Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Ivimey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Andrew, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I am definitely happier as creative then I would have been in any other field, but it wasn’t always like that and has taken a long time to reach that happiness. Both in terms of career success and personal perspective.
Early on in a creative career it can be challenging to be happy. You’re struggling to be good creatively, the pay is bad to non-existent, the time commitment is huge, and you can look around at friends who chose traditional career paths and see them have all the things you don’t. So it’s easy to be jealous of a regular job. But as time passes (often years or decades) you find yourself either making better creations, making better money, having more time, or hopefully all three if you’re very successful. At that point the regular jobs & people you were jealous of in the beginning don’t have any appeal anymore. That’s what it was like for me anyway. That’s not to say things are perfect, happiness never is a perfect constant thing. There are still days when I’m stressed about the next pay cheque or worried about a freelance gig. But the vast majority, 90% of the time, I’m very happy I get to create things I love, on my own schedule, with other amazing people, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Andrew Ivimey. I’m an award winning podcaster, actor, and comedian along with many other multi-hyphenate jobs in entertainment. As an actor I’ve been on TV shows like The Beaverton, Remedy, and Perfect Storms. As a voice actor I’ve been the voice of international ad campaigns for brands like Coors Light, and was the narrator of the Smithsonian Channel TV series History By The Numbers. As a stand-up comedian I’ve performed at Just For Laughs, The Edmonton Comedy Festival, and have two comedy albums that can purchased wherever you listen to music and can be heard nationally on SirusXM radio.

My biggest success has been as the co-creator of The From Superheroes Network. The From Superheroes Network is an award winning multimedia website and network. Its focus is comedy and entertainment targeted at nerdy pop culture lovers. It started in 2012 with the web comic Texts From Superheroes, which is a comedic exploration of what superheroes would text message one another. It has been featured on IGN, Cracked.com, BuzzFeed, and Time Magazine. After years of success with the web comic the network expanded to include five podcasts, written articles, plus a Youtube channel and video series. Since then it’s blown up into a web phenomena, creating every form of web content with half a million followers on social media, million of views, and millions of downloads. Its multiple podcasts have won 7 Canadian Podcast Awards and been nominated 15 times.

All this to say, I do a lot. It’s been a long journey from starting in community theatre in St John’s, Newfoundland back in 2005. Then moving to Toronto, Ontario in 2009 to pursue stand-up comedy. Then starting a web network with my creative and life partner in 2012. Lately my weeks consist of a mix of creative and business operations. I’ll often spend weekday days writing and acting auditions, weekday evenings will be podcast producing and website administration, and weekends will be performing stand-up comedy. I’m currently preparing to record my third stand-up comedy album and first comedy special.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

We need to broadly, across society and multiple industries, reject AI programs. This needs to occur at a personal level, and with government regulation.

On a personal level it is literally the easiest way for absolutely everyone to support artists. Simply do not use ChatCPT or other LLM AI programs, do not use AI “art” or “music”. Do not use it in any circumstance. Not for a goof, or a quick check, or for fun. Just don’t use it. It is an industry that is built entirely off of stolen artists work, it’s a theft and plagiarism machine that hurts all current creatives and all future creatives.

On a governmental level, we representatives and need to vote for representatives who want to pass AI regulations. Regulations that require companies to receive consent from artists to feed their work into their learning models. As well as regulations that require companies to compensate and pay royalties to those artists.

AI programs represent the greatest threat to artists and the creative industry in our lifetime and we must reject it personally and professionally.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

At this point in my career my goal is to create more opportunities for all of the incredibly talented artists I’ve met over the years. I am proud of the comedy, acting, and independent creative ventures I’ve done. But this past decade of running a web network with multiple podcasts I’ve had the pleasure of helping build the career of some incredibly talented people, and helping them pay their bills in the process. I love the feeling of bolstering others careers and paying fair wages. I want my business to grow, and get more successful, and I don’t care if I make another penny I just want to be able to hire more talented people and pay them what their worth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewivimey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivimey/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewivimey/
• Twitter: https://bsky.app/profile/ivimey.bsky.social
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FromSuperheroes
• Soundcloud: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/andrew-ivimey/1455423333
• Other: The From Superheroes Network
  www.fromsuperheroes.com

Image Credits

Dahlia Katz