Jake and Amir hoping for warm reception in cold Winnipeg

Former CollegeHumor comedy duo bring live podcast to Burton Cummings Theatre

Jake Hurwitz (left) and Amir Blumenfeld. Photo by Diana Mantis.Jake Hurwitz (left) and Amir Blumenfeld. Photo by Diana Mantis.

Duo Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld are bringing their unique brand of comedy to Burton Cummings Theatre March 6 with a live version of their podcast If I Were You.

“We’ve never been to Winnipeg, I just found out where it is,” Hurwitz said.

“I never thought in my life I would go to Winnipeg, but now that we’re coming, I’m very excited. I’ve heard it’s really cold.”

If I Were You is a weekly show where the pair offers life advice to listeners, often with the help of a guest. The podcast has found success, and has charted on iTunes in several countries.

Hurwitz and Blumenfeld gained mainstream success through their web show, Jake and Amir, on CollegeHumor. The duo played office coworkers: Jake, the disgruntled employee, and Amir, the annoying coworker.

The podcast started in 2013, and it has grown exponentially since. In 2015, the pair decided to leave CollegeHumor. They now own their own podcast network, HeadGum.

The live show is a performance of the podcast, and Blumenfeld describes it as a “bit more of a party atmosphere.” The questions are all chosen beforehand, from some of the best questions the duo have come across.

“We wanted to make a podcast where people got to know the real us rather than our characters,” Blumenfeld said.

“We wanted to do a podcast that highlighted our area of expertise, but we don’t have any so we figured ‘Hey, this is what we would do’ in a funny way.”

Through the podcast, Jake and Amir have been able to tour the world, hitting destinations including Australia, New Zealand, England, and Hawaii.

“Warmest show yet,” Hurwitz said of the show in Hawaii.

The coldest show they had was in Minnesota, but Winnipeg has a chance to top it.

“As long as we get a warm reception,” Hurwitz quipped.

Touring has allowed the duo to meet a lot of their fans, something they had not had a chance to do previously.

“It’s been really awesome meeting our fans because we make our podcast in a booth by ourselves,” Blumenfeld said.

“We look online and see that people are listening, but we really don’t get to know who those people are.”

Jake and Amir have been to Canada multiple times, though only to Montreal and Vancouver.

Stops on their Canadian tour include Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver.

“We go to Montreal so much, and we’ve never been anywhere else in Canada except for Vancouver once, so I wanted to hit some cities we’ve never been to and Winnipeg and Calgary fit the ticket,” Blumenfeld said.

The most interesting and obscure question the duo came across in their time doing the podcast was when a listener asked if he should confess to murdering his mom’s cat.

“We gave him the sound advice to lie to his mother for the rest of his life,” Blumenfeld said.