To an aspiring comedian, Aaron Karo's story seems impossible. During his freshman year of college, he sent out an e-mail entitled \Ruminations"" to some of his friends. The e-mail featured Karo's hilarious reactions to the previous week's events.Soon, the mass e-mail grew in popularity and Karo found himself sending the e-mail to thousands every week.
Now in his late 20s, Karo has plenty to reflect on. Karo's ruminations have spawned a mailing list with over 40,000 subscribers, two books -""Ruminations on College Life"" and ""Ruminations on Twentysomething Life""-and an opportunity to bring his comedy to the stage.
The Daily Cardinal recently talked with Karo about his rise to comedic fame.
The Daily Cardinal: Since your stand-up career began out of your ""Ruminations"" column, what was it like making the transition from the page to the stage?
Aaron Karo: Well it was pretty wild. My first gig was an open mic show in New York. I had invited a bunch of my family and friends. I didn't know what I was doing, I just kind of went up there and did it. It went really well, I went way over my time and I just couldn't be stopped.
It was great, though, because the New York Post was doing a story about my book and when I told the reporter I was making my stand-up debut, they got all excited and they went and covered the show. So, like a week after my first performance, I had like a full-page column in the New York Post calling me the Jewish Chris Rock. So I got blasted right out of the gate with high expectations.
DC: Is your stage act essentially a live adaptation of ""Ruminations?""
AK: Most of the stuff in my act is not from my column-some of it is. The stuff from my column that I use I get to act out a little, which I obviously can't do with the column. My act is very story-based and a little dirtier than the book or the column is. The act is all post-college stuff. I'm sort of chronicling twentysomething life through the eyes of a recovering frat boy.
DC: So you leave college ruminations out of your act?
AK: I wouldn't say I leave it out-it's just not part of the act. I do colleges all the time. You don't have to be graduated to understand my act. A lot of times I talk about getting wasted and picking up chicks anyway.
DC: When you first started writing, did you have any intention of getting into stand-up?
AK: Absolutely not. I started writing on a whim. Even when I graduated and had thousands and thousands of subscribers on my mailing list, I still never thought about doing anything with it. Even when I got the book deal it still didn't translate for me into stand-up. Somebody just asked me to do it and, I don't know, I just had this urge and I just did it.
DC: Did you have any interest in comedy growing up?
AK: Well, I wouldn't say I was class clown, but I was class comedian. I was always the one with the quick remark or quick joke. I felt like I'd been doing stand-up my whole life, just not on stage. It's one of those things that until someone points it out you don't realize. Thankfully, somebody did.
DC: Has anyone influenced you?
AK: I mean Seinfeld and Chris Rock are probably my two favorite comedians. Of course that's like saying the Yankees are my favorite baseball team-which they are. But Chris Rock's ""Bring the Pain""-his first special-is like my all-time favorite comedy act. Any comedian should watch a lot of comedy and see what works.
DC: Do you feel that watching those comedians might have had too much influence on your act?
AK: Well, I mean I've seen Chris Rock like 10 million times. It just depends on your material and your delivery. I've actually never really though about that-but now you're going to get me thinking about it.
DC: Any general advice for aspiring comedians?
AK: You gotta get up there and try it-there's no way around it, unfortunately. Just get up there as much as possible and work it out. I've definitely written some stuff that I thought was funny and didn't work. I can pretty much recognize a writing joke and telling joke now. I mean a telling joke has to have a strong quick punchline. A writing joke doesn't necessarily need that quick punchline.
DC: Care to plug your column?
AK: I write my column every other Monday and I e-mail it to over 40,000 subscribers worldwide. It's free-you can sign up at AaronKaro.com. I'm also releasing a best of the column, and ""Ruminations on Twentysomething Life."" That comes out May 3rd and is a sequel to my book ""Ruminations on College Life.""
DC: You say your column comes out every other Monday. Have you ever had a two-week period so awful that it wasn't even worth
ruminating on?
AK: I mean, I have to change my schedule sometimes-it's not like I have to do it that day. But I have a spreadsheet from my Wall Street days that I took all the numbers out of and replaced with jokes. I have about 3,800 jokes organized by topic and date. So if I don't come up with something-which never happens-I won't have a problem writing the column.
-Interview conducted by
Tony Endelman
