Welcome back to It Pays the Bills! Today’s guest is Aimee Olivia, a globe-trotting actor from Aotearoa/New Zealand, who currently works at the Frog & Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester. In today’s episode, we catch up on comedy vs. acting, her film production company, and jumping on once-in-a-lifetime chances.
A bit about Aimee:
Aimee Olivia is a Kiwi actress, writer & co-founder of Good Egg Film Productions. She based in Manchester, she trained at Mountview & her past credits include Maggie in Home For Christmas (Amanda Holden music video), Hume in Queen Margaret, Elvira in Blithe Spirit, and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice and has a few short films in pre-production.
Instagram | Good Egg Film Productions Instagram | Women in Comedy Festival | Women in Comedy Podcast
In the condensed transcript below, I’ve italicized my questions and comments. Paid subscribers will receive a bonus edition next week, Perks of the Job. Enjoy!
So, do you want to tell us a bit about yourself and what you're all about?
So I'm an actor-writer and I'm originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand.
So what is your creative pursuit?
So creatively, obviously an actor, first and foremost. I love theater and film. Well, screen really. And then also on the side do writing as well. So like a little bit, well, writing, theater, and screen and stuff.
And how did you get into it?
So my mom was actually, she found out she was pregnant with me doing an Amdram production of Guys and Dolls. She was a hot box dancer and she found out she was six weeks pregnant. So I was on the stage in the womb. So I think it was just written in the stars for me to be a performer and I've loved it all my life.
Wow, I mean, people say that they start when they're young but I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that they started in the womb! So what's your current day job?
So I actually still work in the creative world. I'm very lucky. I work as a booker and programmer for the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester.
So how did you get into that?
I was working, I was probably getting into my late 20s. And I was working like the generic bar and restaurant jobs. And I was just really unhappy. And back home in Aotearoa, New Zealand, you have to create your own work. So it's not like over here and in the States where there's just this amazing industry happening. And I just was like, I just don't want to work these jobs anymore. So I was like, well, I'm just going to apply for theatre jobs and be an usher and work my way up. And then I saw this bar job at a comedy club and I was like, I'll just apply. And then next thing I know, I get the job.
I started behind the bar and then within a year became a venue manager or a duty manager. So I was like one below my big manager. And I worked the Classic Comedy Club for like five and a half years. I worked the festivals, obviously. I went to Edinburgh, worked Edinburgh Fringe. I was scouting talent with my boss.
And like, I remember asking my boss, like, how do you pick comedians? And he kind of taught me everything I know about comedy and how to look for talent and how to watch. I can't really explain it, but I can just hear the musicality of comedy. Like I can just sense how a show feels.
And then I came over to do my Master's and I worked for a comedy club called Angel Comedy in London whilst doing my Master’s. And then from there, they were like waiting for me to finish. And then they were like, cool, we want you to run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. And they're kind of like a fringy kind of comedy club. So they do a mixture of lineup shows and all the hour shows and stuff like that. So I started doing all the lineups on the weekends and then doing all those shows.
Have you ever had any interest in doing any comedy or standup yourself?
No, everyone asks me that question. And I'm like, no, I'm not a stand-up. I don't think the same way as a stand-up comedian. They see the world completely different to, I'd say, an actor. I would say a stand-up likes to make fun of the world that they live in, whereas an actor likes to feel what it's like to be somebody else. But I'm much better as a producer in a sense, or, you know, making the lineups. That's where I'm much more stronger suit as somebody who works in the comedy world. So no, it's never interested me and I've never done it.
I think if I had done stand-up, then I would have a bias towards how I would do it. Whereas I think I've got a neutral way of looking at comedy because I'm looking at it through the techniques that I've been taught, which I will keep to myself. But I have those because I'm neutral in the game of comedy. So I can just watch it purely from a different perspective than I'd say if I was a stand up.
Can you also tell us a bit more about your journey? Well, first to London and then to Manchester.
I'm a bit of a nomad, so I've lived all over the world. So I was back home, I was like, I always wanted to audition for a top drama school in the UK. And I was just like, I will just do it as a bucket list thing. Like, I won't get in. Like, I didn't even come over to audition. I just sent three self-tapes to three drama schools and that was it. And I got on the waitlist for both Mountview and the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. And then Mountview offered me the position and I was actually thinking of turning it down. And my friend, she was like you're getting on that plane. And so I had like two months to pack up my whole life and come to to London and like I boarded with my auntie and uncle and worked my weekend. But yeah, so that's why I came over to London was purely because of that.
[Manchester] was just because I knew a couple of people moving up and then I had a friend who lived here. I think I just needed a change from London because when the pandemic hit, before that, you just had a room and somewhere to sleep and you were just out busy. Cause that's the life of London.
But then as soon as that pandemic hit and we couldn't leave, I think you realize that, Oh my God, I'm living in a flat with no living room in London. And I think for me, I just needed to get out and decide whether I was going to stay or go. And then the universe kept me here.
So what have your kind of previous day jobs been?
Yeah, so I've done lots of jobs. So I worked in hospitality. I worked in retail for about five years.
I also had picked fruit for about over a year and a half. I picked fruit back home in Aotearoa. I picked stone fruit. And then in Australia, when I was about 21, I spent a year with my then boyfriend traveling all of Queensland. And we would just stop off at a town and we would pick fruit. So I spent a year traveling the whole of Queensland because it's a big state. I wanted to be an actor, but I wasn’t giving it my all or whatever.
So do you have – out of those, do you have any favorites or least favorites?
I mean, obviously comedy is my favorite.
Do you know what? I think – I have to say, really, because I did – enjoy my time in retail. It was fun. I think doing visual merchandise was probably my favorite, which was doing all the changing the shop around.
How about least favorite - anything that you would never ever do again?
I think my least favorite is, yeah, working restaurants. They're just hard work. I'm just not good with customer service. There's some people who's so talented at it and just make that whole experience amazing, but that I'm just not that person.
Going back to your current job, how does it either feed into or relate or oppose your creative practice?
I think it can clash to a degree because you've got to work 40 hours just to make ends meet. And I don't have the privilege of having, you know, I am a single, strong, independent woman. So I don't have the privilege of a partner who can also support me. So I have to support myself.
But at the same time I've learned so much about behind the scenes. I've learned so much about how to program. I was fortunate enough when I was in New Zealand to, with a group of friends, we had our own theater company so I understood how a theater could be set up. I understood how ticketing worked, I understood how about promotion. Even more so now looking at the Frog, I understand all of that side of things. So, for me, with creating my own work it helps me and it's helped me understand this industry.
I'd love to hear more about your theater company that you just mentioned.
Yeah, so it was called the Acting Collective. It's no longer, but that's because it was a whole crew of us. So it was quite a lot of us involved.
It started out as like, it was going to be classes and we did a play reading, which was Pride and Prejudice that turned out to be, we were putting on a play. And so from there, we had a lot of success. And we did three-week tour of it across Tamaki Makarau, which means Auckland in English. It did really, really well. And then after that, we did a version of Persuasion, which also did really well.
And so we did five plays in the end, and all four of them did really, really well. So it was an amazing experience. It would have loved to have continued, but obviously I then left and went to the UK and it just kind of reached its end in a way.
And like I said, it really helped me understand, you know, everything there is to make about theatre. Which puts me a little bit off wanting to do my own show because I'm just like, I was used to having a team and now I have to do it myself. And I'm a bit like, oh, I don't know if I want to do it myself.
But, I have got our own like filming production company called Good Egg Film Productions and we're making our own short films. So I'm kind of doing short films at the moment rather than theatre. And so we've got two short films, one that me and Kirsten wrote, which is about Emily Davison. And then we've got another one called Pub People, which is about the life of people in the pubs and kind of a love story to the pubs. And so we're filming both of them in September.
I'm also writing, I've got to give a shout out to the lovely Stevie, because he and I, we're writing a pilot together and we've been doing it for five years. And that's been amazing. And we have so many laughs together because we think we're hilarious.
Do you have any advice for anybody who's looking to go into a creative industry?
I think the best advice I can give you is that, you know, do it because you love it. I think if you're wanting to be famous, you know, this is not the route to go. There are probably 1% that get that opportunity. But the 99% of us are making our own work and do it because you want to be creative. And it's hard. You need to actually have a good support around you.
And just to remember as well, it's art and anyone can put on art anywhere. You don't need this industry to validate your creativity.
So I think it's just about knowing that you're going to have to make your own work and you will probably need another job. So pick something that you'd like to do.
You also have a comedy festival coming up, don't you?
Women in Comedy Festival, that is correct. So I get the privilege to program the Women in Comedy Festival, which is in Manchester from the 3rd to the 13th of October. All the artists are all female and they get to retain all their tickets. So it's a really special and wonderful festival. This is my fourth one doing, and I feel really lucky and privileged to program it.
I also do a podcast, which is called the Women in Comedy UK podcast, which I get to talk to women about their journey. Because one thing people don't understand in comedy, it is still a very male-dominated industry. And most of the lineups are still heavily male-dominated, and they'll have maybe one female on. So a lot of women don't actually get to speak to each other and pass on knowledge and all that.
What is your creative dream?
My creative dream would to be, I would love to do the National Theatre. I'd love to do a great play like The Deep Blue Sea at the National Theatre. I'd love to do that.
And I would love to just do indie films that have that beautiful narrative. Yeah, I don't I don't really want to be famous, but that's something I wanted to do creatively.
What is your dream day job?
I'm kind of living it. If I'm honest, you know, I'm very lucky to get to do what I do.
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