Hunter Rand, the cofounder of the local Eddy Westin and Company multimedia boutique, picked up the microphone recently for the first time in years at a community event, at the Holland Project put on by Hawah Ahmad, a local Washoe County Commission District 3 candidate.
Rand did comedy throughout his previous collegiate career, doing a lot of standup with the UNR-based Wolf Pack Comedy Club. As he put it, he had the opportunity to go further with a full-time career having worked with BET and MTV as well as opening for other comedians. However, he said he chose college over comedy due to the societal pressure.
Rand said he doesn’t regret the decision and still has love for the art form. He said that he rags on his mom quite a bit.
He recited an instance where she came to one of his sets without him knowing she was there; he essentially roasted her the entire time, only to have her throw a shoe at him. He said they didn’t talk for a year afterwards.
Rand includes a lot in his sets, one being his heritage.
“There’s a lot of stigma attached to stereotypes and I was afraid of that stigma, and now I openly embrace it. I’m proud to be Dutch-Indonesian, I’m Indish … I’m proud of my heritage,” Rand said.
As for what pays the bills, Rand initially worked for a while as an intern at the Nevada Women’s Basketball team managing their social media, before becoming their director of social media. He then turned to teaching video production to high school students for two years.
Discovering teaching was not for him, he then cofounded Eddy Westin and Company doing everything from design to website building.
Why the Ahmad event to relaunch his career?
With the local campaign season in full swing, and an array of candidates to choose from, Rand said: “Don't vote for people simply because of your party, you should vote for people because you actually believe in them, and all of these local candidates put their phone numbers on their website. You should call them and figure out who’s going to advocate for you.”