Aaron Kleiber used to ride his bike over to his neighborhood Carnegie Library and sneak into the abandoned auditorium. Now that it’s the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall, the stage is his on Saturday, when his shows will be filmed and recorded as a live comedy album.
Not bad for a guy who was voted Steel Valley High class clown in 1999 and began his career doing open mic nights at the Smiling Moose.
“Now, when I travel all over America and I say I’m from Pittsburgh, people ask, ‘Is comedy happening there?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, comedy’s huge here!’ Any city that has multiple improvs, you know it’s good for comedy,” he said.
Where: Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall, 510 E. 10th Ave., Munhall.
When: 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets: $20; www.ticketfly.com or 1-877-435-9849
Mr. Kleiber has honed his routines touring North America and on his “Grown Dad Business” podcast. He was preparing to record a comedy album when he began talks with Animal Media Group, a subsidiary of Animal Inc., the folks behind the Pittsburgh-shot TV series “Downward Dog.” Now his show will be shot with direction by Michael Killen, creator of the ABC show, and the intention of international distribution.
The comedian has performed hundreds of shows in Pittsburgh clubs and appeared in dozens of regional commercials. He also has opened for fellow Pittsburgher Billy Gardell and his comedy idol, Sinbad, and has become a regular performer at the Laugh Factory Hollywood and the Hollywood Improv. Mr. Kleiber also has studied and performed at Second City in Chicago and made numerous TV appearances, but it was at home that he found he had a knack for making people laugh.
“I grew up in Munhall-Homestead in the projects being the goofy white kid,” he said. “I’m very influenced by Martin Lawrence, and I grew up watching ‘In Living Color’ much more than I ever watched ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ”
Searching for words to describe his comedy style today, he said, “People say I’m like Pittsburgh Dad with a college degree who swears. Gregarious. Maybe a little obnoxious. I just try to be as silly as possible about life and my wife and my kids.”
He is aware that it’s sometimes hard to get Pittsburghers to take notice of anything beyond “weathermen and athletes,” but he hopes the comedy audiences he has seen in his years working local clubs will find their way to the Music Hall on Saturday. A laughing audience is a camera-ready audience
As for the next step, “We have some people on board to help with distribution from the Hollywood end of things, and we’re not sure what that’s going to be yet. We just have to make a great product, and I have to be really funny.”
Sharon Eberson; seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: March 1, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
