Today we’d like to introduce you to Janan Araujo-Siam.
Janan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I moved to Houston in 2017 and worked full time in the yoga industry. I was Director of Marketing and full time teacher at BIG and my yoga students kept saying, “You make me laugh so much in class–are you a comedian?” In 2018, I decided to try out stand-up comedy. Even though I was raised in the US, I was a sheltered Muslim kid growing up (as well as a nerd and an emo kid), so I didn’t have any awareness what what becoming a stand-up comedian really meant. I had just seen people do it on TV. So, I wrote an entire hour-long set and performed it to raise money for a non-profit I was working with at a time. If you know anything about stand-up, you know that that is insane. No one STARTS with an hour. It went well because the audience were all my peers, clients, and friends. Someone mentioned, “Hey, you know if you want to do this as a job, you need to start going to open mics around town.”
I went to an open mic after that to perform for 5 minutes. I shriveled in the 5 minutes of absolutely bombing in front a crowd of 3-4 drunk people at a late night club. Doing so poorly at the open mic weirdly made me want to keep going and become one of the best comedians of all time. That was 8 years ago. As a lesbian, a Palestinian, Texan, yoga teacher raised Muslim, I want to continue to get on stage, make people laugh, make people think and grow, and have anyone who looks like me to feel glad that they’re being represented in a positive and empowering light. I love being a misfit representing my fellow weirdos.
These past 8 years, I’ve grinded and hustled as hard as I could in comedy while balancing my full time entrepreneurial life and having my first child with my supportive and awesome wife. I’ve graduated from Coronation’s Theater improv comedy curriculum and perform improv there often, I’ve done a bunch of comedy festivals, and I’ll soon kick off my first headlining tour.
These days, I’m performing every week, traveling for comedy, and looking to make it my full time career by the end of 2026. I still teach yoga privately and will be launching a yoga and leadership development studies program this year.
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?
NO. The comedy world can be extremely male-dominated and most guys won’t admit it, but there is a bias toward male comedians, especially mainstream male comedians. I’ve learned that I’ve got to kill no matter what crowd I’m in front of, yet also still be true to myself and not say terrible things just because it gets a laugh. This means I’ve had to work on my writing like nothing else and deal with the uphill battle.
Doing comedy through COVID was tough. I had to find really creative ways to not be physically around people or share a microphone with folks.
Besides dealing with the patriarchy, an interesting challenge I’m facing is parenthood whilst living the comedian grind. I’m not willing to sacrifice time with my wife, daughter, and future kids for any career, whether I was a comedian or an accountant. Life is for living with our loved ones. Every single week is a puzzle I’ve got to figure out that gets me stage time, income, and family time. C’est la vie!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a stand-up, I want to let people into the world that exists in my head so they can relate, and if they can’t relate, at least gain perspective on how someone else thinks. I think about weird stuff because I was so sheltered. I think about dark stuff because I had a tough childhood. I think of weird, dark stuff because I was raised in a cult-y version of a religion. I like to joke about Pokemon, about being a gay woman with identity issues, about the afterlife, about immigration, about yoga, about privilege, about centaurs.
I’m proud of turning my passion into a career with excellent self-care. I would have burned out by now and/or become a mediocre comedian if I had sacrificed my body and mental health for the nightclub lifestyle. I have created habits in my week that allow me to get enough sleep, be up with the sun, be with my family, eat well, exercise often, and keep a clean house. Sometimes I’ll do comedy til about 11pm/12am then go home and do the dishes and make my daughter’s meals for the next day. I’ll toot my own horn: I am really proud of myself for that!
What were you like growing up?
Teachers pet AND class clown. I wanted to make the TEACHER laugh. Also, I was a typical 90s tomboy: girl with sweaty bangs sticking to her forehead as she dominated all the sports she played, as she yo-yo-ed, slung Pokemon cards, etc. Yet at the same time, I was raised by a conservative Muslim community and went to Islamic school most of my life. As a teen, even though I wore hijab, prayed 5 times a day, fasted every Ramadan, I also was an emo kid who shopped inclusively at Hot Topic, played guitar, and skateboarded around like I thought I was the coolest person alive. All the other Muslim girls were forbidden by their parents to associate with me, so I turned to partying. Eventually stopped wearing hijab. Hit a few rock bottoms. Then, stereotypically, discovered the practice of yoga and the yogi community of welcoming humans! What a ride growing up has been.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.myfriendjanan.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/myfriendjanan
