Q: How did you get your start in comedy?
A: I studied improv and sketch comedy at a performing arts high school in San Francisco and at Dartmouth College. I came back to San Francisco, and after six months of watching terrible stand-up on the now-defunct Ha! Network, and taking terrible notes in a grubby little notebook, I did my first stand-up set at the Holy City Zoo, another now-defunct landmark comedy club in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset district. After only three minutes of poorly written jokes and two ambivalent laughs, I was hooked.
Q: You rarely perform stand-up in your hometown of Los Angeles; why?
A: There are so many well-known headliners living in Los Angeles that stage time is hard to come by. Also, when I’m home I’m usually “working out”—what comedians call trying out new material. We all prefer to do this under the radar. It’s like being an Olympic athlete: You don’t want anyone to see you fall on your butt on the ice all day; you want them to come see you land that triple lutz in competition. I actually do perform in town quite a bit; I just don’t tell anyone about it. If you do stumble across me doing a show locally, enjoy, as you are definitely seeing a work in progress!
Q: What’s your favorite embarrassing story?
A: I have so many, it’s hard to choose! I had a nightmare for years that one day I would run out on stage with my pants unzipped; and then it happened. I heard my name being announced while I was in the bathroom, so I hurriedly washed my hands, ran out on stage, and did five minutes of jokes with my fly down. About halfway through, someone pointed it out so I made a joke about it (“I thought I felt a breeze in here!”), zipped up, and that was it. It actually ended those nightmares for me forever—once you’ve had the worst thing that can happen on stage actually happen, you’re not afraid of anything anymore!
Q: Who are your stand-up heroes?
A: Lenny Bruce, Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Brian Regan, Bill Hicks, George Lopez, and always, the superlative Richard Pryor.
Q: Which current comedian would you rather not follow?
A: Brian Regan. He’s the funniest person alive.
Q: Do you prefer improv or sketch comedy?
A: Sketch. I love improv, but when you have a large group of heavily drinking adults in the audience, inevitably your suggestions range widely among such diverse topics as “poop,” “doodie,” “sex,” and a bunch of other words I can’t repeat here. There are only so many times you can make a poop joke. Fart jokes, on the other hand, are endlessly funny.
Q: Where do you find inspiration for your material?
A: My life. I try to be as true to real life as I possibly can. And my life is hilarious. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I have no idea. It’s probably bad.
Q: It’s still much more challenging for a woman to succeed in stand-up and comedy writing. Why do you think that is?
A: I think part of the reason is that women just aren’t socialized to be aggressively silly. We are taught to be precious and decorous, and comedy requires the natural ability to let yourself look crazy, stupid, or ugly (or all three!) in front of huge groups of people. Because there aren’t that many women doing comedy, we’re also judged much more critically. There can be a thousand mediocre guys hacking it up out there, but if there’s one unfunny chick, we all have to quit and get jobs at Hooters. Which is funny in its own way, I suppose. I mean, how can anyone work with those massive wedgies all day long?
Q: Did you have any mentors in your early days of stand-up? If so, what did you learn?
A: Tom Rhodes and Sue Murphy gave me encouragement and advice: mainly to stick with it and not give up. George Lopez was the first headliner to stick up for me with club owners, and he helped me get started in LA. He always supports younger comedians and brings them along. He is a huge example for me.
www.myspace.com/aishatyler
