Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Employee of the Day

Aaron Aryanpur

Stand Up! Records · Album · 2018

A dry, funny audio album about the frustrations of suburban fatherhood.

Listen on Stand Up! Records(opens in a new tab)

Aaron Aryanpur captures the everyday indignities of being a tired family man firmly trapped by suburban adulthood. The heart of this 2018 audio album, recorded live at Hyena’s Comedy Nightclub in Dallas, lies in how he frames the daily grind of domesticity, contrasting his experiences raising religiously confused children with the memory of his own late father. Rather than relying on sanitized tropes, Aryanpur leans into the specific irritations of spousal miscommunications, overbearing Little League parents, and the quiet misery of office politics. Released on Stand Up! Records shortly after he was named Dallas’s best comic by the Dallas Observer, the set features standout routines like “Get. In. The. Car.” and “My Great Grandfather, the Warlord,” the latter of which details his mixed Persian-Jewish heritage. Reviewer Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site praised the release as “excellent through and through,” highlighting the ease with which Aryanpur draws listeners into his domestic struggle.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Working a day job, an email that went wrong, and being reassigned to stay home.

    Uses workplace frustrations and mishaps to open the set before moving into domestic family life.

  2. Fury Road / Partner selection and the zombie apocalypse.

    Examines how criteria for a life partner change over time, arguing the key question is whether they are prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

  3. Iranian background, Texan roots, and great-grandfather the warlord.

    Contrasts his Texan upbringing with being the son of a Muslim father and Jewish mother, touching on racial profiling in a non-aggressive, accessible manner.

  4. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Religious upbringing and interpretation of the Book of Genesis. closer

    Reflects humorously on his religious background and offers his personal take on Genesis.

How it plays

Tone
Relatable, lighthearted, easygoing, and occasionally explicit.
On stage
Immediately likable, relatable, everyday family guy with an easygoing and approachable presence.
Pace
Deliberately paced with a carefully constructed progression from universally relatable topics to personal, cultural material.
About
Adulting and office politics, Marriage and spousal dynamics, Fatherhood and raising children, Iranian-American heritage and family history, Racial profiling, Religious upbringing

What the critics said

Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site hailed it as 'an excellent through and through... comedy download,' praising Aryanpur as an 'immediately likeable stand-up comic who knows how to build a stand-up show from the ground up.'

In the room: Rousing giggles and snort-laughs connecting with shared everyday dismay and collective effervescence.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: theseriouscomedysite.com, en.wikipedia.org, artandseek.org, wikimili.com, peopleai.com.

Backstory

An exploration of fatherhood and family, juxtaposing life raising his kids with memories of his Iranian immigrant father, who passed away shortly after the recording.

Details

Released
Where
Stand Up! Records (album)
Topics
Before
In Spite Of (2016)

More from Aaron Aryanpur

If you liked this