Standing Up: Jack Willhite '76 Goes for the Laughs
Some years ago, Jack Willhite was in Virginia Beach on business when he happened upon a comedy show at the hotel where he was staying. As he sat in the audience and watched the performer go about his routine, the 1976 Collegiate graduate became more and more intrigued, even energized.
"That really looks like fun," he thought to himself. "I can do that." So began an adventure – odyssey might be a more fitting descriptor – that has led to a career as a professional stand-up comic.
"I never would have visualized myself doing comedy," explains Willhite, who serves as his own writer, agent, business manager, and roadie. "I just kind of fell into it. I started going to open mics. Got my clock cleaned a few times. Experiences like that either forge you or melt you. I stuck with it. I didn’t want to be some 50-year-old guy looking back and wondering."
"That really looks like fun," he thought to himself. "I can do that." So began an adventure – odyssey might be a more fitting descriptor – that has led to a career as a professional stand-up comic.
"I never would have visualized myself doing comedy," explains Willhite, who serves as his own writer, agent, business manager, and roadie. "I just kind of fell into it. I started going to open mics. Got my clock cleaned a few times. Experiences like that either forge you or melt you. I stuck with it. I didn’t want to be some 50-year-old guy looking back and wondering."
In the early days, Willhite was able to blend his newfound avocation with his job as a manufacturer’s representative, first for Glenbrooke Laboratories and later for Adidas. In 1992, however, he turned in his company car, began writing for television, performed comedy wherever he could find an audience, and tended bar. "Anything," he says, "that involved a revenue stream."
Four years later, he made the decision to pursue stand-up work full-time and see where his career would take him. So far, it’s taken him coast to coast and back again several times.
He’s put more than 300,000 miles on his ’96 Ford Explorer traveling interstate highways and red dirt roads. He’s slept in swank hotels and dozed in the back of his SUV alongside his gear, his props, and his sound equipment. He’s played as many as 300 gigs a year, often as the headliner, from Vegas to Valdosta.
Critics have labeled Willhite’s act "high energy," "clever," and "unpredictable." After opening with about 15 minutes of straight stand-up comedy, he moves quickly into impersonations of rock and roll stars -- "fish-out-of-water situations," he calls them – complete with background music and sound effects. He does Axl Rose and Jim Morrison opening the door to trick-or-treaters on Halloween night and Jerry Garcia and Stevie Ray Vaughan as baby sitters. There’s his signature sketch: Rick James, David Lee Roth, and Billy Idol playing the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. As far as he knows, no other entertainer takes his slant on comedy. "The ideas come to you from people, places, the things you read in the news, life more than anything," he explains. "You’re driving down the road. An idea pops into your mind. You write it down in a spiral notebook and try it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. There’s a lot of trial and error."
When he was breaking in, Willhite was often on the road for as long as eight weeks at a time. Now, he plans his schedule so he’s out of town for only seven to 10 days before returning to Richmond to spend time with his wife Sabra Harper Willhite ‘75, son Carnes, 13, and daughter Caroline, 3.
"In comedy, it’s like a pyramid," Willhite explained. "You drive 18 hours, check into a crummy hotel, set up your equipment, and do a sound check, all for 30 to 60 minutes on stage. What forces a lot of people out of the business is that they get tired of the march. For me, it’s still fun. It’s weird to be paid for building something out of thin air."
--Weldon Bradshaw wbradsha@collegiate-va.org
Back
Four years later, he made the decision to pursue stand-up work full-time and see where his career would take him. So far, it’s taken him coast to coast and back again several times.
He’s put more than 300,000 miles on his ’96 Ford Explorer traveling interstate highways and red dirt roads. He’s slept in swank hotels and dozed in the back of his SUV alongside his gear, his props, and his sound equipment. He’s played as many as 300 gigs a year, often as the headliner, from Vegas to Valdosta.
Critics have labeled Willhite’s act "high energy," "clever," and "unpredictable." After opening with about 15 minutes of straight stand-up comedy, he moves quickly into impersonations of rock and roll stars -- "fish-out-of-water situations," he calls them – complete with background music and sound effects. He does Axl Rose and Jim Morrison opening the door to trick-or-treaters on Halloween night and Jerry Garcia and Stevie Ray Vaughan as baby sitters. There’s his signature sketch: Rick James, David Lee Roth, and Billy Idol playing the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. As far as he knows, no other entertainer takes his slant on comedy. "The ideas come to you from people, places, the things you read in the news, life more than anything," he explains. "You’re driving down the road. An idea pops into your mind. You write it down in a spiral notebook and try it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. There’s a lot of trial and error."
When he was breaking in, Willhite was often on the road for as long as eight weeks at a time. Now, he plans his schedule so he’s out of town for only seven to 10 days before returning to Richmond to spend time with his wife Sabra Harper Willhite ‘75, son Carnes, 13, and daughter Caroline, 3.
"In comedy, it’s like a pyramid," Willhite explained. "You drive 18 hours, check into a crummy hotel, set up your equipment, and do a sound check, all for 30 to 60 minutes on stage. What forces a lot of people out of the business is that they get tired of the march. For me, it’s still fun. It’s weird to be paid for building something out of thin air."
--Weldon Bradshaw wbradsha@collegiate-va.org
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