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

Andrea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I had wanted to go into acting and comedy when I was in high school but my dad didn’t think that was really practical and didn’t want to pay for a drama major so I went into Engineering instead. It’s practically the same :) But he was just looking out for my best interests and wanted me to have a stable career.

I did improv comedy on the side for awhile after taking an improv career and that was fun, we got to perform in clubs in Denver and at some corporate events. Then I ended up taking a standup class (I had never thought I wanted to do standup comedy) and was hooked. I started doing standup more seriously in my 40’s and then just got really serious about it the last couple of years in my 50’s.

Ultimately I’m glad that I didn’t start sooner because I have so much experience in my career and in my marketing business that I ended up starting in my late 30’s. Everything I’ve done has contributed to my current success as a performer and I’ve gotten valuable tools that have helped me be a more grounded performer.

Andrea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m the producer of Moms Unhinged, an all-mom lineup of standup comedians performing sold-out shows all over Colorado. We have a roster of moms (and some token dads) and we rotate lineups so that people typically never see the same show twice.

Previously I was an engineer and then I ended up starting my own social media marketing business. But I kept performing on the side.

I was taking standup comedy workshops and we were producing independent shows from that a few times a year which were a lot of fun. I got the idea to produce a few mom-only shows and they were a hit but I was still doing that just a few times a year while running my business. I loved highlighting mom comedians as I felt like they didn’t always have the time to network in the community to get on other shows.

The pandemic hit and I did a little zoom comedy and after that I decided to do more and more of the Moms Unhinged shows.

In 2023, I remember saying, let’s see how many shows we can do. They kept selling out really easily and it was fun!

I love connecting the audiences of moms who need to come out and laugh with the mom comedians who are excited to be performing in front of a crowd that really appreciates them. It’s been magical and I’m going to keep booking more and more shows and take the shows to other states. We have big plans for 2024!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes my big mission is to connect funny, talented, amazing mom comedians with their perfect audience. I love putting these Moms Unhinged shows together so much. It’s a win for the audience who gets to laugh and celebrate this challenging journey, and it’s a win for the mom comedians who get in front of an audience who gets their humor.

We have been selling out shows and it’s so fun to bring people together! It’s fun to see so many women enjoying a night out together as friends and it’s fun to have a great experience for the women putting on the show.

My other mission is to make sure the comedians are paid well for their art. So many venues and shows don’t pay that well and I know there are a lot of factors going into producing shows. But I’m so grateful that we’ve been able to put on shows that are doing well and can also pay the comedians well. It’s hard work coming up with material, traveling to shows, performing, and juggling all the other responsibilities we have. It’s a ton of fun but I think we should also be paid well for what we do.

I think everything I’ve done as a marketer in my career is really contributing to getting the word out about Moms Unhinged.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think it is hard to put on a business hat when you are an artist or creative person. I am always calculating the expenses and budgets for marketing as well as producing. I can see when something is more likely to have a good payoff and I’ve even done things like figure out how many seats I need to sell each month in order to support myself. So now I have a goal on why types of venues to book, how much I can afford to spend on renting the venue so that the math all works out.

I think if you are a non-creative, you might think that all creatives are starving artists and that is the only way. But if you treat it as a business, you can do well and being able to have a job where you get to express yourself creatively is so gratifying.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andreavahl.com/stand-up-comedy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreamariecomedy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndreaMarieComedy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndreaMarieComedy
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreamariecomedy

Image Credits
Jeff Stonic