Back on the big stage
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A lot can happen in 365 days. Jason Drew can attest to that.
On Aug. 17, 2025, the Fort Dodge father walked onto the Iowa State Fair Grandstand stage wearing shorts, a ball cap and absolutely no expectation that anyone outside his family would remember his name. He had been plucked from the crowd during a KIDZ BOP concert and given 25 seconds to dance in front of thousands of strangers.
Drew moonwalked. He spun. He flipped his hat. He broke out the "stanky leg" with both legs. And somehow, he won.
Exactly one year later, Drew was back on stage at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand. This time, nobody had to pull him out of the crowd. Drew and his family were there as special guests of rock bands Hoobastank and Staind, who performed before a Grandstand stage of thousands.
According to Drew, he's a longtime fan of the bands, and coincidentally, members of those bands also happen to be big fans of Drew's social media content.
For Drew, the symmetry of it all was almost hard to believe.
"It was fun," said Drew. "I like to give my family experiences that maybe they wouldn't normally get and this was definitely a fun and memorable experience for everyone."
Because in the year between those two trips to the Iowa State Fair, Drew's life got a little weird, in the best possible way.
"Last July, I started posting videos singing to my wife in an Asian accent I don't actually have, just for fun and to throw her off," said Drew. "I used TikTok to edit the videos and posted them to Facebook for friends to see. I didn't realize they were gaining so many views and shares on TikTok while this was all happening. It was a couple weeks before we found out they were going viral, and it hasn't really stopped to this day."
Drew has amassed more than 1 million followers on social media, including members of the bands Hoobastank and Staind, building an audience with videos that are funny, frequently ridiculous and unmistakably his own, even as his wife, Allison, looks on pretending to be annoyed at his antics.
In some videos, Drew, who is Asian, deliberately sings popular songs in an exaggerated Asian accent he doesn't actually have, transforming familiar lyrics into something entirely unexpected.
Other posts are simply him being himself, telling stories about his life, his family, his faith, and his experiences with the kind of delivery that makes ordinary moments funny.
There is no elaborate studio. No carefully manufactured online persona, and that, Drew believes, may be exactly why people connect with him.
"With social media, I never thought it would circulate and blow up like it did," said Drew. "But just being authentic and relatable and making a connection with people is so important, and even going to something like this at the State Fair as fans and then hearing that they were fans of our content was just really humbling too."
The humor may be what first catches viewers' attention, but those who stick around also get glimpses of the person behind it.
"The stereotypical humor of being oriental reminds so many people of a grandparent or parents or someone they know," said Drew. "If we can't laugh at ourselves a little bit, then life's going to be miserable, and it doesn't need to be that serious. For me, the music honors my mother who passed away a little over a year ago. She was my biggest musical influence and for a while, I had quit music, but my heart told me to get back. My mother was all about spreading music, joy, and laughter to everybody, and the fact that this reaches millions of people in a world that's so chaotic and negative and there's a lot of people that can be touched by it, that really means a lot to me. I've gotten a lot of messages from people with terminal illness or who are just going through a hard time that my videos make their days better. That's what keeps us going."
Drew's videos didn't just reach friends in the Fort Dodge area, among the more than one million followers he has across social media are the band Breaking Benjamin, who also invited the Drew family to an upcoming concert, actor Joel Courtney, Johnny Knoxville, members of the band Three Doors Down, Three Days Grace, the band Leeland, Emery, and more.
"It's about how it makes people feel," said Drew. "It's not about the attention or making it a career. I've turned down gigs because I don't want it to be about that. It's far beyond me at this point. If we can make a connection with people, no matter who they are, that's what's important, because we're really all the same at the end of the day."
Despite having celebrities routinely slide into his DMs, Drew is still the evening custodian at Duncombe Elementary School where he gets to interact with students and teachers.
"I don't know how long this ride will last, but it doesn't change who I am or what I do," said Drew. "I still want to provide for my family. My job at Duncombe is something I enjoy and it's sustainable. Social media can be unpredictable. I do it because I think it's fun and enjoyable."
For all that has changed in the past year, Drew seems most content with everything that hasn't.
He still lives in Fort Dodge. He still goes to work at Duncombe Elementary. He still tells dad jokes, sings songs to annoy his wife and looks for ways to make his family, and now millions of strangers, laugh.
One year ago, Drew walked onto the Iowa State Fair Grandstand stage hoping to embarrass himself enough to make his kids smile.
A year later, he walked back onto that same stage because some of the rock stars performing there knew his name, and were fans of his. Then he came home to Fort Dodge and went back to work.
The audience may be a little bigger these days. But for Drew, the reason for making people laugh hasn't changed.