SEQUIM — Jay Sierra, a Sequim-based comedian and actor known for his family-inspired routines, died a few minutes before midnight Monday.
He was 37.
Sierra suffered from pancreatitis, and last year spent nine months battling the illness at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
In January, he was back in his adopted home town of Sequim, where he was determined to recover and to perform again.
But “about two weeks ago, he started to decline, and he went back over to Harborview,” said Laura O’Neal of Port Angeles, a friend and fellow comedian.
Sierra was to have surgery to remove his diseased pancreas and to repair a stomach blockage that made it impossible for him to eat much of anything other than Popsicles, O’Neal said.
Weakened by a compromised immune system, he spent a few months at Sequim Health & Rehabilitation, where he visited daily with his children Matthew, 11, Aiden, 9, and Jaylynn, 7.
His eldest, Tailler, 16, lives in Idaho, “but he’s still in our hearts,” Sierra said in a January interview.
A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at the Sequim ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 815 W. Washington St.
In addition, O’Neal and Sierra’s wife, Shonda, are planning a gathering of friends and family from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at The Buzz, 128 N. Sequim Ave.
All are welcome to share food, drink and fond memories, O’Neal said.
Unflagging devotion
Sequim singer and actress Amanda Bacon, another longtime friend, said Tuesday that she admired Sierra’s unflagging devotion to his family — who provided rich material for his standup comedy.
Sierra left his native Los Angeles for Sequim some 12 years ago because he and his wife, Shonda, wanted to bring up their children in a small town, O’Neal said.
He built a comedy career by finding the humor in his background, calling himself a “FlippinMexiRican” owing to his Filipino, Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage.
“I love being able to get on stage and bring a smile to a complete stranger’s face,” Sierra wrote on his MySpace.com page.
“Comedy is my key to happiness.”
It was about seven years ago that O’Neal and Sierra traveled together to the Comedy Underground in Seattle, where they worked up the courage to step on stage during open-mic night.
“He just did phenomenally well,” O’Neal remembered.
This was a comedian who knew how to make life in Los Angeles — and Sequim — belly-laugh funny.
He was that rare friend, she added, who could render her just about helpless with his hilarity.
“He had timing. You can’t learn his kind of timing,” O’Neal said.
“He was a wonderful writer and so charismatic on stage.”
After that open-mic baptism, Sierra went on to perform at clubs across the Northwest, including Sirens and The Upstage in Port Townsend, the Bushwhacker in Port Angeles and The Buzz in Sequim.
Yet through it all, “his kids were the most important thing to him,” O’Neal said, adding that she is thankful Sierra was able to return to Sequim for a few months, so he could spend time with them.
Jaylynn was “his princess,” who came with Matthew and Aiden to visit and play with the Wii game console at Sequim Health & Rehab.
Sierra was also a steadfast and exuberant friend, Bacon said.
The two performers appeared together in the 2001 operetta “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Sequim High School.
Sierra also played, among other musical roles, the Cowardly Lion in the Port Angeles Light Opera’s “The Wizard of Oz.”
Any time Bacon saw her friend, “we’d run to each other and give each other a big hug,” she said.
They didn’t run into each other very often, but “we always picked up where we left off.”
“He was very funny, and very loving.”
In addition to his wife, Shonda, and his children, Sierra is survived by his parents, Patricia and Darryl Sierra, of Norwalk, Calif., brothers Michael and Lenny, and sister Trish.
He was preceded in death by his brother, Dell Sierra.
A memorial service will be held later in the Los Angeles area, where Sierra grew up, though details were not yet available Tuesday.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.