TikTok star Jason Banks will perform at the Spokane Comedy Club

If anyone questions the power of TikTok, meet Jason Banks. Prior to blowing up on the short-form video hosting service in 2021, Banks was a virtually unknown comic. After struggling to find gigs for the first 15 years of his stand-up career, Banks hit comedic paydirt courtesy of the misadventures of his fictional character Derek Banks.

The entertaining and inventive short films went viral and Banks has 8.6 million followers. “Everything changed once I got that many followers,” Banks said by phone from his home in Columbus, Ohio. “I got a booking agent for my stand-up because of those numbers last year. I can work every weekend of the year thanks to Derek and TikTok. I literally have to tell my agent not to overbook me. Sometimes I need extra time at the house here.”

Banks, 39, went from working at a bank to pay his mortgage to being an in-demand comic, who has a new house with a pool in the backyard. “I’m still just living in Columbus,” Banks said. “It’s not like I just bought a house with a pool in Los Angeles.”

But Columbus is in a comedy hot bed of sorts – it’s where comic icon Dave Chappelle resides. “I grew up watching Chappelle,” Banks said. “He’s rubbed off on my comedy but I’ve never seen him around here but he’s opening a comedy club Columbus. I just love that I work in the same business as him and I don’t have to work any other job to support myself. I get to go on the road and talk about what’s on my mind.”

When Banks performs Friday and Saturday at the Spokane Comedy Club, expect him to riff about his marriage, his 11-year old twins and the myriad of jobs he had before he became a full-time comic.

“I talk about all of the crazy stuff my son does and how much slower he is at doing anything compared to my daughter,” Banks said. “They’re obviously the same age. They’re twins but they are so different. I also like to talking about the funny jobs I had like when I worked at a haunted house at Six Flags. I look back and laugh at how we would walk around the park and wait on rides, like rollercoasters to scare people and go and eat at the Six Flags restaurants and stay in character.”

Banks is getting ready for the next step, which could be an animated series based on Derek. “I’m talking with people, like a showrunner who was an EP (executive producer) with “Family Guy” about a cartoon about Derek,” Banks said. “So my career might be changing quite a bit.”

And it all started with TikTok. “I can’t tell you how powerful TikTok is,” Banks said. “I can’t believe not just the amount of followers I have but who the followers are. Lance (Bass) from NSYNC is one of my followers and so is Joe (Gatto) from the Impractical Jokers. I remember when I had 300,000 followers and I was blown away by that number but now we’re talking nearly 9 million followers. TikTok has helped take me to new places.”

Banks has never been to Spokane. “I’ve been to Tacoma but never Spokane,” Banks said. “If it wasn’t for TikTok, I wouldn’t be going there. I can’t wait to get there and perform.”