Meet Andy Kenareki of Andy K Comedy and Llamas in Disguise in Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Kenareki.

Andy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been acting since I was in the single digits of age, so it’s always been a part of my life. I started out doing community theater and school plays, in productions such as West Side Story, The Crucible, and Arsenic & Old Lace. After college, I was a little lost creatively. I’ve always loved sketch comedy and admired the work and skill it takes to make people laugh. When all of the “Shit Girls Say” videos started coming out in 2012 I had numerous friends tell me to make one based on Armenian girls.

I’m Armenian obviously. I brushed it off initially but then one day I had all these ideas and lines in my head so I just wrote them all down. I then called up my friend who did wedding videos at the time and asked them if they’d want to film something silly. I borrowed a friend’s crappy Silk Spectre costume wig and we filmed “Shit Armenian Girls Say’ in about three hours. I uploaded it to YouTube and it blew up overnight. Mind you, I had no idea how the hell YouTube worked so this was a huge surprise. I then kept making videos and eventually teamed up with my friend Katrina Rennells to create a sketch comedy channel called Llamas in Disguise. We now have over 10,000 subscribers and one of our videos “Slenderman is My Roommate” has over 3.3 million views.

Has it been a smooth road?
The first video was the smoothest process ever. It was all stream of consciousness and just regurgitating actual quotes I had heard. After that, though it definitely got harder. It’s the most enjoyable experience to create something that entertains or makes someone laugh, but it can be intensely stressful. The biggest struggle was trying to build an audience but also to convince that audience that you’re not a one-trick pony. Internet trolls were also a struggle but now I don’t pay them any attention.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I have two YouTube channels, Andy K Comedy, and Llamas in Disguise. Both are focused on creating sketch comedy videos. Andy K Comedy is my solo channel and is more focused on Armenian/Middle Eastern comedy. Llamas is more broad in its content but it definitely skews towards outrageous and dark humor. I’m most proud of just making people laugh. It’s so exciting to see comments and messages from people worldwide who love what we do. There’s so much stress and pain in the world. If I can brighten someone’s day for even five minutes then that means everything to me.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
It’s only getting bigger and more competitive. The content I make is very time consuming and can be costly. It’s hard to go up against a vlogger who just reviews bath bombs and gets millions of views while you’re trying to shoot a high-quality, scripted video. The key is to know your audience and give them what they want while always fulfilling yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/LlamasInDisguiseCmdy and https://www.youtube.com/user/AndyKComedy
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andykenareki/
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/andykenareki
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyKenareki

Image Credit:
Photos by Tina Babajanians and Daniel Silwa

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