Anesti Danelis wants to remind you that this is fun

After two successful runs at Edinburgh Fringe, and releasing his comedy album Quarantine Bops, musical comedian Anesti Danelis spent the early days of the pandemic pivoting to online video. Since then, he has gained over 90k followers on TikTok and developed a unique musical comedy style. I spoke with Anesti about his comedy journey, his pivot to TikTok, and work/life balance.

How did you get your start in comedy?

I found an ad on the website for Second City class. At first I thought it was a scam. I remember calling them and saying "be honest... is this a scam?" to some 20-year-old kid. But I did all the classes and at the same time, I had started doing musical theatre because I found some random spam mail for auditions or something like that.

I love how your journey to comedy and music is just through clicking random spam.

I know, right? At the time, I was going to school for architecture, but wanted to be an actor and didn't know how. The internet knew, apparently.

Do you mind discussing some of the turning points in your career?

I feel like I got noticed when I started doing solo Fringe shows. My first Toronto show was okay, but kind of got noticed by people outside the community. Then my first time in Edinburgh went well because I got great reviews and big crowds, which was such a surprise. I think the biggest moment for me was the second time I went to Edinburgh, because it felt like I was actively doing something and it was not a fluke. The Starbucks song was my first viral video. It was weird because I didn't feel I could make a career out of comedy yet. But then, after a year of doing musical comedy on Instagram, I felt like I was getting noticed.

What's your process like for your TikTok? How did you develop your style?

I feel like TikTok really worked for me because I spent the first year of the pandemic doing those quarantine songs. I was learning how to video edit, how to do musical production and it was a year of trying things and failing. By the time I started doing TikTok, I had these skills and was able to apply them there. I watched a bunch of TikTok and started seeing what was working and how I could make my version of that. The more I did, I started seeing my style take shape. I tried hard to make it as good as possible just to learn by myself.

The process is all over the place. Sometimes I hear something in my mind and need to drop everything and make it, and other times I open up the music software and see what sparks.

How has your musical style evolved as you've been doing TikTok?

I think it just evolved itself. I've always wanted to produce music but was too nervous. With TikTok videos being so short, I'm able to try a bunch of different things and see what I like. I've experimented and learned about different genres and it's moved from pop, to hip hop, to dance and house to this synthy autotune thing I'm doing now. Each genre has its own comedy toolkit so those are fun to discover too. The hard part is balancing the ratio of music to comedy because they can't overpower each other. All I want to do is make music that sounds great and that also has strong jokes. That’s all I want!

How do you stay motivated?

It's hard. I try to do at least one video a week, and if I'm feeling burnt out, I try to make it something super quick to do. And if I do more videos, great. If I don't, that's okay. Sometimes when I know I won't have time I repost an older video which I forget is a fun way to reintroduce your old stuff to new audiences who may have not seen it yet. A motivation killer is watching a video die, but you get used to it. It's weird how vulnerable we get with online stuff. When I first started experiencing attention online, it was fun. There was momentum and people kept coming back to watch. But then there'll be times where your content doesn't get as much attention as usual and you get in your head. I would be looking at my phone and getting anxious, but you get past that. Now, I can post a video and put my phone away. Otherwise, I’ll just go through a cycle of anxiety each time I post a video.

How have you been able to strike a work/life balance?

Oh, I don't know if I have to be honest. I can get caught in the trap of working on things for hours, but I have realized that my comedy is better when I take time to see friends, and live my life, so I just make an effort to not overdo it. I also found when I limit the amount of time I give to something, I look forward to it and it's easier to find the joy in it. For me, joy is the most important thing. When you can focus on that, it melts everything else away. A video flops? It's okay, it was fun to make and a few people enjoyed it. But yeah, easier said than done.

What's the piece of advice you have for someone who wants to start doing comedy?

Literally just do it. I've talked to some friends who are on the fence about making videos and are nervous about posting. Every time I tell them to post it and then walk away. You'll get better. Just be bad for a little while until you get good. And then you can just delete all your bad videos later.

See Anesti Danielis at ONE. LIVE. SHOW. as part of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival on Sunday, March 27, 2022.