We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aaron Foster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aaron below.
Aaron, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I have had a creative lifestyle for almost 30 years now, across several different disciplines; recycled metal artwork, acting, hosting, filmmaking, and my current main focus which is stand up comedy, have all had different projects along the way that meant a lot to me. But I can easily say that my current stand up show “Mostly Jokes” is the most meaningful thing I’ve ever been part of.
It’s a very personal show about my, and my family’s, struggles with mental health, mid-life and a few other things. I’m doing it largely for selfish reasons, it makes me feel a bit better, a bit less alone, to talk about this stuff publicly and humorously. It’s in the genre of some of my favorite comics that I’ve watched for decades; Marc Maron, Mike Birbiglia, Maria Bamford, Gary Gulman, Neal Brennan. comics who, by talking about their own struggles and obstacles, have helped me realize I wasn’t the only one. And while I’m certainly doing it for a lot smaller crowds than they are, I am still doing it.
I know starting stand up at 50 years old is insane, but I’m now two years in and touring my hour anywhere that will have me. It’s certainly not perfect, but it has allowed me to meet so many people who are dealing with a lot of the same stuff and, like I said, feel a little bit less alone.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My friends like to tell me that I have had a lot of different careers and that’s true, to a point. On paper, I’ve done everything from wholesale home furnishings to independent artist to tv host to sports nutrition startup to restauranteur to filmmaker to stand up comedian, but ultimately it’s mostly been about doing anything I can to avoiding having a “normal” job.
My career as an artist started in 2001 when I made a woman I had a crush on a map of the United States out of vintage recycled license plates. She was an artist and I hoped it would impress her. I didn’t get the girl, but I did get what is now a 25 year career as an artist that has somehow paid for everything else I’ve done since. It’s impossible to imagine what my life would be today if I had not made that first piece and then also been able to scale up to meet demand for the piece when it went somewhat viral in the early 2000s. The success of that business allowed me to finally take the chance to move to LA to chase my dreams of being an actor and while that didn’t go the way I hoped, it was still an amazing experience. That license plate map then funded the start up sports nutrition brand I started with my college roommate and another friend in 2011, my restaurants and finally full circle, back to acting and stand up these last few years.
Now, as much as I wish I had started standup back in 2005-09 when I lived in LA, I don’t think I’d be doing it the way I do it if I had. I needed that time to figure out what I wanted to talk about. I talk a lot about depression, anxiety, my family’s mental health (or lack thereof) and my own issues around some dark topics like abuse and suicide. I think I do it in a mostly funny way, but I also know my stuff isn’t for everyone. I get it, it’s sometimes people just want/need dick jokes and crowd work and that’s fair. But it’s not what I do.
The thing I’m most proud of is when someone finds me after a show, in person or via social media or email, and lets me know that my show meant something to them. I have a joke about my brother committing suicide that doesn’t usually get a ton of laughs, but I’ve had several versions of “My brother/sister/father/mother did that and that’s the funniest joke I’ve ever heard.” So that’s probably what I’m most proud of. Because that’s why I always wanted to do stand up. The ones I watched as a kid, they’d say things and every once in a while I’d realize, hey, I had an idea like that once, but I didn’t know you could say it out loud! And by them doing that, I felt less alone. So that’s what I hope to do with my stand up, too. It’s a pretty silly reason to do it, but when it works, it’s pretty fantastic.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Two things. Trying to find and be my most authentic self and hoping to make others feel less alone, the way so many artists have done for me in my life. There’s a story I tell a lot about how the movie Stand By Me changed my life when I was a kid. There’s a scene in that film where a young River Phoenix breaks down, just completely falls apart, and he says “I just want to go someplace where nobody knows me.” And I didn’t know anyone else felt like that. I was 12, I didn’t know anything, but I really didn’t know that. And for the first time in my life, I felt a little bit less alone. And over time, I realized that’s what art and film and actors and comics became for me, a way to feel less alone. I’m not saying they saved my life, but they’ve made it better and so my hope is to do that for someone else with my work which is why I talk about the things I do in my act. Because I know I’m not the only one who has been, or is going through, this stuff and so if I can talk about it in a way that is first and foremost funny, but that also lets people know they aren’t alone, then maybe I will have done some small amount of good with my time here.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Failure isn’t failure, it’s an opportunity to get better. When I have a comedy show that goes really well, where everyone loves every joke, I don’t learn anything. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful while it’s happening and it is and always will be the goal, but when that happens, there is no opportunity for growth.
But when a show doesn’t work perfectly, be it one joke or an entire shit show- that’s an opportunity to revisit all the things I thought I knew and an inspiration to try to understand what happened and why so that I can make it better for next time.
And that is the beauty and the tragedy of comedy, same joke, same delivery, same everything can kill one night and die a horrible death the next and there’s usually no way to know why. Was it me? The crowd? Who knows? I suppose ultimately it’s a numbers game and all you can do is play the odds the best you can, but you have to be willing to both trust yourself, because sometimes an audience is wrong, and to trust the audience and rethink your approach and try to figure out WHY it didn’t work this time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aaronfoster.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaroncharlesfoster/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charliegray/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamaaronfoster
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AaronFosterChannel
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/aaron-foster-los-angeles
Image Credits
All images except the license plate map are Cynthia Smalley
License plate map pic is credit : Jamie Kripke