How Janelle James went from Champaign standup to ‘Abbott Elementary’ to Netflix

When Netflix approached Janelle James about recording an hourlong comedy special, she knew she had to tape it in Chicago, specifically at The Vic Theatre in Lake View.

“I didn't even contemplate doing any other places,” said James, who is best known for her role as principal Ava Coleman in the Emmy-winning ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.”

“I love Chicago,” said James, who got her start in comedy and standup in the Midwest, while living in Champaign, Illinois. “It's always been one of my favorite places to perform. Chicago just seems more open and out. It was very important to me to get a good cross-section of people, some of everything in the audience.”

Her Netflix comedy special “How Romantic” debuts on Tuesday . The routine is James’ first hour-long comedy special to hit the streaming platform, after giving shorter sets in Netflix’s 2018 “The Comedy Lineup” and later, on season three of the network’s “The Standups.”

Though “How Romantic” begins with a humorous acknowledgment of today’s political landscape, James said her comedy has “lightened up” a bit since her first two Netflix specials.

“I've always been like this, unfortunately,” she told this reporter, laughing, on a video interview call a few days before the special aired. “Always reading the news and depressing myself.” From a young age, her father called her “The Daily News” since she always knew the neighborhood gossip. As a young girl, she’d retell those stories in her own comedic way.

“That's part of the challenge of being a comedian, is making awful things funny in some ways,” said James, 47. “I wanted people to know that I am, especially for this special, appearing as myself. I am not there as the character.”

Over the approximately hourlong special, James talks about her experiences with men in relationships and dating, her love of dark humor and life in Los Angeles. Later bits of the comedy special go on to detail James’ refusal to pay for an ambulance despite now being “wealth-adjacent,” and why she thinks men and women should engage in a “little light tusslin.’”

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

James also describes what it’s been like handling fame and boundaries with fans following the success of “Abbott Elementary.” She’s won numerous awards and nominations for her performance as Ava Coleman, the series’ aloof, unserious elementary school principal.

“I recently did an interview where I said I don't like [Ava] and everybody ran away with that, but that's because there's no such thing as nuance anymore in the media,” James said.

Ava has “evolved so much” since season one, James said. “She's the most fun to play. I wouldn't switch with any other character on the show,” she continued. “As the seasons go on, you can see why she is the way she is.”

James was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and she began working on her dad’s food truck as a 9-year-old. The actor said her childhood makes her relate to Ava’s humanity and “hustler mentality,” especially as the oldest of nine siblings, James moved to New York at 16.

But she ended up in Champaign after her then-husband landed a teaching job in the Midwest. “I probably would have never started comedy if I was never there,” she said. It all happened by chance: someone handed James a flyer for an open mic as she did some grocery shopping one day.

She decided to show up. “It was at a biker bar called Memphis On Main,” she said, noting that Champaign’s main corridor is no more than a few blocks. There, she learned the importance of practicing and rehearsing your material.

Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Content Services

The experience changed James. She went home, started writing her own material, and soon performing became a regular thing after she found a home at the Jukebox Comedy Club in Richard Pryor’s hometown of Peoria, where the late comedian performed his earliest sets.

“Starting outside of a big city is a good thing because you're allowed to be bad in obscurity,” she said. “In the Midwest, there's a mic, one mic a week … you got to go, or else you don't have as many chances to perform.”

James toured the country as a comic for years and often disguised herself as a man while on the road for safety, she said. Playing Ava on “Abbott Elementary” has helped her realize “you can be and look like this and still be respected and still have opinions and still be a boss b—.”

She never imagined herself in a role like the one she scored on ABC. But the comedian-actor said, “I feel like everything I do is kismet. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.”

That includes hosting the Critics’ Choice Awards in January.

James is choosing to remain true to herself despite being part of the Hollywood machine. “I said, ‘I'm just gonna keep being funny everywhere I go until someone offers me a gig.’ That's how everything works out for me.”