‘Smothered’ star Jason Stuart bringing laughs to Kenwood winery

There isn’t much comedian and actor Jason Stuart hasn’t done.

“I did my first play at 8 or 9,” Stuart, 54, said by phone from his home in Palm Springs, Florida. “I went on TV at 19. I started doing stand-up comedy at 23.”

Now he has a list of credits nearly four decades long.

“I never thought about stopping,” he added. “I hear about people who take a break. I never did that, but sometimes I’m tired and I need to lie down. I act, host, do stand-up, public speaking, mentoring and I write and produce. I wrote a book that came out four years ago. It’s called ‘Shut Up, I’m Talking.”

On Saturday, Stuart will be at Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood to do a stand-up comedy show. It’s not like he needs the work. He just loves to perform.

The comedian recently received the award for Best Actor In a Comedy Series as part of the Indie Series Awards for “Smothered,” now in its second season on Amazon Prime. It’s about a gay couple who can’t stand each other but can’t afford to get divorced.

The show has been described as a celebration of diversity including, but not limited to, little people, transsexuals, Asians, Blacks, whites and Jews.

Stuart chats amiably about himself on and off the stage, and he’s quick to say two things up front: He’s Jewish and he’s gay. He jokes about stereotypes surrounding both.

“I don’t live with my mother,” he declared. “I live next door.”

When Stuart initially tried to go into acting, roles were not forthcoming, at first.

“It was very hard,” he said. “They weren’t gonna hire a little Jewish kid.”

In the early 1980s, Stuart’s agent suggested he try stand-up comedy instead. He began a career as a professional comedian in 1983 and started touring in 1985.

After that, acting jobs started to come to him, too. His first film credit was “The Lost Empire” in 1984 in the role of Gay Dude. Stuart came out publicly in the spring of 1993 to an audience at The Laff Stop in Houston, Texas.

Shortly after that, Geraldo Rivera invited him to appear on his nationally syndicated talk show. Stuart not only came out of the closet during the show, but kissed the host on the air.

“I’m only gay on weekends,” Stuart said. “You’ve got to get yourself together, wear a nice outfit and be chipper.”

During his practically nonstop career, he has appeared in guest roles on numerous TV series, including “The Closer,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “House,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Will & Grace” and “Charmed.” His many stand-up comedy stints on TV include his comedy special “Making It to The Middle.”

“I’ve done drama, too,” he said. Stuart found his most prominent role to date in the 2016 dramatic period film “The Birth of a Nation.” In the movie, a fictionalized version of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion, Stuart played a white, racist plantation owner and rapist.

But he always comes back to comedy.

“I thought about creating a show about four Jews in a car trying to decide where to go for dinner, but then I realized we already had that,” Stuart said. “It was called ‘Seinfeld.’”

Onstage, his topics range far beyond his personal life.

“It’s exhausting because my mind is always working. It doesn’t ever seem to be off,” he said. “I talk about anything that interests me.”

For example: “I don’t understand why airlines don’t answer their phones anymore. They could use it in their ad campaigns — ‘Air America: We answer the phone!’”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.