06/02/2018
April 7th, 2011 3:07 pm PT
William Jones
Spokane Comedy Examiner
With fifty years of show-business experience, the life and career of Jay Wendell Walker is a rich story filled with the stuff of which authors and comedians alike yearn to create. The son of a Vaudevillian mother and engineering father, Walker began his career in Spokane and has presented his humor to audiences all over the world: From Seattle to Japan.
When asked of his career’s beginnings, Walker reminisces of his childhood, performing little bits while still attending school, where he spent two years bestowing his antics before his Vice Principal.
“I spent two years in the Vice Principal’s office,” he remembers with a smile. “The secretary had no sense of humor. But I think that would be where this whole thing started.”
On July 17th, 1960, at the age of eighteen, while working in a dead-end parking job, Walker came into contact with Vick’s; a Spokane club now replaced by the U.S. bank; there he performed his first paid gig in a Spokane showcase. He earned five dollars for five minutes. Shortly after this, he quit his job and became a performer.
In his early days, Walker performed a small comedy team with partner Gene Rogoway in Seattle, Washington. Together, they set out to on a long run, which included opening for Ray Charles.
“We bombed horribly the first night,” Walker recalls. “The venue was going to fire us, but Ray kept us because he liked how much heart we put into the material.”
Now, Jay has many stories to tell. From a childhood job selling coins in Mexico to witnessing murder while working in the now-departed Bottle Club; working with such great names as Robin Williams and Billy Crystal to his first headlining gig at the Colony Club in Seattle, where an unfortunate drug overdose caused the exotic dancer the audience came to see pushed Walker to perform his first full set. From performing alongside B.B. King to winning to 2006 San Francisco Comedy Competition to appearing on America’s Got Talent in the show’s first year to performing overseas for officers and enlisted troops to working under contract with MGM for one and one-half hour shows in Reno and Vegas and working for the great Don Hamilton, Walker has seen it all and done it all.
When asked how comedy has changed over the years, Walker shrugs his shoulders,
“Not much has changed,” he says. “Every generation has the same frustrations, just with different products and politicians.”
“People say,” he continues, “that this economy has made comedy a difficult business. As if Vietnam never happened. That wasn’t exactly a boom period either. But comics stuck with it because people have always, and will always need to laugh.”
One thing, however, he remarks has changed. In his day, before comedy clubs, comics performed everywhere: bar mitzvahs, stag parties, college campuses, jazz clubs and any other place one could find an audience.
“You had to learn to gauge the audience,” he says. “You know, work clean at a bar mitzvah, tell dirty jokes at the stag party and learn to riff at all the places in between.”
The art of stand-up comedy itself, Walker considers a form of verbal jazz. It is good health, healing and love. It is like music: the best way to express an inner fee, ling and gain an emotional response by filling others with joy.
“It’s the difference between the healthy, positive man,” he says, “and the negative man. Healthy, positive people live longer lives and get more out of the world.”
When asked what advice he may have for young comedians, Walker smiles and says,
“You have to be able to gauge the audience. Your job is to entertain. It’s not about you; it’s about them [the audience.]”
One can view the work of Jay Wendell Walker by clicking the video link above. Or, those in the area of Spokane can witness him live at Deer Park’s Eagles Lodge on April 15th, and at Uncle D’s Comedy Club in Spokane on the weekend of April 28th and 29th. Off-the-record, one can be assured that these shows will be fantastic as Walker delivers his unique, flashing wit and charm and fulfills his duty of doing what he does best: Making people laugh.
