Meet Amy Brown | Stand Up Comedian

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Amy Brown’s comedy is nerdy and dirty: married to a real life physicist, her material is Big Bang Theory meets Sex and The City. Her high energy performance is a love letter to scientists, musical theater nerds, introverts, extroverts… to everything that makes us human but also impossible to live with. You can find Amy performing comedy around Atlanta and her monthly show, Finely Crafted Cocktails and Comedy at Old Fourth Distillery. Her accolades include The Rochester Fringe Festival, Best of Atlanta: Laughing Skull Lounge, Oak City Comedy Festival, and The North Carolina Comedy Festival. Follow her @amybrowncomedy on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Tiktok or at www.amybrowncomedy.com.

Hi Amy, why did you pursue a creative career?

I was sitting on my sofa mowing down a box of cheez-its, when it occurred to me, I am going to freaking die here. The monotony of my evenings stretched out before me. Night after night of eating dinner, putting the kids to bed, decanting an entire bottle of Pinot Grigio directly into my wine-hole while watching TV. I was about to turn forty and if I kept this up, I was going to die right here on this sofa, with a fatty liver and fatty ass. I felt like I had to do something desperate and radical to get out of my habit loop. Searching on my phone for a clue, anything that might be the answer, I found an ad on Facebook for an improv class at The Basement Theatre with J Star. My body flashed over with heat and tingles, Oh, crap! This is it! This is what I have to do. Before I could lose my nerve, I signed myself up for the class, and I signed my best friend up too, because…YIKES!

After a few weeks of Yes And-ing, I realized that I had unwittingly signed up for the class that my soul needed. Somewhere along the road of life, I had lost my nerve. As my thirties clicked by, I had been lulled into feeling that life was easier when  I didn’t take risks. Improv forces you to take risks over and over. You look like a complete weirdo flailing around the stage pretending to be a bird with an inferiority complex. You find yourself playing a door to door salesman with no thumbs. Everything is ridiculous and humiliating. You and your sweaty armpits learn to just let go and give EVERYTHING a try.

Feeling braver than I had in years, I signed up for a stand up comedy class with local Atlanta comedian Joel Byars. And, this time around, I signed up TWO of my best friends because… double YIKES!!

The first time I performed stand up in front of a live audience, I felt like I was stepping into a warm bath. Even with the bright lights blinding me and panic humming in my ears, I loved it. At that moment, I understood that whatever it took to get good at stand up comedy was going to be worth it. I signed up for more classes at The Laughing Skull Lounge (with Marshall Chiles and Ian Aber) and Lace Larrabees’ Laugh Lab at the Punchline. I devoured every comedy podcast, book, special, and clip on Youtube. My husband, noticing my new obsession, remarked, “It’s like you are giving yourself a PhD in comedy.”

Stand up comedy has taught me that every person on earth has a story worth sharing, a story so amazing or so shocking it could turn your hair gray. The process of giving words to these experiences and translating them into joke format is a kind of therapy for both the comic and the audience. To be sure, getting traumatic events to come across as funny is freaking hard, but when you get it right, and you know you are connecting with folks in the audience, there’s nothing better. The bad part about stand up comedy is that it is really, really hard. Not only is it hard, but the process is painful. You basically have to suck an egg on stage over and over again until you figure out all the variables that can go wrong. Is the joke not funny, or is the delivery wrong, or was this the wrong crowd for the material, or does the order of the joke need to change? So many things can go wrong, it takes years to figure out how to make them all go right.

Today, I have been writing and performing stand up comedy for five years. I perform every week at different locations around the Atlanta area and have traveled to New York, North Carolina, Virginia and New Orleans and Texas to perform for comedy clubs and festivals. I also produce a local, bi-monthly show called Finely Crafted Cocktails & Comedy at Old Fourth Distillery on Wednesday nights. I still very much consider myself a fan of comedy. I love doing it, watching it and learning about it. Trying to crack the comedy code is the most fun I have had in a long time. It’s much more fun than drowning myself in cheez-its and wine, although I still do that more than I should. Dear Reader, if you find yourself feeling stuck or craving a creative outlet, consider getting yourself a tube of prescription strength deodorant and signing up for a comedy class. Don’t worry, the anxiety diarrhea will taper off after the first year.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My husband and I are both nerds but on dramatically opposing ends of the spectrum. He is a physicist and I am a musical theater dork; everything about us is different. My comedy is a love letter to these differences. I celebrate scientists, musical theater nerds, introverts, extroverts, everything that makes people human but also impossible to live with. I also don’t shy away from bedroom humor and to that end, my material has been descirbed as The Big Bang Theory meets Sex and The City.  We have children, so I also discuss what it is like raising them in the era of the internet, dick pics, all this crazy stuff they/we have to navigate.

During the pandemic I started doing outdoor shows for Garden Clubs and Book Clubs. They were so much fun I have continued doing them indoors. Getting a group of friends together and sharing big belly laughs is such a fun and memorable way to spend an evening. There is really nothing better in life!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Atlanta is buzzing with Comedy!! There are shows EVERY night. Be sure to check out Dirty South Comedy @dirtysouth.comedy, 1up Comedy @1upcomedy, Hissy Fit Comedy @hissyfitcomedy, Fire City Comedy @firecitycomedy, Hand Up Stand Up @handupstandup, Role Call Theater @rolecall.co, The Laughing Skull Lounge @laughingskulllounge, and (my favorite show) Finely Crafted Cocktails & Comedy @finelycraftedcomedy. Atlanta hosts several comedy festivals as well. We just had the West End Comedy Festival this February which was fabulous. Keep an eye out for The Red Clay Comedy festival and The Laughing Skull Comedy Festival returning in 2022.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shoutout to Craig Miller, my co-producer for Finely Crafted Cocktails and Comedy @finelycraftedcomedy. He is a marketing genius and a great friend.

Atlanta comics Damon Sumner @damonjr2, Nathan Owens @iamowens, and David Perdue @dueordie are AMAZING comics and even more amazing people. They are kind and gracious with their time and talent. They have a great podcast, Forth and Ten @forth_and_ten, and have a show every Wednesday night at Drunken Unicorn. They are about to drop new comedy specials, so check them out!

Matthew English @mrmatthewenglishis an incredibly talented and hard working Atlanta comic. He makes my face hurt from giggling every time I see him perform. He is a treasure as a performer and a friend. He runs LGBTQ shows around Atlanta.

I have had the honor of producing tours and shows with Christin Neal @christin.neal, Julie Marateck @juliemarateck, and Amanda Marks @mallofamanda. These ladies are so much freaking fun! Follow them and go see them perform. You will not be disappointed.

J Star at The Basement Theatre has been (and is) a life saver. He taught me to be brave in my improv classes all those years ago and he was the first person to encourage me to run my own shows. I have been incredibly lucky to have him as a friend and comedy coach. He is going really cool things with Legos and just won an Award at Legocon 2022! Check him out on Youtube @LegoStar 08. https://www.youtube.com/user/JstarAtlanta

Lace Larrabee has an AMAZING stand up comedy class Laugh Lab @laughlabcomedy. Joel Byars also has a great comedy class and a podcast that hosts an international community of comics @HotBreathPod.

Website: https://amybrowncomedy.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amybrowncomedy/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-gibbs-brown-319b3284/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amybrowncomedy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amybrowncomedy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWEzSFwmUdD_vUneaHBEOw

Other: https://linktr.ee/AmyBrownComedy

Image Credits
The photographer was Lola Scott. https://www.lolascottart.com/ She is a FANTASTIC Atlanta photographer!