ALUMNI: Brent Pella
By Tarin McMorrow,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
Davis High alumnus and sports-writer-turned-comedian Brent Pella has always followed the path that makes him happy.
Pella started his journalistic career at Davis High as the sports editor for The HUB, and says journalism offered him a chance to write creatively about subjects that truly interest and entertain people instead of writing in the essay style usually required in English classes.
As an athlete himself–he played lacrosse and basketball in high school–Pella’s main interest was always sports.
“I felt like I spoke the language of sports in a way that could translate game recaps and feature stories from the athlete’s perspective to the reader’s,” he explained.
After graduating in 2008, Pella played basketball at UC Santa Cruz but soon realized that it was not the school for him. He transferred to UC Santa Barbara for his junior and senior years, where he participated in the student radio station and served as the sports editor for The Daily Nexus.
“In college I was writing and shooting sketches with friends,” Pella said. “It started taking over my interest by senior year when I was getting a pretty positive response from the student body to videos I was making. From there I moved to [Los Angeles].”
Pella started doing stand-up comedy and improvisation for whoever would take him, and has been “broke and happy ever since.”
Pella recently spent a weekend in Arizona, performing six times over a matter of days, meeting all kinds of people and getting the chance to see new places.
However, despite his recent experiences, Pella’s favorite performance of all occurred in third grade when he played the tin man in The Wizard of Oz.
“I had a five-minute solo dance and nailed it,” Pella recalled. “My footwork was crisp, my moves were sharp and I crushed the horn-toot at the end,” he joked. The performance earned Pella his first standing ovation.
On Feb. 10, Pella came out with “So Alone,” a comedy music video with an ambiguous Valentine’s Day theme, which is an effort to incorporate his stand-up in a broader way.
Pella hopes to continue his current career on a larger scale, but understands that his industry is hard to predict.
“I can only focus on making sure the work I’m doing now is stuff I love, and hopefully other people will enjoy it too,” he said.
