EP 099 The reality of doing stand-up comedy in Alaska

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In this episode, Cody talks with three Alaskan comedians: Matt Collins, Kass Smiley and Dayman Wright. Dayman is still pretty fresh, with three years in the Alaska stand-up scene, while Matt and Kass have been doing it for over a decade. Doing anything for that long, you gain knowledge and experience. Like knowing that comedy in Alaska—and live entertainment in general—mimics the city’s economy. It ebbs and flows based on the community’s ability and willingness to spend money. Kass says that the first thing to be neglected during an economic downturn is live entertainment, and because of the Covid-19 pandemic, shutdowns and hesitancy about attending live events deepened. It’s starting to bounce back though, with more people attending shows. But that’s just one piece of doing comedy in Alaska, it says nothing of the long hours of joke writing and the process of joke-telling.

With help from Kass and Daymen, Matt is about to release a documentary about comedy in Alaska. It’s called “Why Not: A Year in the Life of The AK Comics” and in it Alaskan comedians talk about their hopes, struggles and their lives within a small, but intimate scene. One that’s easy to enter, but difficult to rise to fame because there are fewer opportunities in Alaska than in other places with an infrastructure that supports comedy. So, you have to create your own opportunities, and many times that means promoting yourself, filling the audience with friends and family or even creating a comedy festival, like Kass did with the Alaska B4UDie Comedy Fest. Matt says that Alaska has big city problems with small town attitudes, but that in a small town you can build your own thing. And that’s what they’ve done with comedy in Alaska.