Few comedians have put West Michigan on the map quite like Jordan Klepper.
Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Klepper has become best-known for his “Fingers The Pulse” segments on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” Often going viral online and racking up millions of views, the clips find Klepper interviewing attendees at Trump rallies and other MAGA events, including documenting the events at the capitol on January 6, 2021.
But before venturing out into the field to confront the most conspiratorially-minded citizens in our now extremely polarized political climate, he fondly remembers growing up in Kalamazoo.
Klepper graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School, and the Kalamazoo Math and Science Center, in 1997. He went on to graduate from Kalamazoo College in 2001, where he double-majored in Math and Theatre. While there he also joined Monkapult, the student improv comedy group.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life when I went to college,” Klepper told REVUE. “I knew I was good at math and science, but I wasn’t sure if that was the career for me. And I jumped on an improv team at K, and I loved it and immediately started taking theater classes, and went to Chicago to see the improv community there, and really opened up to the possibility.”
After graduation Klepper moved to Chicago, where he joined the famed Second City, and went on to both teach comedy, and tour with the company nationally.
Growing up, Klepper also had a unique look into the world of comedy as his mom’s cousin is fellow Michigan comedian Tim Allen.
“My dad went to Central Michigan (University) and Tim was his college roommate there,” Klepper said. “And that’s kind of how (my parents) got together.”
Seeing Allen both at family holidays, and on TV in the ‘90s during the heyday on his hit ABC sitcom “Home Improvement,” Klepper said he started connecting those worlds, even though he didn’t see himself heading that direction.
Klepper said he did talk with Allen some about the world of TV and comedy, but he ultimately took a different path, as Allen had ground along in the standup circuit, hitting comedy clubs, while Klepper dove into improv, taking classes, spending nights with groups, and writing sketches.
After about a decade in Chicago, Klepper and his wife, comedian Laura Grey, moved to New York, where they started working with the acclaimed Upright Citizens Brigade. His work there, as well as several short films and web series, led to a sudden audition with “The Daily Show,” then hosted by Jon Stewart, in 2014, where he became a correspondent nearly on the spot.
Klepper spent three years on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” before hosting his own Comedy Central late-night show “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper,” in 2017. He then rejoined “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” in 2019, and following Noah’s departure last year, most recently had the opportunity to guest host the show for a week back in April.
“What’s exciting about ‘The Daily Show’ is when you get a week, they ask you what you’re passionate about, the things you want to talk about,” Klepper said. “Part of the show is reflecting on what happened in the moment nationally that day, but also a few weeks prior we get to make some plans about topics, and people you want to talk with.”
So Klepper took that opportunity to interview Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo.
“As I told the governor, that’s where my son took his first steps,” Klepper said. “I’ve spent many hours into the deep nights at that brewery. And so to get a chance to be at home, and talk to the governor about issues that were important to myself and the people that I know are affected by those issues, was kind of a real dream scenario.”
With his family in attendance for the taping of the show in New York, the week stood out as a highlight in Klepper’s comedy journey that he was all too happy to share with his community back home. When the Kalamazoo Public Library reached out to him about coming back to help celebrate the library’s 150th anniversary this year, he emphatically said yes.
“I think libraries are such an important resource for a community, to get information, to get curiosity, and to get books,” Klepper said. “They’re also a symbol of curiosity and of knowledge in a way that all communities should have.”
Citing how society is in an information crisis right now, with libraries all over the country under attack, and books being banned, Klepper shared how he felt honored to talk publicly about the importance of having reliable sources of information freely and widely available.
“People want to control the narratives and the stories we tell,” he said. “And this is how we come to grips with the news. It’s how we come to grips with the society we live in. We tell stories. We’re exposed to different stories and different points of view. The library has always been a place where you can go there and you can engage with these stories. You can develop your point of view, you can find information on your own. And the fact that that’s under attack right now is really scary to me.”
Klepper will lead a discussion on his career, his work out in the field facing down misinformation at MAGA rallies, and his connection to Kalamazoo, when he joins the library for an event called “Celebrating Books While They’re Still Legal!” June 30 at Miller Auditorium. The event is free, however, online preregistration has already reached capacity.
Klepper will also be doing a book signing at the Kalamazoo Public Library on June 30, from 4-5:30 p.m., where he will sign any book anyone brings in or purchases from the Friends of the KPL Bookstore, as he has not yet written a book himself.
“The whole purpose of this, I’m going to do a talk about some of these big issues, and then it’s opening it up to a big Q&A with the audience,” Klepper said about the event. “So the idea was, ‘Let’s have a conversation, see what people are curious about.’ If you want to talk books, if you want to talk politics, if you want to talk any experiences that I’ve had in the past, I am, for lack of a better term, an open book, and will be that day.”
In addition to his regular appearances on “The Daily Show,” Klepper also hosts the podcast, “Jordan Klepper Fingers The Conspiracy,” where he and guests dive deep into many of the most troubling conspiracies of our time.
“I think we are in such a dire place right now, because we have more access to information than we ever have in human history,” Klepper said. “But because of that, you have people who are curating that information and controlling it so that you see just the things that you want to see. And so we’re crafting these separate strange narratives and it can be used for nefarious purposes. And it has put us in places where it’s being weaponized against one another.
“So the age of information, it’s a unique one, and it’s one that I think we need to have more open conversations about how we can get good credible information and how we can trust that information. Because if you can’t trust the info that you’re basing your ideas off of, then you lose the ability to have any kind of true conversations about important issues.”
Celebrating Books While They’re Still Legal! – A Talk with Jordan Klepper
Miller Auditorium, 2200 Auditorium Dr., Kalamazoo
June 30, 7-9:30 p.m., Free (online pre-registration is currently at capacity)
Kpl.gov, (269) 553-7800
