From Fantasy to Fruition

From Fantasy to Fruition

How One Comedian Launched a Successful Career While Working a Full-Time Job

Alison Rochford|Editor

As soon as Sean Jordan and I sit down for our Zoom interview, he shows off the brightly colored gallery wall behind him. He sits in his office in Portland, Oregon in the home he shares with his wife, Laura, and their infant daughter, Maxine. Jordan cannot contain his pride; he has worked so hard for so many years to build this home and this life for his family.

Jordan is a standup comedian and co-host of the podcast “All Fantasy Everything.” Every week, he and fellow standup comedians/hosts, Ian Karmel and David Gborie, fantasy draft random concepts from the world of pop culture and beyond. It is, ultimately, just a jumping off point for them to be funny for an hour (or much, much longer - as they always say on the podcast, we do go on). The podcast is so much more than a job for Jordan, though.

“It’s changed my whole life,” he beams. “Being a part of this has made it so I could buy a house, try to pull my weight as far as finances go with a kid. It’s given me the flexibility to live in Portland, which is where I wanted to be. It’s absolutely changed my whole life. It’s amazing every day.

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota native has been working in standup for well over a decade, but it is only in the last few years that he’s been able to make a living for himself as a comedian. Like so many people trying to build a career out of a passion project, Jordan had to work full time in another field to support himself while juggling his side hustle.

Jordan has been a standup comedian for more than a decade.

Sean Jordan

Back in Sioux Falls, Jordan worked at a call center full time. He tried standup one night during a local comedy contest at his friend’s recommendation.

“You’re funny in your group of friends,” he says. “It’s funny, but joking aside, I did really bad.” Jordan ended up winning the contest anyway, though, because he had brought “like 100 people” and the audience voted on the winner. He went home, wrote some jokes, and very quickly improved his routine. Soon, when he was not working at the call center, he was hosting a regular comedy show at the same club where he did his first set.

When the club closed after a few years, a fellow comedian and friend of Jordan’s named Doug Benson recommended he get out of Sioux Falls if he really wanted to pursue comedy. Jordan and some friends moved to Portland, where he was able to transfer to another branch of the same call center. Although Jordan knew this was the only way to advance his career as a comedian, the move was incredibly challenging for him.

“I had never lived anywhere other than South Dakota,” Jordan confesses. “I’d just lived in this tiny area of South Dakota my whole life. I was really scared when I moved. I was crying when I pulled out of town, I was bawling.”

It is only with years of hindsight that he can say, “turns out it was the best decision I ever made.”

When he first moved to Portland, Jordan was doing as much standup comedy as he could when he wasn’t working at the call center. Soon, he felt like he was doing enough standup to pursue it full time, but quickly realized he was wrong.

“You have a vision of what you think is supposed to happen or what’s going to happen, and so I quit my job thinking, ‘Now I have all this time to pursue what I want to do.’” Jordan thought if he could focus on standup full time, he could take it more seriously and pursue it as a career rather than a hobby.

“I just wasn’t making enough money to live,” he says. “And I didn’t want to go back to the job that I’d just quit.” He assures me it wasn’t out of embarrassment, but says he felt like that would be saying alright, I couldn’t do it.

To pay the bills, Jordan says he worked “just about every job you could have.” During his first stint in Portland, and later while living in Los Angeles, Jordan worked as a production assistant, a delivery driver for a dry cleaner, a delivery driver for Postmates, a bartender, and a medical transportation dispatcher. “I even ghost wrote a couple wedding speeches,” he laughed. Ultimately, he chose jobs flexible enough to continue to write and tour as a comedian part time.

While working every odd job imaginable, it was sometimes difficult for Jordan muster the energy to do standup. At the call center, he says, “It’s so, so much of a bummer sometimes, when you just have people screaming at you all day long… then you have to sit in traffic, and then you go do standup, and sometimes it’s not a show that you even want to do. You’re 1,500 miles away from the person you’re in love with.” Jordan even had shows early on where nobody showed up at all.

Through all of the highs and lows of his career, Jordan tried to keep himself motivated by celebrating not only his own achievements, but the success of those around him. “Don’t want what other people have in a bad way,” he says. “You can want it, but don’t be spiteful or anything like that. Be happy for people. Let it motivate you, like if a friend of yours gets something that you want in your career, let it motivate you, but don’t ever get jealous. There’s no room for hate.”

Hosts of the “All Fantasy Everything” podcast: David Gborie, Ian Karmel, and Sean Jordan.

Sean Jordan

Sean Jordan performs at NitWits Comedy Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota early in his career.

Sean Jordan

More than a decade after Jordan first took to the stage, he now supports himself as a fulltime comedian and podcast host. Working with Karmel and Gborie, as well as the weekly guests they host on “All Fantasy Everything,” has improved Jordan’s comedy “tremendously,” he says, just by being around them. It has also done wonders to build his fanbase, and people from all around the country know about his routine and travel to see him perform.

To maintain a healthy work/life balance, Jordan says it is critical to have a hobby that has nothing to do with work. “You got to have something where it’s not your thing, it’s not your job, it’s just something you do strictly for you.”

For Jordan, that thing is skateboarding. “I’m never going to be a professional skateboarder,” he laughs. “I don’t want to be. It’s just something I go do and I have fun and clear my head. For some people it’s running, for some people it’s art. Whatever it is, I think it’s extremely important to have that… otherwise it’ll wreck you.”

For anyone looking to make a shift in their career, Jordan says the most important thing is to have a plan. He says it is annoying when people suggest, “just quit if you don’t like your job.”

“That’s not how anything ever works,” he says. “That’s how movies work.” Reality looks a lot more like finding a job that allows you to pursue your passion project at the same time, and appreciating every step along the way, according to Jordan.

“Everybody’s got to work,” he says. “Don’t be ashamed of what you do, enjoy it as much as you can. If you want to try to pursue something, then try. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but you have to try and just be happy.”

To see Sean Jordan perform, find his tour dates at www.seanjordancomedian.com or check out “All Fantasy Everything,” available on all podcast applications.