Ep101 Transcript: Interview with Jay Donaldson

Andrea Vahl: Do you think it’s too late to try standup comedy? It’s not. You have plenty of time and plenty of time to grow your standup comedy career, even if you’re 50. Today I interviewed Jay Donaldson who didn’t start performing standup until age 50 and is now doing shows. All over the place listen in.

Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration mindset and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Hello, late starters. It’s your host, Andrea Vahl, and I am here with comedian Jay Donaldson, fellow Denver comedian here, and we are going to dive into getting started in comedy in your forties, fifties, beyond.

You start when you were 50ish?

Around 50. Yep.

Awesome. Welcome Jay.

Jay Donaldson: Oh, welcome. It’s good to be here.

Andrea Vahl: So cool. So I love when people have started comedy later, cause I think there’s so many people I run into that are like, Oh, if they find out I do stand up, they’re like, oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to try that or whatever.

And so I’m always excited when people dive in and get started. And you have really like dove in a big way recently?

Jay Donaldson: Yes. Yeah, I definitely did. I’ve always wanted to do this, and then life happens and you look back and you’ve spent 30 years paying down on mortgage and cars and you just, not happy with what that happened.

My kids went off to school and they bought off, went off to college, and so then my wife and I just semi empty nesters. Just could do what we wanted to do. And I’m like, I’m going to, I’m going to do this, and they say, what is this saying? It’s best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.

Second best time is today. So Exactly. And just do it.

Andrea Vahl: And I loved your story I don’t love it because it’s so somewhat painful, but tell us about like how you, when you first did comedy.

Jay Donaldson: Yeah, so when I first did comedy and exactly what I just said one end I’m going to go do this. And my wife was like, yeah, you should try it. I

did an open mic. Actually technically it wasn’t an open mic, it was something called the jokes on you, and they paired you up with the actual seasoned comedian who’s does it like a more of a full-time thing. They give you some tips right before you go up. And then you do three minutes and I did that and I killed, and I had the best time. I’m like, I want to do this every day for the rest of my life forever. And that was right before Covid hit. I did it. Yeah, I did it in February of 2020 and then like literally two weeks away from when everything got shut down for about a year and a half.

I couldn’t do anything for a year and a half.

Andrea Vahl: It was so terrible. So terrible. I actually did a bunch of Zoom comedy. I don’t know if you did that, but that was terrible. Wow. That was so bad.

Jay Donaldson: I can imagine.

Andrea Vahl: It was so bad and I but I actually, I learned throughout the way. And Nancy Norton had a great idea. She she had her own little laugh track and she’d be like, oh, that was funny. I’m going to give myself a laugh. And that actually worked. But I did it all kinds of different ways. With the sound off people muted, unmuted it, it was just terrible all the time.

And the funny thing is, I did it with a friend, another comedian friend of mine who we do comedy shows a lot, and she’s yeah, I never want to do that again.

Jay Donaldson: How many people said that to me? They’re like, so did you do online? I’m like, I had one set that I did for three minutes. Like I didn’t have any exposure to the world with that. I didn’t know right about it. And I’m really glad I didn’t for two reasons. One, everybody else I’ve talked to was just like you.

They say how they hated it, they would never want to do it bad again, so bad. The other side of it is I feel that there would be so much content, a year and a half worth of content of me, just I’d look back and just be cringe. What was I doing? It would convince you to

Andrea Vahl: convince you to get out of comedy, right?

Jay Donaldson:

Probably older, right?

Andrea Vahl: Awesome. I love this story. So talk a little bit about just what even prompted you to get started? Did have people told you’re funny? What? What had that, what was that first reason of eh, I think I’ll try it.

Jay Donaldson: Yeah, I think, I’ve always wanted to do it, I’ve always wanted to do comedy and I was a huge fan growing up, and I’ve went to so many, I’ve seen so many comedians in person, just growing up everybody from Sam Kinison to Bobcat golf way to like Jerry Seinfeld, to like standups and then just even the local scenes, I’d go to those and then that’s carried on to my adult life, like I’ve seen and stuff. And it’s I just loved it. And then yeah, to me I think was, my wife was like, why don’t you do it? And then, feel like the excuses. All my life, the excuse had been it just seems like that’s something I would need to really work hard at and train for.

And I just didn’t feel like I deserved to try it, even as a younger person. And then as an older person, it’s okay, but if not now, when, if I don’t try it, if I don’t do it, then you know, why not? So I think it prompted me, was like, like my wife helping saying, get out there, do it. Just do it.

And then if you hate it, then fine. Then you could say you hate it, but Cause you knew you didn’t like it and that’s why you stopped.

Andrea Vahl: I love that. I love that. Like you, it’s not a self-limiting belief that’s stopping you, it’s just that point, you’ve tried it and it’s a choice. Talk a little bit about what it was like, what it’s been like getting started later. Now, you you’ve since had a class in or have you taken any classes since you I did, started,

Jay Donaldson: yeah, I took I take, I took two. Mainly because and I’ll tell you this I could totally respect people that would go oh, if you have to take a class, then you don’t have what it takes to be a comedian.

People will say that and I could respect that. But that’s fine. But the reality for me was I don’t have time to mess around right now. I’m 50. I want to, if if I know that there’s some blocking and tackling things I could learn over the course of a year, fine. Can I pay somebody money though to say, by the way, Move the mic stand when you get up there to the side.

It’s a rookie thing to not do that also. Don’t be kicking the cord and walking around, have some focus. Also, like just structure and then even joke structure, talking about having a premise, or what are chunks, what are bits, all that kind stuff.

How to build a set, it was like I learned so much in the first class. I was like, want to, I want to do another class because I did. I want to, there’s like a 101 and I did a 201 and that one was talking a lot more about like identity and personality and stage presence. The first one was just like, Hey, here’s how to really structure this and this has worked for years.

Tried this. Approach and it’ll help you. And I felt I think that’s, if I could credit one thing for me getting as fast forwarded as possible, it would be the class. Yeah, absolutely.

Andrea Vahl: And that’s a huge mistake that some people do make. Because it can move you so much faster, you can grow so quickly and like you said, I feel like now you want to get as good as fast as possible so you can have so much more fun and really grow and push the envelope. I’ve had a comedy coach for years and and I think it’s a hugely important thing to just have someone challenging you, to write better or structure your sets better, so that’s great.

I love that. I love

Jay Donaldson: that.

Not only, yeah, not only in the class, but I’ve had two professional comedians that I regularly would keep contact with that have been so generous with their time and they’re like, I talk about something, I’m like, oh, I was thinking about this. And they’re like, oh yeah, you could do that.

But honestly, maybe three or four years ago, there was a huge thing where everybody was doing that, just so you know. And then that I wouldn’t have known that that’s the only way could find that out was through somebody who’d been there, doing it. And that’s a huge thing by the way, starting when you’re at the age that I was starting.

I would say that number one, throw ego aside. Learn, ask questions, be humble. Take it seriously, but there’s going to be an age gap. Get over it, most of the people that I know and stand up are like 30 or under. And the ones who are my age have been doing it for 20 or 30 years.

So everybody respects them and then, they’re seasoned and whatnot. Okay. There you go. And now you know. And okay, what are you going to do about it? You can’t do anything about it. Get over it. Move on. That’s it,

Andrea Vahl: right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And yeah, it is hard when you feel like it’s hard to feel like a beginner at this stage.

I think that’s what holds people back a lot of times is they’re like, oh, I don’t want to, look stupid or something like that. I’m like, who cares? I love looking stupid. I don’t know.

Jay Donaldson: Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, I have no problem with it either.

Andrea Vahl: And then now just getting into your journey now you’ve been doing, you’ve been booking a bunch of shows.

Talk about what that’s been like.

Jay Donaldson: That’s another thing too. I think by being so willing to accept feedback from anybody, I. Talk about it and then also be put, be vulnerable and just be like, getting feedback. It’s helped me connect with folks and and so I have, I’m the kind of person who has no problem, like walking up to somebody that I’ve seen a number of times.

It’s Hey, I’ve seen you a lot of open mics. I just thought I’d say hi and introduce myself. That’s where I’ve met a lot of great guys. That most of them are on the same level as me, but then there’s other guys who are like literally pro comics that to this day are doing, sets and opening for real big name comics, and I’ll get all sorts of information, but all that, I guess they say what? You gotta a network to get work. I wasn’t doing it for that reason. I was doing it to try and learn, but then I’ll have somebody say Hey, you want to be on the show, or do you want to do this thing? Or I’ve literally done everything from roast battles to hosting to played an old folks home twice, two different oaks, old folks homes.

They’re just like, Hey, you’re old. Would you like to do an old folks home? Sure, why not? And actually, I tell you what, have you ever played an old folks home? They’re like 80 years old, and they’re drinking wine at 4:00 PM It’s like the best. It’s and ask questions like five year olds, they’re like, you’re trying to do comedy, and they’re like,

Andrea Vahl: like raising their hand.

No, this is not the guy not the q and a portion here. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So what advice do you have for comics who are looking to, book gigs? Like, because I mean, that’s the big thing is like, how do we get paying gigs? What’s the, is it, has it been networking that has been your biggest thing or reaching out to

people?

Jay Donaldson: Would say that without a doubt, the best way. But I can only speak from my own experience. So maybe other people will watch this and go, it’s not how I do it. I would say that I’ve put in for anything that number one, let’s just do the order. Number one it’s who you know so if you know somebody that puts on shows or produces, I.

You meet them, like talk to them, let them know you’re interested in doing a show. Maybe they won’t let you on, or maybe they just are booked out. But yeah, you just demonstrate an interest and you see what you can get. That’s how I’ve gotten most of my pay gigs is to basically raise my hand and say, Hey, I’d like to be on your show in a nice way and in a nice setting.

And usually if I can, I’ll do it in person. I prefer to do it that way. So that’s number one, I would say to do with that. I think the second best way is also to go in to do anything you can that’s festivals, contests, whatever. Like I just did Fort’s funniest two weeks ago. I didn’t make the second round, but 12 comics that night, and eight of them I know all eight of those folks.

And they’re killing it. They’re booked all the time. I was basically the equivalent of a lightweight going in. Against just knockout heavyweight hitters. But it was, but just don’t be afraid. Just do it, so you do that, you do festivals, you do anything that you can, you submit for stuff.

And that helps because now people will see that, you’re active, you’re doing stuff. So that’s probably I’d say the second. Second tip I’d given them. The third thing I would say is open mics. Everybody that’s producing an open mic probably also produces a show someplace that is a non-op open mic show.

And so I would say that if you have an interest in doing a show, then find out who does the who hosts for it. Who produces it. And then if they have an open mic, Be respectful. Go to their open mic. If you can, don’t be pushy. Don’t be a jerk. But naturally just try and walk up to them and say, Hey, hi.

I’d like to introduce myself and see where it goes and just, they’re going to be, they’re, most of those guys are busy and most of the like and the women who put those shows on, they’re going to be like really very overwhelmed a lot of times to pick your moment to just stop by and say hi, and then go away.

But, that’s another great way to do it, the poor people that are doing things that you want to do too. Kinda people process.

Andrea Vahl: Yeah, for sure. So how about, everyone always asks this for me as well, I’m sure people ask you, how do you deal with bombing and not, not doing well on stage?

How do you get through that?

Jay Donaldson: Oh, wow. I guess it depends on what it was that I was bombing at the time. I’ll bomb at open mics all the time because I’m trying new stuff and I don’t care and I’m burning fast. So like I will go to open mics and try stuff that I am like, I could think it’s great.

I’m not going to try anything. I don’t think it’s great, but if it’s not happening, but really guys, no problem. Let’s just keep going. So Vomit had an open mic for me. I hate it, I don’t care about it. That is nothing. Bombing. If you are in a like I’ve bombed in a couple places that I wish I hadn’t.

One, like I was doing a show at a tavern. It’s a paid gig and everybody’s eating. Oh and I’ll say this, I don’t, I wouldn’t consider it bomb because if you actually watched that one, people would stop and laugh and stuff. But I just felt so awkward. The energy was so distracted and it was like, so that’s tough. And I just do the best to just. Take the energy I can and try and lift up the crowd and try and turn it around. And if I can’t stay professional I’ll say something that I really, one of my pet peeves that I get really frustrated with is watching a comic attack, a crowd that’s not laughing at their stuff.

Andrea Vahl: I can’t stand that. It makes me crazy.

Jay Donaldson: It’s, it makes me so mad for, especially if I haven’t gone up yet, I’m like, you’re killing the crowd. And then on top of it, there’s people that are, I’ll literally watch them walking out and it’s buddy, I haven’t even had a chance to go up. If you don’t like your set, get off.

Do better like practice. I practice, if you’re not doing it and not everybody’s going to like it. Okay. So there’s that. But the bombings that are the worst, I think is the worst one I ever had was at a, as a roast battle. I don’t know if you wanted me to get into that one, but I was a guy.

Okay, so there’s this guy he’s a great guy. He’s a comedian. His name’s Alec. He asked me, he is like, you want to do a roast battle? I go, no. Because I’m not like a rose belt kinda guy. Nah, that’s not many. I’ll, I will absolutely roast people with comedy, but I’m usually doing it intentionally to be cutting and get away with it in a public face.

Cause, but I don’t do that with people I know. And he’s 30. And I’m like, no, no thanks. He goes my buddy Dayton, he’s going to be in Africa and he was going to do it with me and he can’t, and I’d really like you to go. And so finally I was like, fine. I did it. And then I did horrible and I worked really hard cause I knew that.

Roast battles aren’t something I do. So this is how bad it was. Like for two weeks I was literally like working on material, running it off of everybody I know, practicing it on a mic at home with an amplifier, like literally doing everything. And then I go, And like it was horrible. No one was funny, nothing landed.

It was a literal worst. And on top of it, do you know what, do you know what the worst thing is on top of that? What? I’m walking to my car and a buddy I drove with, he was like, Hey, I want to watch this. And so I’m walking to my car afterwards and I’m like, literally, I go, Steve, there’s nothing worse than bombing at a roast bottle, man.

And as I stepped in it, I, as I said that I stepped in human shit. Oh no. Was a Denver and was a homeless encampment. Oh no. By the car. And that’s my night. Not only did I bomb, but on top of it afterwards, had that happened. Sorry, I didn’t mean to swear.

Andrea Vahl: That’s hilarious. That is that’s so horrible.

Jay Donaldson: Yeah, and that’s how I felt the roast battle went. But what did I do? You were asking what do you do when you bomb? What I did was I literally went out I almost wanted to get out of comedy that night. I’m not kidding you. It was I felt so bad, and then I was like, what am I even doing? So the very next night, I never do open mics.

On the weekend I found a place called Howie’s. That Dylan cant, Cantor runs. And so I went out to that on a Saturday and I didn’t open mic there and I felt like it went great. It went great and I just was winging it, just wing the whole thing. Didn’t have any material on the way going there. I just I’m going to just make fun of the walls make fun of the what?

I just did it and it was great experience. And it’s get on the bike again, because if you fall off you might not want to get back on. And then that will overwhelm you. So I just got back on it the next night.

Andrea Vahl: That’s awesome. That’s great advice. It’s so true because you just, when you want to quit, it just helps to remind yourself that was just a blip, that was an incident.

It wasn’t, it’s not the whole story. All that stuff. Yeah I bombed really hard in Wichita. I. One time at an event, and then I had to drive seven and a half hours home. And I was like, it was I like literally was like crying the whole way. I was like, I’m quitting.

Jay Donaldson:

I know that. Everybody’s got that feeling, if you haven’t, then you’re not doing it

Andrea Vahl: right. You’re not putting yourself out there and it, and that’s what it, that’s what it takes, is just like, stretching, pushing, getting out of your comfort zone. And sometimes it’s painful and luckily, hopefully there’s enough non-painful non bombs that make up for it.

It’s amazing. It’s an amazing feeling when you’re just totally crushing and doing great and crowd loves you. How about so you’ve got a full-time job doing, and your kids are, how do you balance comedy and work and all that stuff other things.

Jay Donaldson: Yeah, you make the time. That’s, I make the time. I’ve got a regular writing group that I do every other week that we have a meeting place. I’m not going to promote it because actually we had it open and then we had so many people coming and going that we kinda made it private. And so we go about every other week where we actually collectively as a group and usually we’ll get around, I don’t know, it could be.

As few as three or four people, but then maybe up to 10 there’s a set group of us if we can make it. We’ll do, I’ll do that every other week and I like that because it gets involvement from other people. Then I will try to make it a point to write once a week and do maybe up to, I’d probably say that, Minimum 20, 30 minutes and then up to maybe an hour or two just for standup and working on standup.

But then I’ve also tried to, if I can get windows as I’m coming up with stuff, you gotta jot it down. You gotta capture that moment. You gotta something that makes you laugh really bad. You gotta oh, I gotta capture that. So I’ll send myself a text to myself or an email to myself to make sure I capture it.

Then I’ll work that into, to something. But then I’m also, it’s weird, like I got, I know somebody who. Who approached me and said, Hey, would you want to work on a screenplay with me for a feature film? And so I was like, yeah, that’d be fun. So we’ve been doing that and I probably spend about an at least an hour and a half, maybe two hours a week for the past, maybe month and a half working on that.

And that’s been. A big, huge, helpful thing for me because it’s a lot of energy. I will laugh until I’m crying working on some of the stuff that I’m doing with that one. And it’s just really fun and engaging. So yeah, you gotta make the time. Your question was, how do you make the time? How do you find the time?

You don’t find the time. You’ll never find the time you make, the time you carve out. You respect that, and then you make it happen, and then afterwards, right? You keep doing everything else you’re doing.

Andrea Vahl: I think that’s the biggest thing too is just respecting that time slot that you blocked out to, to do for and if you’re not, if you’re not respecting it, why not?

Like, why, really dig down into what’s coming up? That’s, is it, are you afraid of writing? Are in a bad mojo place? What you know, are you. Prioritizing things that don’t need to be prioritized or whatever. So it is interesting how you can find the time for for something that’s important to you, so right.

Yeah, even if you think you’re busy, and and it can also when you’re in this flow and this great, great feeling of being aligned with who you are, it can just help everything. I think, all of a sudden everything’s fallen into place. You’re e things that used to take longer are going quicker or whatever time shows up.

Jay Donaldson: Oh, I’ll tell you what I feel like when I’m, especially like I, I’ve been really putting in and leaning forward into it and working really hard at it. I’ll find myself getting resentful sometimes. If I’m like, oh man, I’ve gotta get out and I gotta o open mic in an half an hour and I gotta get out of here, you I’ll get resentful, if I’m not working on my comedy or if I’m not, if I feel like I’m getting pressured or conflicted with getting out on time to go to a, to go to a thing is even in a crappy open mic I’ll be resentful that. This is keeping me from that. And I think that’s a positive energy in a way because it means that I care so much about it.

That I want to keep it going. But then the, but the benefit too is stuff that I used to slog on and just hate to do. I don’t care. Like I’m ha I know I got comedy later, that makes my day go better, because I feel like even if I’m doing something I don’t like I can make it through that easier because at the end, I’ve got stuff that I do and I think that balance is really healthy and helpful.

I, I would say, without a doubt and there’s so many things that when you got something bad going on, you’re like, the first thing you’re thinking about is, oh, this is going to make a good.

Andrea Vahl: It’s kinda almost juicy where you’re like oh, this is terrible. I broke up with my boyfriend not long ago and it went ba it was not good. And I was like, oh, I, yeah this could, I could use this.

Jay Donaldson: My, my wife and I weren’t at a restaurant we’d never been to before and we literally waited.

There was nobody in the restaurant, this restaurant seated probably like 50, 60 people. There’s nobody there. It was like 1230 on a weekday. And we had waited like 10 minutes and nobody had come up to us. Now normally we’d just bounce, but we were talking. Anyways, the short of it is the things that happened yeah, we’re waiting for this food, they get their order wrong and there’s only two of us, and all this stuff is happening.

And then like after, after I’m like, okay, this is just ridiculous. A robot with a cat’s face and a child’s voice comes out of the kitchen and serves us our food. I was like, that’s so weird. I was like, gimme a piece of paper there. Sorry, going to write this down. I’m like, this is for real happening and this is, that’s normally, it would be really frustrating.

You’d be like, oh my gosh. And I was like, this is great. I’m like, I hope you like this happens.

Andrea Vahl: That’s hilarious. Starting. C is there a part of you that wishes you would’ve started comedy earlier or, regrets not getting involved earlier?

Jay Donaldson: It’s funny.

I’ve had people ask me that, of course, a lot. Like they’ll say do you wish you did it sooner? And I think that just is like looking back with regret. That’s the only thing that can come out of that. Mm-hmm. And I prefer not to do that and I don’t really spend a lot of time looking back.

I think there’s a reason that the rear view mirror is so small in a car and the windshield is so big cause there’s only so good of it. To look back and see some things are needed reasons. But the whole thing is that I think my biggest response to it is I don’t really look back and spend time regretting that I didn’t, do it when I was younger.

I don’t wish that I did it. When I was younger. I just hope that I can keep doing it until I’m much, much older. And so I look at it that way. Would I like to? Sure. But I also feel like if I had a shot when I was young and thought I knew everything, I’d probably make a lot of mistakes that aren’t easily correctable and wouldn’t age well.

I think that I would’ve made decisions to go for jokes that were popular and fit in and try and do stuff that other people were doing, and I would’ve been more about that. Than myself. I don’t know, maybe I would’ve crushed it. Maybe phenomenal, whatever. Like who, who knows. But I look at what I’m doing now and I know like I’m just doing this for me and I don’t have an expectation that I’m going to be.

Having a next net Netflix special, like hey, you never know though. You never know. You never know. Maybe. And if it happens, that’s absolutely great. But I’m going from a perspective of my job is to entertain people when I’m up on stage, period. And that’s my focus. So as long as I’m doing that, anything else that comes out of that, I’ll take it, but but my number one job is to make sure people are entertained and then I feel good about what I’m doing.

Andrea Vahl: And I think there’s just no way of knowing how it would’ve gone. Maybe things would’ve, gone terrible. Maybe there’s, I always think that there’s a reason we’re doing,

the thing we’re doing right now, that’s, this is the perfect moment and it’s the right moment, and maybe it would’ve been the wrong moment. Earlier. And also the thing that kills me, and the whole reason I started this podcast is I’m like, people, we have 30, 40. Who knows how many years we have? My God.Thank you. My

Jay Donaldson: God.

You know what? Here that’s a great point to bring up. I, somebody post I’m on that’s another thing by the way, about that networking. Embracing online, like getting a website, doing social media. Facebook is not what it used to be for, by any means. And Instagram is whole new for me, but getting out there.

And I have a social media presence only for my comedy side not for a public side. And I’ve also got like WhatsApps and I don’t know, there’s, I can’t, I don’t know all the names of them. I’m sorry because I’m old. But it’s but they’re chats where everybody uses chats and, discussion rooms and things like that.

I got this link sent in one of them, and and it was posted for the group and watched it. It was a lady who started doing comedy when she was like 75, and she’s been doing it for 10 years. And my first thought was when I watched it, she’s been doing it for 10 years and she was really funny.

Really great stuff. And she’s material that you can only do if you’re around 80 years old. That’s it. You can’t one of her jokes was she was like, You know what’s great about dating When you’re 80, you don’t have to worry about meeting the other person’s parents,

Go you.

She’s awesome. But my first thought was, oh my gosh, wait a minute. She started when she’s 75 and I’m 50. She’s I, if I’m 75, when I’m doing what I’m doing today, I know I’ve been doing it for 25 years.

Andrea Vahl: How awesome is that? How awesome is that?

Jay Donaldson: You have no idea. I could be dead tomorrow. That’s gotta be the big joke in the day.

Died in a car accident tomorrow

Andrea Vahl: And so what if you did, you would’ve had this amazing experience, had a great run. I know. It was good. E, exactly. Awesome. One thing I always love to ask people as we close out is a favorite quote, inspirational, saying something that keeps you going.

So share away with. What you’ve got.

Jay Donaldson: Sure. Okay. Yeah I can’t, I, yeah, my, my inspirational quote I’ve had it for probably about 10 years, I would say, and I’ll just be open about it. I struggled with life for a little while. Drinking and drugs because I was not doing well.

I wasn’t winning. And I went through this phase. It was a season and it wasn’t great. And as it came out of the season, one of the things that helped prop me up was there’s a quote in the Bible. It’s Proverbs 24 16, and it says, when the righteous fall seven times, they get up seven times.

The wicked stumble when calamity strikes. And basically it’s Hey man, we all make mistakes. And by the way, you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to fail and stuff is going to happen. What you choose to do with that is going to make the difference in terms of your trajectory of the rest of your life.

And if you fall down, you gotta get back up. And that’s what I apply to comedy now. I’m very thankful that I’m past what I impassed, years ago. And I’ve been in a great place for about seven or eight years, and I hope to be that place for the rest of my life. But the reality is you can apply that same mentality kind of anything.

And I find it to stand up now. It’s like you’re going to have days when you bomb and you’re going to have days that you think that you don’t think you should be doing this. And when that happens then you know, you gotta make a choice. Either you gotta get up. And you gotta keep going or know, you’re going to be basically wasting your opportunities and just floundering around.

Gotta pick it up. Do the best I can. Yeah,

Andrea Vahl: I love that. I love that because yeah, it’s, that’s what it I joke that I’m not the fastest person, but I. Will outlast people. That is what it takes sometimes, it just really is just keep going, keep creating creep, keep, growing. And I think that’s what makes us most alive and is just the joy of being alive at, as.

Human beings and we are creative beings and to be able to express ourselves in whatever unique way we want sometimes is going to be challenges, ch challenges along the way with that. So I love that. Love that verse and that’s awesome. So Jay, it was so fun talking to you and I’m excited because we, I’m sure we’ve probably been in the same.

Same areas that comedy works or something, but I am looking forward to connecting with you more intentionally live and in person at the next comedy thing that we are both at..

Jay Donaldson: That’d be great. I absolutely love that. Yeah, absolutely. Feel free to, yeah, I got, I usually post on social media, like everything that I got going on and things that are on comedy shows and things like that.

And yeah, absolutely not.

Andrea Vahl: Do you have a website? Do you have a website specific or where can best people best find you? We’ll have the links in the show notes, but where can people best find you?

Jay Donaldson: Sure. Yeah, the best. I’m a, it’s a j a y and then letter D comedy. So it’s like on Facebook, just look for JayD Comedy or Jay Donaldson on Facebook, but go to the JayD Comedy one.

I have a mic in my hand. And then the same thing with Instagram, JayD Comedy. And I post like where I’m going to be, what I’ve got coming up. You can also see stuff that I’ve done just by looking through my history and then other things that are a little bit more organized, like who I am is like jaydonaldson.com.

It’s my whole name. Jaydonaldson.Com.

Andrea Vahl: Awesome. Thank you so much for taking time to share your comedy journey and your stories and everything like that, and looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.

Jay Donaldson: Great. Thanks. Hey, thanks for having, I really appreciate it and I love what you super.

Andrea Vahl: I know it’s huge.

It’s just like a passion of mine. I’m like, guys, we’ve got lots of time. Get out there and stuff. All right. Thanks so much, Jay.

Jay Donaldson: Thank you.

Andrea Vahl: Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.