AJ Chris isn’t new to the stage.
She has spent the last several years doing standup comedy in the United Kingdom. But when the 26-year-old comic stepped onto the stage at Clint’s Comedy Club in Overland Park, the crowd was different from the London crowds that she’s come to know.
Looking out into the crowd at Clint’s on a recent weeknight, the faces she saw in the front row were her own friends and family — some who were seeing her routine for the first time.
“I’m very excited to be here to perform my ‘work in progress’ show,” she told the audience after she took the mic. “But more importantly, I’m excited to be able to talk in front of my family and friends uninterrupted for 30 minutes.”
Though she’s performed open mic nights in the Kansas City metro before, last week’s show was the Johnson County native and Blue Valley North grad’s first one in her hometown.
Chris started performing at a young age
Chris began to feel the pull of the stage long before she made the journey overseas.
“My mom would take me to the theater when I was super young, and I just really wanted to be up there,” she recalled.
She grew up in Johnson County, first living in Shawnee, until her family moved to Overland Park when she was in fourth grade.
As a kid, she remembers begging her mother to let her join camps at Overland Park-based Theatre of the Imagination, which typically only accepted kids who were old enough to read.
“My mom talked to (the camp director), and she was like, ‘You need to let my kid join this camp, or else she’s gonna cry,'” Chris said.
From there, it was off to the races. In one of her earliest performances, a spoof on “The Wizard of Oz” called “Wizard of Schnaz”, Chris remembers doing her best to stand out as a performer right away.
“I just pushed myself to the front of the stage, and just did my thing,” she said. “People were coming up to my mom afterwards, and they were like, ‘Get her an agent.’”
By age 10, she landed what she calls the “peak” of her child‑actor career: her very first paid role as Baby Louise in “Gypsy” at a downtown Kansas City theater. By the end of it, she had enough money to buy herself an iPod Touch.
“It was a very big moment,” she said.
Chris began doing standup comedy across the pond
Chris’ love of performing never left. It just took on a different form.
After getting her start as a theatre kid in Johnson County, she moved to the United Kingdom after high school: first on a visitors’ visa. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and then acquired a two‑year graduate visa that allowed her to work in the UK after attending university.
It was in Hatfield, a town about an hour’s drive north of London where she lived during university, that Chris started doing stand-up comedy at open mic nights. She went on to become more than just a regular. After a few months of performing, she began hosting a weekly comedy night at the Hatfield pub where she worked.
That comedy night became popular in town, she said, for a variety of reasons. For one, the night was a “non-bringer” event, meaning that comics did not have to bring guests with them in order to get stage time.
“People said that my night was the best night in the county,” she said. “Honestly, it was just because I run my nights well, I treat my comedians well, and everyone has a fun time.”
Eventually, she converted the weekly open mic night into a monthly show with paid headliners, using the pub’s budget to bring in more established comedians while still carving out space for newcomers.
Her hometown show pulled from both her experience growing up in Johnson County, as well as her experience living in the United Kingdom — everything from British folks raising eyebrows at her American accent to navigating politics across the pond.
The show’s title, “I’m an American, Get Me Out of Here,” nods to the popular British survival reality series “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!”
At Chris’s Overland Park show this month, three local comics, Tio Pepe (who also served as an emcee for the show), Sierra Mcree and ACE warmed up the audience for her set.
In the end, she said, any ticket proceeds went toward the comedy club and the local comedians who opened for her.
“All of this goes back into the community — I don’t need it,” she said. “The fact that people are here seeing my show, that’s enough for me.”
Chris hopes to keep performing beyond the Overland Park
Following her hometown show, Chris plans to return to the United Kingdom and is pursuing a Global Talent Visa, which is offered to UK-based performers by the Arts Council of England.
“It’s basically a visa that was created for creative people who are very established or are rising people in their field that don’t come from big organizations that can sponsor anyone,” she said.
Her hometown show at Clint’s was part of that effort. International appearances can help give Global Talent Visa applicants an edge.
When it came to the club itself, Chris said the newly reopened Overland Park club’s cabaret seating and intimate setup reminded her of the Hatfield pub where she first built her following.
“It feels very full circle to be in a venue that has just started and is just kicking their foot out the door,” she said.
To those looking to make the jump into standup comedy as she did several years ago, Chris’ advice is simple: just do it. And do it without comparing yourself to anyone else on the same path.
“You’re not doing it for anyone else’s approval. You’re doing it because you love it,” she said. “Everyone’s journey into comedy is different. I’m not meant to have anyone else’s journey except mine.”
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