During the quarantine of early pandemic, stand-up comedy quickly began to find a larger audience as Americans stuck indoors began to crave the ideas of laughter, entertainment and escape, which led to another boom period for the art form as traditional live performance began to return in earnest almost four years ago.
For Chicago-based comedian Paul Farahvar, the path to stand-up success is unique.
Starting as a musician, Farahvar pivoted to promotion and booking via his own Shoeshine Boy Productions, eventually pursuing a career in law.
Taking improv courses at both Second City and Chicago’s iO, Farahvar quickly caught the comedy bug following a chance encounter with actor and comedian Bob Saget, which led him to begin considering the craft more seriously.
“My friend was a stand-up comedian. And he was asked to open for Bob Saget at a casino in Indiana. And he asked me to go with him. Because, at the time, I was a lawyer and I managed artists in the music world. He was like, ‘You can act as my manager backstage and stuff.’ And I was like, ‘I can do that. And I get to go backstage and drink for free. It’ll be fun!’” recalled Farahvar during a recent conversation.
“We get backstage and I tell Bob about my friend who is the comedian that is opening. He was just the nicest guy. And I told him a joke. For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. But he started cracking up,” recalled the lawyer turned comedian of the impactful moment. “He goes, ‘Are you doing that tonight? Is that a bit?’ And I was like, ‘No. I’m not the comedian.’ He said, ‘Well, if you want to go up, you should do that.’ I almost felt challenged to go up on stage,” said Farahvar with a chuckle. “And then Bob goes, ‘Yeah, I want you to go up. I want to riff off of something you said.’ At the time, I was doing improv. I was like, ‘Well, maybe one day I’ll do stand-up just to try it. But I’m definitely not going to do my first time in front of a sold out crowd!’” explained the comic. “But the very next day I went and did an open mic. And I won. Not only did I win, but the club asked me to take over for the host! So, I started hosting that. And comedy just kind of took over in my life.”
By 2018, Farahvar’s Singles Only podcast, which found the laughs in the travails of fellow single friends and colleagues, had been accepted into South By Southwest, with the comedian finding work as a writer on the Marquee Network comedic talk show Off The Mound With Ryan Dempster (featuring the former Chicago Cubs pitcher as host).
That momentum would lead Farahvar to begin the process of winding down his full-time law career shortly thereafter – but at what would soon prove to be a tumultuous time.
“By 2018, I wasn’t taking any new cases or new clients. I was just kind of trying to finish out what I had. And I had a couple of jury trials that were coming up,” said Farhavar looking back. “My last trial settled on February 23, 2020 and I said, ‘Well, OK. I’ll close my law firm on March 1.’ The lease was up at the space,” he explained. “I didn’t want to leave until I had some stability. And so many things were popping up. I was on tour with a national comedian, Demetri Martin. I was going to move to L.A. And the universe was telling me, ‘OK. This is stability.’ So, everything was going great,” said Farahvar. “And then the world shut down.”
In 2020, Farahvar began work on a special for Drybar comedy, using the sudden onslaught of time to tweak his material.
In his act, hilarious stories are just as important as the setup to a punchline, with Farahvar clear on the importance of storytelling.
“Nate Bargatze is such a good storyteller,” he said. “I remember as a kid, my brother took me to see Eddie Murphy Raw in the theater. I was in grade school and as a kid I loved Eddie Murphy. Later, I loved Chris Rock. And then I got obsessed with Jim Gaffigan when he did his Comedy Central special,” said Farahvar. “It’s great for me. Because I started as a storytelling comedian.”
This year, Farahvar released his first special Middle Western, Middle Eastern via Helium Comedy.
Now available for free viewing on YouTube, with the audio available for streaming on platforms like Apple and Spotify, Middle Western, Middle Eastern delivers a relatable 40 minutes which cracks wise on his time in Chicago and on the road while poking fun at his stature as a parental “disappointment,” a single stand-up navigating life opposite his brother, a neurosurgeon.
Capturing the new special during four performances in Philadelphia required both attention to detail and collaboration.
“I’m very goal-oriented. So, I liked going up on stage like, ‘OK. Let me figure out how I’m going to do this…’ My friend Jim Flannigan was helping me finetune stuff for the special as well,” Farahvar explained. “For the month leading up to it, it was all preparation. It was discipline. I wasn’t screwing around on stage. I wasn’t doing any crowd work. I was focused on the jokes. And it wasn’t a lot of fun sometimes. It was like, ‘This is homework. I’m prepping,’” said the comedian with a smile. “It was grueling in the sense that I was like, ‘OK. I’m gonna run through an hour at all of these places for a month.’ But I was ready,” Farahvar said.
“John Mulaney is a storyteller. He was one of my favorites. But if you watch him, especially his first stuff, he had a big pop like every 30 seconds. And I always kind of feel that’s my goal,” said Farahvar. “Even when I’m telling stories, I have to have a beat that makes people laugh every 30 seconds. Because I think if it’s a minute where you’re just telling stories? That’s too long. You’ve gotta trim the fat.”
Continually building his audience during 2020, podcasts and social media loomed large for the comedian.
While Singles Only recently wrapped a sponsored run of nearly 300 episodes, today Farahvar focuses on the new podcast Why Are You Awake?, which examines the not always glamorous life of a touring artist and the late hours required in clubs and on the road, utilizing a unique approach to social media to promote it.
“It’s been fun trying to navigate it. It was such a great avenue to create a fanbase,” said the stand-up. “I didn’t want to keep talking about dating anymore. And a lot of people in the last few episodes of the new podcasts noticed that I was talking more about comedy. And that’s what I love hearing,” said Farahvar. “I love hearing people’s stories about how they started and how this life has changed: how it’s different being a comedian as opposed to say an accountant. How our schedules and our lifestyle affect our personal lives and everyday lives. To me, that’s fascinating and I love hearing about it,” he said.
“And I’ve tried using LinkedIn as sort of my secret sauce. I do a blog on LinkedIn every week where I talk about my stand-up comedy. And a lot of my connections on LinkedIn are lawyers and people in the professional world outside of creatives. So, I think they like reading about what it’s like behind the scenes of the comedy world,” Farahvar said of his interactive efforts on social media. “People will send me questions. They’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s so cool that you get to tour!’ And I go, ‘Yeah… I was in six hotels in six different nights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I can tell you all about it!’”
While his background in booking, promotion and law helps him to wear a variety of hats as he embraces life as a full-time touring comic, a keen eye on the business side and an embrace of social media helps to navigate an already difficult business which has changed drastically since 2020.
“Comedy is a business. And my background in law, and just having business sense, helps me in navigating decisions a lot,” Farahvar said. “It’s a little harder when you’re doing everything yourself: when you’re your own manager and your own agent. Sometimes it’s harder deciding how to handle things,” said the comic. “Sadly, comedy is mostly a business now. And it’s how many butts can you put into seats at a show? And whether you’re funny or not is kind of secondary,” said Farahvar, highlighting a disturbing recent trend where strong material often takes a backseat. “I think the big thing is that during COVID, a lot of people kind of figured out the algorithm for social media. And, as a result, it kind of created more opportunities for them. Weekends of shows were going to these new comics who may not have had the experience of these established comics – but they were able to sell out rooms,” he explained. “So, what you’re seeing now is comedians are trying to figure out ways to promote themselves on social media so that they can fill rooms. And it’s hard. I’m headlining tours now. And most of the time, I’m waking up going, ‘OK. How can I get the word out about my show?’ And traditional media sometimes doesn’t help. You have to come up with different ways.”
Returning to the Chicagoland area this weekend, Farahvar will take part in the third annual “Stand Up For Parkinson’s” event, one he created and continues to organize. All proceeds benefit the Parkinson’s Foundation and fans outside Chicago are encouraged to donate to an effort which focuses the importance of helping others during the holiday season.
“It’s always important to give back,” said the comic of this year’s installment, which will take place Sunday, December 15, 2024 at Zanies comedy club in Rosemont, Illinois. “But I like that we get to do it during the holiday season when everyone has a better understanding of that,” Paul Farahvar said.
‘I’m gonna continue to tour the rest of the year. I’m trying to do more shows on my own. So, I’m trying to be smart about it and find places where I could have a full house,” he said. “But it was just a crazy thing that I kind of became obsessed with. And that’s what comedy does.”
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