She’s guest starred on “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, was a finalist on “Last Comic Standing”, won Oxygen Network’s, “So You Think You’re Funny?”, and performed on Comedy Central’s, “Live at Gotham”. The quality and excitement of a televised performance carried over all the way to this community event.
Comedian Erin Jackson performed at North Idaho College Thursday night to an energetic crowd of students and community members, as part of a series of events presented by the Associated Students of North Idaho College (ASNIC).
“Dude, I’m in Idaho!”
Jackson has not been to many western states before.
“I’ve never been to Montana,” she admitted, to a disbelieving audience.
Right off the bat, she wanted to get a taste of what it’s like to live in the Panhandle.
“What kind of strange majors do you have here at NIC?”
“Forestry,” an audience member said.
“Forestry…,” she replied with a puzzled glance around the room. “Keep the forests,” she said with a fist pump and a laugh. “That’s very interesting. You didn’t disappoint.”
It’s true that Idaho is very different from the east coast, where Jackson grew up. And as the performance went on, neither she, nor the audience held back on poking fun at the quirks of living in a small community.
“There’s, like, one store in the outlet mall here, right?” a man in the crowd offered to clapping and cheering. Jackson stared, wide-eyed.
“Um. That’s not a mall.”
Jackson kept the audience thoroughly engaged, frequently asking students questions about campus life, gathering information on the spot, offering a performance uniquely composed for her Idahoan audience. Topics ranged everywhere from vegetarianism, to the Affordable Care Act; from strippers, to losing weight.
“When I’m done running, I’m just too tired to drive to Wendy’s. That’s how I lose weight.”
The show was sprinkled with inside, reoccurring jokes formed just within the hour Jackson performed. When Jackson randomly selected Sixten Nystrom, a Swedish student at NIC, to tell her about himself, the numerical spelling of his name became a playful joke from beginning to end.
“It was fun,” said Nystrom, who told Jackson he couldn’t believe she hadn’t made a connection between his name and the convenience store, 7-11.
“That’s not my first time using that 7-11 joke. I brought that from Sweden.”
The hour flew by, leaving audience members begging Jackson to “keep going” when the time came to close.
“Alright, I’ll tell a couple more stories and then I’ll go. I know you guys got some rocks to jump off of,” she said, alluding to the popularity cliff-diving among NIC students.
Jackson’s self-described style is a “mellow story teller”. When she was 12, she saw Bill Cosby perform live, and enjoyed his casual, relate-able demeanor. She uses that kind of conversational tone in her own performances. Of course, Bill Cosby isn’t the only comedian she draws from.
“I love Ellen, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Ted Alexandro, of course [Dave] Chappelle”, said Jackson.“[Guest starring on Ellen] was the best day of my life. It’s amazing when you get the call, you know. To know that she’s even heard about me is amazing.”
But she hardly compares herself to A-list comedians. “Oh, I’m not famous. No.”
When asked what advice she had for students at NIC pursuing comedy or entertainment careers, she said “just try”.
“I kind of started this on a dare. I kind of mentioned it to my friend and she was like, ‘Do it!’ And I did,” said Jackson. “Just try. Just give it a try. I think of Chris Rock and people like him and I never thought I’d be doing stuff like them, and now I’m here!”
A photo caption later posted to Jackson’s Instagram account summed up the night: “Thanks for an AMAZING show #NIC! Shout out to Sixten and the forestry major.”
Courtesy of Erin Jackson
