Milwaukee’s AJ Grill Cuts an Album

×

Expand

Photo: AJ Grill - ajgrillcomedy.com

AJ Grill

AJ Grill

Milwaukee comedian AJ Grill will soon make the best bits in his decade's worth of eliciting laughter available for audio-only consumption. That is to say, he's recording an album of his stand-up .

In the current era, cable and streaming specials seem to be the most prominent way for comics to state that they have “made it” or are on their way to doing so. Even without visual element video provides, however, the comedy album remains an active format for funny folk to make their mark.

For Grill, recording an album will be a challenge to successfully convey his material without sight cues. “I think it is a true test of the jokes,” he says. “Can your jokes translate to someone who not only isn't physically in the room with you, but who also can't read your body language? So much of live comedy is being able to see the performer, their facial expressions, subtle motions. All of that is lost on an album. Can the jokes stand alone? I think it's a fun test,” Grill continues. 

He will take that test for a slice of comedic posterity by way of the sets to be recorded Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at the venue that will also act as the label for Grill's debut album, Hear Here Presents (2018 S. First St.). Both shows are sold out. Though Grill currently performs without a manager, booking agent nor anyone else pushing him to record a long-player, “I think the time is right,” he intuits, adding, “I want to showcase what I have created in my first 10 years of this endeavor.” 

If Grill's desire to highlight the artistry he’s honed since participating in his first open mic (at 21) is a motivation to record, so is debunking the received knowledge that comics have to move to the coasts to succeed. “There’s a lot of talk nowadays about not needing to move to NYC or LA for comedy, and I think this is me testing those waters a bit.” And if releasing an album is part of a test, how will he know he has passed? 

“We are in such a weird time in comedy this is hard to say,” Grill notes of how to gauge success. “As for ‘commercial success'—Some people who get huge on Tik Tok are selling out comedy clubs, and they've never even done an open mic. But they have huge ‘commercial success.’” As for a satisfying goal to attain from an album release, “I would consider this recording a success if I can continue to build a following, especially if it would open doors to clubs or cities I have yet to perform in.” 

Though Grill hopes to release his album on LP after its projected February 2023 introduction on YouTube, Spotify and other online platforms, his formative favorite comedy releases were rare humorous hits from the CD era. “The two most influential albums when I was a kid were Adam Sandler's They're All Gonna Laugh at You!. People cringe at my second one, but Dane Cook's Harmful if Swallowed was huge for me as a kid. Both of those albums I would fall asleep to every single night for literal years.”

Grill's approach indulges neither in Sandler's purposeful puerility nor Cook's audacious egotism. What he shares with his heroes, however, is a calling to humor that may border on obsession. That kind of compulsion somewhat manifested in the title Gill is giving his album debut's title.  

“I am about 90% landed on the title I'll Quit When I'm 30. It's sort of an inside joke for only me. I remember I had just turned 21, and I finally went and did my first open mic after putting it off for an entire year. My first few sets went great, and I remember being elated walking home one night, after knowing I wanted to do standup since I was like 11, I was finally doing it,” Gill recalls, albeit with a caveat.  

“I remember thinking to myself , ‘If I don't have a career by the time I'm 30, I will quit.’ Which is very, very silly. I will, unfortunately, never stop doing this.” Gill cites a quotation from Sandler's fellow “Saturday Night Liv” alum, Dana Carvey, in expressing the essential necessity of comedy to his being “‘There's no reason to be a comedian unless you absolutely have to be.’ I think that nails it.” 

He still has a day job. "I'll Quit When I'm 30 is also a reminder to myself that things in life don't move on your timeline. You have no way of telling what you're in for. If I could go back and show 21-year-old me all the things I have gotten to do in comedy, all the friends I have made, he would be elated. It also makes me look at defining what a ‘career’ is. I spend most weekends every year making money doing comedy. Is that not a career?”

Among the 90% of the jokes Grill intends to retire after recording his album might include these observations on the accidental wokeness of some pick-up truck owners and the differences between the “river people” of his native Iowa and the lakeside dwellers in his current home state, including their choices in recreational pharmaceuticals...