Everybody's in LA: Ariel Elias, Comedian
Interview by Paul Oswell
Out All Day: First of all, huge congratulations on your successes since you left New Orleans! I'd just arrived here when you were becoming an ever-better comedian and preparing to leave, but I saw you at plenty of shows. You come back to town pretty regularly - what do you like or miss about the New Orleans scene and audiences?
Ariel Elias: The first six or seven years after I left, I was so broke that I couldn’t afford to come back, so I guess now I’m making up for lost time. But New Orleans will always be my favorite place in the world. Every time I’m here, I flirt with the idea of moving back. New Orleans audiences are unique in that they desperately want to have fun and laugh. I feel like in New York, everyone is kind of hoping, or at least expecting, that you’ll fail. So if you’re good, they’re like, oh ok. But people in New Orleans are used to having a good night, and they’re rooting for that. Even when they’re blackout, they’re not usually trying to start a fight, they just want to have a good time.
Let’s go back just a couple of years: you were already achieving success in comedy, living and working in New York, and doing high-profile shows, but for anyone that might not know, could you tell us briefly about the incident that raised your profile even more, pretty much overnight?
Ha, sure, speaking of starting a fight. I was the middling act at a club in the middle of New Jersey, doing mediocre with a crowd that was not rooting for me, when a woman in the audience raised her hand and asked if I voted for Donald Trump. At first, I skirted the issue, knowing she was trying to set a trap for me. This went on for a little while until she said, “I can just tell by your jokes that you voted for Joe Biden.” So I said, “I can tell by the fact that you’re talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Donald Trump.” I thought that was enough to shut her down and move on, but then her husband, in an act of true love for his wife, hurled a full can of beer at my head. He missed, I picked up the rest of the beer, chugged it, posted the clip, it went viral, I went on Kimmel, and was suddenly able to sell tickets to my own shows [see the clip on YouTube here or watch our link at the end of the interview].
I’m sure the vast majority of people coming to see you since then have been 100% sympathetic to what happened, but have you had anyone coming specifically to stir up similar trouble? Did the Asshole Union deploy any agitators?
No, actually. I really think most people aren’t looking to be assholes, and even when they are, they’re usually not trying to spend $20 a ticket plus a two drink minimum to do so. I wonder if there was somebody who was like, I’m gonna go give that woman a piece of my mind, and then just couldn’t find a babysitter for the kids that night or whatever.
I hate myself as I type this hacky question, but what comedic influences made an impression on you growing up in Kentucky?
I had a thirty minute drive to school every morning, and my dad would listen to the Bob and Tom radio show. So I was exposed to whatever comedians were trying to sell tickets, which is how I ended up with favorites like Mike Birbiglia and Nikki Glaser, but also Rodney Carrington and Greg Warren.
You must have performed pretty much all over the country by now - do you see any (sweepingly general) regional differences in audiences, or are we mainly all just children of god looking for an hour of laughs as the world burns?
Irish audiences over 40 don’t want to hear your sex jokes, but they do want to hear your jokes about US politics and all of our school shootings. Audiences in Toronto and southern cities are my favorite - the rare combination of smart and totally down to have fun. Places that have beautiful weather all year round are my least favorite audiences. They don’t know how to just be inside. The best crowds are the ones who can embrace their demons, take them out, look at them, and laugh, but I really believe that if you move to a place where it hardly ever rains and it’s always lovely outside, it’s because you’re running from your darkness. Which reminds me, I’m doing four shows in San Diego, CA August 22 and 23rd, tell your friends!
Even at the low level that I was at when I did comedy, I had sets in some really weird places…rib restaurants, a memorial for someone who had died that I didn’t know, four feet from my parent’s astonished faces, etc…do you have any stand-out venues or performing experiences that haunt your dreams?
Man, I love walking into a show and realizing, what are we doing here, what choices have I made in my life that brought me here, I hope this gets cancelled. I vaguely remember doing a bowling alley with (fellow New Orleans comic) Andrew Polk somewhere in Alabama once. The worst show I ever did, and that includes the one where I got physically assaulted, was at this banquet for a chapter of the Freemasons in the middle of nowhere Queens. Nobody introduced me as a comedian, and I was too green to know to tell them, so they all thought I was going to sing, and then I just launched into jokes about being Jewish. I remember so vividly that because the “stage” was just the dance floor, the audience was on either side of me, and all that was in front of me was a giant mirror. So I just watched myself bomb for 15 minutes. Then I was supposed to read off the names of the officers, but they all had these super German names. One of the first names I read was this really old, frail guy, who stood up and immediately toppled over. At that moment, I was so jealous of him.
It feels like a lot of comics - the good ones, I mean - that start out in New Orleans at some point need to make a choice and either be a big fish in a small swamp, or head to NYC or Los Angeles to climb the ranks (I refuse to acknowledge Austin in this scenario). Was that a difficult decision, and was L.A. ever in the mix? Does it loom in your future - do you have acting ambitions or love it when there’s just one season?
Well, I’ve already discussed my views on too much sunshine. I will say that the comedy landscape now is so different from what it was in 2014, so I don’t know what decision I would make if I was starting out today. But the prevailing wisdom at the time was that L.A. was where you went to get famous, and New York was where you went to get good. It wasn’t even about how many times I could get on stage a night. It was more about how many incredible comedians I could see every night. I could watch every kind of comedian, every night, multiple times a night, make subtle changes and discard a joke and add a tag. It was like going to comedy boot camp. I learned to trim the fat, get to the punchline, and figure out my voice. I remember moving to New York believing I had 25 minutes of material, and after being in New York for a year, I was like, ok maybe I have five minutes and most of it sucks.
You’re also a writer. Is that something that takes a back seat as you focus on your current stand-up successes or is it something that you can maintain while you’re on the road, or working on new stand-up material?
It all goes together. Being on the road is a lot of downtime, especially when you’re in a place that kind of sucks and there’s nothing to do anyway.
I was interviewing Saya Meads not long ago and we were talking about how there hasn’t really ever been a ‘New Orleans’ sitcom. Is that something you have ever thought about tackling, or had any ideas for?
Are you telling me you don’t consider Treme a sitcom? jkjkjk...I don’t think it’s my story to tell. I didn’t grow up in New Orleans and haven’t lived there in 10 years. I don’t think the story of a Tulane college girl is what anyone is craving. That said, if Alex Jennings and Sean Patton want to team up and create Portlandia but for New Orleans, I’d love to help.
What's one thing you always do/eat/see when you're here?
I always see some old friends and day drink along Bayou St. John. I really like taking mushrooms and going to the sculpture garden in City Park. I love a hangover breakfast at Slim Goodies and a drunken late night stop-in at Hanks. Otherwise, I just walk and stay open to whatever happens, as long as I can get to my show on time.
Let’s end with a joke. I know you’ve been writing a joke a day on social media - can you share today’s with us?
I haven’t written today’s yet, but just know that every day I wake up in a panic going, “What am I going to write today? Why am I doing this to myself? Why did I say I’d do this for a whole year? 30 days would have been fine!” So maybe there’s something funny in that?
Ariel Elias is performing four shows at Sports Drink this weekend, May 2nd and 3rd. Click here for ticketing links.
Follow Ariel on Instagram
Interview by Paul Oswell
Out All Day: First of all, huge congratulations on your successes since you left New Orleans! I'd just arrived here when you were becoming an ever-better comedian and preparing to leave, but I saw you at plenty of shows. You come back to town pretty regularly - what do you like or miss about the New Orleans scene and audiences?
Ariel Elias: The first six or seven years after I left, I was so broke that I couldn’t afford to come back, so I guess now I’m making up for lost time. But New Orleans will always be my favorite place in the world. Every time I’m here, I flirt with the idea of moving back. New Orleans audiences are unique in that they desperately want to have fun and laugh. I feel like in New York, everyone is kind of hoping, or at least expecting, that you’ll fail. So if you’re good, they’re like, oh ok. But people in New Orleans are used to having a good night, and they’re rooting for that. Even when they’re blackout, they’re not usually trying to start a fight, they just want to have a good time.
Let’s go back just a couple of years: you were already achieving success in comedy, living and working in New York, and doing high-profile shows, but for anyone that might not know, could you tell us briefly about the incident that raised your profile even more, pretty much overnight?
Ha, sure, speaking of starting a fight. I was the middling act at a club in the middle of New Jersey, doing mediocre with a crowd that was not rooting for me, when a woman in the audience raised her hand and asked if I voted for Donald Trump. At first, I skirted the issue, knowing she was trying to set a trap for me. This went on for a little while until she said, “I can just tell by your jokes that you voted for Joe Biden.” So I said, “I can tell by the fact that you’re talking when nobody wants you to that you voted for Donald Trump.” I thought that was enough to shut her down and move on, but then her husband, in an act of true love for his wife, hurled a full can of beer at my head. He missed, I picked up the rest of the beer, chugged it, posted the clip, it went viral, I went on Kimmel, and was suddenly able to sell tickets to my own shows [see the clip on YouTube here or watch our link at the end of the interview].
I’m sure the vast majority of people coming to see you since then have been 100% sympathetic to what happened, but have you had anyone coming specifically to stir up similar trouble? Did the Asshole Union deploy any agitators?
No, actually. I really think most people aren’t looking to be assholes, and even when they are, they’re usually not trying to spend $20 a ticket plus a two drink minimum to do so. I wonder if there was somebody who was like, I’m gonna go give that woman a piece of my mind, and then just couldn’t find a babysitter for the kids that night or whatever.
I hate myself as I type this hacky question, but what comedic influences made an impression on you growing up in Kentucky?
I had a thirty minute drive to school every morning, and my dad would listen to the Bob and Tom radio show. So I was exposed to whatever comedians were trying to sell tickets, which is how I ended up with favorites like Mike Birbiglia and Nikki Glaser, but also Rodney Carrington and Greg Warren.
You must have performed pretty much all over the country by now - do you see any (sweepingly general) regional differences in audiences, or are we mainly all just children of god looking for an hour of laughs as the world burns?
Irish audiences over 40 don’t want to hear your sex jokes, but they do want to hear your jokes about US politics and all of our school shootings. Audiences in Toronto and southern cities are my favorite - the rare combination of smart and totally down to have fun. Places that have beautiful weather all year round are my least favorite audiences. They don’t know how to just be inside. The best crowds are the ones who can embrace their demons, take them out, look at them, and laugh, but I really believe that if you move to a place where it hardly ever rains and it’s always lovely outside, it’s because you’re running from your darkness. Which reminds me, I’m doing four shows in San Diego, CA August 22 and 23rd, tell your friends!
Even at the low level that I was at when I did comedy, I had sets in some really weird places…rib restaurants, a memorial for someone who had died that I didn’t know, four feet from my parent’s astonished faces, etc…do you have any stand-out venues or performing experiences that haunt your dreams?
Man, I love walking into a show and realizing, what are we doing here, what choices have I made in my life that brought me here, I hope this gets cancelled. I vaguely remember doing a bowling alley with (fellow New Orleans comic) Andrew Polk somewhere in Alabama once. The worst show I ever did, and that includes the one where I got physically assaulted, was at this banquet for a chapter of the Freemasons in the middle of nowhere Queens. Nobody introduced me as a comedian, and I was too green to know to tell them, so they all thought I was going to sing, and then I just launched into jokes about being Jewish. I remember so vividly that because the “stage” was just the dance floor, the audience was on either side of me, and all that was in front of me was a giant mirror. So I just watched myself bomb for 15 minutes. Then I was supposed to read off the names of the officers, but they all had these super German names. One of the first names I read was this really old, frail guy, who stood up and immediately toppled over. At that moment, I was so jealous of him.
It feels like a lot of comics - the good ones, I mean - that start out in New Orleans at some point need to make a choice and either be a big fish in a small swamp, or head to NYC or Los Angeles to climb the ranks (I refuse to acknowledge Austin in this scenario). Was that a difficult decision, and was L.A. ever in the mix? Does it loom in your future - do you have acting ambitions or love it when there’s just one season?
Well, I’ve already discussed my views on too much sunshine. I will say that the comedy landscape now is so different from what it was in 2014, so I don’t know what decision I would make if I was starting out today. But the prevailing wisdom at the time was that L.A. was where you went to get famous, and New York was where you went to get good. It wasn’t even about how many times I could get on stage a night. It was more about how many incredible comedians I could see every night. I could watch every kind of comedian, every night, multiple times a night, make subtle changes and discard a joke and add a tag. It was like going to comedy boot camp. I learned to trim the fat, get to the punchline, and figure out my voice. I remember moving to New York believing I had 25 minutes of material, and after being in New York for a year, I was like, ok maybe I have five minutes and most of it sucks.
You’re also a writer. Is that something that takes a back seat as you focus on your current stand-up successes or is it something that you can maintain while you’re on the road, or working on new stand-up material?
It all goes together. Being on the road is a lot of downtime, especially when you’re in a place that kind of sucks and there’s nothing to do anyway.
I was interviewing Saya Meads not long ago and we were talking about how there hasn’t really ever been a ‘New Orleans’ sitcom. Is that something you have ever thought about tackling, or had any ideas for?
Are you telling me you don’t consider Treme a sitcom? jkjkjk...I don’t think it’s my story to tell. I didn’t grow up in New Orleans and haven’t lived there in 10 years. I don’t think the story of a Tulane college girl is what anyone is craving. That said, if Alex Jennings and Sean Patton want to team up and create Portlandia but for New Orleans, I’d love to help.
What's one thing you always do/eat/see when you're here?
I always see some old friends and day drink along Bayou St. John. I really like taking mushrooms and going to the sculpture garden in City Park. I love a hangover breakfast at Slim Goodies and a drunken late night stop-in at Hanks. Otherwise, I just walk and stay open to whatever happens, as long as I can get to my show on time.
Let’s end with a joke. I know you’ve been writing a joke a day on social media - can you share today’s with us?
I haven’t written today’s yet, but just know that every day I wake up in a panic going, “What am I going to write today? Why am I doing this to myself? Why did I say I’d do this for a whole year? 30 days would have been fine!” So maybe there’s something funny in that?
Ariel Elias is performing four shows at Sports Drink this weekend, May 2nd and 3rd. Click here for ticketing links.
Follow Ariel on Instagram