Now, more than ever, we could use a few laughs. Nobody understands the need for comedy more than Jackie Pirico, a fast-rising stand-up comedian whose sophomore album Splash Pad received a Juno Award nomination for Comedy Album of the Year. From Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Jackie originally attended Concordia University as a linguistics major. However, in 2013, she was inspired to pursue comedy, with her first album, Dream Phone, dropping in 2019.
Recently, I had the privilege of chatting with Jackie about what inspired her to create the material for Splash Pad, what listeners can expect, her comedic influences and more.
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This interview is condensed for length and clarity.
Melody McCune: We at GGA love a good origin story. What’s your origin story? How did you get into comedy?
Jackie Pirico: I started when I was in university. The only English-speaking serving job I could get [in Montreal] was at a comedy club, which happened to be an English comedy club. For many years, I served cocktails at this comedy club every weekend. I saw so much comedy, absorbed so much comedy and made friends with many comedians. After all those years, I was like, “You know what? I’m going to give this a shot and see what happens.”
MM: Let’s talk about your Juno Award-nominated comedy album Splash Pad. What inspired you to write it?
JP: The album is a culmination of material I accumulated on stage since my first album. I released an album in 2019 that was called Dream Phone. Splash Pad was a way to capture the material I’d worked on since that first release, and a big part of the inspiration to record it was because the pandemic sat us down on our asses and prevented us from performing. Once everything got back rolling, I could work out the material I’d been performing on Zoom shows.
MM: Do you have a favorite joke or a story from the album?
JP: When recording the album, I had the set list I knew I would record. I had one show between my two recordings and did this bit about my dad on my wedding day. My sound engineer, Jeremy, heard that, and he goes, “Oh my God, you have to record that on the next recording. That’s so funny. You have to keep it on and record it for the album.”
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It’s a story about how my dad has IBS, which is classic dad. On the morning of my wedding, I was nervous. I’m in this hotel room, and my brother texts me from another room where he is staying with my parents, and his text says, “Yo, mom’s trying to get dad to wear a diaper to your wedding.” That’s the first thing that happened to me on my wedding day.
To me, it’s unrelatable and bizarre, but it’s so surprising how much people love that story. It’s a favorite of mine because it wasn’t even supposed to be on [the album], and people talk to me about it all the time.
MM: That is a very dad thing.
JP: Will these dads ever acknowledge and treat their IBS?
MM: What can listeners expect when listening to Splash Pad?
JP: They can expect a lot of idiosyncratic, personal stories of mine and interactions. They can also expect to relate to much of the material, even though these things are bizarre circumstances. Listeners can expect not knowing what to expect next because this material starts in a place they may feel is familiar and then subverts those expectations. Buckle up because you can’t predict what you’ll hear.
There is so much stuff that is true to my voice. I talk about pets and being a hypochondriac. Those kinds of things are threads throughout all my material.
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MM: Describe your album using three words.
JP: Hyper. Incorrigible. Unexpected.
MM: What are your comedic influences?
JP: I don’t have a ton of stand-up comedic influences, but when it comes to, for example, material about animals and pets, George Carlin, for sure. When I was growing up, watching his rerun stand-up specials turned my mind on to the cartoonish way he would describe animals and compare cats and dogs, and he would embody those animals. He was like a cartoon come to life. I’ve been described as that myself, so that was an early influence for me.
But also, as far as comedic … not voice, but the comedic delivery, one of my icons is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine on Seinfeld. She can deliver a line like nobody else can.
MM: Is there a dream comic you’d love to work with?
JP: I love Nick Kroll and everything he does. That dual special with John Mulaney and all of his cartoons. That would be a huge dream come true for me. Sarah Silverman as well. I love her. You know what? Anyone that’ll have me. Get anyone off the street. I love working with people, and I love collaborating.
MM: Speaking of collaboration, you have a podcast with Mark Little called, How Can We Help? What was the impetus behind creating this podcast?
JP: Mark has a live stand-up show where he chats with the acts after each set. He and I have had success with that kind of repartee and banter. We said, “Let’s get this down and record and get together on a podcast.” He has had many podcasts in the past. I’ve always been a guest. The idea behind the concept is getting people to anonymously write us with their life problems, advice they need, interpersonal relationships, careers, etc., and then we dive into it.
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MM: What else is on the horizon for you, career-wise?
JP: I recorded a stand-up set for CBC last spring that will be released very soon on CBC Gem. It’s called The New Wave of Standup. That’s coming out, and I’ve got some festivals coming up later. The lineups haven’t been announced, so I’m sitting on that like a hen on an egg, waiting for it to hatch. Other than that, I hope to get rolling on some of my writing projects. I think it’s high time I write something for my voice, so I plan on doing that — getting more into writing this year.
MM: Have you watched anything interesting lately?
JP: I don’t watch that many comedy series, but recently I watched Fleabag after years of everybody talking about it.
MM: Oh, I love Fleabag.
JP: I was so blown away. I still can’t stop thinking about it.
MM: Name your top five favorite films.
JP: One of my formative favorite films from childhood was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A very early Coen Brothers film noir called Blood Simple. A Serious Man is another one of my favorites of all time. I have to say The Neverending Story was my absolute favorite as a child. I used to sing the song constantly, and I still think that so many dogs look like Falkor. For my fifth film — Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder.
MM: Jackie, thank you so much for chatting with me!
JP: Thank you, Melody!
Follow Jackie on Instagram (@jackiepirico) and Twitter (@JackiePirico). You can listen to Splash Pad on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp or your preferred streaming service. Subscribe to How Can We Help? wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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