A Portland stand-up comic is featured in PBS series about comedy and diversity

In the PBS documentary series, “Roots of Comedy With Jesus Trejo,” the Los Angeles-based Trejo travels around the country, to meet with fellow comedians, and talk with them about their backgrounds, points of view, and the effort that goes into building a stand-up comedy career.

Trejo’s stops include Denver, Colorado; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles; Chinle, Arizona; and Portland. One of the goals of the series is, as the show’s description says, to “explore the diversity of the United States through stand-up comedy.”

With its lively stand-up scene, Portland makes sense as one of the places Trejo visits. In the Portland episode, Trejo spends time with Adam Pasi, a busy comic and two-time winner of Helium Comedy Club’s annual “Portland’s Funniest Person” contest.

In the episode, which airs on OPB on Sunday, July 7, Trejo talks about how comedy can be a “grind,” a fact that comes across when Pasi does three appearances in one day, at such disparate venues as Leikam Brewing, Helium Comedy Club, and Al’s Den, the McMenamins venue located downstairs at the Crystal Hotel.

Pasi, whose father is Samoan and whose mother is white, talks about leaning into his Samoan heritage, something he hadn’t done when he was younger and felt, as he says, like an outsider.

In a large family gathering at a Portland park, Pasi and Trejo sit down at a picnic table to talk with Pasi’s parents, who, at that point, hadn’t yet seen their son perform comedy live onstage.

His father recalls being worried about Pasi trying to make a career out of comedy. With both parents set to finally attend one of their son’s comedy shows, Pasi’s mother says, “Be nice to your mom.”

“There’s going to be a couple white people jokes,” Pasi says.

“You had to go there,” his mother says with a smile.

Later, at the Siren Theater, Pasi takes the stage with his parents sitting in the audience. Pasi says he’s Samoan, and though he’s half-white, he tends to talk more onstage about being Samoan.

“None of you saw me take the mic out of the stand and braced yourself for some hardcore Irish comedy, did you?” Pasi says, as the audience laughs.

The half-hour episode featuring Pasi gives a good sense of how an up-and-coming comic approaches the task of conveying his identity to audiences, while also making people laugh. In addition, the episode features some familiar Rose City sights, such as the “Portland Oregon” sign with the leaping stag, the Willamette River, the “Keep Portland Weird” sign, and Pasi and Trejo playing pool at Sam’s Billiards.

All six episodes of “Roots of Comedy with Jesus Trejo” air on OPB on Sunday, July 7. The marathon of episodes begins at noon. The episode featuring Adam Pasi and Portland airs at 2 p.m.

— Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist

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