COMEDY writer Aaron Gillies, whose take on modern life, Life-abet, an A to Z of Existence was published last month, first took to Twitter while working as a sound technician at The Courtyard, and now has a following of 48,000 fans.
"When I did sound for shows I'd do Twitter in between cues," he explains. He was an early adopter of the social media phenomenon, tweeting as @TechnicallyRon, and now counts Bob Mortimer, Sarah Millican and Al Murray among his followers. "I used it as a bit of an outlet, as I didn't have much of a social life with the hours I was working and I used it as a way to talk to people."
As it turned out, Twitter changed his life in more ways than he could have imagined. "I now work as a comedy writer, coming up with jokes and stuff for different clients," he says. "Among others, I've worked for the Huffington Post's comedy section which has been great fun.
"I spent a couple of weeks coming up with fake magazine covers, one of which went viral, and came to the attention of an editor at Blink, who asked me if I'd every thought of making a book - we then came up with the idea of Life-abet."
Having originally planned to be a sound engineer, the new opportunities Twitter presented gave Aaron other options. "When this world opened up for me I took the chance and went for it . Now I work full time doing it. It's completely bizarre."
However, Twitter wasn't just an outlet for his comic musings. Aaron also shared his experience of living with anxiety and depression. "I got a lot of support and very kind words. Some mean words and trolls, too, but generally Twitter is a very supportive place."
Tackling adverts, depression, gambling, girls, life, love, Netflix, nudity, Uber, and more, Life-Abet is an extension of Aaron’s Twitter alias @TechnicallyRon. Renowned for his witty, and sarcastic commentary Aaron is not afraid to take a pop at the subliminal messages on body image and self-esteem and anything else and has famously been blocked by Caitlin Moran and publicly called out the likes of Eamonn Holmes and Katie Hopkins.
Aaron admits that the A-Z structure of the book was a big task. "There are 104 different subjects - it was quite difficult to pin some of them down and Q to Z were particularly tricky."
But what he intended, he says, was for Life-abet to be "like a night down the pub with your mate. It's meant to be friendly, sarcastic nd silly."
Life-abet by Aaron Gilliles out now RRP £10.99 (Blink Publishing).
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