Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan MacDonald.
Hi Jordan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
At this point, it is really insane to think about how and where I started and where I am now and everything that I have experienced in between. My main foundation truly is comedy. But I started with my focus more on acting. I studied theatre while I was in college at Texas State University in San Marcos, Tx. I would skip class to go and do background work on tv shows and movies that were filming in Austin.
After I finished most of my theatre degree and switched my major to Mass Communications because I thought I had to be more “realistic,” I dropped out of school in 2015. For the next year I was creating music and doing a lot of psychedelics, which is its own story, but then I moved to Austin, Tx for the first time in 2016 and slept on the floor of my sister’s apartment while she was a student at the University of Texas. And then in Fall of 2016 I was cast in the James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez film *Alita: Battle Angel as a featured actor. That wrapped filming in February 2017 and then I moved to Los Angeles a month later without any plan. I just woke up and did it. I had a little over $3,000.
From March 2017 to August 2020 I lived in Los Angeles and did many different kinds of acting, modeling and dancing gigs. I danced on an episode of Drunk History on Comedy Central, I was involved in Magic for Humans on Netflix, multiple short films, sketches, music videos and a slew of background work on projects I have forgotten about. I also was homeless and sleeping in my car and on couches during majority of my time in LA besides my last few months in 2020.
In 2018 I first tried my hand at Stand-Up Comedy in Santa Monica, CA. I did okay in regard to it being my first stand-up performance, but the second time I did stand-up was in a cannabis shop in North Hollywood that had an open mic and I got too stoned with a random lady and when I was on stage, I had an out of body experience and saw myself in third person doing terrible, which made me quit stand-up comedy for a year.
In April 2019 I went to a comedy show to support a friend that I was performing. After the showcase they had an open mic and my friend convinced me to perform after I told him multiple times I don’t want to. And that is when I say I officially started stand-up comedy. After that performance I did stand-up as much as possible around LA at multiple open mics throughout Southern California. Fast forward to March 2020 and the pandemic shut everything down.
I left LA in August of 2020 and lived at my sisters house in Dallas, Tx until December of 2020. At that time I moved to Atlanta because they were starting to film tv and movies again. I did a few tv and short film gigs in Atlanta from January 2021 – June 2021. There were a few open mics opening back up in Atlanta in May/June 2021. I did a few but there were only about 4 open mics a week at that time in Atlanta. I googled what is the best city in the United States for stand-up comedy and Austin popped up multiple times so July 1, 2021 I moved back to Austin to focus solely on stand-up comedy.
Since July 2021 to now I have performed thousands of times across America and 12 different countries outside of America. I have produced and acted in my own short films and I continue to perform and create full time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all. I was homeless and sleeping in my car majority of my time in Los Angeles. I would go to the homeless shelter in Santa Monica, Ca to shower and sometimes get food. Then I found out about Planet Fitness, and I could afford that so that became my new bathroom. Also, the mental health struggles that occur. The panic attacks, the mental breakdowns, the self-doubt can take a toll on you. Working as an entertainer is way different than what the average person would believe it to be. I love that I am now at a point of being able to fully support myself just off of being a professional entertainer, but it’s a career with no blueprint and so there’s always a sort of “I don’t know what the hell will happen next” because every next step is a brand-new experience unique to your path.
One of my more recent struggles was feeling burnout for the first time in my life while overseas. I hadn’t really taken any time off for working for about 2 years and in July of 2025 I went back overseas to London to perform comedy and perform at the Edinburh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. There were a lot of things happening in my personal life that started to really affect my mental health in a negative way. Mixed with the overall exhaustion that I was feeling from working so much my entire brain went into manic panic mode and I had to cancel a multi city overseas tour and go back home to Texas a few months early. I was homeless again sleeping at my sister’s house. I took a 2-month break from stand-up and it took about 6 months for me to get back to feeling like myself again.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My main foundation is comedy. But I would give myself the title of an Entertainer. I perform on stage weekly whether that be stand-up comedy or show hosting. I’m known for being super fly haha. I also and becoming known as a host for these extreme bingo shows I host called Bingo Loco. It’s anywhere from 500 – 1500 people playing music bingo and I am hosting and dancing and doing comedy for 2 1/2 hours straight. Those things are a doozy. I am proud of myself for multiple things that I have accomplished, but the thing I am most proud of is when I went overseas for 6 months and performed stand-up comedy across Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. That experience taught me so much about myself and other people and it made me very proud to be a Texan.
What sets me apart from others is myself. By that I mean, we’re all vastly different humans. Even if there are similarities between everyone, we’re the only ones experience our perspective. And I think that’s groovy and try to be as self-aware as possible and not go against the current of my natural feelings. I embrace that which seems like a lot of folks don’t embrace that aspect of themselves which I would say sets me apart from others.
Any big plans?
Staying alive as long as possible. I’m looking forward to what will happen next. I am pretty happy and in flow with my life currently and I feel like, and I know if I keep living and experiencing the way I am the next thing coming isn’t anything I can plan for, I just gotta let it happen.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejordanmacshow/
