Pete Holmes has spent plenty of time in Fresno before, although not necessarily the kind that makes it onto a travel itinerary.

His former in-laws lived here, which meant Christmas visits, dinners, grocery runs, trips through Fresno and Clovis, and once, a visit to an emergency room after his daughter was stung by a bee.

On Wednesday, Holmes will return under different circumstances when the comedian, actor, podcaster, and author appears at San Joaquin Valley Town Hall.

And this time, Fresno gets to be part of the show.

“Comedy is like music, except the comedian is playing the audience,” Holmes told GV Wire.

Holmes said a live performance changes moment by moment as he reads the crowd, noticing what connects, what does not, and where people want him to go next.

Watching one of his specials means seeing the recording of a great night he had with another audience, he said. Seeing him live means helping create that night.

“You really do feel like you co-created it with the comedian, at least the way I do it,” Holmes said.

Fresno Isn’t Entirely New Territory

Asked about the most “Fresno” thing he had done during his previous visits, Holmes laughed.

His trips often came around Christmas, leaving little time to explore the city’s attractions.

“We’d grab dinner, groceries, kind of ordinary, boring, everyday Fresno activities,” Holmes said, adding that some holidays included singing Christmas carols around a piano.

He said he still does not really know Fresno’s hotspots, a word he quickly regretted after being reminded about the city’s triple-digit temperatures.

“I shouldn’t have said hotspot,” Holmes joked. “I’m really rubbing it in.”

He did find one upside.

“I’m happy to say that this show that we’re doing in Fresno is indoors,” Holmes said.

How Comedy Became More Than Being Funny

Before Holmes became a comedian, he thought his future might involve a different kind of stage.

He grew up deeply involved in Christianity, led Bible studies, went on mission trips, and arrived at Gordon College considering youth ministry.

Then improv and comedy took over.

Holmes said that once he realized comedy could actually be a career and discovered he could do it, there was little debate.

“As soon as I realized I could do comedy and was OK at it, I just put all my eggs in that basket,” Holmes said.

His mother apparently saw similarities between his original plan and the path he ultimately chose.

When he became a comedian, Holmes recalled her telling him, “close enough.”

Both roles, he said, can involve standing in front of people and trying to leave them with happiness, joy, hope, or a greater sense of connection.

That understanding of comedy began even earlier.

Holmes said tensions in his childhood home sometimes left him trying to translate what family members were attempting to communicate to one another.

“My mom just didn’t speak dad and dad didn’t speak mom and nobody spoke my brother,” Holmes said. “And I really felt like I was the Rosetta Stone.”

Everybody in the family appreciated laughter, he said, and Holmes discovered that humor could change the feeling in a room.

He still relies on a version of that skill when dealing with a difficult audience.

Instead of immediately attacking someone causing a disruption, Holmes said he tries to understand where the person is coming from.

“When I’m performing for an unruly crowd or something, I often think this is nothing compared to dinner when I was 11,” Holmes said.

Fatherhood, Art, and Staying Silly

Holmes has carried that interest in humor as connection into fatherhood and his children’s book, “Spells to Cast on Your Parents.”

Rather than simply giving parents something to read to children, the book gradually pulls adults into the experience, directing them to make noises and participate in the silliness.

Holmes said adults often lose some of that playfulness as texts, emails, Zoom calls, work, and other responsibilities take over.

For parents reluctant to act ridiculous, the book provides an excuse.

“You can blame the book,” Holmes said.

The project began as something much more personal.

Holmes originally bought a blank hardcover book and made the story himself for his daughter, Leela. During the GV Wire interview, he pulled out the handmade prototype, which closely resembles the published version.

That handmade quality became particularly important as Holmes considered the growth of artificial intelligence-generated art.

He said AI art can be a remarkable tool, but he deliberately wanted the children’s book to look as though a person had made it.

“I wanted it to be so obvious that a person made this because that’s literally inspiring,” Holmes said.

While he worked on the book, his daughter made a flower out of tape beside him.

That, Holmes said, illustrates something human-created art can provide: A child can see what someone else made and wonder what they could make themselves.

Holmes Revisits Childhood While Parenting

Fatherhood has also caused Holmes to revisit his own childhood.

In his stand-up special “Silly Silly Fun Boy,” he jokes about gentle parenting and the differences between how he responds to his daughter and how many children were raised in the 1980s.

Holmes said becoming a parent sometimes gives people more understanding of their parents, but it can work in the opposite direction, too.

“What I don’t hear people talking about is how it makes you have sort of less understanding for your parents,” Holmes said.

For Holmes, parenting and comedy eventually arrive at the same place: trying to understand what an experience feels like for somebody else.

“That’s the number one skill for most things,” Holmes said, “just take a moment to consider what it might be like for the other person.”

That is also what he hopes happens when he takes the stage Wednesday in Fresno.

As more of life moves through individual screens, Holmes believes people increasingly need the experience of physically being together and laughing at the same thing.

“Human beings love to be together and pointed in the same direction,” Holmes said.

On Wednesday in Fresno, Holmes will have a roomful of people pointed his way.

About the Event at San Joaquin Valley Town Hall

Holmes will kick off San Joaquin Valley Town Hall’s 2026-27 Twilight Talks series Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall, 2770 E. International Ave., Fresno, on the Clovis North Educational Center campus.

Individual tickets are $70 and include access to a live stream of the event.

Tickets can be purchased through the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall website.

Holmes was added to the program after previously scheduled comedian Colin Quinn became unable to appear.

Watch the Full Interview

—

Connect with Anthony W. Haddad on social media. Got a tip? Send an email.