the wardhole interviews: jesse prado
On being patient, writing in aphorisms, and being hella funny.
We talked to the king of “hella” today on the wardhole chronicles. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Prado. I’ve really appreciated Jesse’s comedy and love the community he is building in Ridgewood.
He’s a comedian, he’s a poet, and he’s hella funny. Check out his monthly comedy and poetry night “An Evening of Hella” in Ridgewood or follow him on all social media at
ENJOY THE INTERVIEW XO
wardhole: what are you working on right now?
Jesse Prado: Right now I guess I have two joke books. I am working on two joke books - one is Joke Book #1 where all the tried and true stuff goes. Joke Book #2 is where all the drafted tweets go and then what happens is I’ll pick out jokes from Joke Book #2 to use at an open mic. Every time a joke from Joke Book #2 works 3 times at an open mic - I will use that joke in shows. I have a million jokes to try and don’t have enough time to go to all the mics. Every week I’m testing out like 5 jokes from joke Joke Book #2.
wardhole: very scientific of you
Jesse Prado: It’s hard to keep it organized - before I doubled down on a joke book, I would journal really intensely in a G-mail thread I keep with myself. I used to journal really intensely when I finally decided I wanted to publish my journal and then I realized - wait I would never do that it would take hella editing.
wardhole: what makes you laugh?
Jesse Prado: I’m really into the “what” - Jem said I am into the “what factor.”
(Jem is Jesse’s GF)
wardhole: what is that
Jesse Prado: That’s kind of like my sense of humor - when somebody says something and I say “what?” That is what makes me crack up and that is my humor. When somebody is so out of pocket, and they’re saying it like they’re sane - I think that’s so funny. Jem gave me a bunch of food from her place and I wanted to hella flex on my roommates about the food. And then they’re like “what the fuck” and that cracked me up because they knew I was crazy.
Jesse Prado: Another example. I am really into Simpsons style humor. - They’re running around the coliseum and he is trying to get into the show and they’re like here are my tickets and the guy at the ticket office is like they’re graham crackers.
wardhole: what media are you consuming right now?
Jesse Prado: I read a lot. I read a lot. I just finished a book by Herman Hess - the book is Peter Camenzind. Hess does a lot of Odyssey - hero’s journey stuff. It’s very similar to Beau is Afraid - it’s a big ass story related to one person. The adventures they go on. I really like that and I saw Poor Things - and I liked that. I’m trying to watch hella more movies. The first movie I saw this year was FNaF.
Jesse did not know it is based off a video game.
wardhole: what advice would you give to younger you?
Jesse Prado: I would go mad young like 10 - and figure out what the fuck you wanna do now, make it as lucrative as possible and do it. Don’t get distracted by anything else - stick to that one thing for the rest of your life. You gotta figure it out quick.
wardhole: how would you describe your artistic style to a normie?
Jesse Prado: I guess I would say I do short one offs like aphorisms. Pretty much I work in aphorisms, I’ve always wanted to do something longer. Like tweets kind of.
wardhole: you're given 5 billion dollars- what do you do with it?
Jesse Prado: Five billion dollars? I would probably give back a lot. I would probably figure out how to invest and hella get into generational wealth building. I would try and give back to all the charitable causes and Palestine.
wardhole: what is your artistic process for writing jokes?
Jesse Prado: My writing process is you can’t sit down with the intention to write a joke - as the last best joke did. It just comes to me. It can get hella frustrating because you have to be patient. If you’re bored, look around and maybe there’s something funny around you.
wardhole: what’s on your notes apps?
Jesse Prado: My notes app is a log of - There’s a log in there of how many mics I go to. Theres a log of which jokes I wanna try this week. There is a dream I had written down in here.
wardhole: do you have any "white whales" in comedy - something you’ve wanted to tackle for awhile but haven’t?
Jesse Prado: I’ve been wanting to go for more obvious sketch comedy - I like creating scenarios - there are a couple jokes that I am sitting on. There is one that I wrote on New Years I am tired of people blaming me for not flushing the toilet. This doesn’t happen but I think it’s a funny scenario.
wardhole: what is hack to you?
Jesse Prado: When something sounds to scripted and rehearsed, it doesn’t sound even you.