The first time I heard the name Uncle Yo, was at the New York Anime Festival 2009 masquerade, and I was like “who? Uncle what?” Then appeared a man standing behind a podium in full black attire blending in with the black background, and all you can see was his big happy smile. It was Uncle Yo with his ionic silver tie, which was blocked by the podium!
His real name is Karl Custer, an American comedian based in New York City. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing, which “details a lot of theater history, theory, writing exercises, acting classes, partial dabbling in script analysis and film history.” During his time at the program, the work included documentary writing and raw projects. According to Custer, he believes that his college “wanted” him to write “as though I were Tennessee Williams drinking my problems away - but I wanted to be happy. They didn't want that.” With his career as Uncle Yo, he is “able to write what I wanted and perform.”
Along with his comedy career, Custer is also working as a waiter and continues to pursue a career in writing by sending in short stories to online publications or contests. “If you want something done, however, you do it yourself.” With the help of the Amazon Kindle, Custer has the ability to republish works and sell it. Then “part two of becoming a writer takes place, the hard part: marketing yourself and proving to everyone else you're just as important as anybody else.”
© 2011 Linda Thai
Photography by Linda Thai
Stay tune for Part 2 of the Uncle Yo interview!
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