People say that laughter is the best medicine. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress.
Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh.
While Jim Perry, the owner of JP’s Comedy Club, is not a doctor he can provide you with a good dose of laughter.
A retired police officer, Jim, a self-proclaimed “TALKER” shared a little about himself, and his foray into comedy. During his police career, one of his roles was the director of the local
D.A.R. E. program working with kids. This is where he discovered his passion for teaching and laughing. After a work-related injury, Jim along with his wife, Janelle decided to take a leap of faith and move from Chicago to Gilbert, Arizona.
“I love Gilbert, we have raised our kids here. We moved our family here from the Chicago area in 2004. It’s such a family-oriented community. We live in a great neighborhood and are involved in our church. I was a volunteer youth Pastor for a while at Rock Point when my sons were younger”
How did you get started in comedy?
I own a security business which I started in 2011, JPG Security. I grew this business with the help of great employees so that it was pretty much running itself. I was getting a little bored and found myself spending way too much time watching Netflix watching comedians, one day an ad popped up for a comedy class in Scottsdale. I decided what the heck, I’ll give it a try. I found out that I was sort of a natural. I found out that it came so easy for me to write jokes, it came so easy for me to perform, and I was pretty good at it. I just got addicted and started doing comedy shows everywhere.
Why did you decide to open your club in Gilbert?
I was spending too much time on the road. Actually, too much time away from my family. I thought, well what if I just establish my own club residency? I know a lot of comedians. I know the guys in California. I thought I could start booking them to come to Gilbert and I would have to ability to perform a little each night.
What would you like people to know about the club?
We love supporting the community. We host lots of local events for groups and give 100% of the ticket sales back to the charity.
We just ask that they buy a couple of drinks, or snacks while they enjoy the show.
You mentioned you had a passion for teaching, do you offer any classes in Comedy for people that might want to give it a try?
We call ourselves a Comedy Club and a Comedy School. We teach classes weekly. Monday and Tuesday. We rent the rooms on Wednesday and Sunday.
Thursdays at 7:00 PM is our open mic night for local comedians. At every national touring show, we have a local comedian open the show. We want to be sure to support our local comedians.
What is your secret sauce?
We are a small family-owned and operated business that is fully supported by our local community. We want anyone and everyone to be able to come so we give away a lot of FREE tickets, and at any time you can go online and use the code comedy75, you can get 75% off tickets, or if times are tough –
just text us and will give you free tickets, we just ask that you buy two concessions. You can actually come and spend $6.00 for two waters and enjoy and night out at a comedy club.
How would you classify your comedy style?
I personally do adult comedy. However, I do also do clean comedy. I do tons of comedy shows at churches. I do a lot of work with the American Legion.
Who is your favorite comedian living or deceased?
That’s Easy, George Carlin
Who is your favorite currently performing comedian?
I love people that are good joke writers, like Jim Gaffigan. I am also a big fan of Mark Normand.
Who are some the best local comedians people should make a priority to see?
Michael Longfellow, who has now been cast for Saturday Night Live
T-Dot, who is one of the funniest guys in Arizona, and Manny Hernandez, he has been doing comedy for a long, long time
If you could only take one comedy movie with you on a desert island, what are you going to grab?
The Blues Brothers
The one thing you are the proudest of?
MY BOYS! Nathan & Brenden. I am a proud dad. I believe in priorities.
My priority list is God first, then family, which includes my wife, my kids, my parents, and my friends… then business, and fun
So Gilbert, if you feel like you need a laughter booster, head out to see Jim and the other local comedians at JP’s on Warner & Lindsey
We love supporting the community. We host lots of local events for groups and give 100% of the ticket sales back to the charity.
