Reykjavík Grapevine - ágú. 2020, Blaðsíða 17

been laughing because the whole
thing was just too weird.”
While his debut was, as the co-
median himself describes it, “hor-
rible,” the show did give him the
confidence to do it again. “I got
off stage and I was very happy,” he
smiles. “I knew I had bombed, but I
had finally done the thing I’d been
wanting to do for years.”
“It’s kind of odd to think about
it now because stand-up just feels
way too normal now. I’m really
grateful that I had the balls to do
it—I don’t know where I would be
right now if I hadn’t,” Arnór re-
flects. “Sometimes I feel more like
myself on stage than in real life. I
feel like I have more control over
how I feel. There’s nothing else I
want to do, everything else is just
boring.”
Gotta love those drunk
farmers
Though Arnór cut his teeth on the
Reykjavík comedy circuit, the first
time he felt like he had truly “made
it” was at a performance at a "or-
rablót celebration for a crowd of
drunk farmers in a school gymna-
sium in his northern hometown.
“It was one of the shows that
I’ve been most nervous for because
I felt like I had to prove myself. Of
course, it was just in my own head
— the small town mentality isn’t
actually that bad,” he says. “But I
did ten minutes and it went really
well. I made fun of some locals,
which really kills in a small town. I
felt like I was doing it for real, like
I’d proved to them that I could do
comedy.”
Although Arnór has overcome
this internal hurdle, he is far from
complacent. Climbing the comedy
ladder often feels like an impos-
sible feat, he explains. Progress
can be slow and there’s always a
new goal to reach for or something
to improve. When comedy clubs
finally reopened after the three-
month COVID-19 hiatus, he there-
fore decided to re-visit his old ma-
terial. “I went back to the things
that I felt were bulletproof and
started rewriting. A joke is never
done for me. It dies if you don’t try
to improve it.”
At the same time, a new devel-
opment in Arnór’s personal life
has made him more determined
than ever to continue honing his
craft. “I feel like I have a game plan
now that I’m a father,” he con-
cludes. “I used to do comedy at the
Secret Cellar every night and drink
and not really think about it, but
now I feel like I’m on a mission. If
you’re leaving your girlfriend and
baby to go and do something, you’d
better make it count. So now when
I leave, I feel like I have to improve
every time.”
He takes a last sip of coffee,
gives profuse thanks for the award
and is promptly off to the Secret
Cellar for his triumphant return
to the stage.
...living in a lonely world...
17The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06— 2020
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