Jordan Carlos first came to the attention of most as Stephen Colbert's Black Friend Alan, but he's much more than just a face. Jordan is a comedian, an Eagle Scout, a self proclaimed preppy black guy, and the host of Nickelodian's Me: TV. And if that's not enough, he also looks snazzy in a vest.
What does it mean to be a preppy black guy?
Being a preppy black guy means growing up privileged and Black. It means having the same social capital as your preppy white counterparts. It also means not wearing Lacoste, Polo or J.Press for the sake of sartorial irony. Now, it doesn’t mean wearing all Lacoste, or Polo but one or two pieces. There’s a fine line between prep and preening fop. You’ve got to own it, not prove it. Also, you need a wicked double backhand.
You used to have your phone number available for all to see on your website. Did you ever receive any interesting calls?
One comes to mind. A kid in the Midwest wanted me to call his sister for her birthday. I cleared my schedule and called on the dot from the road. When they gave her the phone, she didn’t believe it was me and immediately hung up. Right after that, I took the phone number down.
What are some strategies that you've picked up in your former career in advertising that you can use to advance your current comedy career?
One is the secret strategy used by PBR. Just do your best and forget the rest. That is to say, spend no money on advertising. Eventually people will beat a path to your door. I say this because I’m lazy. I want to be the PBR of comedians.
As an Eagle Scout, I imagine that you are aware of the Order of the Arrow. What's your take on this organization and have you ever been involved with it in any capacity?
I was actually tapped to be in the Order of the Arrow and went through the training. I remember them not letting us eat and sleeping outside on a freakishly cold Texas night. Can’t remember if we had sleeping bags or not but I never ended up going to one of the meetings. Sooooooooo worth it.
As host of Nickelodeon's Me: TV, you have become a major player in youth culture. What sort of change do you wish to make in the teens of today given your influence?
I think teens are a shadowy reflection of their parents, so I would tell parents to stop trying to be friends with their kids so much. Stop trying to make everything a lesson. Stop sating your child with I-Pods, wheelies, and ridiculous haircuts. In short, I think parents have more growing up to do. They have to let a certain part of themselves die if teens are ever going to have a fighting chance. I’d also do my best to make unpopular the fashionable apathy I think is rotting the morale of American kids. Yeah, I’ve got all the answers and no kids. Nice.
What are some projects that you're currently involved in or contemplating?
I tend to throw myself in the task at hand (read: the phone's not ringing), that being ME:TV but I’m currently meeting with a number of cool sites about making sketches for the internet. I think it’ll make for a great summertime project. I’m also going to be in a Spike Lee produced movie about the rap world—ME!!!
Please share your strangest "only in New York" story.
Once I had this great talk with a cabbie coming back from a show – life, love, the works! The moment I open the door and bid farewell to my fellow conversationalist/driver WHAM! I look up to see a bedraggled homeless man sailing over my door like a rag doll. I’d opened my door at the exact moment he was riding by on his bike and he struck with such force that he nearly took the door off. In shock I ran to the man who was now a heap on the pavement. Was he dead? He was breathing. “Are you OK, man?” I ask, freaked out that I just killed him. “I could use a beer,” he whispered. In a flash I was at the Korean’s and back with a forty of Old E and a straw, which he sipped on until he was full strength again.
Which New Yorker do you most admire?
Toss up, but in no particular order Al Smith, Jane Jacobs, Adam Clayton Powell, Dewitt Clinton, Fiorella Laguardia, and a now-clean junkie named Louie I was cool with when I first moved to the city. Fitzgerald said there were no second acts in American life. Louie proved him wrong and continues to every day.
Given the opportunity, how would you change New York?
Where to begin? First off MORE HABERDASHERIES! You can never have enough haberdash. You just can’t. Also somehow, someway bring back small manufacturing jobs to the city, encourage small neighborhood economies like the butcher, the baker, and the cobbler instead of the yogi, the baby clothier, and the coffee house maven. These things are great but they are not the backbone of a classic New York neighborhood. To me they are its suburbanizing. Also, allow the working and middle class a fighting chance in the city via tax breaks and maybe use the same government-backed loans that built Levittown to insure working families can afford decent housing in the city. More money to make non-magnate schools less of a punishment and a one way ticket to a fabulous career as a Duane/Reade cashier, getting rid of the MTA (a non-elected body anyway), and oh yeah, maybe a decent polo field (I mean come on!) and “Seersucker Sundays.”
Under what circumstance have you thought about leaving New York?
Easy, in a casket buried so I can be buried in my family plot outside our old homestead in Learned, Mississippi. You can also tempt me if Hootie’s playing on the Vineyard.
What's your idea of a perfect day of recreation in New York?
Brunch, with a capital B, the Whitney, tennis or basketball, people watching, and dinner at Piccolo Angolo with my many, many white friends. Yay!
