We were lucky to catch up with Lukas Arnold recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lukas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Maybe 4 or 5? I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t strongly drawn to the performing arts. I did loads of plays and musicals through school, studied as an actor in college, spent time as a voiceover artist before going a full time comedian. There’s never been anything else on my horizon, nothing that interested me even half as much as acting, performance, and comedy.

A big shoutout to therapy – without which I would’ve never found the courage to try standup

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into comedy through a class. After a few months of therapy and finding a new wellspring of confidence, I wanted to try standup, but was still too scared to go straight into open mics. A wonderful class through Caroline’s Comedy School was the perfect stepping stone, a small pool where I could dip my toes in and get accustomed to the water. Afterwards I was swimming :)

I only got to do comedy for a few months before the pandemic hit. I started in August 2019, and was just beginning to build some momentum right when everything came to a halt. But that’s when I turned to tiktok. I wasn’t trying to grow a following, I just wanted a creative outlet to focus my energy on until standup was available to resume. It blew up and turned into my full time thing, and has opened every door I’ve walked through in the past few years.

What I’m most proud of is my determination. I’ve never had a plan B at any point in my career, which I owe to an enormous amount of privilege and luck. Circumstances allowed me to take big chances career-wise with a strong cushion to fall back on. I’m so grateful to my family and education who’ve allowed me to be the person I am.
I’ve also never really taken a break from comedy since I started, at least not longer than a couple of weeks. I don’t want to. It’s the best thing in the world. It’s my favorite thing to watch and I don’t get tired of it.

Another thing I’m very proud of is my adaptability. I’ve always looked to find out what is available to me. When I auditioned for my university’s senior showcase and didn’t get chosen, I began auditioning around town for local plays to gain experience, and began looking for other opportunities to act and grow my resumé. When live comedy was unavailable, I turned to digital comedy. Almost always there’s an avenue to explore, and I’m grateful I’ve found so many.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

A month before the pandemic, a comedian at an open mic told me to get on tiktok. I passively told him I would, and downloaded the app. I didn’t post, but I did watch a lot. This was incredibly helpful because I got to understand the tempo of this new platform. I got a basic understanding of what features in a video grabbed me, what kind of videos I liked best (those to which I could see myself doing something similar), and how creators on tiktok grew their audience over time. Consistency, attention-grabbing intros, hashtags, all of it I absorbed like a sponge.

I met a comedian shortly before the lockdown, and when we each went to quarantine for months, we kept in touch and challenged each other to post daily on tiktok and to improve each day.

My advice is to be bold, even hyper specific with what you want to share online. I remember a creator whose whole thing was doing vocal recreations of all the different blasters in Star Wars. HE WAS AMAZING, THOUGH. LEGIT. There’s something beautiful because I can’t think of another platform where that could resonate so well. Notice what works, capitalize and expand on your genre(s), and don’t be afraid to change if you feel you need to.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To every day get better at creating the comedy that I enjoy

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lukastarnold.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/lukastarnold
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lukastarnold/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LukasTArnold
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PgqUyyQlYVczeu0LeSs6w