AJ Foster

AJ Foster

I went into performing arts classes as early as 3rd grade. We always put on a Christmas play for the school and I would always audition for the role that had the most humor in it. My mom would be like “don’t you wanna audition for Santa” and I’d be like “Ma, don’t nobody wanna see no black Santa!” LOL So I really always gravitated towards comedy from a young age.

AJ Foster

I grew up in the Bronx, NY. I have a huge family with a lot of personality. I was always surrounded by a bunch of different characters from the neighborhood. I learned early on how to use humor and jokes as a defense mechanism. Everyone cracked jokes on each other around the block and at school. If you backed down, they would see it as a sign of weakness and keep picking on you. You had to stand up for yourself and it was easy to win over a crowd of supporters when your snaps were the best.

AJ Foster

It’s really a nice body of work that I’m proud of when I look back, but it was a long journey. The MTV credit came when I was 18yo and appeared on “Yo Momma”. I was fresh out of high school for that (see the snapping skills I developed in school that made this possible) and I didn’t have another tv appearance for 10 years. Everything since then has been kinda spread out. As far as do’s and dont’s, I’d say - DON’T become discouraged when it’s taking some time for the next opportunity to come. Keep putting the work in to get better at your craft. DO stay prepared and be ready for whatever the next opportunity is so you can put your best foot forward whenever it comes.

AJ Foster

That was a really fun experience. My biggest takeaway from that was just meeting and networking with all of the other comics that were in the competition. That was very important for me being relatively new in town. I just relocated to the DFW area from NYC a couple years ago, so that was my big welcome to my new local scene. I was very happy to win. Every competition is different. You never know what the judges are looking for or what’s going to win each crowd over. I think it’s important to just know how to adapt to whatever situation at hand is. I didn’t necessarily like my first set in that comp (it was pretty short too), but I took the feedback from the judges and made adjustments for the next rounds. I guess it worked.

AJ Foster

I got the call for about this maybe 2 weeks before I had to fly to LA and film. I was really nervous because I was already prepping to film my half hour special “Pay It Forward” (not a coincidence) for Open Bar Comedy a week later. I definitely wasn’t gonna turn down an opportunity for Amazon so I made some adjustments to my set so I could have a completely separate 12 minutes for Prime than what I filmed for my half hour. I pulled it off and I was proud of myself for having enough material to do that. As far as the experience of the actual Prime taping, DOPE. I had already been working with Jay opening for him on the road for a pretty long time and the other comics in the episode (Kristen Sivills, Alex Babbitt, & Neko White) are all personal friends of mine too. I got to hang out in Hollywood with my friends for a few nights, film something for TV and walk away from it with a check. Win, win, win!

AJ Foster

Keep working on finding your voice and your audience. Stay active, post content and find new ways to diversify your reach. There’s so many ways to get your content in front of new eyes and that’s what really matters these days. Convert those eyes into fans that want to buy tickets to your life performances. Being funny should always be a very high priority, but just building a genuine connection with your fan base is up there too. Find your people that vibe with you and serve them the content they wanna consume. For what it’s worth, I’m still trying to find my people too.

AJ Foster

Well, I kinda mentioned in my last answer that I’m trying to find my people. What is my audience that is gonna get me to the next level. That next level to me is being able to tour nationally as a headlining act. In addition to that, I wanna get into acting. Time to start venturing into that arena and hopefully land some tv and film roles.

AJ Foster

I don’t know if I could credit just one. Dave Chappelle is my biggest comedic hero so I’d say watching his first two specials (Killing Them Softly, For What It’s Worth) really lit the desire in me to get on stage. I studied his joke structure, his misdirection, the wittiness of his storytelling. I grew up watching Eddie Murphy. He was really the first black celebrity I knew from my earliest childhood memories. The scale and stardom of Delirious always inspired me. So did just seeing how much Eddie was loved by everyone. Chris Rock was another one of my biggest early influences. Bigger and Blacker was filmed at the world famous Apollo theater in Harlem, just a few blocks away from where I went to High School, so that made it all feel within reach.

AJ Foster

Don’t be scared to fail. A big part comedy is struggling through a tough set to find the magic. We’re already standing up there alone, trying to connect to strangers and make them laugh at silly thoughts we pieced together. What’s the worst that can happen? Comedy has helped me develop so much confidence in myself and even when I’m going through a rough patch, I know it’ll get better. Some of my very best sets have come right on the heels of my very worst sets. I don’t like that feeling and it makes me work harder to not feel it the next time. Above everything else though… just have fun. We’re supposed to be having a good time. It’s comedy!