Early Morning with Peter Aguero
Peter Aguero is the lead singer of the BTK Band, a host of The Moth, and a multi-million Moth StorySlam winner. He embodies the term “Go big or go home.” His antics are epic. Think of him like a modern day Homer. But way funnier and booze fueled. He emailed us back at 5:30 a.m, or as he says, “Business Hours”.
Ask Me: You really don’t prepare any material for when you host The Moth do you?
Peter: I don’t at all. I’ve found that whenever I try to prepare anything, I’ll overthink it and make it too complicated. What follows will be me fucking it up. I have a background in improvisation (don’t hold it against me) and it taught me to really be able to live in the immediate moment onstage. I like to trust in random chance and chaos. I don’t even like to look at the audience answer slips before I read them, I just shove them in my pocket and pull them at random. I feel like the host of any show is the audience’s representation of a voice about the surroundings. If there’s a heckler, the audience would like to insult them, but they can’t. I can because I have the microphone. The audience doesn’t prepare, so as the host, I don’t either.
AM: One of our favorite things about you, aside from your size, is your unabashed love of naked ladies. Do you have a favorite naked lady situation?
Peter: There’s really nothing better in the world than a naked lady. Not one damn thing. One of my first memories was from when I was around 4 years old and playing with some kids in my neighborhood. I started looking through a hole in a fence and telling everybody that the next yard was full of naked ladies. After that, everything you could look through became a portal to naked ladies. Cardboard tubes, rabbit holes, your own closed fist. Naked ladies everywhere. I don’t remember what I thought they looked like. Maybe it was like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. I just knew it was awesome.
AM: Tell us about your twin!
Peter: This is family apocrypha at this point. Family records showed that every other generation on both sides of my family birthed twins. My generation never did. When I was 13, I developed a soft cyst by my right temple. My mother took me to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and it was excised. Inside the cyst were fatty deposits and hair. The doctor said that it was almost certainly from an engulfed twin in the womb. My mother refused to confirm or deny her original status during her pregnancy with me, which was odd. Years later, she did admit to drinking, smoking, and eating hash brownies while pregnant with me. Maybe if she didn’t fuck around I’d be two 7 foot tall scientist dudes. Instead I’m just one big guy with severe cognitive dissonance.
AM: Who would you rather sleep with, Jack Daniels or Old Grandad?
Peter: I disavowed Jack Daniels after they were bought by a conglomerate and they changed the formula. Old Grandad isn’t bad in a pinch, but that fucker is harsh. I prefer Jim Beam. It’s always affordable, tastes great, and the label says that it’s the “World’s Finest Bourbon.” I love that shit. A fresh bottle comes home empty every time The BTK Band has a show.
http://horsetrade.info/ONgoingEvents/BTKBand/BTKband.html
*Photo by Lindsey Bourque
Tags: Ask Me Stories, Lindsey Borque, Peter Aguero, storytelling