Comedian and University of Pennsylvania graduate Aaron Karo – the self-proclaimed guy who ‘wrote the book on college’ – is performing at Syracuse University on Dec. 1. Karo, who is just two years out of business school, is the author of ‘Ruminations on College Life,’ a book detailing the hilarious exploits of his four years at Penn. The book is in its fifth printing, and he’s already working on another deal.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO SYRACUSE?I have been to Syracuse once, like after my sophomore year of high school. I did some summer program at Penn State. I vaguely remember the Carrier Dome. Besides that I have absolutely no recollection. I plan to have no recollection after this appearance as well.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN COMEDY?I was a freshman at Penn in September of ’97, and I got to school and I was having a great time, partying like a rock star. You know the first weeks of freshman year, when classes haven’t started yet, and you’re just out partying for no reason.One Sunday night, I got up and e-mailed about 20 buddies from high school with some funny stories and anecdotes about life in college.Unexpectedly, my friends started to e-mail it to their friends, and those friends started e-mailing it to their friends, and random people started e-mailing me. They’re like, ‘Karo, can you add me to your list?’ And I was like, ‘What list?’By the time I graduated in May 2001, I had over 11,000 subscribers.

SO DID YOU HAVE A REAL JOB OUT OF PENN?I started working in equity research out of a major Wall Street investment bank. And in the fall of that year, I got offered a book deal from Simon & Schuster, basically to compile my columns.In August of 2002, the week the book came out, I quit my job.

SO HOW MUCH BETTER IS YOUR NEW JOB?What new job? It’s been great. I think it’s been like 15 months, maybe more, since I quit. It’s funny, because a lot of people always say, ‘You went to Wharton, best business school in the world, and now you’re a comedian, don’t you think you wasted your education?’ But it’s ironic – I actually feel like I use my education now more than I ever did working on Wall Street. I’m marketing myself and negotiating and using the Internet. Anyone who’s smart can work on Wall Street, but I think my business sense has helped me now.

SO, YOUR PLANS FOR SYRACUSE ARE TO DO THE SHOW AND GET WASTED?Speakers come, you can’t relate to them, and they leave. So my selling point is that I come, I graduated only two years ago, I’m literally the guy who wrote the book on college. I stay after the show and sign books and hang out with people. And I like to check out the local nightlife scene, just to get the full flavor of the campus and stuff.

WE’LL TRY TO PUT ON A GOOD SHOW.Are Mondays a big night, or not really?

HOPEFULLY.SO WHEN YOU WROTE YOUR BOOK, YOU HAD TO TAKE A LOT OF THE CURSING OUT OF YOUR COLUMNS. DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT LOST SOME OF THE COLLEGE PERSONALITY?Most people don’t even remember the original column. It was a mutual decision to get rid of the cursing. It’s more of a marketing thing. The stores won’t put it out front, and they won’t push it as much if you open it up and the first word is ‘dick.’

AND HOW’S POST-COLLEGE LIFE GOING SO FAR?It’s going good. My new column has been vastly more popular than my old column ever was. It’s up to over 30,000 subscribers now, which is also that original 20 friends from high school. I’m also working on a sitcom based on it, which is basically my major goal, my ultimate goal. I went down to L.A. this fall, and I’ve been in negotiations with a major studio to write a sitcom based on the post-college column. So that’s my ultimate drive.

Published on November 20, 2003 at 12:00 pm