Award-winning comedian, musician, writer, filmmaker, and viral internet sensation, Anesti Danelis brings his highly-anticipated third solo musical comedy show ‘This Show Will Change Your Life’ to the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival taking place from July 6th – 17th 2022. We had the opportunity to catch up with Anesti to talk comedy!
Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. Congratulations on your career to date. You’re an award-winning comedian, musician, writer, and filmmaker. How did you get into the creative industries?
Thanks for having me! I remember always wanting to get into it but not knowing how to. Then one day, I saw an ad for Second City classes and ended up taking some. At the same time, I received this email in my spam folder to audition for a musical and thought I’d give that a go too. I just graduated from high school and was bored. I’m here because of spam emails and targeted ads basically. I also grew up in a musical family, so my grandfather taught me Greek folk music on the violin, and later on, I studied classical. This definitely helped me teach myself guitar and piano when I decided to bring musicality into my comedy.
Who are your artistic influences?
Ooo so many to name. Mr. Bean is definitely up there, for his ability to find the funny in the world around him. The Lonely Island for finding the balance between comedy and great musical production. And also musical artists who put together conceptual albums like Lord Huron’s Strange Trails, or the Weeknd’s Dawn FM. I find conceptual albums so similar to comedy shows, and it’s interesting to see how these musical artists expand on a theme and create an immersive and dynamic experience through the tracklist.
Your accolades include being a Top 8 Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the Amused Moose Comedy Awards 2018 and being nominated for Best Variety Act at the Canadian Comedy Awards 2019. Of your many successes, what are you most proud of and why?
I’d have to say the first “Every Freelancer Conversation” I put on TikTok, (the series is now up to like part 10ish I think). Anyways, it blew up and people started using my sound to re-create my video for their own freelancing field niche. It got so popular that at one point people started accusing me of stealing the sound from another artist who used my sound to make their video (even though my face and name are right there in the credit). I just picked up digital music production in the pandemic when all the live stuff went down. It’s something that I always wanted to learn and to have something that I digitally produced being enjoyed by so many people after wanting to do it for so long was a proud moment. Also pancakes. I perfected the pancake during the pandemic. I might quit comedy to make pancakes. We’ll see.
You’re preparing for your third solo musical comedy show ‘This Show Will Change Your Life’ for the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival. What can audiences expect?
Oh expect a fun time. It’s funny original songs set to great music. If you’re a fan of Flight of the Conchords, or the Lonely Island, this mix of music and comedy will be right up your alley. Subject matter-wise: it’s a spoof on wellness culture and self-help advice. I feel like we’re bombarded by so much advice on how to “change your life” by unqualified people and I wanted to poke fun at this.
Your subject matters have included stealing from work, living at home, mermaids with unsolicited advice, cheating partners, and the dangers of toying with a bisexual man’s heart. To what extent does your material stem from personal experiences?
Most of my material stems from personal experiences, and some of them stem from messing around on the guitar or while I’m walking somewhere. Basically, whatever makes me and my friends laugh is the clear winner. I find that most of the songs are suspended in absurdity but grounded in an honest reality. Like stealing from work, I wrote about the first office job I had and the high I got from taking a highlighter home. It’s just a highlighter, they cost a dollar, but for some reason, I felt like I was a spy when I slipped that bright yellow stick into my jacket pocket. Then from there when it’s time to write it’s like “okay now what else can this character steal, and how far will it go?” and by the end, you have a relatable yet slightly unhinged song. The bisexual song is probs the most personal one I’ve written. I’m so excited about that one. That came to me after a relationship ended, and I started thinking about how there’s no bisexual version of a revenge breakup song where they sing about “how you did me wrong.” Like what could comically happen if you mess with a bisexual guy’s heart? Oh right, he’ll bang both your parents.
Some argue that being a comedian is one of the most difficult professions. What attracted you specifically to stand up? Have you experienced an unresponsive audience and, if so, what did you do to resolve the situation?
Yes, I like this narrative. It is the hardest job in the world, and we should all get a base salary of 100k (plus tips) for doing it. I think what attracted me to stand-up/ solo performing, was how there’s no fourth wall separating you from the audience. It feels more like we’re all hanging out. It’s casual and fun. We can pause from the material and check in with the audience, make some jokes, and go back to it. It’s a good time.
Oh yea, I have definitely experienced an unresponsive audience and some situations are not salvageable. A group of us recently performed at an old folks home, where they replaced their happy hour with a dry comedy hour. No stage. Full lights. Daytime. It was so silent and they were not thrilled to be missing out on their drinks. But in those situations, I just use it as a chance to play around with my material, and just wait until it becomes a distant memory.
As an interdisciplinary artist, what’s your approach to developing a project? Do you focus on a specific creative medium or explore the possibility of each project working as music, film or stand up?
I usually develop for each medium separately, and it usually begins with what I’m craving to make. I knew this year that I wanted to develop my third musical comedy hour for touring so that started with me just writing material about my life and any ridiculous ideas that came to mind until I began to see a pattern or theme emerge. I also start listening to a bunch of music until a genre, sound, or era stands out to me, and then I’ll do a deep dive into it as I start to artistically see which world this show could live in. This Show Will Change Your Life was inspired by the 90s, especially rave culture. I saw similarities between rave culture and wellness culture in how it’s just escapism and seeking temporary happiness. So I studied the 90s and all of its genres until they inspired more ideas. So like maybe I grab the chords for 90’s house song “Gypsy Woman” and begin playing that until it morphs into a totally different sounding song with different chords about Living at Home and then I step away and write jokes and how it can heighten, and then go back to the piano/guitar and finish putting the puzzle pieces together. Then it’s just refining and refining until it’s the funniest it can be, and until a show emerges.
And I think that’s basically the gist of how I develop projects. Deep dive into the inspiration, learn about it, figure out why I’m creating it and why people should care about it, and then craft something that is fun to perform or fun to tell.
What other projects are you currently working on?
Besides working towards touring This Show Will Change Your Life to more festivals, I’m working on a couple of exciting things. I’m continuing to create digital musical comedy for Instagram and TikTok eventually getting the audience favorites and expanding them into a digital comedy album. So far some strong contenders are Existential Crisis, Blame it on my Horoscope, and expanding the I Better… song series like Bottled Up. I’ve also been writing a bunch and am shopping around my comedy pilot, as well as tweaking and refining the two clothes.
Where can our readers find out more about you and your projects?
Follow me on Instagram and TikTok! @anestidanelis That’s how we as a society communicate now, yes?
Photos by Dahlia Katz
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