Meet Brendan Praniewicz | Writer & Comedian

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

Hi Brendan, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I love stories.
I always have.
When I was a child, I would beg my mother to read me stories. Instead of bringing one book for a bedtime story, I would bring five or six. I believe my love for writing began with stories and reading.
Growing up an Army brat, I got into trouble a lot, trying to fit in. My mother didn’t want to spank me, so she made me write essays on what I did wrong and why. Let’s just say that I wrote a lot of essays.
With that being said, I wasn’t a golden child in school. I was often failing my classes. I actually got kicked out of my 10th grade English class because my teacher thought I had plagiarized. I had nightmare experiences in school, but my senior year, I had a teacher who changed my life. Mr. Turner loved my writing, and he introduced me to a lot of literature, many classics, that I’d never read before. I devoured these books, and in my free time, I wrote short stories and poems, trying to model my icons.
Mr. Turner changed my life. I went from a C student to an A student.
I’ve had a lot of teachers and mentors in my life, who have steered me toward the path of creativity, and when I doubted myself or had fears, they encouraged me to keep going.
I’ve found success as a writer, photographer, comedian, and musician, but it all comes back to my love for story–this fuels everything I do.
And as an adult, whenever, I’m trouble, I turn to writing to find my way out of it–as my mother taught me. Or maybe, I’m like Scheherazade, in the book “1000 and One Arabian Nights”–I’m telling stories to stay alive. Creating invigorates me, it provides me growth, and it’s the only thing I know how to do.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m excited about creative projects I’m working on. I’m close to finishing a novel, a short story collection, and a full-length poetry collection. Along with that, I have so many exciting projects I am starting and finishing–I have no idea where they will take me, but mostly, I’m grateful for the experiences that brought me growth. I’ve published a lot of pieces and won awards for it. It’s a bit surreal for me because I still remember getting kicked out of my Sophomore English class.

I took every writing course in college that I could, and I took them multiple times. I wanted to learn from the best, and I wanted to be critiqued by the best. I was also writing constantly, sometimes seven hours a day. This practice helped build the bricks to where I am. I was working on a novel about a stand-up comedian. I’d written the whole book, and I realized I knew nothing about comedy, so I started going to comedy shows and interviewing comedians. I wanted to know everything. So I started doing comedy in order to write the book. I had played guitar since I was in high school, so I started writing funny songs, and playing them on stage at comedy open mics. I got into photography professionally to take photos of comedians and share visual narratives. My journey is a story about stories.

I don’t think it’s easy to be an artist in any medium. Creation brings many critics, but the biggest critic I’ve had to face is myself. I believe the hardest thing in life is to do what you really want to do, and the main obstacle is usually ourselves. There is a lot of negative energy, internally and externally, especially for artists. I’ve learned to focus on what I’m doing, not what others are doing or saying, and stay true to myself and my journey–I focus on the work.

My story is an unfinished narrative filled with humility. What I create encompasses the human spirit. I write until my hand hurts. I write with boxing gloves on.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take them to the La Jolla Comedy Store. It’s a San Diego gemstone, a museum holding timeless stories.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shout out San Diego Writer’s Ink for creating a place for writers and providing them classes to learn the craft.

Website: https://brendan-praniewicz.com/

Instagram: @praniewicz

Facebook: Brendan Praniewicz

Image Credits
The photos were taken by Richard Richard Richards.