{Interview} with Comedian Sean Jordan of the “All Fantasy Everything” Podcast

When it was revealed that Prompt Industries would be producing a line of interviews, I decided to seize the opportunity and reach out to stand-up comedian and person I desperately want to be friends with Sean Jordan.

Sean co-hosts the All Fantasy Every (AFE) podcast with Ian Karmel, David Gborie, and a rotation of other stand-up comedians. The idea behind the podcast is that the participants pick a category and then fantasy draft that category. Categories have included the mall food court, soft rock bangers, and words that you think make you sound smart.

The concept behind AFE is brilliant, but the real charm is the fun that everyone involved is clearly having. Listening to it feels like hanging out with your friends and the picking condiments you ride or die with. It’s a perfect road trip podcast.

Sean’s aggressively positive and sweet demeanor coupled with his willingness to engage with fans on social media is what inspired me to reach out to him, and what led to him indulging my request for an interview.

Below is a slightly edited interview conducted via email covering Sean’s stand-up, the podcast, and himself.

Dennis William: I started listening AFE about a year ago, and after going through the catalog, developed the assumption that you, Ian Karmel and David Gborie were the founding members, since that’s the most frequent line-up. But I recently listened to Cities for The Weekend, and realized my assumption is probably wrong. How did you first get involved with Headgum/All Fantasy Everything?

Sean Johnson: Well AFE is all Ian’s idea. He started it with Headgum and David and I just kind of fit in. I’m not exactly sure how it came to be that it is recorded with Headgum, but I’ll tell ya, it’s awesome! They’re so good to work with.

I knew Ian was going to start a podcast pretty much since he thought of the idea. Right away I thought it was such a fun concept, and knew it would be super good, because Ian is freakishly talented. Since we live together, we would talk about how fun the idea sounded and drafts that would be fun to do.

I think the first episode that Ian, David and I all did together was the “Malls” episode. Almost right away I realized that we had a very good thing going. We all actually hang out all the time, so nothing is forced, it’s all real friendship and I think that comes across in a pretty big way.

I think we all just actually enjoyed being around one another so much, and had so much fun recording, that it just sort of happened that we all do it together now. It was for sure Ian’s idea though that he started on his own, he has just been kind enough to bring us along 🙂

DW: In light of David Gborie’s Egg Controversy in the Breakfast episode (congrats on snagging Monkey Bread), I was wondering how much discussion of parameters goes on before the recording. And what kind of prep/strategizing do you do?

SJ: Hahahaha that was so buck! That was really funny, because it was probably the most serious we’ve ever gotten about a pick. I think we all agree that’s it’s pretty fun to keep it as loose as possible. We set the basic idea and then just kind of play jazz.

That’s another benefit to having the three of us on every time. Since we all know the format so well, I think it helps the guest sort of ease into the whole thing and realize that it’s all about fun.

We have a text thread that we’ll put together a few days before we record and just nail down the topic and what’s for sure out of bounds, but for the most part it’s just about fun and being silly.

DW: Do you listen to the AFE episodes that you aren’t on? Which episodes have been your favorite (or ones that you are most proud of)?

SJ: I try to listen to all the episodes. I absolutely hate hearing myself, so it’s hard to listen to the ones I’m on, but I’ll give it a shot most of the time. The one that sticks out the most to me is the episode that we did about “Words You Think Make You Sound Smart.” Ian just mentioned this in an interview, but I want to bring it up again. We were all so vulnerable and actually kind of nervous to seem dumb in front of our friends. That made for a very real feeling that I hope a listener can identify with.

I also really like the Taco Bell episode of course. The one about fictional characters you’d like to date was pretty on point as well. I wasn’t on that one but everyone really nailed it.

DW: How long have you been doing stand up and what convinced you to pursue it full time?

SJ: I’ve been doing stand up around 12 years, I would say. I never planned on doing it for any sort of a job when I started. I still have a day job most of the time when I can. Gotta eat! Personally, when I started stand up, it was just something that I thought I’d be good at, and it seemed really fun. I was living in South Dakota at the time and the comedy club I worked at every week actually went under. After that there wasn’t really a place to do stand up in town, so I kind of quit for a couple years and forgot about it a bit. I would do a show here and there, but nothing like I was doing when the club was open.

Almost all of this business is chance and things lining up. It sounds corny, but I never would have left Sioux Falls if a couple friends didn’t sweat me into meeting them in Portland. They moved, and I said if they had a room for me in the house they rented that I would move to wherever they ended up. They ended up in Portland and had a room for me. The job I had at the time had an office in Portland, so that just worked out at the right time for me.

When I got there, I met Ian because we were both doing a local comedy contest. I’ll probably remember it for the rest of my life. I was sitting at a bar called Dante’s getting ready to do some super shitty daytime contest comedy, and I was watching basketball. Ian came up and sat with me and we just started talking. I don’t know that I’ve ever fell in with someone quicker than I did with him. We just got along RIGHT away. It’s pretty crazy.

Once I was in Portland it started to seem more like a real thing. Doug Benson, who is an amazing stand up comic and good friend, has helped me out tremendously. He took me on the road, let me work with him whenever he was in Portland and really just introduced me to doing comedy and getting paid to do it.

Then things just keep going, and before you know it you’re quitting a job and doing stand up full time. Then you go broke and have to get some other job until you quit and do it full time again. It’s a really weird business, but every single day is interesting so I love it.

DW: What is your writing process like?

SJ: I’d like to say that I write for hours a day, but that’s just not true. I’m constantly thinking of jokes and stand up, writing down ideas and thoughts, and then I just try to write what I think sounds funny about that. LA has been tricky for my kind of writing, because I work a lot of things out on stage and I just don’t get up as much as I’d like to in LA. There are tons of shows, but there are also TONS of comedians, so it gets tricky.

I’ve never been that great at sitting down and writing what’s actually funny. I’m about to record an album so the writing has definitely slowed down a lot just trying to organize what I want to put on and the order and all that.

DW: I’m also a Midwesterner living on a coast, and I’m curious as to how you hype up your home state to those who would dismiss us as flyover country? And what made you decide to move from Sioux Falls to Portland to LA?

SJ: I love where I’m from and I always will. For anyone to talk shit about where anyone is from seems so dumb to me. Being from Sioux Falls gave me the best lifelong friends I could ever ask for. The kids I grew up with there would do anything for me, and I would do anything for them. I wouldn’t trade growing up there for anything. Be proud of where you’re from and don’t hate.

I love it when I get to go to smaller towns and travel “flyover” states. You get to see so many different things and it’s always new and interesting. Everything is slower in Sioux Falls and there’s so much less stress.

I touched on it earlier, but I only left because some of my friends moved and basically made my bed for me. Thanks to them, I moved to Portland and had a place to live right away. Ian did the same thing for me in Los Angeles. He had a spot with a room in it that I could just move right into. If it weren’t for that and living with him, I never would have stayed in this city as long as I have. I was terrified when I got here, and I couldn’t find a job for the life of me. It was easily the most stressed I’ve ever been in my entire life. I’ll be thankful to him forever.

DW: Has your continued use of the term “buck” to designate something as positive been a conscious decision on your part? Is that South Dakota slang, skater slang, or juggalo slang?

SJ: Hahaha I honestly can’t believe most people haven’t heard that word used in regular speech. I would imagine it’s the skateboard culture mixed with the music I’ve listened to my whole life. You just kinda end up talking like the people you look up to. I started skating when I was 14 and have always listened to rap, where the word buck is used very frequently in names and songs. I didn’t take very much Juggalo slang with me!

DW: Finally, All Fantasy Everything employs a serpentine draft. How would you explain that to our readers?

SJ: I would say if you just read everything from the left to right, but then when you got the the right, you read back to the left. Then, repeat until you have a stroke from reading backward.

Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSJordan and Instagram @seancougarmelonjordan.  

Find his shows at seanjordancomedy.com and listen to All Fantasy Everything at the HeadGum website.