Brandon T. Jackson Let's The World Know He's ‘Still Detroit’ In New Comedy Tour

Comedian and actor Brandon T. Jackson has come a long way from Detroit, Michigan. His path to stardom led him to star alongside Hollywood heavyweights including Ben Stiller, Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr. and Martin Lawrence while making a name for himself in Hollywood.

The Tropic Thunder star is taking the time to get back to his roots launching a stand-up comedy tour named Still Detroit, which will be filmed as a comedy special. The new stand-up will center on how his upbringing in Detroit, the city where he was discovered inside the Laugh Factory, got him to where he is today. Jackson will also bring along well-known and local Detroit comedians, and will partner with local and BIPOC businesses during the tour to provide support and awareness through in-store ticket giveaways.

Jackson, who has been in the entertainment industry since the late '90s, said this about why now is the right time for Still Detroit, “When people think you're the person and the character in the movie, and they don't know you, it's a little annoying because they are like, 'you got kids?' Like bro, 'I’m not running around in the hood with Bow Wow every day.' When my grandma passed, I wanted to kind of have an homage to my family and where I'm from because I wanted to tell my story and tell the world whether it blows up or however it goes. I wanted to shoot and tell the Brandon T. Jackson, who's from Detroit, whose dad's a pastor, comes from nine kids, has super spiritual grandmas, the American story."

He went on to explain how his story relates to what is considered the classic African American story of a father redeeming himself, changing his life and getting the chance to move his family out of a rough urban environment to the suburbs for a better life and better opportunities. Telling his family’s story is at the core of why Still Detroit was an important and necessary project for him.

The father of four shares that he has evolved throughout his career and this growth and how life experiences have affected him will all be tackled in Still Detroit. He expressed that he’s been reacting to the absurdities in his life. He also shared that his style of delivery is comparable to a mesh of two well-known Black comedic actors.

“There's some social commentary too that I'm working on. So, if I was to say I mixed my styles, it would probably be mixed between right now, Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle style-wise. The actouts, the absurdities but then some type of conscious underlying of how I feel about society and that's the pastor in me. With my father, and my grandfather...that's not going nowhere,” Jackson stated.

“God was like, okay ‘if you asked for wisdom,' he will give you problems to solve. So, you ask to be this comic, he will give you drama too. So, it's the dichotomy. It's really interesting how it works. So, my material mainly comes from living.” Jackson shares that in order to get the right material you have to be with the people. He believes that that is the key to Chapelle's longevity. "He's still out in the streets, he's still out there...As you get older, I think what happens is that you have these young comedians and they start to write for you more. And you're not really experiencing it."

While he has mentors like Ben Stiller and Ben Affleck to guide him through his film career and help him master his craft, Jackson expressed that fatherhood is one off-screen role that he’s still trying to master.

“I'm trying to go from a game dad to a practice dad," Jackson says as he tries to balance attending his children's extracurricular events and his busy schedule. "I have important meetings over here. I got this over there and I get this little piece of time where I can work. I'm thinking in my mind, ‘How do I do this?' With gas prices going up, with interest rates going up, I'm like, ‘I gotta work harder than I was working when I was in my 20s and I gotta balance four children'". Ultimately, Jackson finds fulfillment in being able to be a provider for his family.

So when does Jackson find the time for himself? On set. “My home is work and then my work is vacation. I think it's become that. When I go on stage or when I go on to a movie [set], and I'm out here hanging with my actor friends, that has become my vacations,” Jackson stated.

Work for Jackson includes managing his own independent film production company, Verily Creative. He shares that the cool thing about having your own independent company is that "you can get your creativity off and the vertical is lower when it comes down to [cost]. Because of technology, you don’t spend millions of dollars to make something look like great quality.”

Jackson will kick off the Still Detroit stand-up comedy tour on November 30 at the Comedy Loft DC in Washington DC, followed by Springfield, MI. As the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes have concluded, more cities have been added to the tour which will be announced shortly.

Photo Credit: MK McGehee