Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Arroyo.
Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have wanted to be a writer and have loved comedy since I knew what either of those things was. What I did NOT know was how to do those things in any sort of professional capacity, so I became a consumer of both. I loved watching SNL and especially standup comedians (but again, I had no idea how a person did those things as an actual JOB). My father is an immigrant and my mother comes from a practical Irish family, so both were very concerned that my job involved things like “security and “pensions”.
I began a career in the medical field, under the pretense that the regular hours offered would give me plenty of time to pursue anything creative on the side. Unfortunately, most of my creative energy was spent being loud and “funny” at parties (and restaurants, and the grocery store, and you get the idea).
Eventually I met someone who was an ACTUAL (local) comedian! And he told ME that he thought I was funny enough to do comedy. AND he knew about open mics (the secret gateway to actually being a standup comedian)!
For some reason this one compliment was enough to fire up the belief that I could maybe, possibly, someday, maybe some time many years in the future, do comedy and I started thinking about what kind of jokes I would tell (IF) I were to try standup. I kept putting it off until I ended up having lucid dreams where I was performing standup and one night I dreamt of myself doing an entire set. I wrote down the dream jokes, drove to a now defunct improv comedy club in Boston, and did my first open mic.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One big challenge has been the TIME. There’s so much time involved that has nothing to do with the creative process. In the beginning there is so much traveling to get to open mics (where comedians essentially practice their jokes), and to low or no paying shows. In can be tiring trying to juggle the schedule of working full time at a day job and then hopping in a car and driving 3 hours away to do a short set for 5 people in front of a campfire, only to turn around the same night, drive back and work the next morning. (That example is inspired by many true events, haha).
You have to really love the creative part of doing comedy so you can rationalize the rest of it (driving alone at 1am on a weeknight, trying not to pee your pants before you get to a rest stop). A lot of comedians, myself included, describe the feeling around doing comedy as more of a need and less of a desire. Your brain and body just NEEDS to have this outlet, so you’re willing to drive, perform for free, and humiliate yourself in a hundred different ways just to get to do this.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I perform standup comedy. I’ve been proud of moments lately where I have gotten to work with people who I looked up to as fans and developed working relationships them.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiearroyocomedy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatieArroyoComedy/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KatieArroyoComedy
