Tears Of A Clown - Jamie's Healing Journey

The stand-up guy faced his darkest days

- Marilynn Mclachlan

The death of a loved one doesn’t often spring to mind when thinking about comedy, but for Jamie Bowen, the aching devastation of losing his father is what spurred his latest routine, Not So Special.

It’s a brave move from a man who is one of New Zealand’s top comedians, featuring both on-screen and behind the scenes on shows such as A Night at the Classic and Three’s 7 Days.

When Woman’s Day chats to the 37-year-old, he’s at home in Los Angeles, where he’s been living since January and is waiting for the Not So Special release on some of the biggest streaming services in the world, including iTunes, Amazon and Google Play.

But it has been a long and painful journey for Jamie to get to this place – and it all began with a phone call in 2014.

“I was in the UK trying to have a swing at making it in the comedy circuit,” he shares. “In early January, I got the call from Dad to say he had cancer and that it was terminal, but we thought we had 18 months.”

But just five weeks later, his father Graeme’s cancer had spread from the gallbladder to other parts of his body and Jamie received a call to say he needed to return home immediately. His dad was dying.