May 16, 2012
Chatting with VH1 Host Dom Jamieson
Don Jamieson is a VH1 Co-host, a comedian and an Emmy award winning performer.
Did you always live in Jersey?
DJ: Well, I’m from Jersey but I lived in Manhattan for 15 years. But I moved back out to Jersey almost a year ago with my girlfriend because ya know, I needed the material.
Well when you need new material, you get a new girlfriend and then when you need more material that’s when the breakup comes. So we’ve been together about a year.
Ah, gotcha. So are you going to go back to the city to find another chick?
DJ: Well, yeah once I get my next album out I’m gonna need some new material. I’ll have to start all over again.
Where did your career start?
DJ: I started with MTV right out of college. I worked in the talent department and I went on and was a writer and a second producer up until about 2000 and that was awesome but I always wanted to be in front of the camera and performing so that’s why I sorta eased into what I am doing now which is the best thing I ever did.
What do you like better? Do you like music or comedy?
DJ: Well I’m a comic; that’s what I do year-round so anything else outside of that is gravy, it’s just a huge bonus for me that I had a great new direction in my career. You know, because I love and have a true love for heavy metal. I grew up in Jersey; it’s like a state law you have to like metal inJersey. I had the mullet, the $300 car with the $1,000 stereo. You know… I just did the whole thing.
Whatever happened to Striper? Would you consider them metal?
DJ: Oh yeah! They’re definitely a hard rock/metal band. Yeah a lot of bands shoot stuff all over the audience and Striper would throw bibles at the crowd.
I think I did hear that. Did you secretly love disco?
DJ: Well my mom listens to my music but she also listened to the Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” all the time. So if it comes on the radio I might dance around in my underwear. I know that’s not a pretty visual.
Who is your favorite metal band?
DJ: I would probably say AC/DC. They just play the same three chords for five years and it always sounds good so stick with what works.
You are an Emmy award winner for Inside the NFL? Tell me about that.
DJ: Well I never thought I’d win an Emmy award for sports. It’s an honor to get an Emmy. It’s kind of like Kobe Bryant winning a Grammy, it was kind of weird but me and my partner Jim did comic sketches for them and we are also big sports fans so that was really cool to be able to do that and again. It was something fun and creative and we didn’t think anything would come of it and when we won the Emmy it was like- wow, this is really cool and I was single at the time and you’d put that right on the nightstand next to the bed it was a great aphrodisiac right there. Women come over and they’re not sure if they wanna do anything with you but then it’s like “Wow you’ve got an Emmy?” They get a little excited, you know? That’s like my Mariano Rivera.
You’re heading off to Washington I believe…
DJ: Yeah I’m going to do Seattle and Portland for the first time so I’m excited to be up there for those people. I’m not sure what to expect but most comedy audiences are pretty much the same everybody has the internet and cable with 3,000 channels on cable TV not like the old days where you were in a small town and you were from New York people were like, “You’re a New York guy, he’s a big shot” but now everybody knows every comic. Everybody follows everybody on Twitter. People pretty much know what to expect.
Do you do a different act every time you perform or do you stay with the same act?
DJ: You always wanna put as much new stuff in as you can but it takes time to own your jokes so you really kind of have to keep a loose script and then I hopefully don’t stick to it at all. I like to have fun with the crowd if they’re being playful but if they’re not I can put it on automatic pilot and do it. But it’s more fun for me if the audience is being interactive.
I heard you have an album…
DJ: Yeah I have a comedy album called “Live and Hilarious” and I think I did everything wrong. Yeah, on purpose. Every comic, when they make a CD, like to do it in a top comedy room or theatre in their hometown when its packed and they record like 6 shows and piece together the perfect comedy CD which is what you’re supposed to do. I didn’t do that. I recorded one show in a half filled rock club. And called it “Live and Hilarious” which totally left me up for the critics to say, “Well it may be live but it’s hardly hilarious!” I put it out on a heavy metal label called Metal Blade Records so I did everything wrong and ignored every instinct as a comic and it went top 10 on the Doughboard Chart.
Are you still doing VH1’s Classic Metal Show? How do you film around all your traveling?
DJ: Well that’s just another part of the traveling. I go out to LA 4 times a year for 10 days and me and my two co-hosts do an entire season in those 10 days and then we go home again. We’re good! We are like porn stars! We can do a whole bunch of shots in a row no problem. Each show is an hour. It started as a half hour and the show just became a big hit around the world they decided to expand it to the hour which we always wanted from the beginning and its just worked out great. Now we do the hour and we think “God I wish we had 90 minutes!”
Were you ever star struck with any of the metal bands?
DJ: Eh, I’ve never really been that way at all in my life so not really star struck but its just crazy that some of my idols from my childhood watch the show and they know who I am that’s what really kinda freaks me out. Like, the fact that Alice Cooper, ya know, sees me and says, “Hey Don, how ya doing?” It just blows my mind every time. I’ve metAliceand did a joint show with them and stuff. But like, every time I see him and he says my name it just completely freaks me out cause its like Alice Cooper and he’s like one of my heroes.
What was the best advice you were ever given?
DJ: It wasn’t given to me directly but this band Motörhead … every one of their songs has some kind of life advice in it to me. So they have a song called “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down” and that to me, I’ve always hung on to the song title in my head because in comedy, its always a struggle and there are a lot of backstabbers and jealous people and club owners who are wannabe comics who are angry because they never made it as comics but they bought a comedy club. So crappy shows and not getting paid and so I always remember that song title, “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down” ya know, if you wanna do this thing, do it. Don’t let anybody get in the way. And the other thing from Motörhead was their lead singer said when someone asked him, “What are you doing in 25 years, a 25 year career in music?” He said, “If you don’t quit, they can’t get rid of you.” So that’s my other thing, “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down” and “Don’t quit and they can’t get rid of you”.
Do you have a secret food craving?
DJ: Well, I’m a vegetarian. So it would be weird to say I crave like, carrots and eggplant, ya know. So I have a pretty strict diet so I just kind of eat what I can.
Is there anything you want me to plug outside of your upcoming shows?
DJ: I guess I just want to plug people who are interested and want to come and see me because I don’t have anything scheduled. If they want just to go to my website www.donjamieson.com . I’ll have someLong Island dates to be announced soon and they can check my website for details.
http://www.donjamieson.com/site/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Jamieson_(Comedian)
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