you’d expect at a glance, and that’s all thanks to Roast Battle helping ingrain that you can make a joke about anything, as long as it’s funny above everything else. My first album “Good Guy With A Gun” has several jokes that I am extremely proud of in that vein; jokes that go to the line and dance on it. But I also don’t feel like I have to be edgy for the sake of being edgy, which is nice from a creative standpoint. As I continue to discover more about myself, and the kind of comedy I want to make, I’m happy to have a diverse set of tools in my comedy toolbox.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
EATING: Breakfast burritos at Cofax and Lowkey Burritos, burgers at Father’s Office and Goldburger, tacos at Guisados, pizza at Triple Beam and Prime, thai at Night + Market, mediterranean at Dune, BBQ at Moo’s Craft Barbecue, sandwiches at Jeff’s Table, healthy-ish stuff at Kitchen Mouse and Jewel.

DRINKING: I’m keeping it local (I live in Highland Park) and saying Gold Line or Barcade. I don’t drink myself but both those bars have enough going on to keep the sober folks like me entertained.

HANGING OUT: It’s comedy all the way down here. Obviously the Comedy Store. Potluck, Roast Battle, any of the headliner shows… any of them a must-see for the friend coming to town. But also the great indie shows – Good Heroin, Peacock, Motherland, just to name a few. Or maybe they want to see some weirder stuff and we take a trek over to The Pack Theater or The Elysian. Or even we go full degen and hit a really killer open mic somewhere like Chatterbox, Third Wheel, or The Offbeat, to see the best (and worst) the scene has to offer.

VISITING: Gotta hit at least one of the crazy cool movie theaters in LA, whether the New Beverly, the Los Feliz 3, or the Million Dollar Theater (currently run by my pals at Secret Movie Club). And if there’s room, the Pasadena double-whammy of Huntington Library & Gardens, and the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Just make sure you come hang out with me at the right time of the month.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I could answer this question with any number of people or places – the place that’s shaped me the most as a comic The Comedy Store, the ringmaster of Roast Battle Brian Moses, the first comedy club to ever headline me The Secret Group, my ride-or-die comedy best friend Frank Castillo – but really, I wouldn’t be where I am today with one of my oldest friends, Parker Searfoss. We started comedy together right out of high school, after he bought the Comedy Bible and I volunteered to be his “open mic buddy” and write jokes together. He undeniably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and he continues to inspire me to this day.

Website: www.jaylightcomedy.com

Instagram: instagram.com/dietjay

Twitter: twitter.com/dietjay

Facebook: facebook.com/jaylightcomedy

Youtube: youtube.com/jaylightcomedy

Image Credits
Mike Falzone Kiki Andersen