Jon Reep, may never shake off the ‘Hemi guy’ label. This ‘Last Comic Standing’ winner is OK with that.

Extreme conditions are following Jon Reep.

“I just left the wildfires of Southern California and now I’m out in the ice and snow of Charlotte,” Reep says in a phone interview. “I was looking up at the mountains from where I live in Studio City and it looked like lava. And now I’m in North Carolina and I’m covered in snow. It beats being covering ash, which is what my patio is covered in.”

The Hickory native will return to his home state – and the Goodnights stage where he got his start – Dec. 15 and 16. And he’s got a new set of material.

“I’m talking about being a ginger, which is something I’ve never talked about onstage,” Reep says, referring to his hair color. “This is the first time it’s cool to be a ginger.”

Reep is indeed a quirky comic with an unusual look. He’s got red hair and blue eyes, which he says is “less than a tenth of one percent of the population.”

“There’s Prince Harry and (Philadelphia Eagles quarterback) Carson Wentz,” he says. “When I was a kid, nobody called anyone ginger. They yelled, ‘Red, red pimple head’ at me, and well, way worse. That’s the way it was. I’m 45. Back when I was growing up, nobody cared about your feelings. Now everyone cares about your feelings.”

Reep, an N.C. State graduate, got his start at Goodnights 22 years ago after leaving a job at UNC-TV.

“A friend urged me to go up and try my luck as a comic,” Reep recalls. “I remember going up that first time, and I was terrible. So I resorted to a pratfall and people thought I actually got hurt. It was rough, but I made it through that and I’m still going strong all these years later.”

He won the fifth season of “Last Comic Standing” in 2007, which introduced him to the country as a standup comic. He’s since gone on to make appearances in numerous TV shows and films.

But before then, he was better known as that Hemi guy. He starred in commercials for the Dodge Hemi, coining a catchphrase of “That thing gotta Hemi in it?”

The laidback Reep has no problem when fans scream “Hemi” to him.

“I don’t get it when someone is known for something and they get upset when people yell out what they’re known for,” Reep says. “If you ask Jimmie Walker (of “Good Times”) to say, ‘Dy-no-mite,’ he won’t say it. But I hear people scream at me, ‘Hemi!’ I’m fine with it. That commercial helped me pay bills and led to other opportunities.”

That includes a recurring role in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down.”

“That was amazing since I always loved that show,” Reep says. “The funny part was that when I had to audition, I was in Hickory and couldn’t get back to LA in time for the audition, so I taped some of the script acting with my mother. My mom is a sweet Southern Baptist lady who never cussed a day in her life. She was saying one obscenity after another since she was reading the Danny McBride (who portrayed protagonist Kenny Powers) part.

“I asked how she made it through that with me. She said, ‘I’ll do anything to help my boy get ahead.’ I loved that experience.”

A number of friends and family will travel to Raleigh to catch Reep.

“It’s always a big homecoming for me,” Reep says. “I love coming back to North Carolina. I haven’t lived here for 18 year, but I always come back to Raleigh. The fans get me there.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Jon Reep, may never shake off the ‘Hemi guy’ label. This ‘Last Comic Standing’ winner is OK with that.."