Performing in the Peaks: Aaron Foster

This week, transitioning into our new regular spot for Music of the Mountains, we're bringing a stand-up comedian, Aaron Foster, onto the show to talk about his upcoming set for his tour, Mostly Jokes, at the Backdoor Theater on Thursday, May 14th. Join us for this slight detour of an episode with Performing in the Peaks!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:08

So let's jump straight into our interview with a stand-up comedian Aaron Foster.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

All right. So uh do you mind just introducing yourself real quick? Sure. My name is Aaron Foster. I'm a comedian based in Reno, Nevada, and coming to uh doing a bunch of shows in Colorado and May.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Sweet. And one of those shows is coming to the backdoor theater in Netherland.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yes. I lived in Boulder for about five years, I think 2010 to 2014, 15-ish, something like that. And so I know Netherland a little bit. And the tour I've been doing has been focusing more on sort of smaller towns, smaller theaters because I'm a comedian that no one's ever heard of. And selling tickets in sort of major metro areas is very challenging for me. And so I've been targeting these smaller areas where people maybe have fewer, a little bit fewer options. I think I do a good show, but um it's tough to sell tickets when people haven't heard of you. So uh the smaller towns have been really good for me. And I and I love you know Colorado and Boulder and God to see friends and and uh have a couple friends in Netherland as well, so excited to do something there.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Sweet. Yeah, and so what is you know, in terms of your career, you know, how did you get started in County in the first place? You know, what's it how's it kind of developed over the years, all that stuff? You know, what what's been your journey?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Sure. I did stand up for the first time when I lived in Los Angeles back in 2009. Uh that was kind of the end of about a five-year run there when I was doing acting and and pursuing all of that kind of stuff and had a little bit of success in that world, but not kind of what I had hoped for in terms of um news flash. I did not become a uh a list after winning actor. So I did stand up for about the last six or seven months that I lived there, and oddly enough, one of the things that kind of made me stop was I was about 37, I think, at the time, and I got a little taste of it, and I realized like, wow, this is gonna be really hard, and it's gonna take a long time to like figure it out and to get established and to become a professional and make a living. And so that was one of the reasons that I I stepped away because I just thought it would take too long, and then of course I have come back to it now in my 50s with a little bit different perspective on it, and just something that I really love doing. I I opened a restaurant in Reno, Nevada right before the pandemic hit, literally about a month before. And one of the ways I kind of got through that was through a ton of social media and just sort of doing all these silly sort of movie scene recreations and and just talking to my phone every day to make sure people knew I was still there. And it made me fall back in love with with writing and performing and comedy and and things like that. And so um I sold my restaurant at the end of 2021 and started writing Stand Up Again. So it's been I've been doing it now as full time as anyone will let me for about three years. So this is what I've been doing for the last year and a half, is is traveling around the country, essentially putting myself on tour. You know, nobody's asking for it. So I've just uh trying to accelerate the learning curve, I guess, and I have a show that I think is good and is is you know is worth seeing and I'm proud of it, but I'm not on anyone's radar as far as comedy clubs go for the most part. To I mean I get some feature spots here and there, but to headline a comedy club is you know that's not really an option for me right now because I you know people haven't heard of me, so I just do it myself.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

So and what kept you kind of coming back to to comedy? What stuck out about it to you in the first place and what what got you inspired to to come back to it in in that way?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

I fell in love with comedy probably early teens and have just been a huge fan ever since. And I think kind of two reasons. That one is, you know, comedians they say things in you know, kind of like, oh, I never thought of it like that before. It might be the most basic sort of idea or premise or everyday activity, but you know, we sort of need to put a new spin on it, look at it from a different perspective. So that was always fascinating to me. But then even as a kid, every once in a while I would think, oh, I have thought of it like that before, but I didn't know that you could say that out loud, you know, these ideas that that are sort of maybe outside of the mainstream or or like I said, a different perspective. I thought I was the only one who thought that. And then so comedians for me as a kid were somebody to kind of identify with and think feel a little bit less alone, like, oh, someone else thinks like I do about these things. And and I you know I didn't realize that. So that was a big a big part of comedy for me as a kid. And then the last you know, five, six years, there's been a boom of comics who are who are really my favorite comics now, talking a lot about really personal stuff, uh a lot about mental health, depression, anxiety, this kind of stuff. And you know, I have struggled with that stuff in my whole life and a as have many members of my family. So it was again, it was another thing like I didn't know you could talk about that out loud and make jokes about it and make people laugh and make people feel better about maybe their own situation. So that was a big inspiration for me when I came back because I want to write about this stuff. I want to be really honest about my life and maybe some darker topics that you know might not seem funny uh when you start out, but it's been, you know, I hate to say like my comedy is my therapy. I think that's maybe a little bit of a turn-off, but um it is to an extent, and it's just been a way for me to talk about this stuff in a little bit different way that's you know outside of therapy or outside of like stress and drama and like, oh my god, how are we gonna fix this and thing? Well, it is what it is, and this is my life, and so if I can make jokes about it every once in a while, that's a nice thing. You know, they say laughter actually changes your brain chemistry, and so that's kind of what I'm out to do, you know, for myself and and hopefully for for people who come to my shows.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

For sure. Are there any particular influences that have inspired you throughout your journey and and particularly in the last few years with that?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, my favorite comics is a small handful of them that I I I always try to say them in alphabetical order in case any of them ever come across me as saying this so that they don't think like, well, he likes me, but he put me fourth. It's like it's alphabetical. So Maria Bamford, I think, is the greatest working comedian right now, and she's not on a lot of people's radars, but she's she's not as known as she should be. You know, she's a she's an eccentric woman who's, I think, maybe early 60s now, and you know, she's talks a lot about mental health. She talks about going into the mental hospital, suicidal ideation, all this kind of stuff. But she is really amazing what she does. And from there, I'm Gummaria Banford. Mike Brabiglia, I think, is is great in the way he does sort of long-form storytelling, but that is actually absolutely peppered with jokes. And then I would say Neil Brennan, who's done a couple of specials about mental health as well. Gary Goleman, I think, is probably my favorite comic. I think he's a brilliant writer. And nobody does what he does in deconstructing mental health and long form taking one topic. I mean, he does he's got a 15-minute bit on checking out at Trader Joe's. He's really uh brilliant. And I think Mark Maron and Taylor Tomlinson, both, you know, more comics who talk about their lives and very personal stuff. And so that has all been inspirational to me in different different ways and things that I identify with them. And again, like, oh, they're talking about it, they're joking about it. You know, maybe I could and I'm not putting myself on that level, but like, oh, maybe I could do that. You know, those comics have really helped me in my life. It's like, oh maybe maybe I could do that both for myself and for for other people. So that's I know that I hesitate to say that. I feel like it comes across in a or can can be very pretentious, but like I'm gonna I'm gonna do comedy to help people. I mean I'm helping myself and and uh but I do have conversations with people after shows that the people that like my stuff seem to really like it. And I I you know I but I do know that it's not for everybody and and it's a little bit different than the sort of very popular forms of comedy right now, of crowd work and things like that. Like I don't really do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Fair. In terms of the shows that you have done, you know, you've talked about how but comedy has this journey has allowed you to express a lot of those subjects in a way that you never thought was possible. And so was there was there anything that kind of shifted in your perception of comedy as you were kind of making this transition? Is there anything you know, what's it been like kind of making that transition into into what your routine is now, all that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yeah, I think I think the biggest thing is just really it's easy to say, but it's and to kind of flow past it, but like you can you can talk about anything. I mean the the punchlines are are you know the last are all are the most important thing for sure with billing, you know. I I don't like to bill myself as a one person show. I I know there are some people who sort of describe it that way. But I do about 90 minutes and there's by my count, there's two hundred and thirty one jokes in there. So they're you know, it's not uh ten minute monologues in the in the middle of this thing, even though you know I I do call it mostly jokes. Because there's a cup there's two or three sections that are about two minutes long that are that are not particularly funny or but work within the the bigger structure of the piece. So I think just they're yeah, I think really, you know, you hear like, oh, you can talk about anything as a comic, and then really like seeing other people do it and then doing it myself and and seeing it work was you know reassuring and encouraging. But it's taken me a long time to be able to talk about some of that stuff. I mean, there's uh you know, I I talk a lot about suicide in one one portion of the show. And that's you know, the first time I did those jokes, it did not go particularly well for me. But I, you know, it's uh it's taken me a long time to kind of figure out how to do it in a way that is okay for people and that is that it's very funny and that is uh doesn't upset people and all that kind of stuff. So it's it's been a long process.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Sure. But in in terms of being able to develop that routine and being able to see people react to it, what's been you know, what's been great about being able to connect with people through that comedy since you've restarted it?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

The best thing about it is hearing people laugh about it. It's it's seeing people be surprised about that topic coming up in the way that it does in my show, and it's talking to people afterwards and sometimes getting emails and comments and things like that uh from people who who really are grateful that somebody is talking about that, making them laugh about such a subject. You know, most of us have been touched in some way by maybe not suicide, but mental health, depression, anxiety, uh whether it's ourselves, family members, friends, and it's talked about more than it was, certainly, but it's still, I don't think, talked about enough, and I certainly not joked about that often. So it's nice to be able to connect with with people on that kind of stuff. And uh I mean people after my shows, I I always if they say, Oh my god, I related to so much of what you said, and I was like, Oh, I'm sorry I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you did that. But it is a way for people to connect, and you know, that's that's the best part of it for sure, being able to laugh about that stuff, even though you know you may wake up tomorrow and be like, Oh, oh yeah, it's not really that funny today or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Well, is there anything in general that you hope people do take away long term from your shows when they come to see your routine?

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Well, I mean the most important thing is that they have a good time and that they laugh. You know, it's not I mean I've you know, like I said, I do jokes about depression, I do jokes about mental health, I do jokes about this, some of this dark stuff. I do jokes about Paul Rod and dating and you know being dating apps and you know this kind of stuff too. But I do try to let people know that that there is that other part of my show so that they know what to expect. Yeah, I mean I just want people to have a good time for for an hour and a half. That's the main thing. And if they can take anything else away from that, that's just a bonus in terms of maybe seeing somebody else that that has some of the same issues that they do and things that don't get talked about. But the laughter is is far and away number one. And you know, all this stuff is written as stand-up for for performing, you know, in these stand-up clubs and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So we and and I I I think we talked about this before. Is this your first major tours that's restarting again? Is it like have you been touring already a little bit before?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Like what's I've been I've been doing this thing where I rent these small theaters all over the country. I've been doing it for about 18 months. And it kind of comes and goes, it hasn't been totally consistent. I'll do a run, you know, I'll have a really busy month of ten or twelve or fourteen shows and then I'll I'll have you know three or four weeks off or whatever. Because I do this all myself. I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent, I don't have any. So finding the theaters, booking the space, selling the tickets, promoting, marketing, all this kind of stuff. It's it's very, very time consuming. And I kind of lower this now. The first year there was a lot of like, oh, I booked 10 shows. That means I have to sell, you know, whatever it is, a thousand seats or something like that. And the backdoor theater is is uh I think the biggest theater that I've rented. I I I honestly didn't quite realize how big it was when I rented it. It's usually the first thing I look for and I try to keep it under a hundred. But when I was like, all right, well let's let's see what happens. So yeah, I've been doing this you know for for the last 18 months or so and uh just trying to refine this thing and you know it's not gonna be on Netflix, but I'm at some point we'll uh we'll you know have it professionally filmed in the next few months and and it'll go on on YouTube and we'll see we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

For sure. And yeah, I don't know. Is there is there just anything else in general that you that you want people to know about this tour or other things that are upcoming or anything else about your own?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Um Well, I think for the for the Netherlands show specifically, uh I am donating a portion of every ticket to the local oh boy, I'm gonna forget the acronym, but I think it's the Netherland Fire Prevention Authority. I believe that's what it is. I like to do stuff like that with local nonprofits to sort of give back with support little local communities if they uh you know when they support me. And it helps get the word out usually, you know, it's sort of there's a selfish motive to it that hopefully it sells more tickets, but it's also like it gets the word out, and I'd rather give the money to a good local cause than pay for another ad on on Facebook or Instagram or whatever. So I always like to mention that. It's it does uh whether you like whether you think I'm funny or not, you won't you can walk out thinking, well, you know, money some of the money wants to a good local cause. Yeah, so you know, including that information is always good.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

For sure. Uh yeah, I I I don't know. I think those are the big questions that I have on on my end. Okay. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this, and it was great talking to you about this.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, thanks so much. I I I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Thank you so much to Aaron for coming on board and joining us for the Mountain Ear podcast. He'll be performing at the Backdoor Theater, located in the Netherlands Community Center at 715 North Highway 72 in the Netherlands. On Thursday, May 14th, 1745, 400,000, and then we're going to be able