SEQUIM — Jay Sierra, aka the Cowardly Lion, aka the comedian who cracked up clubs like the Upstage in Port Townsend, has begun a new stage of his peripatetic life.
He’s back in his adopted home town of Sequim after nine months at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Pancreatitis, a condition in which enzymes grow abnormally active and begin damaging the pancreas, nearly killed Sierra last spring.
He spent two months in the intensive care unit, then came home to Sequim in July, only to relapse and return to Harborview in a helicopter.
Sierra, 36, is now at Sequim Health and Rehabilitation, a nursing home where he says he’s learning how to do things like walk on his own.
Eating Popsicles
He can’t eat anything — except Popsicles — due to a blockage in his stomach; nourishment comes via an intravenous tube.
“Thank God for Popsicles,” Sierra said this week. “I’m getting stronger every day.”
Sierra spent the past eight years building a career in comedy and theater, at the Upstage and other Port Townsend and Port Angeles nightclubs, then traveling to Seattle, Tacoma and Missoula, Mont., with an act inspired by his children, and by his move from Southern California to Sequim.
He brought his antic energy to many theater productions, including the Port Angeles Light Opera’s “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Music Man” at Olympic Theatre Arts.
Other performers
Along the way, he became fast friends with other performers, such as Port Angeles-based humorist Laura O’Neal, who paid him a visit Wednesday evening.
“He’s got a great attitude; always has. Now that he’s closer to his family and his friends, he’ll get better,” she said. “He has a good comedy community around him.”
Last year, after Sierra was brought to Harborview, O’Neal established a donation account at First Federal to help his family make ends meet.
Sierra’s wife, Shonda, took several weeks off from her job at Costco Wholesale to be with Sierra at Harborview.
About $2,500 was deposited in the now-closed account, O’Neal said. Friends also gave money directly to Shonda, who is now back at work.
Next Sierra is facing major surgery: His pancreas and gallbladder will be removed next month, and he’s not yet ready to estimate how long recovery will take.
Faith in God and love for his four children have kept him going, Sierra said — and then he joked a little about his kids.
“They come after school and see me. But I think they really come for the Wii,” the video-game console at Sequim Health and Rehab. “It’s ‘Hi, Dad. Where’s the Wii at?'”
Matthew, 11, Aiden, 9, and Jaylynn, who Sierra said is 7 going on 15, are in Sequim with their mother, Shonda. Sierra’s eldest, 16-year-old Tailor, lives in Idaho, “but he’s still in our hearts.”
The illness has been a pain-filled ordeal, he added.
Sierra realized that “once you decide to give up, you’re done. I almost got to that point.”
But “thinking about my kids every day and knowing they need a father,” he said, “I chose to live.”
“I’ve got more work to do . . . I can’t wait to get back on stage and make people laugh.”
Early performance
O’Neal remembers one of Sierra’s first comedy shows. They drove together to the Comedy Underground in Seattle on open-mic night back in September 2003.
“He was a nervous wreck,” she said.
But when Sierra stepped into the spotlight, “he just killed. He did great. And ever since then, he knew he could do it.”
O’Neal and Sierra have rooted for each other ever since, spreading the word about upcoming shows.
Steve Strout, promoter of the Upstage’s comedy nights, called Sierra one of the funnier comics he’s come across.
His act is based on real life, Strout said, adding that he looks forward to having him in Port Townsend again.
“I’m hoping [the Upstage] will be Jay’s first show back,” he said.
Sierra, for his part, is cheering on O’Neal, who’ll be mistress of ceremonies for the comedy show at 8 tonight at the Upstage, 923 Washington St. in Port Townsend.
She’ll also do 10 minutes of stand-up to warm up for headliner Toby Roberts.
Sierra can’t say how long it will be before he steps in front of a microphone. But, as he’s told Strout in writing, he will do it again.
About a month ago, “we were instant-messaging each other, and I asked him if he wanted to get back into comedy,” Strout said. “Jay said, ‘Just try to stop me.'”
Change in routine
Sierra plans, however, to make a change in his routine. He had a hereditary predisposition to pancreatitis, and he aggravated that by eating the traveling-comedian diet.
Fast food took over, and “there’s an unwritten law: If you can’t eat it while you’re driving, don’t eat it at all,” he said.
That fare, “just a bunch of junk,” was what sent his cholesterol skyrocketing and ultimately put him in the intensive care bed, he said.
These days, cut off from anything chewable, Sierra fantasizes about another brand of fast food.
“I can’t wait to have a five-dollar footlong from Subway,” the sandwich shop that promotes itself as a healthful alternative.
Meantime, Sierra welcomes visitors, cards, letters and back rubs at Sequim Health and Rehabilitation, 650 W. Hemlock St., Sequim WA 98382.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.