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

Grant, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was growing up, I was always quick with a quote from The Simpsons, Monty Python, or Saturday Night Live. I wanted to make people laugh, but I did it using other people’s words. I got to college and fell in love with the standup comedian Mitch Hedberg. I memorized his first album and his quotes replaced the other sources as my go-to place to pilfer laughs. I played soccer at my university, UC Santa Cruz, and we were on a pre-season soccer trip to Costa Rica. The last night on the trip, riding back on the bus feeling good from winning a game, my friends and teammates got on the mic and started telling street jokes. They all remembered I loved Hedberg, so the whole team asked me to go up to the front of the bus and tell jokes. I declined a couple of times, and then the whole bus started chanting my name. Finally, I caved and grabbed the tour bus mic and started telling Mitch Hedberg jokes. The words were not my own, but the feeling of standing in front of a crowd and making them laugh ignited something in me. I started writing my own jokes after that. The first time I told my own jokes was later that season in front of those same teammates.

Grant, 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’ve been a comedian for 20 years, but more recently I’ve also become very active in the board game space. As a comedian, I’ve appeared on a number of TV programs and performed in 45 states. But during the pandemic, all the tour dates ceased to exist. Like many people, I pivoted to my hobby. I’d been playing board games for a number of years and even hosted monthly game nights for comedians in Los Angeles. During the first months of the pandemic, I was playing board games non-stop as a source of entertainment and distraction. I realized how much they were helping me get through a tough time, and I also realized that a lot of my friends didn’t know where to start with board games. I started making short and silly board game recommendation videos to help my friends find good games, thinking I’d do that for a few months and then the world would get back to normal and I wouldn’t do it anymore. But the world didn’t get back to normal and the videos found an audience like I never expected they would. I continue to make short and silly board game recommendation videos on my Grant’s Game Recs channels.

Now, my passion lies in finding intersection points between my two loves of board games and comedy. I wrote a whole hour of standup all about board games and I take that show to board game conventions all over the country. I get hired by companies to write jokes, funny cards, and more content for board games. I’m filming a series of comedians playing social fun game. I’m doing a live show where comedians do sets and then play a game with the audience between comedians. I love mixing the two aspects of my life.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you’re constantly presented with new puzzles and challenges to solve. Every day is different and every aspect of your career requires a different solution. There are no road maps, which can certainly be scary at times, but it also makes it incredibly rewarding when you get to a finish line.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I think one of the most important steps to growing your audience is identifying gaps in the current market. What’s something that isn’t being done? What’s a way you can talk about a concept from a different angle? If you can give an audience something they aren’t currently getting, then it will get shared and grow. The other big thing is consistency. You have to post consistently to grow on social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.grantsgamerecs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grantsgamerecs/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/grantlyon
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@grantsgamerecs

Image Credits

Game images taken by Grant Lyon
Comedy and Headshot images by Matt Misisco
Artwork by Ben Daniel