We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aaron Tanyhill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Aaron, appreciate you joining us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

As a black man in America I know what it’s like to be misunderstood, to be mischaractorized, society has tried to place me in boxes either physically and figuratively.

where blackness is viewed in a monolith sometimes you are expected to act or present a certain way, a mischaracterization, one time I was held at gunpoint by a police officer because I fit the description and AR-15 in my face because of misunderstanding, boxes physical or figuratively

As a comedian & radio host I use my voice to clear up any misunderstandings, I am who I am and when you listen to my set, when you listen to my show you learn a little more about me.

Aaron, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Aaron Tanyhill, I am a comedian, a radio show host and show runner. I perform stand up in various venues in Central Florida and I have a weekly radio show called “Let’s Be Friends”. Let’s Be Friends is my love letter to local artist, with this platform I interview local musicians, comedians, filmmakers and other artists of any discipline. With this show I cast a wide net to spotlight interesting people doing beautiful things within the arts community.

I started in radio at WPRK 91.5fm as an intern my sophomore year of college back in 2012. I was the Hip Hop music director and had my first show, a hip hop show called Life & Rhymes. I graduated college left radio and moved to South Central Los Angeles to serve in an Americorps program, moved back to Florida got my Masters in Liberal Studies, graduated Law School and use all of that knowledge and experience to tell jokes on stage to strangers. This year I made my way back to Radio to share my platform with local artist. On Let’s Be Friends listeners will here from Rock bands, Comedians, Singers, Rappers, filmmakers, Actors, Writers, and even the local Roller Skate Crew

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal of Let’s Be Friends is to connect the artist community to each other and to broaden the spotlight on local artist. Orlando FL is know for it’s theme parks, which c’mon Disney World and Universal Orlando, we love them but what isn’t as highly publicized is the vibrant arts community here. From musicians to actors, from filmmakers to comedians there are tremendous artists here and my goal is to put that on display for the entire world. WE GOT MOTION IN ORLANDO. When you listen to Let’s Be Friends not only will the listener learn about an artist and what they do, but will the listener learn about who artist is on a personal level through casual conversation and hopefully will feel like they are friends with them. We also leverage social media to drive engagement back to the artist and once they are on the show we share their content via stories and post this way if you want to learn about what is happening in Orlando and what the artist are up to on any given week, we are a one stop shop.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the best way that society can support artist on a practical level would be to go see local artist do their craft, see shows, buy merch, follow and share on social media. But even more importantly on a conceptual level I think we need to collectively reexamine how we view art and how we experience it. We must allow everyone to be an artist and not feel the pressure to monetize your passion, I think it is great to be ambitious, to be world famous in your craft but there is nothing wrong with being a local artist living off your art by playing shows or creating on a local level. I think we as the consumers of art look to major markets and networks to tell us what is good. I have seen shows on Broadway in NYC and I have seen shows at the Winter Garden Theater and left with the same feeling, what an amazing cast and crew, what a good experience. I saw Wu Tang Clan perform at the Forum in Inglewood and I’ve seen the local bands like Cinema Stereo or Felicity perform at Wills Pub, same energy, same feeling. To create a thriving artist ecosystem we have to value art at all levels, this begins by doing what I mentioned earlier go see local artist do their craft, see shows, buy merch, follow and share on social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bio.site/LetsBeFriends?fbclid=PAAaZ9PgnOxoEcyO_XoIq88D8LrskaCRC8MaScVcDMb5C73Q439YKsTJ8Tmhw
• Instagram: letsbefriendswprk