We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexander Heller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexander below.

Alexander, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

Oh my god. I actually remember this so clearly. It was a while ago now, but…ok.

When I first moved to New York I picked up some work for this comedy agent who was working out of another agency’s office. The larger agency was this weird (possibly illegal?) operation where they had the right to book acts, but they didn’t actually represent them. So they’d book all these random musicians you forgot about for Bar Mitzvah’s on Long Island or whatever. You need a singer from the 80s to perform at a quinceanera? A disgraced rapper for your retirement party? These were the guys.

Anyway, wayyyyy in the back of this office was this comedy agent. He was like a character out of Broadway Danny Rose or something. The kind of guy you didn’t think existed anymore. Just like a relic of a different kind of entertainment business. Honestly he was a genuinely sweet man. And he really worked hard for his clients. Super nice but just…a fedora agent, you know? Like he wore an actual fedora.

So there were three people crammed into his tiny office. Him and his two assistants. And then I sat at a desk outside the door. I only worked there for a month or so, but I became friends with his assistant, who called me one day out of the blue asking if I could work clean. I was working for some PR firm at this point doing…honestly I don’t even know what I was doing. Mostly finding empty offices to cry in after my girlfriend broke up with me. He said he had a gig for me and he’d email me the details. I took a selfie and sent it to him as my headshot for promotional material.

The next night I took a train to a town that I can’t even remember the name of to be the feature act for a comic I also can’t remember the name of. But what I DO remember is walking into the “multicultural church” where the show was taking place. I was following a puppet show where two puppets danced to the Nay Nay, and performing for the church elder in the front row. I walked on stage and said “If my synagogue had dancing puppets, maybe I would have kept going”. The elder raised his hands and did a prayer – and then I had a great show. I think I made a couple hundred bucks? I guess that’s another part of the story I don’t remember.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So I’ve had a sort of winding, stop-start path through the entertainment industry, mostly because of having to always leave because of my Visa. But the short version is: the goal was always to be a writer-producer, and I started in standup because it felt like the most brutal test of “am I good enough to be in the comedy world professionally?”

I was passed at a couple clubs in New York, I went on the road a little bit, and then I wrote a pilot with a standup friend of mine that ended up getting some really big producers attached. It was the first real thing we’d written and sent out to people in the industry and we were like…whoa this is the easiest business in the world! We’re on our way! Well…that ended quickly. But it did give us both an opportunity to come to LA, to take meetings, and sign with representation.

From there I realized that LA was the place I should be, but ultimately wasn’t able to stay because of Visa issues. But all that ended up being for the best, since I was able to create an amazing job with Just For Laughs, the comedy festival based out of Montreal. They had just started a production company in LA, and were looking for someone to bridge the gap between producing original comedy shows that could become TV formats, and programing those shows at their festivals. I worked there for 6 months and then the pandemic happened and all live events were cancelled. So…my plans changed again and I ended up finding my way back to LA through film school at AFI.

So all that to say: I’ve done standup, I’m always writing, producing live shows. I’ve worked for a production company, for a festival, and independently produced…all in comedy. Then I went to grad school and I JUST got a job as a Coordinator at Comedy Store Studios. We’re a startup production company based out the the World Famous Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. and we’re basically creating a whole slate of standup-adjacent content. We’re using our talent relationships and access to the best stages in comedy to create new formats that we’ll distribute everywhere from YouTube to streaming. It’s a brand new gig, but I’m honestly so excited by what we’re already doing and how quickly we’re growing.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Money? It’s a real thing, honestly, and it goes both ways. Especially as you get a little older. I think people with so-called regular jobs look at the salaries in entertainment and are shocked. Because it’s shocking. Starting salary for an assistant at a major studio is 42-45k. To live in LOS ANGELES! That’s crazy. Meanwhile the starting salary for a kid coming out of college to work at JP Morgan or Goldman or somewhere is probably 150k. Honestly probably more with that well-deserved bonus. That’s a kid who was throwing up on himself at a frat party two weeks ago, and now he’s making more money then he knows what to do with. Or maybe those were just my friends? Whatever. It’s crazy.

But it’s really hard to keep justifying making less money than your peers as you get older and want to settle down a bit. Whether it’s getting married and having a family, or just…not thinking twice about paying for an Uber. The money in creative industries is abysmal. I think it’s also something that not a lot of creative people are willing to talk and be open about. Everyone always says “the money will come” or “if you’re doing it just for the art, then you’ll start to get paid.”

But that’s so wrong. People who are in creative fields need to think about, talk about, and prepare themselves for the realities of the situation they’re in. It’s not gross to ask for money in exchange for services rendered. It doesn’t make you somehow less of an artist to insist of a fair wage. You don’t somehow become more creative if you skip lunch.

Maybe I’m going off track with this answer but…ya. I just think non-creatives get the Starving Artist thing and the Millionaire Entertainer thing, but they don’t really understand the Underpaid Working Person lifestyle- creative or not.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It has to be just looking forward to doing work.

Like any job there are a lot of un-sexy things to do. You’d be surprised how many comedians and writers use spreadsheets in their lives every day. But there’s also so much stuff that I genuinely look forward to. Even something on the more-boring side of the equation, like building a deck. Whether it’s for a pitch or to solicit investors, there’s a real storytelling aspect to everything that you have to do in this business. And that’s exciting.

I’ll also say: writing is a f*cking nightmare. I love it. It’s the thing I’m most passionate about in the world. But it’s horrible. It’s torture. And screenplays are a particularly weird form of writing, where you have all these peculiar quirks or formatting and page-length. You’re trying to cram your giant idea into this strange format and it’s exhausting. But when you’re actually in it- you’re following your outline and typing away- and a new idea pops into your head? My god. What a cool thing that is. Just there was nothing before and now there’s something and you’re laughing to yourself as you punish your main character…how f*cking fun is that!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @originalheller
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-heller-88916877/

Image Credits
Andrew Thrash Eric Black