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

Hi Audrey, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Stand up comedy and entertaintment.

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.

My name is Audrey Stewart and I am an LA based stand up comedian/actress from Indianapolis, Indiana. I am a regular at comedy clubs such as the Hollywood Improv and I’ve performed all over the world. I’ve been on NBC, Netflix is a Joke radio, Facebook Watch, have a Don’t Tell Comedy special, and have been accepted into several large festivals. Clips of my stand up have accumulated millions and millions of views across all platforms.

I’ve wanted to be a performer since the first moment I stepped on stage at my camp’s talent show at eight years old. When I was younger I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and often didn’t know how to focus my overwhelming amount energy. It was often viewed by my peers and teachers as something that was negative for me and I started to believe it was a curse until I stepped on that stage. When I was on stage at that camp talent show I did an improvised song. I looked at the counselors and other campers and they were smiling, clapping, laughing. I felt like all my energy I never knew what to do with was celebrated as I exerted it to them with my dancing and singing. Their joy fueled my joy and I knew from that moment that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Entertain in some sort of way, I just didn’t know it was going to be stand up comedy until I moved to LA.

I graduated from Indiana University in 2016 and took the leap of faith to leave everything I ever knew behind and move to LA. I packed up three suitcases and flew to LAX with $400 in my bank account. When I arrived I got a ride from a random ride service I found at arrivals leaving me now with only $250 in my bank account. My cousin who lived out in LA connected me with four of her friends looking for a roommate so I moved into their tiny hollywood apartment, slept on an air matress, and got a job working for Power 106, LA’s Hip Hop radio station in their sales department so i could make rent. Along with my sales job I was taking improv classes at Groundlings where I met some stand up comedians. They told me to try it out and it was something was always curious about.

Anytime i’ve ever seen stand up comedy the sets I’ve admired the most is when the comedian was unapologetically themselves and they share their life stories. I decided to give it a try and I absolutely fell in love with it. It gave me the same joy I felt when I was eight on that stage at my camp. I fell in love with the way people wanted to listen, the way people wanted to be around each other and forget anything they have going on to just laugh and love the minutes that are ticking by as we stand on stage sharing our stories. I knew my voice earlier on because I knew I wanted to just be me like all the other comedians admired. As I was getting into stand up I did a workshop where the showcase was at the Laugh Factory. They taped our sets and a clip from my showcase set went viral on instagram putting me on the map a little bit. I stopped doing my full time job at the radio station and did as many odd jobs as I could while building sets. I am so grateful to be where I am today and I am so proud of my soul for following my dreams although it can be super hard sometimes.

I love my community and I am proud to be in the LA scene that has become family to me. I can’t wait to continue to grow and I’m excited for the opportunities that are up ahead that I can’t wait to share at a later time. I would not be who I am today without stand up comedy. Going on stage nighty allows me to truly know myself and constantly check in with who I am and want to be.

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

I love people so much. I often feel like I’m an empath and want people to feel joy as much as possible which is why I love my job. My mission is to stand on stage, share who I am, and help make those people in the audience or people watching my stuff online forget their pain even if it’s just for a moment. My goal is to share my stories and struggles in hopes that people can relate and feel inspired or more confident about who they are. For example loving whoever they want no matter the gender. Or embracing being tall or ADHD and allowing them to see it’s a super power not a curse.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is a word that stand up comedians often know too well. We step on stages nightly with the goal to create joy and love but sometimes that goal isn’t met and you have to go home, reset, and try again the next night. I’ve bombed so badly before where the crowd was so silent and I’ve had to push through and keep going to finish my set no matter what. The phrase “get back on the horse” should be tattooed on me because I’ve fallen off hundreds of horses. But I’d rather fall a million times than never ride the horse again. Sometimes falling can be really tough though especially when you are far from family and everything you’ve ever known, while working four jobs, barely able to pay rent, sometimes it’s hard to get back up, but I always did and do because I know my dream is worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.audreymstewart.com
• Instagram: audreystewisart
• Facebook: Audrey Stewart Comedy
• Twitter: audreystewisart
• Youtube: Audrey Stewart
• Tiktok: Audreystewisart

Image Credits
All pictures except the high fiving picture please credit: @vancorona For the high fiving picture please credit: @justoffthesix