Joy of Expression
When your optimal form of self-expression happens to delight others, it can be a beautiful thing. Particularly when you’re up-and-coming local comic Andrew Koerner, who just so happens to value the art of eliciting a chuckle.
you can make people happy, it’s something I take a lot of joy in. I’ve always felt like I’m a somewhat funny person at least. It’s just part of me, so standup comedy felt like a natural way to express myself.”
Growing up in Freeman, S.D., where performing arts is sort of the community’s calling card, Koerner came by his penchant for the stage honestly, a member of local choirs since childhood.
“Freeman might be a small town, but it is a very arts-based town,” he said. “I grew up in the choral tradition. I grew up involved in music and acting. I’ve been involved in performing arts in some form for almost my entire life.”
That familiarity with being in front of an audience lent itself well to Koerner once he started his comedy journey. What started at a summer camp talent show has blossomed into a standup hustle that’s taking the comic around venues in Sioux Falls and on the road of late.
“I’ve always wanted to do comedy to some extent but didn’t really find the scene or get invested in it until late 2019,” Koerner said. “Then 2020 hit, and it was going pretty well for about three months, and then everything shut down pretty much immediately after I had started. That was interesting. I was able to really grow a lot through all of that.”
As for the comic’s style, he’s been heavily influenced by the work of Matt Groening—namely Futurama and The Simpsons, as well as well-known standups like Last Comic Standing vet Joe Machi and YouTuber Bo Burnham.
“It’s been a slow journey to figure out, because Futurama was very formative on my sense of humor—quick jokes in succession that are almost slipped past you before you can laugh at them, layered in on top of each other,” Koerner said. “That’s the type of humor I love, but I can’t really do that in standup. I found recently that my standup style tends to be starting with something surprising or shocking—a hard opening line—and recontextualizing that line. That it isn’t the joke you think it is.”
That style and his love of the local comedy community has served Koerner well since he essentially launched locally a few years ago. He was honored with the Larry Brinkman Award, a locally juried standup traveling trophy, just a few months after he began, which gave him a lot of validation.
“I was not expecting it, but to have that big boost early on was something that really kept me going,” he said.
So what is it that keeps Koerner coming back to an artform that, on its face to an outsider, seems like a stressful endeavor? It’s the energy exchange for him.
“Most comics would say that standup is just fun. Once you get past the initial nerves, once you get past the fear of bombing and doing horribly,” he said. “A lot of comics draw energy like Goku charging a spirit bomb. We draw energy from the audience. It’s what charges and revitalizes us. It’s what makes us feel good about ourselves—like we’re saying something that matters.
“We can have an interesting social commentary that we’re delivering in a way that other people enjoy and listen to. So I’ve sort of stopped getting nervous, which I’m sure is going to change once I start doing bigger shows, but it’s not as stressful as you might think.”
And what’s next for Koerner? Though he has big dreams for the future, the more immediate term remains his primary focus.
“The dream is, of course, to be headlining national shows and getting Netflix specials—but for now what I really want to do is just improve the scene locally,” he said “Make sure that there’s a draw here and make sure it’s getting a lot of attention. I want people to be traveling to Sioux Falls to come watch a comedy show.”