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The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: KevOnStage Talks 'Clean' Comedy, 20 Yrs Of Marriage, “Life from the Back Pew” Tour + More
00:49:43
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- [00:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
Geico's motorcycle expertise gives me the coverage I need.
- [00:03]
DJ Envy
Like 24.
- [00:04]
Charlamagne Tha God
Seven claims.
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Kev On Stage
I'm on cloud nine.
- [00:07]
Angela Yee
Clouds are wholly unable to support the weight of an adult human.
- [00:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
What's happening?
- [00:10]
Angela Yee
Furthermore, clouds are not numbered. Even if you procured a jetpack and searched, you'd find no cloud numbered nine. However, at that altitude, you'd likely befriend a flock of migrating snow geese. Geese who'd encourage you to leave your 24.7geico motorcycle claims insurance behind as they would take you in and even share their dinner of crickets and clovers with you. GEICO assumes no liability for any indigestion that may occur from a clover cricket dinner. GEICO expertise for your motorcycle.
- [00:30]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wake that ass up early in the morning.
- [00:33]
Kev On Stage
The Breakfast Club.
- [00:35]
Jess Hilarious
Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy Jess. Hilarious Charlamagne, the guy we are the Breakfast Club losing filling in for just this morning. And we got a special guest in the building. We have Kev on stage.
- [00:45]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yes, sir.
- [00:45]
Kev On Stage
What's up, y'all?
- [00:46]
Jess Hilarious
How you feeling? Good morning.
- [00:47]
Kev On Stage
Good. I. I've been wanting to hear that for a long time.
- [00:51]
Charlamagne Tha God
How are you, my brother?
- [00:52]
Kev On Stage
I'm good, man. Thank you guys for having me.
- [00:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
You know, there's some people who might know. I got a two part question. Number one, who is Kev on stage? Number two, and who is Kevin Fredericks?
- [01:00]
Kev On Stage
Oh, it's a good question. Kev on stage is probably the performative version of Kevin Fredericks. Kevin stage is a comedian, entertainer, pretty much do anything to make you laugh. Feel like Kevin Fredericks is a father, husband, business person as well, you know, that's it. I think it's two sides. When I'm. When I'm at home, I'm Kevin Fredericks, right? I make my family laugh, but I'm not like, yo, let me see this boo boo boo. You know what I'm saying? But when I leave that house, I'm. I'm Kev on stage, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, I think that's the difference.
- [01:35]
Jess Hilarious
How'd you, How'd you get into comedy? Especially coming from the church?
- [01:38]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, I think you're clean.
- [01:39]
Jess Hilarious
Quote, unquote, clean comic, as you say.
- [01:41]
Kev On Stage
And when I say clean, I just don't cuss, okay? Like, yeah, because clean has different connotations. Like you can be clean where there's no vulgar material at all. You don't touch certain subjects. I really just don't cuss. I talk about everything else in my life, everything else that I think is funny. I just don't cuss I say nigga, too, though. Like, I just. As a church kid, I could not cuss. My mom would rather me bring home a child than to cuss. Really? Yes. Cussing was so bad. And, you know, a lot of churches, premarital sex, way worse. Really? What's a little baby amongst friends and family? You can have a baby, but cussing in the house? She was like, absolutely not. And I didn't trust myself to cuss at school and not cuss at home like most of the church kids did. So I pretty much did. You know, I. Premarital sex. I just never cuss.
- [02:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
But nigga don't practice bad habits.
- [02:27]
Kev On Stage
No, no, I just never. I felt like they would catch slipping, and it's actually really a tool for me in comedy. I think a lot of times you got to work a little bit harder if you ain't cussing. Sometimes cuss words are just funny. So you just throw it out there and it's funny. But to answer your question, my comedy started in church, like, making people laugh in church. After church, my grandma would be like, do that thing Sister Daniels did when she fell over. Do that. Do that person's shout, do how that person preached. And I. I would get to stay in the living room a little longer around grown folks and stuff like that. So once I realized, oh, this gets me attention, this gets me perks, I started leaning into that. And, you know, black church is where a lot of performers get their first start. So I. I did a talent show in church. Sixteen, and I was, like, bitten by the bug then. And then shout out to Nate Jackson, real big comedian now. He had a comedy club in Tacoma, and he let me do 20, 25 minutes at his club every Thursday for, like, two years. And that's where I really, really honed my craft. After college, I was just going there every week, and a lot of time we had a lot of regulars there, so I couldn't do the same material. So I'd have to, like, do new jokes, get better, do new stuff. So I think that's. The church gives me the performance. The club helped me sharpen my tool.
- [03:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
Question, why do you keep saying, like. What made you keep saying the N word? Cause I'm trying not to say the N word no more. So what made you not curse but say the N word?
- [03:46]
Kev On Stage
You know, that wasn't a cuss word to me. Like, there was certain words that my.
- [03:50]
Jess Hilarious
Mom, Charlamagne, been saying it for 15 years. He'd been trying to stop saying the N word.
- [03:53]
Kev On Stage
Oh, have you?
- [03:53]
DJ Envy
Yeah. But these niggas.
- [03:55]
Charlamagne Tha God
These niggas be nigging. It's hard not. You know what I'm saying, as me digging. It's hard not to use it.
- [04:00]
Kev On Stage
I think as a black kid, all my friends were saying it was in black culture, movies, tv. And it wasn't a cuss word to my mom. It wasn't on the list. Like, some people couldn't say lie. Like my wife, she couldn't say lie in the. You know, in. In the house. My family pissed off. Wasn't a cuss word and just didn't really bother them. I didn't say it a lot at home, but it didn't raise no flags. So there was, like, the one curse word I could say, so I said it so much.
- [04:26]
Charlamagne Tha God
It's always the person telling you not to say lie, that's the biggest lie.
- [04:29]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, that's why they don't want you to say, don't call me out. Yeah, we don't.
- [04:33]
Jess Hilarious
Yeah, we don't say lie. We don't say fat, and we don't say ugly in the house.
- [04:36]
DJ Envy
Really? All those words?
- [04:37]
Jess Hilarious
Yeah.
- [04:39]
Charlamagne Tha God
What would I do without those words?
- [04:41]
DJ Envy
I grew up, my mom cussed me out like a really What? Oh, no, she's a sweet, humble lady now, but.
- [04:48]
Kev On Stage
Oh, you should have led with that part and then said. And then said she.
- [04:52]
DJ Envy
Because they met her and they'd be like, what? I'm trying. No, it was. Yeah.
- [04:55]
Kev On Stage
Oh, she's changed.
- [04:55]
DJ Envy
Oh, yeah, she's sweet now. And my grandmother. My grandmother's locked into the church now.
- [04:59]
Kev On Stage
So. Yeah, you know, I wanted to ask.
- [05:02]
Jess Hilarious
You about, you know, we had Big Mac here, shout out to Big Mac with my producers, and he was talking about what you did during COVID He was very impressed of how Covid, who had everybody locked down, you made it into a business and a successful business. He said he's seen you go from small house to medium house to bigger house to different car to this to.
- [05:19]
Kev On Stage
This, that, and the other.
- [05:20]
Jess Hilarious
So tell the people what you did during COVID That was something that was totally different.
- [05:24]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, there were some other things in there, but that was the most visible shout out to Spectrum. Appreciate, y'all. Keep your distance. Comedy was our Covid comedy relief situation. So what I did in la, we obviously, everything was locked down during COVID And then we got the notification that you could have up to 25 people outside socially distance, two people here, six feet, two more people. And I could never do the zoom comedy. I could never get into it, because comedy is about timing and that short Delay from zoom response. You it, it, it threw me off. Some people could do it. I just, I needed instant reaction if it's funny or not. So once they did that, I had the idea of like, okay, if we get people to come outside, luckily LA is warm and it doesn't rain that often and we could split them up and get 25 people. I'll bring the comments comics in, we'll do COVID testing, put them up and we'll live stream the comedy. Because we didn't have nothing to do. Like we watching verses. And you know, me and my wife was like, we was having like fight parties for verses. I was like, we really. She's making nachos. You know what I'm saying?
- [06:27]
DJ Envy
We like really getting parties.
- [06:29]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, like them versus party. The early verses, that was the only thing to look forward to. Like new interested, didn't even care about the quality. It was like, oh, verses coming on. So I was like, what if we do that for comedy? And that's basically where the idea came from.
- [06:43]
Jess Hilarious
Did you run it out of alley?
- [06:44]
Kev On Stage
We, it was like the back parking lot of our partner's studio. Like it was a back parking lot. I mean we literally had 25, 30 people max, maybe 35, including the comics. And we needed the comics. We were like, y'all stand here too. So we have as much audience as possible. We had to COVID test every single person. It was like $200 a test. It was crazy expensive. But yeah, I flew all these comics in and I we live stream their sets. We have like six comedians. Probably did over 150 micro specials over the two year period. Introduced a lot of people to a lot of comics, to a lot of different people. A lot of people to live, a lot of different comics, a lot of comics. Biggest YouTube video is there. Keep your distance special. And it was like, it was like my proudest moment to create opportunities to see black comedians put some money in their pockets, give them some tape to show the comedy clubs. Like I would ask them like, yo, can you send me your tape so I could market it? And they like, bro, I don't have no tape. Because most comedy clubs are drab and dark and you know, it's not quality. So we gave them their specials to do with what they wanted afterwards. So they put them up on YouTube or chop them up and make reels. And it was fantastic. Dave Chappelle actually executed it first. Like I had the idea and then I saw him do it in Ohio. So that was like, oh great, now I can Say just how Dave did that.
- [08:01]
DJ Envy
Right?
- [08:01]
Kev On Stage
That's how we're gonna do it. So I said you had no less.
- [08:04]
Jess Hilarious
Than 10,000 people on the stream. Each. Each, every other week.
- [08:07]
Kev On Stage
Right, Right. It was every other week. That was early Covid. So as guidelines relaxed, the ticket sales went down. So at the top, at the peak of it was 10,000 tickets, 14,000 tickets. And we were averaging about 10,000 tickets. And that's like just people who purchase. But people were having basically five parties. They'd have 10, 15 people. So it was like almost closed capture. I mean, closed circuit TV parties. So. But as each state, once Atlanta was outside, then it was less than Texas. It was less. But we did it for about two years straight. And it was. It was fantastic. And now that's on Amazon. You can go watch those, all those specials on Amazon.
- [08:42]
DJ Envy
First of all, your partnerships go crazy. Yeah, for real. Amazon then. So I was going to ask you after that. I know you did something with Patreon, with the women in comedy, because you forgot the women a lot in the pandemic.
- [08:54]
Kev On Stage
No, I did it. I didn't forget the women. I made sure there was at least one black woman and often two or three on every single show.
- [09:02]
Charlamagne Tha God
Okay.
- [09:05]
DJ Envy
Because I had so. Well, I. I don't think I paid attention to that because.
- [09:08]
Charlamagne Tha God
Because y'all don't see black women. No, Black women don't never see black women, but they always want to say.
- [09:12]
DJ Envy
Men don't see black women from all depth digital. So I've seen you work with so many women and like, different people. I didn't think about that. But when I was researching for this, I saw something in essence where you talked about one of your homegirls was like, yo, like, where the women at? Like, can we like, hello?
- [09:26]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [09:27]
DJ Envy
And then you did the. The partnership with Patreon.
- [09:29]
Kev On Stage
Yeah. So Patreon reached out to me, was like, what do you want to do? And to continue my efforts to support black women, because he was already having black women.
- [09:37]
Charlamagne Tha God
Black women don't see each other. I understand, I understand. I worry about this all the time.
- [09:41]
Kev On Stage
Honestly. The truth is, the ratio of comics, it's probably 8 to 2. Men to women anyway. So to make sure I had a black woman, I had to, like, was flying them out. At first I was only doing LA comics, but after I ran out of LA women, I was flying them out, flying women from New York, Atlanta, everywhere.
- [09:59]
Charlamagne Tha God
Shortage of black women in la.
- [10:02]
Kev On Stage
Black women comics.
- [10:03]
Charlamagne Tha God
Black women comics. Okay.
- [10:04]
Kev On Stage
But yeah, when Patreon reached out, they're like, what? Do you want to. Do you want to do a special? And I was like, I want to produce standup specials for the black women I think are funny. So. So that's what we did. We had an amazing time in Mel Mitchell, Ty Davis, Paris. Paris Sachet. I think Grace came from New York. Jerry Lynn, Indescribable, did some time. And there's one person I'm forgetting off.
- [10:23]
DJ Envy
The top of my head.
- [10:24]
Kev On Stage
No, I said, ty, Paris. Oh, that might have been it. That might have been it.
- [10:28]
Charlamagne Tha God
What did specials do?
- [10:29]
Kev On Stage
They did great. Okay, shout out to my Patreon. The stage crew, they support. Keep your distance. They support Patreon. They buy a lot.
- [10:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
So you know why? The reason I asked that is because a lot of times we ask for things, but we don't support.
- [10:42]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [10:42]
Charlamagne Tha God
Oh, like that's, that's, that's something black people do. We ask for things. We say, oh, we want more black women. But then do you actually watch the black woman special when she does it? Do watch her sitcom? Do you watch her cable news show?
- [10:52]
Kev On Stage
That, That's. I do.
- [10:54]
DJ Envy
And people support you, though. Like, you get a lot, especially online. Like, you've mastered the comedian that comes from, like, the stage, but, like, also is online. But people take you very serious and bring you very serious. It's hard to be in that middle space sometimes.
- [11:06]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, I think I, I totally agree. I think they're two different skills and you need to know how to do both of them. And for me, the Internet's always been a tool to get you to come to shows and do other stuff. Like, I'm just trying to get your attention.
- [11:18]
DJ Envy
Right.
- [11:19]
Kev On Stage
But you have to be funny on the Internet and you have to be funny in real life. And a lot of times comedians are on the Internet, but they haven't put the time in stand up. I actually did the reverse, but I wasn't making videos on the Internet, so people didn't know I was a stand up. So then I was like, okay, I need to remind people. So a lot of times people come to my show, it's their first stand up comedy show ever that they've ever attended. So I think few people have mastered both because they both require immense level of training in that discipline, you know what I'm saying? Even if you're funny, you might not. It might not necessarily translate to the Internet because you need to know how to be funny on that specific platform. Each platform has their own identity. Twitter funnies, not the same as Instagram, TikTok. They all have their own identities. And comedic abilities. Some stuff translates to all five. But. But.
- [12:02]
Charlamagne Tha God
And it's all different buckets of money. Like, if you're able to do stand up, you go do your stand up. If you're able to do stuff on social media, you do social media, you can do both.
- [12:10]
Kev On Stage
Get it all. Absolutely. Get brand deals. Some platforms pay you, you know, brand deals, live show money. Like that was the other thing about keep your distance. It was like I went from touring and selling out to not being able to tour. So I still got my family, I got employees and stuff. So I'm like, I need a way to generate this income because people looking for me to pay their bills.
- [12:28]
DJ Envy
Right.
- [12:28]
Kev On Stage
So switching to that, you know, keep your distance was also just. That's the Kevin Fredericks of it. That's the business mindset of like, we got to pivot and. And also knowing that that business not going to last long term. Some people can go outside again. They're going to go outside. You know what I'm saying? That nothing can compete with being able to go outside, have dinner, go to a show, or do whatever.
- [12:46]
DJ Envy
Did your Internet life start, like, with you figuring out, okay on the stage? I also should do Internet. Did that begin during the all dev digital time or like, what was the first, like, Internet breakthrough for you?
- [12:56]
Kev On Stage
It was prior. Prior. Prior to even moving to la. It was back in the day. I had a group called the Playmakers, me and my brother and my friend Ant. And we used to actually do physical plays. Like we were trying to be Tyler Perry, but we lived in Tacoma, Washington, and you just not gonna be able to stand up a play in Tacoma. There's not enough black people. There's not enough stuff. Tyler started in Atlanta, so he was able to. His audience was there more. So I remember we were struggling. We. We had lost this investor. We lost $40,000 of his money. Like he. And first we put up on ourselves. We do them like high schools and churches that didn't go nowhere. Got Investor gave us $40,000. We didn't make that man a dime with his money back. So next time we got $20,000. And we flew this Tyler Perry promoter out. He was like, yo, this place is great. Like, Tyler would love to see this. You guys got to stand it up in Oakland. We're like, okay, what do we got to do? Like, you gonna help us? He was like, yes, I'm gonna help you set up in Oakland. All you need is $300,000.
- [13:45]
Charlamagne Tha God
All you need is $300,000.
- [13:47]
Kev On Stage
I said, brother, I mean, you Might as well be 300 million at that point. I probably had $756 in my account. Like me and my wife made just enough to pay those bills. So I remember watching, like, Billy Sorrells at that time. He did things black girls say. I had already been watching YouTube, Issa and Dormtainment, Tim Chandarongsou, all those people. But it didn't seem like a viable business for me. Cause I didn't know how that worked. But Billy Sorrells is a comedian. I knew. And he was the. His video did like 9 million views. So I thought, if we can go on the Internet and make people laugh, then when we go do our plays, then people will be like, oh, I saw them on the Internet. I'll come to the plays. Then as we started first two videos we did, Things black church girls say and Things black parents say. Both went really viral. A million views at that time, that was a lot of views on YouTube.
- [14:34]
Jess Hilarious
Still a lot of views.
- [14:34]
Kev On Stage
Still a lot. But that happens more often now than it used to. And at that moment I was like, oh, actually the Internet is a thing of its own. Like, if we just do that, we should focus on building that. And then Churchills would bring us out. We would do stand up all over the United States doing me and my brother and aunt. And then after that, I was like, I need to do my own stuff. Like, pretty much instantly I was like, I don't want to get boxed into just doing church stuff, because then that's all people will let you do. So I started my KEV on Stage YouTube page, which is almost at a million followers, which has been a goal of mine from the very beginning. But it's been harder because the algorithm doesn't encourage you to subscribe like it used to because it's all just like recommended. But the Internet became the goal. And since then, I probably making a video every single day. So to answer your question, it was those two videos. Yes. And then all deaf. When I moved to L. A, I got a job there. And actually that was kind of tough because I had to take a step back from being talent because they were like, you are here to nurture the other people. You ain't going to build your channel. You ain't going to do none of that stuff. You do all that on your own time. And I got fired from Boeing previously and I was like, I can't get fired from no jobs no more. And it was hard to get a job in la. So I made sure I focused on those talent.
- [15:46]
Jess Hilarious
The plane Company.
- [15:47]
Kev On Stage
Boeing, the plane company. I was in there.
- [15:49]
Jess Hilarious
So when you left, that's when the planes just started up. You did quality control.
- [15:53]
Kev On Stage
I have nothing to do with them flying. I had nothing to do with them crashing. Okay. I was doing little bit of work in there. I ain't do much in there. But all deaf helped me to develop other talent and helped me to develop shows like my job. I was the head of talent and head of talent and head of creative at all deaf at the same time. So I helped, you know, bring talent in, develop them, and also help developing those shows. So roast me. Great taste. All those shows were developed underneath me. They. They were not my ideas. Like Patrick and Teddy and Tahir and all those group, you know, Meg, they would create the shows, but we brainstorm and stuff like that. So you worked with Russell. Was Russell at that time? He's the one who hired me.
- [16:32]
Jess Hilarious
Oh, wow.
- [16:33]
Kev On Stage
Russell hired me. He called me, I had a meeting with him, and I was pitching a movie and he was like, we don't want to do this, but why don't you come run talent for me? Called me as I left his house and I started, like within two weeks.
- [16:45]
DJ Envy
And you put a guide there too. Like, I did a couple episodes of the Cooler.
- [16:48]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [16:49]
DJ Envy
And like, I remember, like, people just the way that they talk about you and just y'all team in the. In the office. I was like, okay, if you do this, like, you. You make it next. And then you see, like, to hear, like, everybody's everywhere now.
- [16:59]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [17:00]
DJ Envy
How impactful was Russell Simmons on your career then? And just being at all dev digital.
- [17:04]
Kev On Stage
Oh, I think the opportunity that he gave me was life changing, like, skill wise. I should not have had that job. Absolutely lied in my interview about the teams I ran. Oh, man. I had 30 tellers here, people at Boeing. I had this many people working under me. Nobody reported. God thought of that, you know what I'm saying? He probably was like, you gotta get in how you fit in. You know what I'm saying? I think he understood it might not have been his proudest moment of me, but you know what I'm saying, I gotta feed these kids. You know what I'm saying? So. But I was a firm believer. You give me this job, I'll do this job. I might not be prepared, but I went in there and got it together. But, yeah, without that job, it was like digital media college for me. Like, I learned how to make six episodes in a day. It's funny, we just went to WrestleMania last night. I mean, Raw Wrestling last night and I, we were early and I saw them taping other shows ahead of time and I was like, that's. That's efficient. Like, that's how we would have thought of that. You got these people here you can shoot. They shot, I think speed before they shot Saturday night's main event. You have all this talent here. Cycle them through. We was making great tapes. We were making six, eight episodes a day because we didn't have a lot of money. So we had to learn how to maximize our time and our budget, be efficient, be efficient with content, with ideas, how to make more with less. So that type of thinking is what trained me to be more successful. Eventually start my own app, Patreon. Like, that's how I was taught to do that. Also, actually, before that, I was working at Awesomeness tv, which is the kid version of All Deaf. My kids were Zae Zay and Jojo. They had a show on Awesomeness called Crazy I say. So I learned from them unpaid. I went and sat in their staff meetings when we moved to la. I was like, hey, can I just come sit in the staff meetings?
- [18:43]
Charlamagne Tha God
Smart.
- [18:43]
Kev On Stage
So for two years before, like a year before I got to even at all deaf, I would be at their staff meetings every day, just taking notes, seeing how they thought about stuff, seeing how they did brand deals. So when I went to All Deaf, I had all that knowledge from Awesomeness. So I knew what I was talking about in the interview and I actually knew how to do the job. I just had never done the job.
- [19:00]
Jess Hilarious
Who was your inspiration as comedians? Coming up?
- [19:03]
Kev On Stage
Standup wise or the above? Probably my biggest was Arnes J's probably my favorite comedian. He's just so physical. He didn't care. Whatever. He was going to make you laugh. Sinbad was going to make you laugh. He didn't cuss.
- [19:16]
Charlamagne Tha God
He didn't cuss either. We love Sinbad.
- [19:18]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, but Sinbad doesn't cuss. But you don't notice he doesn't cuss. Which was what my goal was. I don't want you to like, be like, oh, this is non cussing. Guy is funny. I wanted people to leave and be like, I don't think I even heard him cuss. And that's how Sinbad was. Bernie Mac probably made me laugh harder than I ever did his Def Comedy Jam special. And me and my wife saw him in Kings of Comedy. And that set is probably the most flawless standup set to me. Eddie Murphy as a goal of how big a comedian could be. And then more recently, Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart is funny in so many disciplines. So to be funny on standup, podcasts, tv, movies, like, that's how I see myself.
- [19:56]
Charlamagne Tha God
Regular conversation, just interviewing.
- [19:58]
Kev On Stage
Yeah. Like, to me, his offhand comedy is some of his best work. Cold as balls. He's funny, but you get him in the interview scenario and you realize just how funny he is. So I think all those people, probably even Jonathan Slocum was probably the first one, though. He's a black church comedian. He had a tape called Laugh Yourself to Life that my parents listened to all the time to and from church. And that's the person who probably made me think that you could even do standup related to church things, and it could be funny.
- [20:26]
Charlamagne Tha God
When did you start noticing the comedy in the church? Like, do you remember that first thing that you saw in the church that you found funny?
- [20:32]
Kev On Stage
Oh, man, absolutely. There so many things. Sister Lewis was Sister Lewis in our church. She might have been so alive, but.
- [20:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
You ain't say God bless her soul.
- [20:42]
Kev On Stage
God rest her soul. I, I a want to bring it down, but God, Sister Louis, I'm like.
- [20:46]
Jess Hilarious
She got to be about 105.
- [20:49]
Kev On Stage
Sister Lewis went on to be with him. She went on to be with him.
- [20:53]
DJ Envy
Oh, my God, that is so tabernacle.
- [20:55]
Kev On Stage
But she worked, like, two jobs. But she loved church, and she could never stay awake. So to wake herself up, she would yell out. So she fell asleep. God is amazing like that. And everybody would look me, nah, it's just Sister Lewis. But she do it where you're preaching. In the most inopportune moment, she would wake up and scream out. And I was like, nobody is saying anything about this. So when we get home, I'd be like, y'all. And then we'd be eating dinner. I'd be like, y'all remember Sister Lewis? God is amazing. And my grandma and them would bust out laughing. And she did that for, like, my whole childhood, like, 10 years straight. Nobody ever stopped her. Nobody ever said, hey, it's okay to not to come. You can, you know, rest. So that's probably the first thing I noticed that was funny. And that's the first thing I copied.
- [21:34]
Jess Hilarious
Did you do that joke in front of her?
- [21:36]
Kev On Stage
Oh, yeah. And she thought it was hilarious. And she could never pronounce my name. My name is Kevin. She'd be like, Calvin. And I would always be like Calvin. And my family thought that was hilarious. My great grandma was hilarious. She had a little, you know, five o'clock shadow. Yeah, she was big, prickly. She had George Clooney's same beard.
- [21:54]
DJ Envy
Yo, I had aunts like that.
- [21:55]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, she was bearded up.
- [21:57]
Charlamagne Tha God
You say you had that too?
- [21:58]
DJ Envy
No, I had aunts like that. I had like a. I don't want to call them. Well, they not here no more. I had great, great. When I was younger. I remember my great great aunts down in Virginia. They were all very prickly.
- [22:08]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [22:08]
DJ Envy
And I was like, ooh, this is not supposed. I was always just a little confused.
- [22:11]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, absolutely. So I'd make fun of my grandma. Like, grandma, you, you got this, you got a beard. And that was my great grandma. My grandma, my mom, my whole family thought that was funny. We had a family of nine in a three bedroom house. So laughter is what kept us like sane, I guess. And we had a dog too. Was like, man, we don't have enough money to feed us, why we got the dog? But that was not unusual, you know what I'm saying? So we were poor, but we didn't know we were poor because we were full of love and laughter. And that's kind of how I saw the world. So that was my approach.
- [22:44]
Jess Hilarious
Now, your wife has been with you. Y'all been together 20 years? Over 20 years.
- [22:47]
Kev On Stage
20 years married.
- [22:48]
Charlamagne Tha God
I was gonna add that because when I'm watching you tell you a story, she's.
- [22:51]
Kev On Stage
She's excited.
- [22:52]
Charlamagne Tha God
Like, she can feel it.
- [22:53]
Kev On Stage
Like, when you said the 40,000 thing.
- [22:55]
DJ Envy
She was like, y'all are one of my favorite husband and wife content duo. I mean, and I know you got your own lane of things that you do, but like, y'all together and then separately, it's just like, like I bounce back and forth between two times.
- [23:07]
Kev On Stage
Thank you. Has she always believed, always believed in God, or you both always believed? I don't know if she was always believing in my version of how to get to things because, like, when I went, for example, when I wanted to move to la, I was like, I had written this whole plan that I submitted to her. Submitted to her? Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. Listen, we submit to each other, right? So I was like, I want to move to la. Here's my plan. And part of the plan was, let's give our house up for foreclosure. Like, who cares? I'm going to get to la. I'm going to get. I'm going to make it back in cash, you know, let the house go, because this is during the housing crisis. I was like, everybody's house is foreclosing. I'm gonna get it back. And she was like, or we could rent it Out. And I was like, oh, snap, that's genius. Cause it was upside down at the time by like $40,000. And that 40,000 number is just 40,000. Just hovering.
- [23:56]
Charlamagne Tha God
A lot of money, bro.
- [23:57]
Kev On Stage
Yes. We couldn't even sell it, but we rented it out, and lo and behold, it's up over its value now. So I think she's helped me to steer those things into a foreseeable thing. But she's never been like, no. Now, the first time when I got fired from my job, that was the first time I signed. This is when I got fired from KeyBank back in Washington.
- [24:19]
Jess Hilarious
Jesus, how many times you got fired?
- [24:20]
Kev On Stage
Only got fired once. I quit. Bored. I got fired from KeyBank and I deserved it. Like, I wasn't a good employee. I was making colored copies of comedy show flyers. I left the original in the glass. I was doing all type of stuff. Had my feet on the desk. Told my ERA retail lead manager. She was like, what are your goals here at the company? And I told this woman who oversaw all the banks in the Puget Sound, I don't plan on working here. I'm just working here till I make it. And she was like, huh? And I came home and told my wife that. She was like, why would you tell that lady that? I was like, that's the truth. Fired 90 days from that day on the dot, literally. I got put on a performance improvement plan that next Monday was fired 90 days from that Monday.
- [25:01]
Charlamagne Tha God
Kevin, we're moving in another direction.
- [25:05]
DJ Envy
Kevin, go chase your dreams.
- [25:06]
Kev On Stage
Go ahead.
- [25:07]
DJ Envy
Absolutely.
- [25:07]
Kev On Stage
That's what they told me. They were like. The lady was like, you don't need to be here. Somebody who needs to be at this job needs to be here. You're not focused on that. So I forgot where I was going with that.
- [25:18]
DJ Envy
How your wife is your saving grace.
- [25:20]
Kev On Stage
Oh, yeah, yeah. My wife is my saving grace. Thank you. So that was when I told my wife, I don't actually wanna do a job. I wanna do standup. So she was like, well, this is the first time I'm ever hearing of this. Like, how are we supposed to feed these kids? Cause in Tacoma, that wasn't a feasible option to.
- [25:37]
Jess Hilarious
How many kids did you have at that time?
- [25:38]
Kev On Stage
We had two boys. Two under four, I think my son was three and one when I got fired. Or four and two somewhere around there. And she did not believe. She just didn't see how that was feasible. So what she said was, let's work on a plan to get there. Part of that work includes you getting a job and show Me how you can do standup and how that can be feasible. But until then, let's do it. So that's what we did. We made a plan. I went and got a job. That's how I got the job at Boeing, worked on my craft, worked my job at Boeing, then didn't stand up at night. Nate's became Thursdays and I would do a show on Thursday and then somebody else on Friday, and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And now I'm like, oh, I'm making some money. Not much money, but a couple hundred bucks here and there. Which at that time was still a lot of money. Still today is a lot of money. Now comedy's paying for a bill here and there. First it was just gum, then gas, then the cell phone bill, then the electric bill. So then when the Internet came in and Awesomeness TV offered us a, offered me a contract to write, direct produce, shoot and edit my kids videos. Now comedy became income and she was like, okay, now I can see it. So that's when moved to la, worked for Awesomeness, got another job with Tracy Edmonds. Eventually led to the job. Tracy, yeah, Shout out to Tracy Edmonds.
- [26:50]
Charlamagne Tha God
Tracy don't get the credit she deserves.
- [26:52]
Kev On Stage
She doesn't. Another black person. She gave us, actually the $50,000 we used to move to LA will split between the three of me and Aunt and Jay. But that's the money that we used to move to LA. She gave us $50,000 to make 10 videos for All Right TV, which was her YouTube, her version of like all deaf digital, which was like a faith based thing. But then she also taught us the game, right? She taught us everything she knew. She invited us to the house. I ain't gonna tell your story. I ain't gonna tell your story. As a husband. There was a great funny story there, but that's your story to tell. She put us on the game. She kept us for as long as she could. The company ran out of money.
- [27:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
You wanna tell the story?
- [27:28]
DJ Envy
I keep trying to get her to pull up a seat. They're so good together.
- [27:31]
Kev On Stage
Oh, so, yeah. And then Albright TV fell apart. And then she was like, hey guys, I did the best I could. And she moved on. Which was actually a lesson in of itself. It's like, people can help you, but when that money ends, it's every man for themselves. That's right. Like she. It's no hard feeling. She says, brother, there ain't no more money. Like, she made the investment, she made the investment. She moved on to her other projects. At that point, I learned, oh, it's not even. No hard feelings. Like, brother, I did what I could do. We did business. I helped you as much as I could, but I'm not gonna reach in my personal pocket to help you. Like, we do business together, we shake hands, we go our separate ways. So that was very valuable. And also, shout out to her. I don't think we would have been able to move to LA without Tracy Edmonds because we didn't have the hard cash to move families. It was three families. Me, my family, my brother's family moved, and aunt's family all moved. We split that 50,000 shot and edited the videos ourself, kept that money, paid off this credit card that we had. That was $10,000 that was built on stupid mistakes. I could.
- [28:21]
Jess Hilarious
I could tell you 29% interest.
- [28:23]
Charlamagne Tha God
Oh, man, I'd love to have Tracy on Breakfast Club, but never mind.
- [28:26]
Kev On Stage
No, no, hit her up.
- [28:27]
Charlamagne Tha God
I am.
- [28:28]
Kev On Stage
She's amazing. Like, she. And I agree, she doesn't get the credit she deserves for what kind of brilliant producer she is. And just like a solid person. Like, she was a solid individual. She did more than she had to for us. And I'm eternally grateful. Still sends us Christmas cards to this day. Like, that's how solid of a person she is. So, yeah, shout out to her, you.
- [28:49]
Charlamagne Tha God
Know, damn, I wanted. Oh, you know, you were talking about working at Boeing. And the reason I think that's so powerful is because one thing I always tell people is that there's 168 hours in a week.
- [28:59]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [28:59]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's more than enough time to chase your dreams and deal with your reality.
- [29:04]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. I. So Boeing I, by the grace of God, that job was very easy and didn't take a lot of time. So I studied YouTube at that time. That's when I really learned how what makes a good video. I spent my time studying there. And then when I left Boeing and my first tour, I worked at All Deaf Monday through Thursday. I worked remote on Friday, did Stand Up Friday in one city, another city, Saturday, another city, Sunday, Then flew back to LA on Monday morning and went to work Monday through Thursday again for a whole year. Like, I worked my job and I tell people, like, you don't have to rush to quit your job to do this. Like, it should be so obvious that you can't keep up with both. I think a lot of people stunt their growth because they want content to be their job so bad.
- [29:45]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [29:46]
Kev On Stage
And content is up and Down. Like how much money is up and down? Brandos is up and down. That 9 to 5 is your first real investment into yourself and into your company. It allows you to have health insurance, pay your bills, and allow your money from your business content, comedy, whatever, to be excess money as opposed to bill money. Because then people get frustrated, it's not enough money. Then you lose creativity because you're worried about survival. And as a human, you got to survive first. So if you're surviving, stability is rocky. Creativity can't flow. If you can't think about, I'm hungry, where am I gonna eat, where am I gonna sleep? Like, so once that's taken care of, then you can flow creatively, in my opinion. And I was not afraid to, to work hard. So at Boeing, I would go to the break room and find a non descript wall and make my video or walk all the way to my car on my lunch break, make a video, shoot it, edit, edit it, post it, and then go back to my job. Never talked about none of my videos. I wasn't gonna make the same mistake I made at KeyBank. And I took that money and built my comedy career on the Internet and stand up and work that regular job all at the same time.
- [30:46]
DJ Envy
I see that your YouTube channel is Kev Onstage Studios.
- [30:50]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, I have two. I have Kev Onstage, which was the first one. Then I have Kev on Stage Studios as well.
- [30:54]
DJ Envy
At what point did you understand why you needed Kev Onstage Studios? Do you get what I'm saying?
- [30:58]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, absolutely.
- [30:59]
DJ Envy
Kev on Stage.
- [31:00]
Kev On Stage
So it was actually there was. I don't know if y'all remember this, but Logan Paul went to this suicide forest in Japan. Yeah. And they called what people call the Adpocalypse on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody's revenue dropped. All these advertisers pulled their money out of YouTube. So that's the first thing that I realized. I was like, oh, this can go away. And the second thing that happened, there was some sort of like child trafficking pedophile situation on YouTube. And they had. They were like doing these playlists and finding kids, like basically kids doing innocuous things, going swimming, and they would put like numbers in the comments. So basically everybody who had children on their channel, all their comments got blocked. Right. And that kills the engagement, kills the views. So in order to get comments back, I started Kev Onstage Studios just to keep the engagement back. Right. And also to get rid of that Logan Paul situation. I was like, maybe if I start a new channel, it'll be Getting different ads. And then I realized I'll just do long form content. Kev on State Studios and things that are not just me and Kev on stage will just be my personal point of view. So Kevin Stage Studios actually is much more of a healthy channel, even with less subscribers, because that's where I put my podcast. Here's the Thing. Shout out to that chick. Angel and Joshi. They're my co hosts on here's the Thing. When we were doing bigger shows, I would put them on Kevin Stage Studios and things like that. So that was really the difference. So people know if you just want me, it's Kevin Stage, you want me or other people or things that don't have me, then that would be Kevin Stage Studios, which is my goal. Eventually to be able to produce content for other people, not just for myself or not featuring myself. So that's where Kevin Stage Studios came in.
- [32:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
Don't look like him and Drew could be like brothers.
- [32:40]
Kev On Stage
I get that a lot.
- [32:42]
Jess Hilarious
Absolutely.
- [32:42]
DJ Envy
You never done a skit about that?
- [32:44]
Kev On Stage
No.
- [32:44]
DJ Envy
I feel like he didn't do the.
- [32:46]
Charlamagne Tha God
Dye in his hair. Nothing.
- [32:47]
Kev On Stage
People say that he was bald all the time.
- [32:48]
DJ Envy
Yeah.
- [32:48]
Kev On Stage
If Drew Ski was bald and you know, we're both heavier set individuals, so I do get that a lot. And I also get that I look like a lot of people. People like look, this person looks like you, Kev, if you light skinned bald, big beard, nobody famous, you know what I'm saying? Just there's a lot of light skinned bald men with beards and pretty much anybody who looks like that, they be like, you look like Kev. You and Juski definitely got a something. Yeah. Shout out to Juski, man. He's an amazing, amazing talent. Just cultural anthropologist through comedy. Absolutely. I say that all the time.
- [33:21]
Charlamagne Tha God
He has a way of capturing culture through his sketches.
- [33:27]
Kev On Stage
1,000%. And it's not just black culture. I first saw him when he was doing the Kyle Roger frat videos and I went to a pwi. Yeah, I went to Washington University of Washington. And I was like, them white boys be just like that. And you almost forget he's acting like he is the black dude in that white fraternity. Like we knew those guys, but you know the Y N videos, the London videos. Roll Tide. Yeah, Roll Tide. Like he Loki could be a really good comedic actor. I think he has the. The ability and creatively it's just genius to me. Like what he's done with the Internet is. Is amazing. Very impressive.
- [34:02]
Charlamagne Tha God
The life from the back pew.
- [34:04]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [34:04]
Charlamagne Tha God
Why'd you call it the back Pew.
- [34:05]
Kev On Stage
The back pew. Pew. The back pew tour. I called it that because, like, I wanted to differentiate my style of humor versus, like, just church humor. Because there's a lot of reverence, and, you know, there's a lot of sacrilege in church. I was a kid who was in church every. Not just Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We literally were in Bible study, evangelistical service, prayer, choir rehearsal, then church. And we always had to sit on the black pew. And the back pew was like, we in church, but we also plan. You know what I'm saying? So the way we saw stuff, that's like, the vision I had of church was from the back pew. You had to go. You didn't have to sit in the front. You didn't always have to participate in every service, but you had to go. And so my mom actually made me participate, but I had to play drums or sing in the choir, do all that type of stuff. But the back pew was. So people know, like, I'm gonna be in church, but it's not gonna be. Every joke's not gonna be about church. I have a whole set segment where I just talk about regular stuff. I knew one of people to know it's for church kids. But black people, even if you didn't grow up in church, you have a concept of black church. But if you've never been to church, you can still come to this show, because if you've only been once, you might probably sat on the back view. So I want people to have an idea of what show they were coming to so they would know, like, it's not gonna be every joke about God, but it's also not gonna be so ridiculous that you're like, I shouldn't even be in the church. So I kind of walked that line. So that's why I called life in the back.
- [35:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Are you trying to get people into the church with your comedy?
- [35:25]
Kev On Stage
I believe that is probably one of my subconscious goals. I don't think that's the intent, but I feel like it is my way where I feel like there's a lot of different types of ministries. There's music, there's preaching, there's pastoring. And I think comedy is one because a lot of black people are hurt by the church. They have negative feelings about the church. And, like, man, this ticket's only 50 bucks, and it's Kev, maybe I'll. Maybe I'll give it one more shot. And then they. If they just come in and don't have a negative experience, maybe they'll be Interested in coming back. So I think that's probably one of my sub goals is to just do my part, you know what I'm saying? Because black church number, church in general numbers are dwindling, especially post Covid. And I don't want the black church to not exist anymore. So I think absolutely that's probably part of my goal.
- [36:09]
Charlamagne Tha God
I think it's because of the Internet too, though. Like I do Bedside Baptist every Sunday. I'm at Potter House on Sunday morning. Okay.
- [36:15]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, I don't think it's all negative. I think the pandemic made people realize, oh, I can actually watch church from here. And a lot of. And listen, Potter's House Transformation Church, they have top tier production. Like you feel like you're watching tv, it's not just like one guy at the back with an iPhone. Like they have a team. They have the. Yeah, whole team. Hundreds of thousand dollars in sound equipment, video equipment, top of the line production staff and services. Their Internet, Instagram, social media is up to par like any NFL team as well. So I do agree, like, I don't think you have to physically go in the church anymore. I think there's so many different ways to engage with people. The Bible app, YouTube, like Pastor YPJ is one of my favorite preachers and I engage with him on Instagram in two to three minute bits. Sarah Jake Roberts, who I know you're a fan of, love her. She's great online, on digital. I think she's actually so important to the black church because especially how her journey started and where it is now. Like, a lot of people need to see the Sarah Jakes Roberts at the pulpit. Person who wasn't perfect and who was outcast. Like I was growing up, remembering how people were talking about her. So to see where she is now and the fact that she doesn't, you know, shy away from her past and how good she is at speaking and communicating, you know, God's word. I think she's super important voice. But also B. Simone's an important voice, right? Like her turning to God. My niece is a hood, little sweet.
- [37:37]
DJ Envy
Baby.
- [37:43]
Kev On Stage
And she got a face tattoo and she loves B. Simone's comedy. So when B. Simone says, I'm giving my life to Christ, my niece sees herself in more B. Simone than Sarah Jakes or T.D. jakes. So I think everybody's journey is important. It's not just the pastors. It's everybody has a role to play. So I just want to play my role and do my part now.
- [38:01]
Charlamagne Tha God
I love it because you Know, I feel like we got to bring. I know this sounds crazy, but you got to bring God. You got to meet people where they are, basically.
- [38:08]
Kev On Stage
Yes. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely.
- [38:10]
Charlamagne Tha God
You can't just think people are going to come into the church or go on YouTube. And there's certain people like yourself, like Sarah Jakes, who know how to connect with culture. You know, like, I got Sarah Jakes headlining the Black Effect Podcast festival that I do every year.
- [38:23]
Kev On Stage
Absolutely.
- [38:24]
Charlamagne Tha God
On April 26th. And it's for that reason, because I know she knows how to connect with culture.
- [38:28]
Kev On Stage
Absolutely. I think you need people who speak that language. I believe. I'm gonna tell you what really messed me up as a young Christian. I thought we were all playing by the same rules. Like, they said, we not drinking. We really not drinking, and nobody's drinking. Right. So I'm thinking that's the truth. And then I'm not even talking about the church. I'm talking about my actual family. I remember I was 18, came back, went to visit my grandma's, and there was some Zimas in the refrigerator. I was like, yo, what's demons? We don't drink. And my aunt was like, you don't drink? I was like, what? No. Our whole life, it was this. She was like, well, we don't talk about it, but, Kev, come on. We drink. And then when I started working in the church, I realized pastors are like, well, this is how I live my life. But I don't want to mess up the flock, So I do this. And I think most people's problem. A lot of problems with Christianity, people have one life they live as a Christian, and one life they actually live. So I refuse to live two separate lives. So I got in trouble with the Christian community because I went to the reunion concert, which was at the Forum, and I was drinking, and I made a video concert. Kirk Franklin, Yolanda. They were at the Forum, and I was drinking. I made a video. I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm drinking at the gospel concert. This is incongruent. And I thought it was funny. And they were so mad. How dare you drink? How dare you? I was like, this is at the Forum. Like, I saw Bruno Mars two weeks ago. The line was long at the bar. She said, oh, my God, it was water 30 seconds ago, but now it's wine. Jesus. That would have been a good joke. Oh, I'm so bad. I didn't think of that. I was water, y'all.
- [39:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
I don't know.
- [39:54]
Kev On Stage
I don't know what happened, but I'm like, I'm not gonna act like I don't drink, you know, like, I'm not gonna present one way and then be a different person. I'm not gonna act like I don't say because the people be like that behind the scenes, behind the pulpit, but they think people can't take it, so they, you know, they present one way. So now you have two different versions of people that are there. And I was like, I was a kid, you know, when I was young and saved, my whole Christianity was trying to be more saved than everybody else. That's how I found my Christianity. That's what I was taught. Even forget, like sinners more saved than other saved people. So I've let all that go. This is how I live my life. I'm a Christian who's also a comedian, not a Christian comedian. And the difference there is, like, I don't. Every joke's not going to be about God, church, and all that type of stuff. Because what I've learned is, even if you do that, it's still not going to be enough. Because some people don't think you should make jokes about got it all. So you'll never be saved enough. You'll never be good enough. So forget it. I'm just going to live my life, do my thing. If you like it, you like it. If you don't, you don't.
- [40:48]
Charlamagne Tha God
I, you know, man, the reason I love that and I just thought about this, for whatever reason, I often wonder, like, how much can faith stifle somebody's creativity? Because God gave you these gifts.
- [40:58]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, but then if you look at.
- [40:59]
Charlamagne Tha God
The structure of religion, the structure of religion will make you think, like, you're not supposed to express those gifts.
- [41:03]
Kev On Stage
But what if I express those gifts for God 1000%. That's why PJ Morton was so instrumental in me as a comedian. Because he had that exact problem he had. He wrote a book called why Can't I Sing About Love? Because he's played the keyboard. His dad's a big bishop. Paul Morton Sr. So he's supposed to be a preacher, but he was like, I don't want to be, nor do I think that's my gift. I want to sing R and B. I want to sing about love. So he wrote a book, he sang about R and B. He got a lot of flack from the church, but he still went and did his thing. End up being in room five, and still did his thing. And he also wrote gospel. And when I was getting fired he wrote this song called Let Go and Let God that Dwayne Wood sang. And I listened to it every single day because I'm like, I'm about to lose. I make jokes about it now, but in the real time, I was like, bro, I don't know how to pay my mortgage. Like, our life was built off two incomes. So I realized that everybody's gift isn't necessarily used in the church, the church building. But that doesn't mean it's not used for God. That's right. Right. Jasmine Sullivan was almost signed to a gospel label. I think that would been a waste of her talents. I think she belongs in R and B and the story she tells. Hotel's album is one of my favorite albums. That album needs to be heard the way it is. I think it would have been. I don't want to say it. Waste. I might be too harsh, but I think she's doing what she should be doing with her gift. It's a better fit for her gifts. And I think God expresses himself in creativity in all disciplines. Scientists, chefs, painters. Like, it doesn't all have to be in the church. Artists. Like, there's so many different ways. I don't think you need to force it into the building of the church. You can still give back your gift to God by expressing it however it, however comes out. So I think that's what I do. And I think it's dope that I can go from the church to a comedy club to a theater. My goal is still to perform in Madison Square Garden. Like, I don't want to perform at churches only, but I want to perform at church because that's how I grew up, and it's a good time. And I can also charge less for tickets because it's not as expensive as working with, you know, the big three promoters. Like, I could just charge you direct. There's no parking issues, so there's also benefits to the consumer. But I think, yeah, the whole goal is to create and express yourself creatively. But that doesn't always have to end up being in a church because you're.
- [43:12]
DJ Envy
Going actually into churches. Are you. Do you, like. Are you asking wifey, like, hey, is this joke going to offend? Like, are you more careful? Because I've never really seen you get into too much trouble for your jokes. And they had, like, one little incident with the. The. What was her name? The cosplay girl?
- [43:27]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that.
- [43:28]
DJ Envy
And you apologize for that, for sure. But, like, what is. Like, what's that process? Because the church people about church get real touchy.
- [43:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
So not allowed to cancel.
- [43:37]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, they believe in forgiveness. Baby cancel. They will cancel.
- [43:41]
DJ Envy
They will cancel the right church forgiveness.
- [43:45]
Kev On Stage
But I think because I grew up in church, I tell this joke, but it's actually not a joke. The first 30 years of my life, I only missed Sunday service three times. One was like Y2K. One's because we were moving, and probably the other one was because I was born that week. But other than that, I was in church. So being in church all that much, I understand the rules, the politics, where the line is, how to navigate it. Like what you can say on Sunday morning isn't what you can say on Wednesday isn't what you can say on a comedy show isn't what you can say. If it's a marriage enrichment, if it's just married couples, you can get away with almost anything if it's in the church. Because we marry, marriage bed is undefiled. So living in that world and being a part of that world has taught me what the line is more than anything else. I think if you didn't grow up there, you won't know what the line is and what you can and can't say, because, like, in comedy, that line is ever changing. So I think that my upbringing is what allows me to navigate it so well.
- [44:39]
Charlamagne Tha God
And congratulations, Churchie got picked up.
- [44:41]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, Churchie got picked up for season two. BET plus shout out to Spring Hill, Jamal Henderson, Leslie. They were very instrumental in getting that picked up on season one and season two. So we just finished production on that in January. We're editing it now, and it'll be out, I believe, in June or July. And similar to, you know, keep your distance, my goal there is to not only tell my churchy story right, because to me, there wasn't an authentic story about church from a person who grew up in church. You can always tell because they always have in Hollywood. They always have pipe organs, and pipe organs do not. No black church has a pipe organ. It's a Hammond B3 organ. If there's an organ, they don't even really make them anymore like they used to. So if you hear that pipe organ and they have the choir robes on them, like, y'all not paying attention to church no more. People don't even wear choir robes like that. But same thing I did with Stand up is what I did with churchy. Giving actors opportunities that they hadn't got. Mark JP Hood, brilliant actor, hadn't had a chance to lead. In this season, we got Quinn Walters, who's Been acting, but she always gets cast as like the sultry seductress. But she's hilarious. So in this role, she's playing funny. To hear more, comedian friend of mine who went on tour with me for two years, three years, he's a brilliant actor. He's been like four episodes of Abbott elementary. Takes acting very seriously. So he's a good actor. Better actor than I am by a lot. He's in there. Love jjp Jasmine, Love another actor who start off as influencer and Hollywood hasn't giving her her role where she could be an actor in a series regular. So because of Churchy, she's got that Lexi, who's a brilliant gospel artist. Melissa, her first car. We used to play Lexi's music. But she's actually a brilliant actress as well. She's in there. Tabitha Brown pulled up for four or five episodes this season. Tony Baker, comedian friend of mine. All these people can act, you know.
- [46:33]
Charlamagne Tha God
A real good friend of yours, right?
- [46:34]
Kev On Stage
Oh, yeah, that's my brother. That is my dog. Anthony Alfonsi, a brilliant actor. So all these people are getting an opportunity through me. And that's just in front of the camera, behind the camera. Jared is our director. This is his first time directing some a TV series. He's got this incubator with Jordan Peele that he's a part of. Rich Washington, who works for me now, used to work for caa. He was on an agent's desk working in TV department, reading movie scripts all day for years. He was like, called me one day. He was on my team when I was with caa. He was like, I think I want to quit my job and come work for you and help you build Kev on stage studios. And he was instrumental in season two. He helped write season two. Sidney Castillo, comedian friend of mine, wrote season one with me. But black women behind the camera, black women in sound, black women, costume designers, makeup artists, hair. I hired as many black people as I possibly could because to me, as big of a problem in Hollywood, racism is a huge problem. Nepotism is much more dangerous because nepotism, they're not even thinking, I'm gonna exclude you. It's who am I gonna hire? It's who I know and who's in my network. Who if I need a podcast person, I hit charlamagne. He's more than likely gonna hit a black podcaster. If I hit you for a dj, you're more than likely because that's just who you know, you're not thinking, let me exclude white people. You're thinking of, who do I know? And that's how Hollywood works. The people go to afi and you get in there and they hire the people they went to school with. So at all Deaf. I realized I can hire black people because that's my network. And that's my goal is to hire as many black people as humanly possible and give as many opportunities as possible and then let people go and be amazing. That's probably the best thing I learned from Russell Simmons was don't try to hold on to people's talent. Don't like, oh, I gave you this opportunity, so I'm going to hold you here. He let Will Smith go from managing him and he blossomed. So I learned, like, however long we can work together, let's work together. But if you blow up, blow up. I'm not gonna take credit for your work. Cause I didn't create you. Trevor Wallace is a huge white comedian. Huge. He was my intern at All Deaf. He ran social media. He blew past me, and I'm like, brother, go ahead, do your thing. Josh was my intern as well. He didn't give me a turkey sandwich when I asked him on the first day.
- [48:57]
DJ Envy
So many people came from that all deaf digital space, though.
- [49:00]
Kev On Stage
It was like when I first moved.
- [49:03]
DJ Envy
To la, that was like, you have to work with all digital if you're going anywhere over there.
- [49:08]
Kev On Stage
Yeah, Smoking reasons. He did doctor reasons there. He actually shout out to him. He was in my. My boy's first skit, where's my milk? On Awesomeness tv. Which was huge for us. But, yeah, that was like our version of In Living Color. Obviously very different, but digital media wise, that was like, where the black culture was for that period of time. People still run up to me and talk about Roast Me. I've been on roast me in five, six years. But people watch YouTube like I watch old episodes of the Office or A Different World. People watch old episodes of Roast Me and Great Taste like they just came out. So that, you know, continues to help those people even today.
- [49:46]
Charlamagne Tha God
Well, congratulations, man. I always say, if what you build only benefits you, it's not big enough.
- [49:51]
Kev On Stage
Yeah.
- [49:51]
Charlamagne Tha God
So you're building some big things, my brother.
- [49:53]
Kev On Stage
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Absolutely.
- [49:54]
Jess Hilarious
Have on stage, ladies and gentlemen. And how can they follow you?
- [49:56]
Kev On Stage
Kev on stage everywhere, Whatever platform you're on. Search Kev on stage. I should pull up.
- [50:01]
Jess Hilarious
All right, well, appreciate you as Kev on stage.
- [50:03]
Kev On Stage
Appreciate y'all.
- [50:04]
Jess Hilarious
Breakfast Club, good morning.
- [50:05]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wake that ass up in the morning.
- [50:07]
Kev On Stage
The Breakfast Club.