Jason Taylor is as soft-spoken and unpretentious as they come, but in the realm of acting, he has boasted a long list of impressive credits.

Through playwrighting, acting and doing standup comedy, Taylor has spent his college career doing exactly what he loves — providing quality entertainment for everyone.

His newly-polished gem, a comedy called “Etta Spenser’s Soul,” debuts this weekend in Fisher Theater and is expected to live up to high expectations.

“This is the first time an undergraduate student’s work has been presented as a main stage production for ISU Theatre,” ISU Theatre publicist Carole Horowitz boasts. “They’re showcasing it as part of the season. It’s not a second-stage [production]; this is main stage.”

Taylor’s self-deprecating charm emanates from statements he politely makes about ISU Theatre taking a gamble, spending big bucks to produce his play and make sure everything turns out just the way he plans.

“I think they took a pretty huge risk on me,” says Taylor, senior in English with a minor in performing arts. “They went all out.”

Taylor expresses his great appreciation to ISU Theater, but says nervousness about the play has caused his sleeping patterns to change a bit over the past month. He is not sure how people are going to react to the play.

“If it bombs, I’m graduating, so I don’t have to take any heat,” he says in a Steve Martin-like jest. Taylor calls Martin his biggest influence and describes the comedian’s work as “inspired lunacy.”

Conversely, if “Etta” hits the big time, he will act as if he knew it would reach lofty heights all along.

Taylor describes his play in the same terms as a jet fighter would describe the heat and intensity of being in the midst of a dog fight.

“It starts off right in the thick of things and doesn’t slow down,” he says before dress rehearsal Tuesday.

Etta Spenser is a ruthless businesswoman who gets what she wants by any means she can command. Taylor calls her the “miracle worker of stockbrokers” because she can turn unprofitable companies into entities flowering with capital gain. She takes a third of her clients’ investments as payment for her services.

In a twist of fate, one of Etta’s investments turns sour and her life starts careening down the downward spiral. In an attempt to settle her risky affairs, she sells her soul to the devil’s brother to fix her tattered life.

She becomes a broker for hell and is spared fire and brimstone, that is until hell is involved in a corporate takeover.

“I thought it would be interesting to treat the religion world like the business world,” Taylor explains.

The play has two scenes and six characters — three humans and three spirits. It was partially inspired by the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ song “Hell.”

“It’s not as sacrilegious as it sounds,” he says.

Taylor wrote the play in about a week and a half last spring and has spent the last six months revising it. He has been present at the rehearsals of the play and was able to edit the dialogue during the first few weeks of rehearsal.

Patrick Gouran, associate professor of theater, is directing the play. Gouran says the play grabbed him on his first reading and he knew right away it was something he wanted to direct.

Gouran appreciates the freedom Taylor has given him and the actors to make small changes in the play.

“As a playwright, he is open to interpretation,” Gouran explains.

Although Taylor will be watching “Etta” from the sidelines, he will be performing an original one-man play called “Don’t Encourage Him” afterwards.

“Don’t Encourage Him” expounds on his relationship with his older brother Chris during their formative years on a farm in Prairie City. Chris is currently a graduate student at Iowa State obtaining a master’s degree in business.

The play recounts true incidents in Taylor’s family life, some in which the two injured each other in some way. The play includes stories “your mother would get very mad [about] if you told [them] in front of a lot of people.”

For example, Taylor nearly cut his brother’s finger off after he slammed it in a door.

Another time, Chris made him drink a whole bottle of cough syrup and it knocked him out. Taylor’s brother also gave him the TKO after he dropped a large battery on his head.

Once when the older brother was soldering parts of a model airplane, he made his younger brother hold the plane as hot solder was dripping down between his fingers.

“I held it because I [nearly] cut his finger off and I felt bad,” he says.

In the play, Taylor also describes his grandmother using her prosthetic leg to step on her grandchildren when they got out of line.

Despite fighting with his brother early on, Taylor manages to get along well with his sibling. After all, they are roommates, just as they used to be during Taylor’s first two years of college.

“We’re really tight,” he says.

Besides the two plays being offered this weekend, Taylor has written two others called “Doing the Clevers” and “Nuts.”

“Doing the Clevers” was performed at The Maintenance Shop last November and parodied the television classic “Leave It To Beaver.”

He says the concept was similar to “The Truman Show,” in which the main character’s life is constantly monitored by television cameras. Unlike Jim Carrey in the film, the family in “Doing the Clevers” knows they are being watched.

Taylor’s play was performed before the release of “The Truman Show” and was not incredibly similar to it.

One of Taylor’s other plays, “Nuts,” was chosen to be performed at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival last year.

In addition, Taylor has been a mainstay in the comedy troupe Grandma Mojo’s Moonshine Revival, an experience that is one of his fondest college memories. He has been acting in the group for five semesters and will make his farewell performance Wednesday night, since he graduates this month.

Taylor has also done standup comedy at the Funny Bone comedy club in Des Moines on amateur nights.

In 1995, Taylor was picked out of a group of ISU student comedians and flown to New York to do a five-minute stand-up routine for the USA Network. A one-minute clip of his act aired during an episode of USA’s “Up All Night.”

While in New York, Taylor unexpectedly met George Takei, who played Captain Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” when the actor tripped over Taylor’s suitcase.

Taylor is unsure what his future holds. He simply wants to “make people laugh” as he has done in his stint as an undergraduate at Iowa State.

Gouran says if Taylor continues writing and working with theater professionals, he has the potential to be an acknowledged playwright within the next five to 10 years.

He adds that Taylor is successful “because he gets beyond the surface level.”

“Anybody can describe a character, but to get inside them is difficult,” Gouran says.

But for Taylor, the experience of writing and working with Gouran and the “Etta” cast means more than prestige.

“The experience is worth more than anything,” he says.

“Etta Spenser’s Soul” and “Don’t Encourage Him” will be performed at Fisher Theater Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $4.50 for students and $9 general admission and are available at Ticketmaster outlets.