KevOnStage Gets Honest About Money, Marriage & Losing His Brother

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25:57I remember quickly thinking, I lived in Washington at the time, Ichiro Suzuki was one of our players. And Ichiro was not a home run hitter. He was just singles, singles, singles. And I was like, yo, Ichiro just always gets on base. the more times you get on base the more chance you have to score but he's now I don't remember ever seeing him hit a home run but he was always on base he was always scoring always stealing and stuff so I was like I'm gonna take the approach of just hitting as many singles as possible I don't chase virality or nothing like that I'm just hit as many singles as possible to make you the chance to be a fan because what I realized is like if I make you laugh it doesn't cost you anything right I don't really make money until you are buying a ticket or uh listen to a podcast ad or something like that, but nobody starts off monetizable.

26:42You got to basically make them a fan. That's why I post three, four videos a day now, because I'm still trying to get as many people in the funnel as possible because you have all these fans in your funnel. And this is not even just me. Everybody, Beyonce is the same. Everybody's aware of Beyonce, but they're not, everybody's not buying tickets on the floor. So she starts off with the free stuff. Music basically is free now. You know, Coachella was streamed for free. The Netflix performance, these are all free. So she's getting all these people at the top of the funnel. Then people are like, oh, I'm rocking with you.

27:13I'm going to buy tickets to the concert. Right? People buy a concert. That's it. Some people just stop right there. Then my wife is like, concert, I need a hoodie. And I need the Beyonce drink. 48 bucks. Don't forget the fan. Now I need the fan. And Beyonce got you. She's changing the economy in the city. We wearing, I had aluminum foil on my head two years ago. We got the liquor in the house now. Liquor, cowboy hats, right? But even them, then you got VIP, then you got super fans who buy anything she makes. So to me, it's just like, I need to have fans at every stage. And that starts and continues with making content every single day.

27:48If I can keep you in my algorithm making these little funny videos, then when Safe Space comes out, you're like, oh, this is Kev too. Oh, this is funny. Oh, there's a full show of this. Now you're watching that on Tubi. Now I'm now monetizing. Do you ever feel like, because I had, was it Denzel? One of these people was like, they don't like social media because it kills the mystique. Yes. And you don't want to give too much away because then it's like, what's the point of me watching you if I could just watch you for hours on social media? That logic applies to Denzel. That logic does not apply to the rest of us.

28:24To be clear. Because if you were famous prior to 1995, that logic can work for you. But once Will Smith said, I got to get in this game. So if you, if you are any, who is above him? And he came Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube shows, all that type of stuff. But for Denzel, that's true. But here's the thing. This is what Denzel don't tell you. He's doing social media. He's just not creating it himself. He's still on podcasts. He's still on interviews. That press run ain't just late night. Like it used to be in daytime. They send him on podcasts and stuff like that. He's just not the creator of it. So nowadays you can't run a business without a social media president.

29:04I don't know how you can. Movies, the Odyssey promo that most of us saw was Twitter, trailer, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram. The cast interviews, we don't have to watch the TV show they're on. We watch the clip that goes viral on the podcast. Things like this for me, big deal. I flew red-eyed, didn't take a shower, did apply deodorant. Is there a tank top on anything? Loose. I told you I'm about that loose life. I'm not doing it. Is it really 270, bro? Because you say that in every video. I don't even know. 270 what? 270 pounds. You say it's 270 pounds every video. You weigh 270? You don't weigh 270 pounds.

29:43I don't think it's 270. That's impossible. I don't even want to check because either way I'm going to be messed up. That's what you say. That's what I say. That's actually impossible. Because I focus on the world. I'm watching every day. I'm 195 pounds. He's not 270. There's no way you're 270. I am. To me, I'm 270. All right. We'll go. I rate myself today and it's 235. All the workout's done. It's over with. And if I'm still 270, all the workout's done. Because it ain't working. So I'm just saying. Warwopper. But yeah, I think you have to have an approach on social media consistently to do all the other stuff.

30:20So don't worry about. oh the mystique mystique and no it's and even in stand up yourself i had to learn that like i don't even want to say back in the day like pre-pandemic it was super it wasn't even taboo it was like you don't put your material online your actual material because when people come see you they're gonna be like i already saw that but then what started happening is people like matt rife morgan jay nate jackson they start burning all this material and they went from clubs to theaters to arenas. So it's like, we got to figure out a way to burn some material. Right. And that's why that's when all the crowd work came up.

30:57You'd like all these comedians doing crowd work because I need to at least make you think I'm funny because most people like standup comedy is really a niche of a niche of a niche entertainment. Most people don't grow up going to standup comedy clubs. A lot of us have seen standup, but like there's a lot of cities in America don't even have one standup comedy club. You know what I'm saying? So in order to get you to come, I need to prove to you that I'm funny in this way. So the way to do that is see me on stage holding a microphone, telling my jokes. So so comedians had to figure out a way to get that out there.

31:31And the mystique don't matter. You could be mysterious and broke. Don't matter. I ain't nobody with mystique. And they don't know what I'm doing. And your show ain't sold out. You know what I'm saying? So it doesn't help the majority of us. Like the majority of us got to be in the field all the way to Jay-Z. Like his version is like, I'm going to do a sit down interview. And because he's who he is, the social media does his job. Yeah, it's going to be clipped up everywhere. I didn't get a chance to go to show, but I feel like I was there because I'm watching on Twitter. So we're all using it. I just want rather be in control of it versus because sometimes they'll clip you and reframe your thing.

32:08That's a fact. And if you don't have your own mouthpiece, then people are creating your narrative. Yeah. So I'm going to say my stuff. It's easier to correct if you have your own megaphone. I want to talk about one of the most brilliant things that I saw you do. And first, let me just say congratulations, New York Times bestseller. Thank you, thank you. Two times, twice. I know which book you're talking about. I'm getting two times. I'm getting two times. God steals our wars, you're stealing my lines.

32:34The honesty around the book release, the second book. Yeah, Successful Failure. Obviously, we've been through the book process, also New York Times bestsellers, by the way. There you go. Thanks, Kev. I was hoping you would say about yourself. Respectful. That's hard. so we knew the process it's hard bro we know the process and you can't buy your way in right and so there's no formula for no and they won't tell you exactly that's the mystique now that when i heard you talking about the process i'm like oh he's really going through the process i think the brilliant part was the pivot that you made and the honesty that you had like hey i'm doing this wrong in front of everybody yeah here's what we're going to do going forward yeah how much of that was i got to sit down strategically look at what i'm doing revamp it and go tell the audience because it worked perfectly.

33:17Because when people saw you revamped, they said, oh, I get it. Yeah. Let me go out and support this. First, I got to say shout out to my wife because we were actually in New York. We at the hotel we're staying at right now. And she looked me dead in my face and she was like, it ain't working. Because I kept getting the numbers from my publicist. I mean, the publisher, the pre-sales. And I'm like, yo, these books are not moving. And I was promoting. It just was not translating. and she was like yo you're not telling people what this book is and what it's going to do for them you just being funny and that's cool but people have no reason to get your book you need to do this this that and that she sent me people on tiktok who have done it she was like you need to you need to make yourself for this book you need to present yourself as an authority like you know what you like you know what you're talking about which i don't like to do that much because i feel like it comes off a little bit kind of sending stuff like that but i think the we're in an authenticity based media game now.

34:15We, we over that, you know, nineties, it was mystique. It was magazine covers, you know, it was all that. But now the most successful show is why podcasts are doing better than shows because people are like, Oh, I trust Troy and Rashad. I trust on your leisure, whatever the, whatever the thing is. So being honest and straight up allowed me to cut through all the BS. And people was like, and it helped that the book was called successful failure. so I wasn't afraid to admit I am literally failing at this right now and that's why I tell the truth about ticket sales like right now I'm selling really well and grief sucks but Charleston, South Carolina I'm never coming back just stinking it up I'm looking every day I'm like dang Charleston ain't number two else from Savannah ain't nobody in Savannah two else from Columbia get Charlemagne on the phone yeah somebody where the Gullah Geechee people at where the gulligichi people holler at me but when I'm selling well it's also the truth so when I tell you my show's about to sell out it really is when I tell you I'm not selling well I might not come back that's also the truth but I think that pivot one allowed people to see me for real two it made them actually interested in the book and three for the rest of that campaign I was proving to you why the book would be valuable to you and four I hit it just as hard as I was doing with the comedic approach but it was a more effective approach And I think people just appreciated that because I think, you know, Instagram, social media becomes a highlight reel and people don't really share their losses.

35:45But my whole point of that book is I am still failing right now, always. And I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of making a video that still videos flop, still jokes that flop still. I can do really well in a lot of cities, still have cities that don't do well. And that's cool. I think people appreciate that breath of fresh air. Sometimes artists don't flop and they cancel the show that I was sick. we seen them blue seats you were sick with blue dot fever it was all them blue dots means full seats technical difficulties yeah you know my throat fell off come on man you wasn't selling the tickets and that's okay and i think even that allows me like if i fall back right say i'm not allowed i'm not selling as much as i am in theaters and i go back to comedy clubs i won't even be ashamed of that i'll be like yo we in the club pull up on me like i'll just take the benefit of that.

36:34And I think people appreciate that approach now more than Mystique was like a, not even say 90s, like it's still a big popular thing for a lot of people. But I think authenticity is a more popular form of currency now. And I think that people can trust you because we're being lied to all the time. Government is lying to our face. We've seen a video of a cop shooting somebody and then they go and do a press conference about a video we already saw. Like you're lying. So when people are like telling the truth I think it cuts through yeah talk about the partnership with Tubi yeah that was super dope man uh what happened was it came from a failure what I deemed a failure was Kevon Stage Studios I started my own platform right streaming platform streaming platform I was gonna take Netflix down like my goal in my mind Netflix got to go himself I read was gonna call a meeting and be like, who is Kev on Stage Studios?

37:33They are checking up our money. Literally. They're cracking into our market share. In my mind, if you ain't going to go that hard, what's the point of starting it? That never happened. Reed did his day-to-day thing every day. Right? But I did serve my audience. So I'm having Kev on Stage Studios content for years. And we kept a good amount of subscribers. How much was it? How much did it cost? Yeah, it's any cost. So here's the thing. It was$5.99. A month? A month. And here's the big mistake I learned. That$5.99, you ain't getting$5.99, right? Too low? No, no, no. I mean, just based on how you share with Apple, Amazon, the platform.

38:15Like that$5.99 was like$2 for us. $2.80, I think, a subscriber. But our business model is based off$5.99. Like we actually, no, we knew it was like$0.65 per subscriber, blah, blah, blah. but we didn't realize Apple's taking 30 % off the rip. And you can't do it without Apple. You can't leave that many subscribers out there. But anyway, running Kevon Stage Studios and the CEO of Tubi and the person who runs the creator program used to be at Vimeo. Vimeo is the platform that hosted Kevon Stage Studios. I didn't work closely with them, but I had a few conversations with them and their teams and things like that.

38:53So they go over to Tubi and I shut Kevon Stage Studios down, not because it wasn't profitable, it just wasn't scalable. Like there was no way to keep the employees and keep content and be revenue positive. I'm using all the terms because I'm with y 'all. KPI, index. Our audience understands it. Yeah, index, indicators, growth. You feel me? Exit. EBITDA. What was the ROI? It wasn't that. So I'm throwing my own cash from comedy shows and brandos in there to keep it afloat. We call that cash burn. Yeah, and our burn rate was really high. Like that's why I had to shut it down. I was like, oh, we're not going to be able to compete because you're also in the consumer's mind.

39:30You're competing with Netflix, even though they're, you know, Netflix is whatever it is now, 20 bucks or whatever. In a consumer's mind, you'll never get to the bottom of Netflix. You'll be like, oh, there's plenty of stuff. I can't find something to watch. You blame yourself, not Netflix. Kevin on stage studios. You could finish it. And it didn't take long. You, you, you spend four days. You sick for four days. You get your wisdom teeth pulled. You're done. and we ain't never gonna keep up with you enough. You just quit. Because I ain't got the bread to make that many shows. I don't have no money to license those shows.

40:03I can't create at that pace. So they was finishing it. So I'm reading the like, when people are canceling, most of them are like, y 'all don't have enough content. Like I've seen it. I've seen it, bro. I only need it for four days. And then I was having a lot of black people be, we put this show on, they'll watch the first episode, let all eight come back and then pay for one day, burn through that whole thing. and cut that thing off before the free trial expired. I was like, y 'all killing me. You're killing me. 30 years of my career. So, anyway. The free trial is crazy. Yeah, they burned through it, brother.

40:39Them folks said, I can't, I can't hold you. And people would hit me in the street like, I ain't gonna hold you. I killed you on that free trial, brother. I burned through that stuff in four days. And I shared the password, bro. Me and my cousin watched everything. It was password share. It was the thing. Yeah. That's where Sharon was a thing. And it was killing me. Right. And that's the thing that was hurting me. It's like people was watching it, but it wasn't translating because they wasn't paying. But, you know, it was like going like bootlegs. Right. But I'm not seeing no breath. So they go over to Tubi and they saw Churchy.

41:11So this is like why Churchy was so instrumental. You produced that, too. I produced it and financed it. And wrote it. And wrote it and paid for it. That's the only reason I'm in the game right now is because me and Melissa paid for Churchy. church because coming to a network and saying, I don't have an idea. I don't have a script. I don't have a pilot. I have eight episodes complete. And here's data from my audience. This was our most successful show on our platform. Here's the numbers. I can bring that audience to your platform. So that was BT plus to be saw that. And then when we first met with them, they were like, we want you to come to me.

41:45What he told me was we checked your numbers against people who are much more famous than you and they didn't convert subscribers like you did at Vimeo. It was, it was small to me, but on their backend, they were like, this is actually much higher than people who are more content than you, more revenue than you and more famous. So it was like, that's why having engaged fans is more important than having a lot of fans because you can have a lot of fans who don't feel the needs. They don't feel the need to touch their credit card. That don't really help. Right. When it comes to ticket sales, moving them to a platform, a like doesn't cost you anything.

42:20But if I'm willing to put that 16 in CVV, once you get to a CVV fan, now you can talk. Right. So they they had this new program to be the creator program. And I had backed up what I was talking about on Kevin State Studios. And I was selling tickets on stand up. So they're like, if he's selling tickets and selling out all over the United States and he had this platform with all these numbers, we believe he'll actually be able to move his audience over because they had worked with a lot of influencers who they would give shows to, but they couldn't convince their fans to come over. Even though 2B is free, their fans were just not used to being like, I'm going to go find you.

43:00They were used to seeing them on the platform, but they were not used to being like, I'm going to go out of my way and find you. So we start off with safe space, which is a very small budget for them as like a test. And, you know, we shot that in two days. and it was like a smash success. And then we did the Bald Brothers. We did nine specials and that was a hit. Stand up. Stand up, right? And we didn't really make no bread at that time off of that, but I just was like, let me prove to you that it's going to be worth it. And after those two, they were like, okay, let's have a conversation because we were pitching.

43:38And also I just sold the hospital to BET. It was on BET Plus And that was going crazy viral on social and doing well on the platform. And I think they knew BT was going to be asking for something else. And they were like, before you go over there, let's have a conversation about what a larger partnership would look like. Because you've proven through Vimeo, through ticket sales, and now on our platform that your audience is coming over. And that's how we expanded the partnership into the biggest partnership in 2B's creatorverse history. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use.

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47:41At Oppenheimer, we're proven because we're grounded in discipline. For 145 years, we've been building and protecting wealth through every market cycle with precision, clarity, and the courage to think boldly beyond the moment. This is what market-tested legacy looks like for this generation and the next. Put the power of Oppenheimer thinking to work for you. Wealth management, capital markets, investment banking. Because I had proven that I could do it, and I proved it in the small sample size of the first two shows. When you brought up church, it made me think of kind of your story being in church.

48:21It makes me, you know, the children's church story is crazy. Yeah. What do you think them kids is doing, right? Right. So I'm like, yeah, those honest truths, right? And then today's comedy, you see Drewski. Yeah. And you see the critique and criticism that he's got for putting church and comedy together. But that's what you've always done. A thousand percent. And it's kind of worked and translated for you. What's your thoughts around some of the critique he's been getting and criticisms he's been getting for putting church on the front street? To me, Drewski is a cultural anthropologist through comedy.

48:55and he pulls his source material from truth. The reason we're upset is because, I actually don't know why, because I can point to you a video that I saw of everything he did. The only thing that I hadn't seen with my own eyes was somebody spitting out of their Rolls Royce or Bentley and counting the money. Actually, I seen the money machine in church. Me personally, because I worked in a church. I seen the money machine, but they weren't bad. They just trying to be efficient. Right. So it's a thing of like some comedy is like the court gesture back in the medieval times. Like comedy speaks truth to power.

49:33I seen designer pastors. I seen pastors coming on the wires. I seen all that stuff. And obviously he exaggerated for comedic effect. But it's it's not like people weren't saying we've never seen these things. How could he? It wouldn't have resonated. Right. So it's like, I don't know what I'm at. brother i could send you an instagram i know the pastor's name who did this like i could there's a whole uh there's an instagram it's like preacher sneakers or something like that that would document all the pastors who had three four thousand dollar shoes designer clothes like this stuff exists so and also drewski doesn't pick on one group he's taking a shot on this He might do, you know, he he did the British actors thing.

50:18British people were mad. He did the whole taps. Hotels were mad. He did the church thing. Church people were mad. He did a NASCAR. They were mad. He did the Charlie Kirk's wife. The offended party is always offended, but he's he's not like I'm going to keep harping on you and you and you. He's just moving it around all the time. So sometimes you just got to take your L and adjust. So if you switch up how church is presented, then his video doesn't ring true. But right now, you've seen some of the productions for Easter and Christmas. Like they got drummers flying through on zip. It's crazier than his video.

50:52Fire and like the production value in churches is crazy. So it's not that wild. And somebody let him use their church for that video. You saw a zip line in church? I saw a video. I ain't seen it personally. But I seen the video. But I've seen some production that's like, there's 100 bands today. At least. At least. The weekend might be 250. You know, so he ain't crazy. How important is ownership for you as far as IP? Obviously, you're coming from a non-traditional pathway as far as not like the traditional Hollywood. You know, everything is owned by a studio. You know, as a creator, you're coming in with a different business mindset.

51:30So when you are working with Hollywood, how are you approaching that when it comes to equity and ownership? By the grace of God, everything that you see right now, I maintain ownership of still. And this to me is like buying a house. You like the buying a house is my first venture into making some money because you own that and the value continues. So content right now, owning it, if it's quality, like looks decent, man, you can sell that 10, 20 times. Think about the fact that Martin ain't aired a brand new episode in 25, 30 years. And Martin is on five different platforms coming on TV every day.

52:11The creators of that show are getting paid indefinitely. Seinfeld as well, The Office. So it's like the more pieces of content you own and the more places are buying content. Now exclusivity used to be the big thing. Now they don't even care. Like people are like platform specific. So as an owner, later on, it's like owning the master's music masters. That's what I can equate it to, because for the rest of my life, these properties I created are going to create income from me. Even when I stop creating, I can pass this residual income to my kids, sell this to, you know, this platform, Fast Channel somewhere in Africa, you know, Brazil, all that type of stuff.

52:53A lot of black content goes crazy in Brazil, Germany, all that type of stuff. So for me, ownership is important, but it's not all. I don't have to own everything because as a producer, what I realize is it's also very straining on on cash flow to own things because you are physically and physically responsible for that. So you go over budgets coming out of your pocket. So sometimes I partner with the network and I'll let you take all the headache. Right. Because what what people don't understand is like for to be, for example, every milestone that I get to get paid, I have to do that work first.

53:30So in order to, you know, get the milestone for completing the rough draft, I have to pay the editors in advance. So then they pay me when the rough drafts deliver it. So I got to come up with that cash first. So the ownership part, everybody wants to be an owner, but owners got to take that risk. The owners got to foot the bill when you go over budget. The owner got to come and lock up when nobody else wants to. so partnering is okay too i i want to be all over now if i'm not owning it then i gotta tap that pocket because i know i'm not gonna see no money from this ever again so if i'm just a talent i gotta i gotta tap that pocket because you can you can exploit this for the rest of your life and i'm only getting a talent fee and i'm also tapping the pocket and i want you to take on all the stress you got to get the insurance permits rent the equipment all that type of stuff i'm not taking on any of that.

54:20But if I am taking on that risk, then I want to own it. But I think that's what I love about 2B, they're financing these projects. I own them. I have creative control and I have back-end participation, which is unheard of you getting all those, except, you know, Ryan Coogler, remember his deal when he got ownership rights, that was 25 years later. But he got first dollar gross. That was unheard of. So on a creator thing, usually people pay for it and they maintain creative control. Hardly anybody's getting back in profit. Residuals isn't really a part of Hollywood the way it used to be because it's not as ad-based as it used to be.

54:58It's all subscriber-based, so they can't tell you your show's making this, so I'm gonna pay you. Your show's not. The subscribers are just subscribing to Netflix. Back in the day, the advertisers pay, so it's easier to pay residuals. So now talent's just getting a talent fee, and I'm okay with that. But I think the bulk of my business is going to be ownership because that's my retirement plan, right? Even though I probably never will retire that way, but income wise, that content making money for me year after year is really important to me because, you know, I don't have, this is my job, right?

55:30This is my Roth IRA, IRA, 401k. It's owning these properties that I can just sell forever and ever and second, third window until the end of time. Because that content right now, I have a show on Tubi that I made in 2020. That was kind of cold, but I licensed it to Fuse. It's just crazy. Fuse said, okay, to get some of our money back, we're going to put it on Tubi because they got more eyeballs. I'm getting paid from people watching on Fuse and people watching on Tubi. And I made that in 2020. It's 2026 now. And I only had to pay the one time, but it's been earning, you know, it's earning forever.

56:07You know, now I get more properties like that. I can have income and it's not all crazy income, but it is. So it's something. It's catalog. It's catalog. It's back in participation. It's like licensing a song. You know what I'm saying? So that's why it's important. Let's talk about Grief Sucks. Yeah. And it was interesting because the promo for it is, it is a standup comedy. You will laugh, but you will get emotional. For sure. You made me think back to a 15 year old me when you said that. It was kind of around the idea that when you're going through grief, your world stops, but the world keeps going.

56:47Absolutely. I remember my grandmother had passed. I was sitting in the cafeteria and I'm looking at everybody and they have no idea that this is happening. It feels like the world has ended for you. Yes. But everybody's just kind of doing their thing. Yeah. Talk about the origin of Grief Sucks and the purpose of it for the audience. So shout out my wife again. I didn't have a plan to do this. I was going to do just some regular church jokes, some new stuff, whatever. go to my plan. I was doing a show and she was there and it was at a church and I was about to do some jokes and another comedian did the jokes I was about to do.

57:19And I was like, oh my God, I got to switch it up. And she was like, you know why that's happening? Because that joke you did when you were 16, you, you being lazy. So that at this level of creation, that shouldn't even happen to you. I want you to challenge yourself to do something brand new, even if it takes you six months to develop it. And I was like, dang, you're right. Like she, because she loves me and is in my part, my partner and has my best interest in hand, she was able to tell me the truth and challenge me in a help me way. And a friend of mine, Joseph Solomon, he had told me like, I was just making grief videos early in my grief process.

57:57And those videos will go viral. And obviously that's not why I made them. I just was, you know, making videos about what I'm going through on the daily. And he was like, I think you should do something around grief, totally separate from Melissa. Because I was like, he was like, the way you do comedy, I think you can help people cope and still be funny about it. So I basically put those two ideas together and wrote like a whole brand new hours. The first time I wrote a brand spanking new hours, a comedian, I want some jokes that are tried and true, that I know work, but grief sucks was all brand new.

58:26And I felt like for me, it was important to honor my brother with the thing that I do best. Like as a comedian, this is my art. And if I was a painter and I painted, you know, portraits, I would paint a portrait and honor my brother. If I was a photographer, I'd take a picture, whatever my thing was. If I was a musician, I'd write a song or something like that. But I'm a comedian, so I have to use my gift to honor him. And also grief is funny. Like I was in every funeral I've been in. I've either laughed or held a laugh in because black people, we funny everywhere. Right. I've been funerals with a preacher is bombing.

59:01like bro you bombing on the grand stage you feel weird about laughing i feel weird i feel you but we snickering or we laughing afterwards so i'm like i'm just gonna bring that part to the forefront but also be open and honest about the parts that suck and you know i'm 43 like at my age and most people who follow me age we lost somebody right might not be a brother but you lost granny grandfather some people have lost their kids siblings whatever or you grieve a friend you who's alive y 'all just ain't cool no more that's another form of grief so I felt like to honor my brother I wanted to do that and I was low-key kind of scared I was like I don't think people are gonna buy tickets to this because like who gonna want to go knowing crying's impossible but people want to laugh people want to heal people want to move forward so I think with comedy allows you to feel that emotion, be vulnerable, but I got to step out first and be vulnerable and let you know it's okay to laugh.

59:57That's why I chose that song, This Nigga Dead, because it's funny, but it's also true. Because the first time I heard that, I was like, this is perfect because this is how I feel. Like she said, oh no, this happened. People dying that ain't never died before. That's how I felt. And people were like, I don't know whether to laugh or cry, and the answer is both. So we got to show you going to laugh the majority. Quick one before you jump back in. You're listening for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help.

1:00:32ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves. And here's one that most people skip. Car insurance renews on autopilot, the rates creep up, and nobody tells you. That's what Insurify fixes. In about two minutes, completely free, you can see rates from more than 120 top insurance companies.

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1:03:30We believe in starting with your financial goals, not a formula. At Oppenheimer, we put the full strength of our longstanding expertise to work, understanding your life and your ambitions, and designing the precise strategies that build and protect your wealth with confidence across this generation and the next. Put the power of Oppenheimer thinking to work for you. Wealth management, capital markets, investment banking. But there's going to be a moment or two that's going to pull at your heartstrings. You might not cry, but I'm going to try and get you. The promo, though? And Ray J. Ray J. And Ray J wasn't being funny.

1:04:12No, it's just the timing of it. It's just the timing, bro. Ray J is crazy. Bro, who else can say Ray J patted them on their back in their time of deed? Who else has cried and been like, you know who was there for me? Ray J. And he really was like, no problem, brother. And posted up. thanks Ray J handshakes cause he smacked me hard like the thing I'm playing my back was stinging and I was like let me dab him up so he don't pat me again cause I was like I wanna be like why would you hit me that hard he came in like yo Ray J chill like you know you got them tinglies on your back bro my back was tingling but he ain't mean no harm But Kirk Franklin ain't dap me up.

1:05:00Dr. J ain't helped me. Ray J was there for me, bro. In your time of need. In my time of need, Ray J up here. You never know. You never know where Ray J will be. You never know where Ray J will be. Is this, so would you say, is it going to be different in different cities or is it going to be like pretty much the same? For the most part, it'll be the same. Like I've been workshopping it since February. Just to get all the tweaks out and all that type of stuff. I just performed it last night. I literally performed it. Went to the airport, flew here, came, hit the D.O. ring, came right here. I ain't go full shower, but I ain't crazy.

1:05:42And I got the aluminum. Black people, I got the aluminum in it. And I'm going to hit the shower right when I'm done. We need a video on that. Yeah. Please. You got to go aluminum. A little bit. You know, because the thing is, if you die early because of aluminum, at least they won't say you was musty. That's a tag that lives forever. Yeah. You was musty? They'd be like, man, he gone. But whew. He used to be musty. The must is, he used to be, man, musty. Yeah. Like, you don't want that. You used to call him BK. The must is. But yeah, it's going to be, for the most part, each show is different because the audiences are different.

1:06:16Right? That's one thing I love about performing. I performed in New York three nights in a row. Every show is different. I performed, I think, 12, 14 shows in LA. No show is exactly the same because, you know, it's a performance and part of it is the audience energy, how you're feeling, how they're feeling. You can perform in the same. Some people laugh at this part that's meant to be sad and are sad at a part that's meant to be funny. So that's why I enjoy it. Do you think that like the comedy aspect is a part of therapy or like mental health? Absolutely. I think comedy can be very disarming.

1:06:47Right. You can you can break the ice with comedy. You can speak truth in comedy. You can, there's a little love tap in jest with comedy. So yeah, I think comedy is an amazing tool to help you grieve. And I also think laughing is a part of grieving. Like I think a lot of people think the only way to grieve is to be sad. Like, oh my gosh, they gone and they ain't never going to be here no more. They ain't never going to see them no more. No more, my Lord. That ain't the only thing. My brother was funny. So if I'm remembering him, I'm also going to remember the funny stuff. It just made me a little more bittersweet now.

1:07:23But yeah, I think laughter is part of grieving, you know, sadness, joy, anxious, anxiousness, being mad. All of it counts. So, yeah, I think but I think comedy. I'm not saying I'm the first one. Martin Martin Wayans had a special called Good Grief where he talked about grief. A lot of comedians have talked about grief, but this is new for me. And I think it's my approach is different than anybody else's approach. But I'm not the first person to do this. But I don't see a lot of people talking about grief the way I am. But actually, now that I've started, I've seen grief pages and stuff like that.

1:07:55There's a lot of people in this space. But I think for me, it's a departure from what I've done. But it's also authentic because I always talk about what's going on in my life. And that my brother was a big part of my life. So it only made sense for me to continue to do what I do well and talk about what matters to me. Kev, I want to ask you a question, man. Yeah. Do you know who Julie Massino is? Julie Massino? Yeah. Good. She is now the former CEO of Cracker Barrel. Oh. And I think you know why I'm saying this.

1:08:32She should have left the racism in there. We already know. They try to go modern on Cracker Barrel man. Watch out. And I did a few Cracker Barrel videos. the little bit of racism still in there, boy, is the one. Because the public agrees with you. Yo, when you, as a black person, when you walk in the general, first of all, you got to pass the rocking chairs. The rocking chairs is crazy. Rocking chairs is already crazy. I don't even feel comfortable sitting in those. No, man. You don't sit in those. Because they might change their mind. Why they outside? No idea. And the parking lot full of pickup trucks, full of American flags and eagles.

1:09:06Every time. Okay? Now we on our heads on the swivel. Then you go in the general store, it's like, morning, boy. But you'd never see who said that. Are we talking to me? Is it speakers? Who said morning, boy? I heard it. Maybe internally. Then the candy they sell. I just be like, I don't know, but I got to go through that. Before you get to breakfast. Before I get to the crispy edges, I got to go through three different versions of racism. And then the waitress are. Well, how are you, sweetheart? Now I'm in the antebellum South. Now I don't know where. What year is General Store is crazy right now.

1:09:41Now, still, General Store is crazy. But hey, man, I'm not the only black person that felt that. It wasn't just the black. Like, the general population said, why are you trying to modernize it? The president spoke about this. Yes. And now she's being replaced because she was trying to modernize Car Cabarro. They want the old racism back. Man, you got it. I need molasses. The Aunt Jemima syrup. I need Aunt Jemima. We don't, ain't nobody asked for that. They're automatically assuming you want the pork bacon. And exactly. They're like, what you mean, turkey? We don't have that. I remember I went to Cacker Barrel one time.

1:10:15She was like, can I have a still water? She was like, what? I was like, oh, just whatever water you have. She was like, I don't know what the hell is still water. I was like, man, that ain't a foreign concept. But to her, it was. She was like, what are you talking about? But yeah, man, that's a big mistake. You got to know Cacker Barrel is like NASCAR. You got to keep a twinge of racism or your base going to be. And black people was mad too. Exactly. Like their base base was mad, but black people was like, come on, man, put the racism back in there, man. Cause now I feel like the pancakes ain't going to taste good.

1:10:53Cause the racism is baked into the cast iron skillet. That's a fact. Yeah. I mean it. It's part of it. It's part of it, man. When you was out in Fest Fest, you spoke about how like you said monogamy is the key, is one of the keys to your success. Yeah. Yeah. Explain that. Not just being married, like being, like explain. Can you explain that? Yeah. For me, I operate on efficiency and I would be less efficient if I was trying to manage three or four women. Talking to my wife, keeping her happy. She perimenopausal too. So she's already three, four women. okay i don't know what i did what did i say i and i'm cold right so if i if i leave here okay listen i'm going to do you earn your leisure and then oh girl meet me at the thing and now i'm lost as well it's too much time management time management it's too much so i leave my wife i'm i'm i told her right when i was hanging up hey i'm gonna check in with you soon as i leave on your leisure, right?

1:11:58Imagine having to call somebody else. Oh my, I'm tired now. Like, it is, finishing a show where my wife is not there and the thought of another woman in my room, I'd be like, man, watch out. I'm tired. I can't even fathom hanging out with my wife and calling somebody else or texting somebody else. Man, leave me alone. So not wasting time like that allows me more energy because I feel like energy is finite. There's a certain amount you have. However you use it, use it. So I have more creative energy because I'm not wasting some talking to this girl and this girl and this girl and then talking to my wife.

1:12:39Lying to these three and lying to my wife, telling the truth to my wife, I'm confused. So I'm able to get three, four videos a day because I'm not wasting three, four conversations. And the benefit is that I get the best of my wife and she helps me with businesses, business ideas. She can speak truth to me and she feels safe enough to be honest with me. And I'm not even smart enough or a good enough liar to keep that up. She would have caught me a long time ago. It just ain't worth it, man. Like, and it just ain't worth it. I got a good wife. Y 'all share locations? What? Location, social security number.

1:13:10Bullhead, brother. Credit card. Like, I'm here. We here. She could walk and find me where I'm going to be where I'm saying I'm going to be. And I don't have to be surprised. What's the point of sharing a location? I can understand from a female standpoint, it's safety, right? Safety, but from a man's, no, I'm just interested. From a man's standpoint, what's your logic behind sharing your location? You don't have nothing to worry about. Huh? I think it's for her. It's for their safety. They want to make sure that you're good. Yeah, it's my safety too. Because you travel a lot. Yeah, I travel a lot.

1:13:44If I get hurt, you know, anything happens and I'm, you know, I'm four to three. Maybe I fall down the stairs, get hurt. if she knows where I'm at, you know, this is in theory. Passcode to your phone and all that? Brother, she see me on soft. What else is there to hide? That's actually harder. It's the on soft. You see me on soft. Keep the passcode. You saw me at my worst. I just woke up. I can't explain this. I was tired. You can have the password. You see my meat. My meat on soft is the true me. This is all I am. There's no secrets. No secrets. 4868 who care there's nothing in there like that's the thing like my wife doesn't check my phone if she did there'd be nothing in there and I don't check her phone but if I did there'd be nothing in there for me it's just I just never really got down like that it's not the reason I'm faithful but I did realize later it is a benefit because I talked to a lot of homies and they like man you really don't have nothing else going on I'd be like nah man nah cause the way he said it was like they're like really People tell me that all the time.

1:14:53I thought, this probably got something on the side. No, man. Nothing. I'll be at Cracker Barrel in the morning. I'll be side dishes. Hash brown casserole. With cheese. With cheese. The candy apple. I might go three sides at the crack. But side pieces? Man, watch out. Are you crazy? And I'm also not going to ruin this. That's the other thing. like at this stage, we've been together since we were 16. She'd been with me through everything. She was with me shooting in the gym and she, she got rebound, right? She wasn't just watching. So I wouldn't want to sacrifice all that. And I would have a very hard time at this stage of my life, believing somebody is with me for purely me.

1:15:40Like there's a lot of benefits to being with me now that you could benefit from that you didn't help. It's like, knock it off. Yeah. Watch out. I'm bald and overweight. You seen the man boobs. 270. 270. I got feet, a bad shoulder, and a torn ACL. Man, you know why you're here. You don't just love me. Right? And maybe it's true out there, but I highly doubt you just ain't never heard of me. There's no benefit. And also, I know if I lost this and I had to go back to whatever I used to do. I used to work in the city of Tacoma landscaping. I used to pick up cigarette butts on Wednesdays at a courthouse.

1:16:14You know how many people smoke when they got caught? Even if you don't have a smoking habit, you do if you got court. So if I had to go back to that job, she'd be like, all right, well, this is where we're at. Go back to the two bedroom in Washington. So I think about what I would lose. And I think I weigh that. What's more important to me is 20 years from now, I want my kids and whoever they love to come back to our house for Thanksgiving. And their parents are still together. So I work towards that because the decisions I make right now are setting up that future 20 years from now. So I don't want to ruin that.

1:16:47So I got to make those choices today because that's, that's, it's taxing, man. Like it ain't worth it, bro. Thank you for coming, brother. Man, thank y 'all. Please tell the people, please tell the people when the tour starts, how to get tickets, how to watch your show, all the promotion. The tour starts August 14th in Birmingham, Alabama. I believe it's August 14th. Second week in August, whatever that first Friday is, 14th or 15th. Birmingham, Alabama, Charleston, South Carolina specifically. If you're listening, step up. I ain't been in years. And at this pace, I'm never coming. Everybody else is doing great.

1:17:20Even Portland. But yeah, go to kevonstage.com or if you follow me on social media, click the link in my bio, get some tickets. I'm not adding no more shows. If it's sold out, search around. And if you can't make it, it'll be on Tubi on my brother's birthday as a special on February 21st, 2027. All right. New York, September 5th. Make sure you pull up. It's sold out. It's sold out? What's the venue? Gramercy Theater. Okay. But I got y 'all. Yeah, I need to be there. I got y 'all. Thank you. For everybody, I got a few comps. Oh, perfect. I'm in. You know what I'm saying? You gotta have my number for the comps.

1:17:55Everybody else in New York, Philly is right down the street. They gotta train that head down. Ron over there. Yeah. You know, D.C., you know. But New York, they was buying those tickets quick. So y 'all are good. Comedy City. Yeah, it's a comedy city and they show love. Everybody else, Philly is a great, beautiful American city. Brotherly love. Brotherly love. All right, y 'all. We'll talk about you guys next week. Peace. Peace. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered contexts into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help.

1:18:30ChatGPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in ChatGPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to roll out quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Earners, what's up? Look, on Earn Your Leisure, we're all about smart money moves. And here's one that most people skip. Car insurance renews on autopilot, the rates creep up, and nobody tells you. That's what Insurify fixes. In about two minutes, completely free, you can see rates from more than 120 top insurance companies.

1:19:10And if there's nothing better today, they keep watching and notify you when there's a better rate. So go to Insurify.com. That's I-N-S-U-R-I-F-Y.com. Insurify.com. You already know how AI is changing how everyday work gets done, how much ground you can cover, and how fast a team can scale. To stay ahead, you need the tools that give you a competitive advantage built for this new era. Welcome to Agentic Revenue. Adio is the CRM for this world. It meets you where you work, compounds every customer signal into context, then acts on it across your pipeline to let you move it on match speed and scale.

1:19:47With agents and automations for every job in revenue, Adio orchestrates your work around the clock. Built to handle the scale of your workloads, extensible with API and MCP, and with the infrastructure to keep up with your most ambitious agents. Loved by high-growth startups like Granola, Modal, and Etched, Adio runs the work behind every win. That's Adio, the agentic CRM, the intelligent system that never sleeps. Picks up leads at 2 a.m., catches renewals before they slip, hands you the answer before you ask. Try Adio free at adio.com slash iHeart. That's adio.com slash iHeart.

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