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

Alright, Edward thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I became a full time comedian at the start of 2023 after getting laid off from my job in the mortgage world. I’ve been a stand up comedian since late 2016 or early 2017, but work started to really pick up for me in about 2021 after things were fully reopened after COVID.

Getting laid off from my day job was the push I needed to take the leap. I had been consistently getting work from both local and regional comedy clubs and I was reaching a point where I needed to decide if I was going to make the leap from part time comedian to full time comedian. I had always intended to make the leap to full time comedy, but there is never really a great time to take a huge financial and career risk.

The mortgage industry was always my “plan B” but when the entire industry took a dip post COVID, comedy (Aka “Plan A”) was my only option left. I had always suspected if I had more time to devote to comedy I would find more work, and getting laid off was the push I needed to test out that theory.

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 comedy origin story is very similar to every comedian’s origin story. I was in my 20’s, living in Denver, CO with not a whole lot going on. At the time I was spending my days working in a call center and spending my nights enjoying Denver’s nightlife. One day a coworker invited me to see him perform at a comedy show in the basement of a punk rock bar called 3 Kings Tavern. It was sold out, wall to wall with people and I had never heard of a single comedian on the bill. Every comic on the show was absolutely amazing, and the part that stuck out to me is that they were all regular people with regular jobs. I had grown up thinking stand up comedy was just something actors did in between sitcoms but seeing comedians performing standing in the corner of some basement made comedy seem very accessible. I started regularly attending local comedy shows for about a year, and then I decided to give it a try myself by signing up for an open mic at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse.

My first set went great. Then every set after did not go so great for about 3 years. I kept doing it because I just needed to something to do in my life. I have always had aspirations to be self employed. I never felt motivated at the idea of making some other guy money. Comedy seemed like the ticket to financial independence.

And you can make money doing comedy, if you are very, very motivated. I started making money by doing spots on local bar shows. Then I started putting on shows myself in local bars. Eventually I got good enough at putting on shows that those shows began selling out. I took those skills I learned and then started throwing shows in neighboring states. Along the way, I got a lot better at telling jokes and eventually graduated to performing in comedy clubs.

I grew up playing in punk, metal, and indie rock bands so the Do-It-Yourself mentality was engrained deep into my bones. I used the DIY approach to produce comedy shows and create my own stage time. I used that same approach at the end of 2023 when I decided to put out my first album with my friend, frequent collaborator, and fellow comedian Sammy Anzer.

I live in Denver, and not a lot of people think there is much of entertainment industry here. They are sorely mistaken. Denver is filled with amazing artists, photographers, comedy club owners, audio engineers, and anything else you need to create your creative work.

Sammy and I hired our most creative friends to help us put an album together. Our friend, Jesse Carter, runs a great independent comedy club in Boulder, CO called Comic Cents. He set us up with a weekend to record the shows. I recorded the shows myself using borrowed audio equipment. We hired our buddy Nick Holmby of DUDE IDK Creative to make the album cover. My friend Trey Milner at Loose Leaf Studios mixed the album. Local comedian Jeff Stonic helped put together the promotional videos. The entire team that worked on the album was local to Colorado.

We then released it on fellow comedian Brandie Posey’s record label, Burn This Records, in March of 2024. The album, called Residual Income, peaked at #1 on the iTunes Comedy Charts and was picked up by SiriusXM. Its my proudest accomplishment to date as a comedian. We made it entirely ourselves. No one tells you that “Do-It-Yourself” really means “Do-It-With-The-Help-Of-All-Your-Friends”.

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

The best thing anyone can do to support artists and creatives is to buy directly from them. Buy cool art from a local artist at an art show. Buy the t-shirt from the opening band. If you’re a business needing to make promotional content, hire local actors, directors, and producers. Smaller creatives put their heart and soul into their work because they need it to lead to more work. They will give you more time and attention. They also tend to give back to their community by hiring other local creatives to help with the process.

If you’re broke and can’t support an artist monetarily, give them a like on social media. Share their stuff in your Instagram stories. Social media is a marketing tool designed to sell you things. You may not think you sharing a post helps, but it does. One more sale can be the difference between making rent or not for a lot of smaller creatives.

And most importantly, go support local stuff. Whatever city or town you live in, there are people there that are trying to make it a cool place to live. Go support them. Go to their shows. Bring a friend. You’ll make some cool memories along the way.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding part of being a creative, is getting to live my life without compromise. I get to dress the way I like. I get to act the way I like. I don’t have to compromise myself to fit into some corporate agenda.

Luckily, I’m from the Midwest. So the way I like to be is very polite. And I also like to help other people succeed whenever I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.edwardbellcomedy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwardbellcomedy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edwardbellcomedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1AkRC70dQLodHbSMT2j–A

Image Credits
1 – 5: Nick Holmby at Dude IDK Studios 6 – 7: Katie McDonald at Boulder Comedy Show