JP Sears

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AwakenWithJP, JP Sears
Born
Jonathan Sears

April 12, 1981
Toledo, Ohio, United States
CitizenshipUnited States
OccupationInternet personality
Years active2012–
YouTube information
Channel
Subscribers1.8 million[1]
Total views216.5 million[1]
Updated: May 24, 2021

JP Sears (born April 12, 1981), known online as AwakenWithJP, is an American YouTuber, comedian, life coach and businessman. Sears produces satirical videos about wellness and the American Left such as "How to Become Gluten Intolerant".

Early life and education[]

JP Sears was born in Toledo, Ohio and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio.[2] According to Sears, he was a class clown in his youth.[3] He attended Bowling Green State University, but withdrew after several months to begin studying holistic culture at Ohio life coaching school Journeys of Wisdom.[2]

Career[]

Life coaching[]

In 2004, Sears moved from Ohio to San Diego, California to begin work as a professional life coach.[2] Prior to his appearance on YouTube, Sears operated the website holistichealthandfitness.com, which featured links to supplements and the website of alternative medicine proponent Joseph Mercola.[4] In 2013, he began uploading YouTube videos providing advise on topics including anger management and self-actualization.[2]

Comedy[]

In 2014, Sears relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, after which he changed the tone of his videos from serious life coaching to satirical life coaching.[2] He received notable attention in 2015 for his YouTube video titled "How to Become Gluten Intolerant" (as of November 2020 the video had received over 10 million views). In the video, Sears delivers lines such as "If you’re ready to have a ravenous appetite for impossible standards and dogmatic feelings of victimization, then let’s get started on what you need to do to become gluten intolerant" in a deadpan and sarcastic manner typical of his YouTube content's approach to satire.[4]

In July 2017, Sears gave a TEDx talk at Cardiff-by-the-Sea entitled "Saying YES! to your Weirdness" that was uploaded to the YouTube channel TEDx Talks.[5]

Sears is the author of the 2017 satirical book How to Be Ultra Spiritual: 12-1/2 Steps to Spiritual Superiority.[6][7]

Sears primarily performs as a satirist.[3] In an interview with the Naples Daily News, Sears said he uses comedy to share "sincere life advise" and balances "the sincere and the satirical" while eschewing the idea that "you’re either serious, like Deepak Chopra, or you’re only joking around like a comedian".[3] Sears has rejected being categorized as either "sincere" or "humorous", explaining that he's both and the premise of the question is like asking "do you have a right hand or do you have a left hand?"[6] According to Sears, all of his parody is drawn from aspects of his own life.[6]

In the media[]

Sears' 2015 video "How to Be Gluten Intolerant" was called "hilarious for skewering dietary pedants" by Business Insider's Simon Thomsen.[8] Sears' observations in that video were later quoted by the Dallas Observer in an article on gluten-free pizza and he was cited by Australia's ABC News as one of "a growing number of comedians satirising fad gluten-free and grain elimination diets".[9][10]

In March 2017, Sears recorded a segment with CBC Radio's "Early Edition" in which host Samantha Garvey joined him in a tour of Vancouver's "most spiritually trendy spots".[11]

Greatist named Sears to its list of the "100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness" in 2017.[12]

Following a 2018 video roast Sears recorded about New Jersey, WKXW's Jeff Deminski called him "too funny not to share".[13] In a similar video roast filmed the same year about Boulder—described by Westword as "hilarious"—Sears speculated "about running his own dog, Zephyr, for mayor", though, columnist Michael Roberts ultimately concluded he "could always run for mayor in Zephyr's place, especially given his high public profile".[14]

Sears has also produced satirical roasts of Spokane, Phoenix, Portland, and other locations; however, a 2017 satire of Costa Rica was less well-received by residents and Sears subsequently pulled the video from his channel and issued an apology after it was criticized by Costa Rican ambassador to India Mariela Cruz.[15][16][17][18] Costa Rica Hoy observed that Costa Ricans familiar with Sears' satirical style would probably be amused by the video, while those who were unfamiliar with it would not.[15] The Costa Rica News, an English-language newspaper in Costa Rica, observed that "this is a great lesson in cultural differences, what made JP’s popularity in the States, the use of satire and parody is not going to be a successful tactic in Latin America. At the very least, JP did realize that he had erred and sought to rectify his actions in a very public way."[17]

In a November 2020 article for the Office for Science and Society, McGill University science communicator Jonathan Jarry described Sears as part of the conspirituality trend, combining conspiracy theories and New Age spirituality. He notes that Sears has promoted inaccurate claims about COVID-19 such as claiming that Vitamin D provides protection against the disease, and has referred to masks as "face suffocators."[19] In January 2021, following up on Office for Science and Society piece, Vice reported that in November, on election day, Sears attended a gathering at the home of film producer Stephen Huntsman to pray for Donald Trump and to make "an implicit protest against COVID safety guidelines." Other attendees included Plandemic producer Mikki Willis, anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree, and Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples. According to Vice, Sears has implied that COVID related lockdowns are "a pretext to limit human freedom" and that the 2020 Presidential election was affected by voter fraud.[20]

In February 2021, Sears appeared as a speaker at the Health Freedom Summit, an online event featuring speakers "promoting anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and pro-homeschool views".[21]

Personal life[]

In September 2020, Sears announced he and his wife were expecting a child.[22]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "About AwakenWithJP". YouTube.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Ellison, Heath (January 24, 2018). "Local viral video star JP Sears finds success in comedy and sincerity". Charleston City Paper. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Grzeszczak, Jocelyn (May 17, 2021). "Naples only "non-redneck" part of Florida, says YouTube comedian". Naples Daily News. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Jarry, Jonathan (November 19, 2020). "The Clown Prince of Wellness". Office for Science and Society. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  5. ^ Sears, JP (July 19, 2017). "Saying YES! to your Weirdness | JP Sears | TEDxCardiffbytheSea". YouTube. TEDx Talks. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c Ham, Larissa (August 15, 2016). "YouTube comedian or real life coach: who is the real JP Sears?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  7. ^ "JP Sears – Live in Denver". Comedy Works. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  8. ^ Thomsen, Simon (March 19, 2015). "Satirical advice on how to become 'gluten intolerant'". Business Insider. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  9. ^ Albee, Amanda (May 23, 2018). "From Tapioca to Cauliflower, the Best Nontraditional (and Gluten-Free) Pizza Crusts in Dallas". Dallas Observer. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  10. ^ Locke, Sarina (April 30, 2015). "Lower grain consumption has not stopped obesity in Australia". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  11. ^ Dimoff, Anna (March 31, 2017). "JP Sears visits Vancouver, finds his spiritual home in a Lululemon store". CBC. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  12. ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness". Greatist. February 26, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  13. ^ Deminski, Jeff (June 25, 2018). "Watch New Jersey Get Brutally Roasted". WKXW. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  14. ^ Roberts, Michael (January 6, 2018). "JP Sears on His Hilarious Boulder Tribute Video and the Town's Ultra-Spirituality". Westword. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b "La Satira de JP Sears Que Deja Muy Mal a Costa Rica". Costa Rica Hoy (in Spanish). June 29, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  16. ^ Mitchell, Garrett (March 29, 2018). "YouTuber JP Sears explains 'Phoenix People': Locals either love it or feel totally burned". Arizona Republic. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b "Getting Real With JP Sears in Costa Rica". Costa Rica News. July 11, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  18. ^ "Internet comedian explains 'what Spokane people are like' in hilarious video". KREM-TV. January 16, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  19. ^ Jarry, Jonathan (November 19, 2020). "The Clown Prince of Wellness". Office for Science and Society. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  20. ^ Merlan, Anna. 2021. "Leading New Age Conspiracy Influencers Plan Their Retreat to Utopian Lagoon", January 28, 2021. Vice.
  21. ^ Crockford, Susannah. 2021. "The 'Health Freedom Movement' Enters the Covid Era by Disseminating Medical Disinformation". Religion Dispatches. May 13, 2021.
  22. ^ "Comedian JP Sears". KATU-TV. September 1, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2021.

Further reading[]

External links[]

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