Biography

The Jon Reep Story...who does he think he is?

Southern Baptist's baby

We have preachers not pastors. They say Preachers preach the gospel, and Pastors are where cows roam. My church was pretty conservative. We only had one guy that would yell out amen. He was good with his amen's. He didn't want people getting tired of them so he was creative. He had all kinds of amen's…the strong amen, the happy amen, the amen brother. Sometimes the preacher would get upset when he thought he made a good point and didn't get an amen. The preacher would just stop, stand there and wait. There would be a long pause. That's when he would get the sympathetic amen.

It was around this time that I discovered my true talents, Ninjitsu and break dancing. As a Ninja I protected my neighborhood from any kind of lawn ornaments. Holidays were great! My other ninja friends and I would put on our suits at night and run from shadow to shadow until it was time to attack. We used blow darts on the inflatable Easter rabbits and flying side kicks on the snowmen. As a break dancer, I was in a group called the Cosmic Force. Heard of us? We were huge in Hickory. We used to break-dance in between our little league basketball games. Some of the parents hated us. They're trying to watch they're kids play basketball and we're right outside with our boom boxes blasting hip-hop. Being loud, sliding around on refrigerator boxes. People would leave the games to come out and watch us dance. So after a while the parents that were on the PTA decided to have a local dance contest. They're like, "So you want to dance huh, well let's see what you got". "Put your money where your mouth is".

Anyone could enter.

They wanted to show us that there are other forms of dancing and stuff. Not just break-dancing. They had all kinds of judges. Ones from ballet, jazz, classical. So I entered with the Cosmic Force, but my brother and I didn't like the direction they were heading so we came up with our own routine and entered the contest separately as the Breaking Brothers. We even had our own outfits made up with a logo and stuff. But we didn't tell anyone. So we did our thing with the Cosmic Force and that was fine, the crowd liked us. Then my brother and I came back out as the breaking brothers and the place was all confused. There was a huge murmur in the crowd. Back stage was mayhem one of the other rival break-dancers was trying to psych me out before I went on by challenging me to a dancing duel. He was good too. He could do that heart beat move really good. We almost went at it but I didn't have enough time. My brother and I had to practice our flip. We came up with this flip thing that we knew was going to kill. We danced, rocked the house, nailed the flip and we knew we had just won. The other members of the Cosmic Force were in disbelief. They just stood there with their mouths open shaking their heads. But when the judges read the scores, we came in second to a bunch of cloggers, 15 of them. They were all in the same dance class together. We got hosed big time. I thought a riot was going to break out. The judges had to be escorted out by the security guard. I remember this one lady cussing them out at the top of her lungs. It was the same lady who cussed her own kids out at baseball games. "I can't believe this horse shit". "These kids worked long and hard on this and you son of a bitches go out and recruit professional cloggers to come in here." "I ought to stomp a mud hole in your ass." I hate cloggers. Do you know what clogging is? Other than what happens to your drain? If you don't know what clogging is its kind of like redneck tap-dancing with a lot less teeth. Cloggers look stupid. Their clothes look like they were cut from the inside of a sleeping bag. I really hate cloggers.

I went to Fred T Foard High School in Newton, NC. We were like the redneck high school; you know a lot of Future Farmers of America. I played football all through high school. So I was kind of like a preppy jock if there is such a thing. I wasn't really involved with one click or another; my buddy Andrew Killian and I sort of hung out with all types. I got my first car my sophomore year, a burgundy 1982 berlinetta camero with a CB radio. It was nice. I felt like Burt Reynolds. My senior year I was awarded class clown. Which is really special since both my dad and my little brother also achieved this lofty goal. That year our football team had a perfect season, 0-10. We went defeated! I graduated high-school in 1990 and from there went to CVCC, Catawba Valley Community College. If you've never been to a Community College, it's like a reform-school for grown-ups. It's like college but without all that annoying learning. I Got a B.A. degree in spitball technology with a minor in skipping class. I never went to class. I just hung out in the break room with criminals and mentally challenged people. I worked part time with my dad, brother, and uncle at Goodyear. My dad made my brother and I work there so we could learn about cars. But all we ever did was change oil and tires. This is when I really got to know my Uncle William. He was kind of like Rain-man. He might not be able to spell IQ but he can make a working motor out of an old coffee can and a chicken heart.

In 1992 I transferred to NC State University in Raliegh, NC. I wasn't sure what to pick as my major so I decided to do what was easiest, communication. How do I know it was the easiest? Because it was what all the athletes were taking. I wasn't big enough to play football, but I still loved the game. Once a bunch of buddies and I went to see the Carolina Panthers play. During the time-outs they would play music so I would get up and dance in my seat. After doing this several times my audience got bigger and bigger. It went from my friends laughing at me, to the whole row laughing at me, to the entire section laughing at me. I heard one old lady say, "Move, I can't see." "What's he doing now?" So after half-time my friends decided I should go stand on the hill behind the goal post so the whole stadium could see me. Well a player got injured and they started playing music for like 5-10 min straight. So I started dancing again. And the whole stadium was into it. The place was going nuts. I would do a move then point to one side of the stadium and they would cheer, then another move and point to the other side of the stadium and they would cheer. I did the hulk Hogan move where I put my hand behind my ear. It was huge. Then the Panther mascot aka Sir Purr came over to me and invited me onto the field. So I went out on the field and started doing the worm on the 5 yard line. Then all the cheers turned to boos. I thought maybe they don't like the worm, but just then 3 cops grabbed me up by the back of my pants, wedgie style and carried me off the field. (Check out the video clip on the Multi/Media page). The cops didn't see the mascot invite me out onto the field. The crowd did and they were giving the cops hell. Throwing beer cans at them yelling, "let him go!" "let him go!" It was at that moment that I decided I might try a career in comedy.

When I got back to Raliegh, I went to a comedy club called Charlie Goodnights. I did stand-up at night and went to school during the day. Finally, I graduated in 1996 with a BA degree in Theatre, Mass Communication, and Public & Interpersonal Communication. I got a job working as a production assistant for UNC-TV all the while still performing at Goodnights at nights and on the weekends. In 1998 I quit my job at UNC-TV and hit the road as a fulltime traveling comic. And that was the end of my life as a normal human being.