Artimus Wolz Performs at Convivial Fest 2025

Almost three years after releasing his debut comedy music album, Artimus Wolz ventured to Hartford, Connecticut with one goal in mind: bring Chaos to life. For months, he had been prepping for Convivial Festival: A three-day event coinciding with Connecticon. The eclectic lineup, made up of musicians and creators from across the web, served as the perfect opportunity to display these songs in front of a live audience. 

With the help of longtime friend and co-producer, CJ Vickery, Artimus spent two months preparing physically and creating live versions of his music. 

The biggest challenge was context. The Chaos project was born on TikTok, where Artimus would traverse the internet for moments to bring to life with a song. The weaponized incompetence movement spawned "Incompedance," while the TikTok congressional hearings sculpted "Gonegress." The topical nature of the collection helped push the album to #1 on iTunes Comedy for both song and single. 

The live show, however, would be different. Due to the niche nature of internet stardom, the crowd at Convivial would go into his set likely unaware of the context surrounding songs. 

"The first thing we did was take the entire collection and scramble them. We asked ourselves which songs brought the energy required for a live show. The album was catchy, but also mildly introspective. So the challenge was preserving that while also heightening the experience for those who are there."

The solution? Incorporating the expanded Chaos remixes. From CJ's rock rendition of "Leave Her Alone" to Zilent Sone's dubstep remix of "Incompedance," a collection was created that prioritized the energy you'd expect of an afterparty. 

"I reached out to several artists who had made remixes and asked if they'd be willing to send over instrumental versions. Within a week, we had everything we needed."

The addition of CJ to the show also helped in crafting the live performance.

"We knew early on we'd want CJ to join me on stage. Besides being an amazing guitarist, it would not only make the show more dimensional, it would give us some room to banter a bit."
 
As the show approached, Artimus found that the format presented opportunities for new material. 

"I worked with voice actor Jon Bailey a bit ago when we stumbled on each others' livestream. As a huge fan of his work on Honest Movie Trailers I jumped at the chance to have him read some lines I wrote for an intro song that poked fun of my status as 'another white guy making comedy songs.'"

The 45-minute set proved to be a success. Following songs like "Bitch Ass Santa" from his upcoming holiday collab album with BrooksOfYork, Artimus found the song (ironically performed in July) was a hit amongst not only the audience, but with staff.

"My favorite moment was when I came back the next day to watch the rest of the artists and I had a security staff member come up telling me how much he liked the "Bitch Ass Santa Song" and how he already shared it to twelve of his friends."

This exchange was one of over a dozen Artimus had that made the difficulty of performing with chronic fatigue well worth it.

"I've been making music for a while now, and I've enjoyed relatively great success. Every day, thousands of people take time out of their day to listen to me, but seeing even a smaller, more intimate group enjoy these songs in person refreshed for me the idea that these numbers represent very real people on the other side: A fact that is easy to forget when you spend your days in the studio."

Eager to share the experience of his first Chaos show, Artimus also planned to document the experience early on. With the help of camerawork by CJ Vickery and Joey "Joman" Mancuso, Artimus was able to edit together the performance with his own footage to create a minidocumentary for his YouTube channel. 

"It's my favorite thing I've edited since film school. This entire process of going from working in a grocery store to performing my songs live on stage has been nothing short of surreal. The show, while in no way the end of my performing days, did feel like the end of a very long chapter in my career."

The documentary is available now on YouTube