Photo: James Hancock - jameshancockiii.com
James Hancock
James Hancock
When asked when he knew he was funny enough to be paid to make people laugh, James Hancock offers what may be a surprising answer for a professional comedian.
“I’ll have to let you know when it happens because I’m still not sure," Hancock replies. That is, before he launches into a tale involving his admiration and impersonation of the wrestler/actor whose parents named him Dwayne Johnson.
“I was a huge fan of The Rock as a kid, and I watched wrestling a lot! I went as The Rock for Halloween three years in a row, and I would do his catch phrases and call ladies jabroni if they didn’t give The Rock the candy he wanted,” he recalls with fondness. It was during a visit from extended family that cinched his conviction that he could amuse people, though. “They played the theme song. I did his entrance into the kitchen, asked my uncle what his name was and told him it doesn’t matter before he finished. I did it all. Everyone was just laughing at all the improv and what I would do and that was the first times I remember being ‘funny.’”
Hancock isn't likely to reprise that act when he plays Sugar Maple (441 E. Lincoln Ave.) as part of the venue’s latest Standup Showcase, 8 p.m. Thursday, May 26; and at Laughing Tap with Eric Wielo, 8 p.m. Friday, May 27 and 9:45 p.m. Saturday, May 28. But he has plenty other material deriving from more recent life experience and observation. Some of it may come from his tenure in the U.S. Air Force.
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Military Motivation
“It was very stressful, but also one of the most motivating things to be a working comedian that early in my career and performing in such an inspirational place like New York City,” he remembers of his early days pursuing comedy as an enlisted man stationed at New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force. After winning a residency by winning a competition in The Big Apple among fledgling comics, Hancock's routine got pretty hectic for a while thereafter.
“I would work the duty day on base, rush home to change out of uniform into my civies. Then I’d drive to the train station to catch a train to NYC. This hour-and-a-half was spent either writing jokes or catching up on sleep. Then I would get off and walk from the Madison Square Garden station through Time Square to Broadway Comedy Club, do my set, which was usually slotted somewhere between 10:15 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., hopefully not bomb in front of the European tourists which, if you don’t know are the only people in NYC clubs at 11:30 pm on a Tuesday. Then I walked backed to MSG to get on the train and hopefully get home before 1 or 2 a.m., so I could get some rest before being back to work,” Hancock says of the early dues he paid as a soldier by day and funnyman by night.
If his military service was a novel distinction of Hancock's comedic past, Hancock's parentage remains a source of some of his richest material. Having a redheaded dad looking like a 50-something Ed Shreehan and a mother at the other end of the melanin spectrum, 30-something Hancock says “has definitely made matters of ethnicity and race easier to talk about because I see and understand everything from both sides equally. It’s allowed me to view situations without being biased to one side or another and really make it funny for everyone.” Of another way he is able to relate to people of diverse backgrounds, he adds, “My wife is Puerto Rican, so that’s even more people in my family to add to the melting pot that is my life.”
Hancock currently calls San Diego home, but he will be looking forward to playing another of his favorite cities.
“I will also say no other comedy scene has been as welcoming as Milwaukee. From the crowds to the comics, every time I come its harder to leave. I went to an open mic for the first time in years on Monday at Bremen and I never seen a more packed open mic with so many local comics truly engaging with one another supporting each other's sets, letting ya boy pop on and do time as well and then kicking it after all together too, it was dope to be a part of.”
Here Hancock speaks of the aggressive nature of mothers:
