A brief chat with Carly Aquilino

Yellow Scene: Have you ever performed in Colorado before?

Carly Aquilino: No I have not. I’ve never actually been to Colorado at all. I just know that it’s cold and you can smoke weed there. I tried snowboarding last year and it went terribly wrong, so I’m going to stay indoors and have so much fun. Maybe I’ll go a ski lodge and just hang out and eat.

YS: You’re relatively new to stand-up – how does it compare to TV writing?

CA: I started stand-up a few months before I had gotten on TV – I just kind of lucked out. I definitely have more experience writing for TV because Girl Code – we shot 20 episodes in a couple of months and everybody writes their own material. With TV, it’s a lot easier because you don’t need that instant reaction from them as you do when you’re doing stand-up. With TV, when they’re filming, you’re not allowed to laugh because it messes up the microphone and you have to repeat yourself a bunch of times. So they’re two completely different things. When I’m filming for Girl Code, it’s like I’m talking to my friends but they can’t really respond to me so it’s just a weird situation. When I’m doing stand-up, I can riff, I can improv, and I get that instant reaction where I know if it’s funny, I know if it hits.

YS: What’s your inspiration? Where do you pull the funny from?

CA: I pull it from my life and things that I’ve experienced. Just what I’ve lived through, fun things that have happened, silly things, stuff like that. I think it’s cool to make something funny out of something that isn’t funny, because that’s how comedians kind of work. You take something that happened to you in your life, and the way you get through it is by doing stand-up and talking about it on-stage. By doing that, you feel like you relate to people, and people can relate to you and your experiences. Like, I have a joke about how I got cheated on, starting to date again, and trying to find someone who I can at least stand. Then I have a joke about my new relationship and how me and my boyfriend get along really well, but sometimes we fight and stuff like that. I talk about our fights and things.

YS: Is that weird for him?

CA: Well, he does stand-up too so it’s kind of an unspoken thing. I don’t think either of us is crazy about it, but at the same time we know that it’s work and it is funny. We can talk about it.

YS: What can we expect from this set?

CA: I think it’ll just be a really good night. I’m excited about it. I’m most likely going to be fried, because I’m coming from Jamaica to Denver so I’ll be permanently stoned. That’ll be really, really fun. I heard that the club is one of the best in the country, and they have great crowds. There’s a lot of cool stuff to do during the day, so I’m excited about it.

YS: After these dates, what’s next?

CA: I feel like I’m always on the road doing clubs and colleges, and with MTV in-between they’re really good and flexible. That’s all I really have on the books right now.