Tell Us About:

Your latest stand up show on Amazon Prime Video: 

I found a journal I kept as a kid around 13 years old. When I found it I read some of the entries and, being a comedian, realised that I had to read some of it on stage. It was the most bullet proof bit I have ever done on stage. The entries are so earnest and so ridiculous it was just so easy to laugh at. So I started building a show around it with other stories from that era. I took the show to Ed Fringe in 2019 and finally got to film it in my hometown Columbus Ohio.

Your favourite joke you have created:

My favourite jokes are true stories that when they happened to me they were the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened and to turn them into something funny. My new comedy special Diary of a Bald Kid has, hands down, the most excruciatingly embarrassing moments in my entire life. I was talking to one of the greatest living playwrights in the world and I misunderstood something she said and responded with something that makes me cringe remembering it even as I type this. I can’t give it away but regularly after performing the show people would come up to me and just say ‘Kevin… that was so embarassing’ and it is but at least now it’s funny too. GO WATCH THE BIT! 

Your Favourite venue to perform at: 

The basement theatre at the Soho Playhouse in New York City is one of my favourite rooms. I have seen so many shows there that mean a lot to me and that is how I found out about Edinburgh Fringe. I am doing my new show After Endgame there in February and March and I just love when going to work is performing in downtown Manhattan, nothing like it. 

The joke that was the longest to write and why?

It took me a long time to figure out all the moving parts of the last 15 minutes of this show, which was originally called Loud Blond Bald Kid before it changed to Diary of a Bald Kid. I was a bully of some kids, then I was kicked out of the cool group and I was bullied, and then I became friends with one of the kids I bullied. It took a long time to figure out how to make it all funny because aspects of it are very sad and also I was really mean to some kids too. And I didn’t want to obscure the fact that I was a bully and have the story be all ‘poor me’ and cover up the fact that I hurt people as well. So it took all 90 performances of touring the show to figure out that balance. 

Comedy Hero:

I hope that at least a few readers know this person because you are UK-based publication. But in 2019 my friend Virginie Fortin who I met at Fringe told me about Daniel Kitson. I had no idea who he was and we scored tickets to see his show Shenanigan in the morning and then I saw him do an hour of stand up later that night. It melted my brain to see such complex, interesting storytelling and then just hilarious classic stand up. I would not say he is my ‘hero’ as such but that day goes down in my history as my favourite day in comedy.  

Dream Venue To Play At:

I think I used to want to play bigger venues like Carnegie Hall or something but to be honest all my favourite memories in comedy are in small little rooms, with cheap drinks and low stakes. So any packed room with low ceilings in a great city, that’s the dream venue!

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show: 

I started my own little ritual when I first started doing stand up in 2012, I don’t know how or why I thought of it but I just take a deep breath and say ‘You are just talking to people.’ And the feeling I get when I walk out is trying to feel the vibe, look into people’s eyes, smell the room and be in the moment. I get pretty in my head before a set but my heart calms down right about when the applause stops and I start talking.

The hardest joke to perform and why?

I can’t do one liners or really even keeping a joke under a minute is hard for me. And I get really loud when I perform. When I see a comedian who can tell a short tight joke deadpan I get so jealous. I used to run an open mic back in 2014 and that’s where I met a great comic J.P. McDade and he’s always been so calm on stage and writes amazing short jokes, even back when we started. I have always had the hardest time with jokes like that but a 7.5 minute joke and let me yell a little bit…THATS’ MY SWEET SPOT! 

Essential items you always take on tour with you:

I still keep a journal all these years later. I always keep a pen and a journal on me. And I listen to music almost all day, so if I don’t have my headphones with me I go crazy. But I did forget them on a flight recently and I had 3 hours of silence…I need to do that more. I probably won’t. But I should!

Describe your fans in three words:

Friends and Family

What we can look forward to from you this year: 

I will have another comedy special coming out on Amazon Prime later this year called Fool Proof. I am doing After Endgame, the show I took to Ed Fringe last summer, off Broadway in February and March. And I plan to come back to Edinburgh in August with a new hour! So… hope you enjoy my stuff cause I got more coming at you!

photo credit: Reid Rolls

Kevin’s stand up show Diary of a Bald Kid is now available on Amazon Prime Video

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