June 23, 2016, 3 p.m.
With the launch of Courage + Stone, comedian, actress, director and talk show host Aisha Tyler is adding another line item to her very diverse resume. Photo: Robert Adam Mayer.
Talk show host, film producer, New York Times bestselling author, voice artist for a gunslinging, smack-talking spy — all of these job titles can describe the very busy Aisha Tyler, who is currently juggling her work with animated spy comedy show “Archer” alongside directing her first feature film and co-hosting the Emmy-winning talk show “The Talk” (among other projects). Now, she’s adding yet another job title to her belt: spirits entrepreneur.
So, Tyler began the arduous and heroic process of research and development — a.k.a., she jokes, “a lot of day-drinking.” (But, to be fair, there was also quite a bit of granular research, familiarizing herself with liquor law and tweaking her formulas.) “I started mixing prototypes on my own, tasting them, letting them sit, tasting them again, recalibrating, and trying to find something that worked for people who had a strong, well-developed palate but still friendly enough to the mass market,” she says. She also sought out a high-quality craft spirits distilling partner, ultimately pairing up with New York Distilling to supply the drinks’ base spirits.
Courage + Stone hits shelves this fall, but if you plan on attending this year’s Spirited Awards, you’ll be able to catch Tyler onstage co-hosting the ceremony with a fellow Tales vet, 86 Company’s Simon Ford. Tyler, who also co-hosted last year’s Spirited Awards, says she fell in love with Tales on her very first trip. (She also laughs at the fact that when she arrived, she was shocked at how many bartenders she recognized from her travels. “I was like, ‘I don't know what this says about me as a person!’”) Tyler remains tight-lipped about what she and Ford have in store for the event, but she’ll divulge this much: “I plan on front-loading my good material at the top of the show so that people are sober enough to enjoy it. The last two-thirds of the show will be Simon and me performing a Cirque du Soleil-style interpretive dance holding flaming cocktails and a poodle in a Prohibition-era leather bartender’s apron. Ready yourselves.” Duly noted.
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