How Orlando Jones learned comedy from the greats

Orlando Jones has led a dozen creative lives, but there’s a common theme: a kid from the Deep South who learned early that comedy can change the mood of a room.

His childhood home was filled with comedy albums that lived right next to jazz and blues records. 

“My dad was a music aficionado … and he had his comedy albums: Shelley Berman, Steve Martin, Moms Mabley, Red Foxx, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce,” Jones says from a car headed toward LAX. “I grew up listening to those and memorizing those and telling those jokes to my friends.”

Jones displayed that talent to his family, calling it “spontaneous joy.” 

“I started with comedy because I wanted to keep my mom laughing,” he recalls. 

“She was having a tough enough time … but I knew I could get her laughing, and I knew I could get my aunties laughing.” 

He will share this with fans at Stand Up Live on Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28. He’s not bringing a script — just instinct, timing and decades of watching rooms shift under the weight of a good joke. 

“Shows are about who’s in the room,” he says. “My job is to get us all on the same page. And you’re going to laugh, crying. That’s happening.”

His advice for his audience? Comfy clothes.

“You might need to wear tight pants, because I don’t want you to laugh your ass off. That would be super embarrassing, to leave ass-less,” he deadpans. “It’s happened. I got sued by a group of ladies once. Fifteen of them came in with BBLs and left ass-less.

“I’m still a fan. I still want to create a certain type of energy in the room … I want you to laugh crying. Your cheeks are going to hurt, your stomach is going to hurt. I don’t care how you feel about it — that’s going to go down.”

Jones has never been precious about the idea of a “typical” audience. His rooms are always mixed — in age, race, sexuality, worldview — and he likes it that way.

“I’m from the Deep South. I grew up with a bunch of these rednecks — these rednecks is my friends,” he jokes. “So when people talk about barriers, I’m like, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He loves the challenge of getting a room full of wildly different people to laugh at the same thing. “We’re in a time where it’s all, ‘Whose team are you on?’ And I’m like, that’s such a ludicrous idea. It basically tells you: Don’t think.” 

His favorite move is to disarm the room right away.

“I talk about how I love racists,” he says, grinning. “People are like, ‘What?’ And then I walk them through it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, OK.’ Comedically, that’s way more interesting than talking about the differences between this group and that group.”

Jones has built one of the most eclectic résumés in comedy and entertainment. He started working professionally as a teenager, signing with an agent at 18 and writing sitcoms by 19, including early work on “A Different World” and the pilot for “Martin.” He became a breakout original cast member and writer on “MADtv,” then expanded into film and television with roles in “Evolution,” “Drumline,” “Sleepy Hollow” and dozens more. 

Along the way, Jones developed a national stand‑up career, held residencies at Gotham Comedy Club in New York and major rooms in Washington, D.C., and continued writing, producing and acting across genres. His path has never been linear — sketch, stand‑up, drama, genre TV, voice work — but the through‑line is unmistakable: He’s a multi‑hyphenate performer with decades of experience shaping comedy from both sides of the camera.

Though he’s filmed in Arizona — including weeks in the desert shooting “Evolution” — and once performed at ASU with Bill Bellamy and Loni Love, Jones has never actually performed in Phoenix proper. “I’ve played a lot of places, but I’ve never played Phoenix,” he said. “I’m 100% looking forward to it. I look forward to all rooms.”

Jones was in the Valley a week and a half ago as the keynote speaker for the Jones‑Gordon School, but that wasn’t exactly a night for punchlines. “You’re not really cracking jokes when you’re trying to raise money,” he says. “So I’m crazy excited to be in Phoenix for real.”

To him, the desert feels familiar. “I’m from a flyover state, too,” he says. “There’s a calm in the desert, and unless you live in it, you don’t appreciate it. These are my people.”

Orlando Jones. 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28, at Stand Up Live, 50 W. Jefferson Street. Tickets start at $31.90.