More Information About Comedian Jake Johannsen with Ryan Stout

Description

A native of Iowa, Jake Johannsen spent three years at Iowa State University dabbling in veterinarian science and chemical engineering before moving to San Francisco and trying his hand at comedy. Jake sought to make his comedic mark on the city at a time when San Francisco was fostering the likes of young talents such as Bobcat Goldthwait and Dana Carvey. Jake made his own comedy debut during an open mike night at San Francisco’s Cobbs Comedy Club. Four years later, in 1986, he won the 11th Annual San Francisco Stand-Up Comedian Competition.

A self-confessed raconteur of weird stories, it’s no wonder that Jake is one of David Letterman’s favorite comics. With over twenty-nine Letterman appearances under his belt (not to mention a handful of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Politically Incorrect gigs) Jake is no stranger to late night television. His late night appearances gave Jake the exposure he needed to land his very own HBO comedy special, This’ll Take About An Hour. Jake received incredible reviews, strong ratings, and a Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Writing in an Entertainment Special. People Magazine rated the special as one of the “ten best television shows of the year,” and TV Guide named it one of the “50 Funniest Moments of TV.”

Jake is also making his mark on the feature world. Jake appeared on the big screen next to Bruce Willis in the Alan Rudolph film Breakfast of Champions. Jake first worked with Rudolph on the film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, in which he co-starred in a cast that included Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Campbell Scott.

Jake’s bizarre take on life and his uniquely intelligent style have made him a regular at comedy clubs all over the country and a former host of Comedy Central’s Two Drink Minimum. Jake recently shot a pilot for CBS entitled Shenanigans. In early 2000, he shot a pilot for NBC entitled The Duplex, which unfortunately did not make the fall schedule, and was a correspondent on the PBS show Life 360.

Ryan Stout was a featured performer at HBO’s The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas (2005) and HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO (2006). Soon after his festival appearances, he hosted two game show pilots for MTV, I.Q. (2007) and Singled Out (2007). He performed stand-up on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham (2007) and made several appearances on the nationally syndicated radio program The Bob & Tom Show.

Stout settled in to his television career by reviewing, re-capping, and capping on several of MTV’s popular reality shows. As the host of the network’s “aftershow” series A Shot at Love: The Hangover (2007/2008) and More Amore (2008), he told jokes, performed in short sketches, and interviewed reality show contestants. Establishing himself as a go-to host for any event, the network called on Stout to host television specials, including MTV’s Most Valuable Players (2008) and MTV Spring Break 2008. Another MTV game show pilot called Pop-a-razzi! (2008) followed, along with a position hosting a series called MTV’s Ranked (2008). In the midst of all his television work he still managed to continue doing stand-up all over the United States and performed at the prestigious Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival (2008) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The following year brought a few more MTV jobs hosting reunion episodes of reality shows and, as you might’ve guessed, yet another game show pilot. That year also brought appearances on WGN’s television version of The Bob & Tom Show (2009) and on E!’s Chelsea Lately (2009). At year's end, he filmed his very own Comedy Central Presents half-hour stand up special, aired in 2010.