L.A.-raised comic Jack Assadourian Jr. turns his Mexican Armenian roots into fearless new comedy special
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Set us as preferred Comedian Jack Assadourian Jr.didn’t know what to expect when he booked shows in Armenia.
People in his life told him the culture was very old-fashioned compared to the material in his act.They also told him they wouldn’t accept him because he wasn’t fully Armenian and didn’t speak the language.“They’re not gonna like you, and you’re gonna get arrested,” he recalls people telling him.Instead of calling it off, he booked his own shows using social media and sold out four of the dates.
A month later, he returned, sold out more shows and extended his tour to Beirut.People told him to be careful, especially with the ongoing wars in the region.Assadourian heard the warnings but continued booking shows abroad.“We’re gonna keep trying to heal the world through laughter,” he said.Growing up, Assadourian didn’t even know that side of his identity until his parents, who own the HaHa comedy club in North Hollywood, told him and enrolled him in Armenian school as a teen.
At home, his grandma and mother would speak to him in Spanish — as far as he knew, he was just Mexican.Then, he later had to balance three cultures: American, Mexican and Armenian.“I was just kind of bouncing around, like just being a little bit of everything,” he said.
“It was really hard to find out where I came from, who I was, and then as I got older, I kind of understood more and more, and it was just a very fun and different experience, you know, like we’ll be speaking Spanish one day and English one day, Armenian the next day.”In his special “Mexican Armenian,” out Oct.1 on Live TV on PS5 and Oct.
15 on YouTube, Assadourian explores how he navigated his multicultural upbringing and how that experience has shaped him as an adult raising multicultural children.“A lot of people could relate to what I went through and how it’s going, and I feel like I turn all this negative energy into s...