Jenny Pacillo

Worcester native Jimmy Cash has been a local comedy scene favorite with his stand up for years, and began growing a larger following with his social media videos that highlighted the humor of being an Worcester Public Schools custodian. Cash would tell jokes, review cafeteria food, and even created recurring characters like the spacy art teacher and a kindergartner who was always happy to see him. After a video of him trying to soak up spilled chocolate milk with a roll of public school paper towels went viral, Cash became a social media favorite and is pushing 700K followers TikTok. 

I caught up with Cash to talk about his three day March residency at the historic Tuckerman Hall in Worcester. He had just returned stateside after a gig as the keynote speaker for Custodian Professional Development in Ottawa. “We thought Tuckerman Hall would be more intimate, it’s something different than Mechanics Hall or the Hanover Theatre.” Tuckerman Hall’s auditorium dates back to 1902 and is home to the Worcester Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra.  

“I had been getting requested to do a show in Worcester by friends, family and fans for a while because I haven’t done a show here in years,” Cash begins. “I’ve done a couple little spots on other shows but I haven’t headlined anything in Worcester.” He initially planned to have one show at Tuckerman Hall, but when tickets went on sale last November, the show sold out in less than a week. “I thought when I put the first show on sale for Tuckerman, I was like ‘this is going to take some serious promotion, I’m going to have to pay for advertising’, but the show sold out in four days with one post. I couldn’t believe it.”

Cash quickly set up a second show and eventually a third. “That was the immediate next thing and that one sold out in a couple of weeks,” he says, “I had so many friends and family that didn’t get tickets and were mad.” Eventually Cash added a final show on St. Patrick’s Day to cap off the weekend. “I thought it would be nice. It’s something to do on St. Patricks’ Day because Worcester celebrates the week before for the most part.” 

Although Cash can be seen anywhere from the morning news announcing WPS snow days to “The Bostonians” on Plymouth Rock Insurance commercials, he is all Worcester and is quick to credit the local comedy scene. “I started in 2016, the first year there wasn’t much standup going on and I kind of danced around the open mics in Boston until I discovered the Worcester open mics that were popping up.” Cash became a regular at the weekly comedy nights in Worcester, balancing comedy with his day job and family. “I love Worcester,” he smiles, “for the most part.” 

When I asked Cash where he sees his comedy career going he laughed, “Right now it’s going to custodial professional development days in Canada. Didn’t see that coming.” Cash is often contacted for different unofficial school events throughout New England, think outside of school teacher parties. “I wasn’t the best student. And to, you know, to be the kid that was most likely to become a janitor, but then to have people pay to see a janitor, that are teachers. It’s just so nuts,” Cash says.