Meet James Etchison, the local comedian who’s mastered the art of the one-liner

The best jokes, Columbus comedian James Etchison said, don’t seem to come from his own head at all. They just appear, as if he were “drawing ideas from heaven.”

Or something like it. If his jokes come from heaven, the angelic muses must have a pretty dry sense of humor. Here are just a few of his jokes in tweet form.

By day, the 29-year-old father of two is a programmer at TSYS. At nights, however, you can often find Etchison at No Shame Theater or another comedy show, performing the rapid-fire jokes and one-liners that have made him a hit with audiences around the region.

“I used to watch comedy central. During the day it was just standup. So during the summer, I would just watch that for hours,” Etchison said.

“I never really thought of myself as that funny, but I had a speech class in college, and we had to do an introductory speech, so I wrote a few jokes in it and it did really well. It felt so good, so I decided I would get started doing standup, and then two years later I actually did it.”

Etchison’s style is a unique blend of short, relentless jokes, all told with an emotionless, deadpan affect.

“I get bored with jokes easily. I don't feel like I have a lot to say about them,” he said.

“I think a lot of that comes from other one-liner comedians, like Mitch Hedberg, who's a huge influence on my and everyone I know. Steven Wright too, all of these guys who make you realize that you can talk about whatever you want, even if it’s stupid. For me, I enjoy other people's longer form, but for me I felt like that's what worked.”

His most regular audience is the crowd at No Shame Theater, the weekly all-holds-barred variety show at the Springer Opera House, but he’s also performed in Atlanta, Montgomery, Auburn and all over Columbus.

“The No Shame crowd is the best crowd in the world. It’s like playing on easy. We're just having fun. It kind of spoils you, to have such a great place in Columbus.”

That wasn’t how he felt when he first got started. Etchison said he’d remember his first night at No Shame for the rest of his life.

“I was so nervous. The adrenaline was unreal.” he said.

He was so nervous, in fact, that he dialed all his emotions back and delivered his jokes in the deadpan style he’s now known for.

“That’s all I could do. But now, if I do try to yell or raise my voice, I just sound like Mike Tyson. It doesn't really work. I think that's what people enjoy most about me. I'm kind of weird, just a very strange fellow.”

Etchison said he’s not at a point where he feels shoehorned into his character, but he also doesn’t want to risk alienating people who’ve grown to love him.

“Performing is so much more than just writing jokes. I feel like that's where I need to be more versatile sometimes,” Etchison said.

He’s also looking to expand his joke-writing process.

“'I’m trying to write more, to develop more of a process that works. Right now it's just typing up sentences into a notepad document, then hiding it away from a month or so and seeing if I can get anything out of it.”

He keeps his eyes and ears open during the day, trying to find joke material. He especially likes kidding around with his 6-year-old son, who has his own repertoire of jokes, like “Why did the butt cross the road? To get to the butt house.”

For now, Etchison said that he’s happy where he is, but if an opportunity came along to get into comedy more professionally, he’d pursue it.

“There's so many funny people out there, and you've got to be in the right place at the right time, he said.

“It might be kind of a pipe dream right now, but I want to be successful at whatever I do. I want to do things, do them well, and reach as many people as possible.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Meet James Etchison, the local comedian who’s mastered the art of the one-liner."