In the comedy club greenroom, comics decompress, workshop new bits and goof around with their friends. It’s a private space where Milwaukee photographer Diego Avila is routinely invited – a privilege, he insists, that has more to do with his personality than his camera. “If you’re a good hang, most people ask you to just kind of be around,” Avila says.
Over the past four years, Avila has become one of Wisconsin’s few photographers to specialize in stand-up, shooting performances and headshots of local comics and national big shots at venues across the Midwest. His camera follows comedians on and off the stage, documenting conversations and camaraderie that audiences never see, such as celebrations after sold-out shows or lunches before heading to the next city.
These offstage moments have become Avila’s signature. “They want someone who’s going to be around the entire weekend,” he says. “A lot of times, I’ll go for one night and then I get asked, ‘Oh, you’re going to be here tomorrow?’”
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Comedy eventually pulled Avila onstage, too. While studying engineering at UW-Milwaukee, he signed up for an open mic to get more comfortable presenting research to rooms full of strangers. Slowly, it turned into another career.
“I’d seen enough things that I liked and enough things that I didn’t like that I kind of knew what I wanted to do,” he says. “That’s when I really started writing.”
Today, Avila is a paid regular at Milwaukee’s The Laughing Tap and Madison’s Comedy on State. His brand of comedy draws on observations about politics, identity and everyday life. One newer bit of his discusses airline safety demonstrations and how flight attendants seem to have “lost the sparkle in their eye” as passengers stare at their phones instead of paying attention.
Avila also likes pulling audiences toward one assumption before flipping it somewhere unexpected, “I like constantly doing these mental gymnastics for people,” he says. “I need you to kind of do another logical leap to get to where I am.”
Performing has sharpened how he photographs live shows – knowing who builds toward big, physical act-outs vs. who barely leaves the microphone stand, and exactly when an expression is about to become the biggest laugh of the night. For headshots, he asks comedians to trade stiff poses for something more spontaneous, like crawling down a stairwell. Others simply trust him to recognize the version of themselves they want audiences to see.
These two roles have made Avila a trusted fixture in Milwaukee’s comedy scene. “I hope what comes through is that I’m a friend of comedy, not just someone hired to shoot the show.”
