Meet Ty Lavette | Musical Comedian

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ty Lavette and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ty, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
This question has a bit of a complicated answer. Initially, I grew up in the arts, doing music, dance, and theater. At 16, I graduated high school, and by the time I was 19 I had already graduated college and was working full-time in my associated career. It wasn’t long until I was bored of the routine, mundane, “adult” life I had unintentionally fallen into. By default, I was having a mid-life crisis before I was 20. It was around this time I started writing musical comedy in the style of multiple, personal inspirations such as; Adam Sandler, Stephen Lynch, Bo Burnham, Tim Minchin, and Garfunkel and Oats. I started writing these songs as a hobby, to liberate myself from my work life. I never intended to share them with anyone. One day, a friend suggested I perform one at a comedy open mic contest. After initial hesitation, I thought, “why not, I have nothing to lose, it could be fun”, and I ended up winning the contest that night. Things began to snowball from there. More and more people were asking me to perform at various venues and events. It wasn’t long after that that Shoutout Arizona asked to do this interview. So to answer the question, I didn’t truly intend to pursue this, I kind of just fell into it. I would like to keep this a hobby for as long as I can. I fear if I attempt to make this a career, there will be this pressure on me to be what other people expect me to be, and it won’t be fun anymore. But the reason it works and other people like it and want more is that this is for me, and my comedy/songs make that obvious.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Just going off the prompt, I think what objectively sets me apart from other striving comedians is that; I’m young, a female, and I incorporate music/instruments in my act. Just look around and see how many 35-year-old dudes are going to open mic night and telling stories about their day-to-day life. What’s surprisingly different is to see a kid get up with a guitar or at the piano and sing an outrageous, explicit, and jarring song about dentists, or love, or Jesus. I like to use creative and clever word play to my advantage and toy with the audience instead of saying outright what I mean. It gives the audience a chance to interpret the lyrics and feel like they are “in” on the joke, instead of having the joke be spoon-fed to them. Again, going off the prompt here, my biggest struggle is trying to balance on the thin line of what’s funny and what’s offensive. In 2022, people don’t give you slack or second chances when it comes to offending the wrong people or groups of people. I’ve been able to proportion my comedy well enough that I haven’t received much backlash. This could just be my naive and inexperienced opinion but I feel people are less sensitive than we give credit for. I don’t like to cater to audiences, and in my short escapades as a performer, I’ve found people are understanding and capable of separating a joke/art from an intentional insult/hate commentary. All that being said, it is never my intention to single out and offend anyone, but I am often perceived in that manner. I think the thing I am most excited about is seeing how far this thing can go and what the future has to offer. I’m aware that is the most cliche thing I could have said but there was no other way to articulate the feeling of optimism and sanguinity.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m not much of an extrovert so I’m probably the last person to seek social advice from.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Although this question is highly implicative that I even have success to credit, I truly don’t think I would be writing comedy and music without the inspiration of some of my favorite comedians/artists. There are too many to accurately subjectively list and I don’t want to forget any either, but just know there are a lot that I love and maybe I’ll make a list someday.

Instagram: @tylavette19

Twitter: @tylavette19

Facebook: @tylavette