January 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Newt talks with comedian and viral sensation Trey Kennedy about his new comedy special "Trey Kennedy: GROW UP," premiering on Hulu this weekend. The special, filmed in front of a live audience in Salt Lake City, humorously explores the challenges of adulthood, fatherhood, and personal growth. Trey shares his journey from being a social media content creator to a stand-up comedian, highlighting the evolution of his career and the role of social media in his success. He also talks about his new children's book, "How You Got Your Name," inspired by his experiences as a father. They discuss Trey's background, his comedic style, and the process of creating content that resonates with audiences both online and on stage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
In this episode of Newtsworld, comedian and viral sensation Trey
Kennedy is bringing his fresh brand of humory Hulu this
weekend with the premiere of his comedy special, Trey Kennedy
Grow Up and Grow Up. Kennedy takes audiences on a
hilarious journey through the ups and downs of adulthood. The
special was filmed in front of a live, sold out
(00:26):
audience in Salt Lake City. The family friendly special dives
into the universal theme of growing up, from navigating fatherhood
to reflecting on his own brunt bringing, riffing on what
makes him and his wife so different, and more, all
while touching on the aspects that all of us could
use in some growing up. Here to talk about his
(00:47):
new special, and I have to say this is a
new one for our podcast, and news World is very
pleased to welcome my guest, Tray Kennedy. He is an
entertainer and social media content creator known for his unique
ability to find humor in the everyday aspects of life.
Is new children's book, How You Got Your Name is
available now in Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. Cray, welcome
(01:19):
and thank you for joining me on news World.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Thank you it's a great honor to be here. Good
to meet you, and thanks to the in show.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, I've always admired comedians for the courage it takes
to get up in front of an audience. I've tried
occasional in my life. I think humor's really hard, and
so I have great admiration.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, I joked that I don't know if we should
be admired or studied or something. I don't know why
a psychopath would get in, you know, because I was
good at it at the start. So I just get
up there and post a video or try a joke
on stage and no one laughs, and you're kind of like,
why did I do that? But for some reason I
kept going, And so I like to think people are
laughing a little more.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
When did you start doing humor?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yes, you know, we're all different. My story is I
grew up born and raised in Oklahoma to a great
family and you know, a funny family, and so my
dad was the funny guy. So it was my grandfather,
my grandma. It was always a good time. So I
grew up as like the funny guy, you know, amongst
friends or making my classmates laugh, but never crossed my
(02:22):
mind for a second to do that as a job.
I was just like, I'm funny, that's great. What am
I going to do with my life? If it weren't
for social media, I would have never ever gotten anywhere
near this because I wouldn't have had the courage to
just go to a city and just try stand up.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was raised way too practically, get your good degree,
get a job. And social media was my outlet to
kind of try humor amongst people that weren't just my
friends and family.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And had some viral videos.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Which social media? Did you try humor on?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Vine?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Was what started me Vine, which here came and gone
within a few years from twenty thirteen to like twenty seventeen,
the six second videos. I was able to get millions
of followers on there while in college. Even then I
was like, well this is cool, but time to go
get a job. But I just kind of kept making videos.
And as we know, social media's become what it is
(03:13):
and it's evolved in all this crazy stuff like touring
and now I have a special on Hulu.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How are you doing the videos?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The beginning stage is all the phone. It evolved into
I have a couple of videographers and everything. But you know,
even now, the phones are so good with the camera.
You know, plenty of these kids are making videos just
on their phones again, because I was at a time
where there's a big gap between your phone and a
nice camera, and that GAP's closing. But the start, it
was really old school on the iPhone five, just making
(03:43):
it happen.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
When's the first time you actually did humor for a job.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I graduated college. I was making money through Vine the app,
and honestly enough where I could have paid rent and
done that, but it was still very much like a
loss is going to last, Like I need to find
a career. So I was applying for jobs while making
the videos. Couldn't really get a job. This is twenty
fifteen where I was trying to tell marketing She's like,
(04:10):
social media is the future, and they were kind of
like whatever, you know, And so that aged twelve for me.
But I couldn't get like your typical job. I was like,
forget it, I'm skinny apartment. I'm gonna try the video thing.
So that was January of twenty seventeen and had a
little ups and downs, but it worked out, and social
media took off, and I took off, and so I
(04:30):
did a couple of your like corporate internships in college,
which is my only cubicle nine to five experience. And
right after college, I just got going with comedy and
been able to make it work.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
How did you get on stage?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
So I've been doing full time social media content for
four or five years at this point, millions of followers.
And my manager, who so I mentioned at the time,
was you know, beat a good manager. He's like Trey,
I think there's opportunity beyond this. You have this fan base,
you could sell tickets. WME signed the talent agency and
they wanted to book some shows and I was like,
(05:04):
what show. I just make videos in my apartment. I'm
a kid. I don't know what's going on, and they're like,
we should put together show. It's like, well, let me
try it. They got me in the doors at a
few comedy clubs where I could just try it and
start doing five ten minute sets, which went about as
well as you could think. But I saw the potential.
I enjoyed it, so I kept at it. But my
first times at a comic club where I opened, the
(05:24):
experience come a long way.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It says to me, when you're doing social media, the
audience you're getting are people who've already pre selected you,
and now you're walking into a live audience, and some
of them may like you, and some of them may
not get it.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Social media's evolved, you know, back when I was starting.
You know, now with these algorithms, the videos go everywhere.
But ten years ago, six years ago, it was very
much like you see the people you follow those contents,
and it feels less daunting in that way. But when
you're just going up on stage and no one in
that room's ever heard of you before, you learn really
quick if you're funny or not, for better or for worse.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean, that takes a certain kind of courage.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I don't know to this day. I don't know because
I grew up very, very shy. So I was funny
once we were good friends, but I was kind of
a shy, reserved kid, and that's still very much in me.
And so I'm not this one of these crazy people
who's like I love being on stage. It's my happy place.
It's very scary for me. I feel like I've been
given a gift. I've gotten better at being on stage.
(06:26):
But my girlfriend at the time. My now wife supported
me to just get up on stage and do that
first set. Thank god, the first one wasn't a total disaster,
so I was able to keep going. But it's the scariest.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Do we have a comedy club and Naples that we've
been to. Hey, I think about the people who are
on a circuit.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh sure, the circuit.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I built this tough social media, which was tough in
its own right. But some of these guys who spend decades, yeah,
just kind of plug it away doing these shows. They're
built different, truth be told, I don't know how long
I would have done that grind.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
You know, I've got a wife and two kids. Now,
it's all that.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So social media lets you kind of expedite the process
a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You go to a comic.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Club the back green State. I don't know what comic
club you're talking about there in Naples. I've done one there.
Some of them are nicer than others. You learn real
quick if you want to do this or not. When
you get off stage and you bombed and you feel
like you aren't funny, and then you go back to
a green room, which is they call it green room
but it's like part of the kitchen and they're like
cooking fries next to you.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They're like, wow, good set, Like what am I doing?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Man?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Those kind of tours don't you usually do like two
or three at night?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah? Those kind of the weekends are usually two a night.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Do you have that sense when you come out onto
the stage at first minute and you're looking at that audience,
are you comfortable? Are you a little bit worried about
how's this going to go?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Comfortable? Now I've gotten to that point.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know that early stages is terrifying because you're just
you're figuring it out. But I truly enjoy it now
and you learned that's still part of it. You go
up sometimes that joke didn't work, You don't let it
bother you because now I've forked up a certain amount
of confidence that I think I can figure out something
that's funny. But it took me years to build that
up to truly not be fearful of the stage up there.
(08:17):
But now it's really fun and you've learned to almost
appreciate the horrible moments where the audience is like what
is this guy talking about? And you're like, yeah, that
wasn't funny, was it. It's always this act of humility.
It's very humbling profession.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Do you have a fair number of things that you've
dropped over the years that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I'll never forget. I've had a number of horror stories.
But the very first time I started, I went up
my third or fourth time ever doing a stand up set,
and it was an all black audience, and I was
kind of like, Okay, I haven't done that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Before, Let's see how it goes. And it went really,
really well. They were great.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The next weekend, I went back up and it was
another all black audience. So I'm thinking, I mean, I
got these folks figured out, and I started with a joke.
You could hear a pin drop. They're like what, and
I just fell apart. You could start to hear they
were laughing. It's a really low, low moment as a
comedian where you hear laughter, but You're like, they're not
(09:10):
laughing with me, they're laughing at me. They're now making
fun of me. I'm the joke and I just got out.
I go off stage and just went home thinking why
would I ever do that again?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
But I did. For some reason, I tried.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Humor in high school and at one point my fellow
classmates were not very kind, and we're throwing pennies at them.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah that's old school. They're pelatry with pennies.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's right. I was just thinking, this is really bad.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Now, I guess that's a good thing. Everyone's got Apple Pay.
Now they can't chuck their phones at me.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I was surprised, given how busy you are and how
much that you actually are becoming a national figure as
a comedian. But you're also, as I understand it, at
Oklahoma State getting your MBA.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I did.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I did already, Yes, I did already. That was as
I was doing those videos. Kind of still great parents.
My dad was a businessman, so he really encouraged me
and he could see maybe the opportunities. My mom was
your classic like you better get a four point, you
better stay on it. So she was always like, better
do your homework, quit these little videos. What good's that
(10:33):
going to do? So they in a good way. They
pushed me to always have the be okay, but just
keep so. I stuck around and got my MBA, which
sounds impressive, but to be honest, I was just kind
of like, I don't know what else to do, so
I'll just keep doing school.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Did studying business in that sense help you.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I think it, no question helped me in certain ways
in terms of business. But I think the best thing
you did for me was just and my undergrad was great.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I did fine, But my MBA was my opportunity. I
felt to really grow up. Shout out to the special
on Hulu. But I took that a lot more seriously
and made straight a's and went to every class, and
I think in a good way to learn how to
handle stuff and get stuff done, but also see more
(11:21):
and more of like, I don't think this corporate stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I don't know if it's for me.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think I really am meant to do something else,
because you hear some of these kids, they're like, I'm
not meant for a desk job. But those people, they
often aren't meant for any job, you know. So I
wanted to make sure I was truly not supposed to
down that route and pursue this other kind of insane
thing as comedy.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
As a kid from Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I was a little surprised to learn that you didn't
start as a comedian. You started singing Yes, I mean,
what was that evolution?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like, well, I have to give a lot of credit
to the singing talent kind of reveal that happened in college.
I grew up, wasn't fully aware I could sing. And
I made some friends in college who are musical and
they're like, you can really sing, and so they encouraged me.
We kind of meet a couple buddies, formed this little
trio where we'd sing, you know, at coffee shops and
(12:14):
frat houses and sorority houses. While I was at school
just kind of like enjoying that and exploring that, and
I started going viral online for not only being funny,
but for the singing. So I was in my head,
I was like, I think, I mean, I'm the next
justin Timberlake.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I got to.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Pursue this, you know, American Idol called me, the voice
called me to come try out, so I'd go try
out and they tell me no, It's like, why'd you
call me? But you know, I was pursuing that, and
I kept making the content and the comedy just kept
working a little better than the singing, and when it
came down to it, I felt like comedy suits me
(12:48):
better anyway, So I pursued that, but the singing in
the special, I do some comedic singing because I enjoy
it so much.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So it's fun to be able to blend the two.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You began doing these viral videos. He had one on kids'
names called roll Call in ten Years, which has had
almost six million views. Did you expect anything like that reaction?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You never know what to think with some of these videos.
Some you think are the best videos ever they get
no views, and sometimes you think they're off when they
get a lot of views. That was definitely one where
I was pretty shocked at how much people love that.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That did.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, six million on YouTube, That did tens of millions
of views other places, Facebook, TikTok. So that one was fun,
and it's great because the bit is I'm doing a
roll call of a classroom and it's like axel Ansley,
Denim Journey. All these new names were seen. And the
best part of that is I didn't really even write that.
I just went to our social security website and picked
(13:45):
the most popular new names of like twenty twenty one.
Wherever I made that video, I just read them off
and made fun of them and it went viral. People
were like this is insane. This is what people are
naming their kids.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's wild, and that's still out there pople who are
still going to it.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I've think even reposted a couple of years ago and
it went viral again. It's still very much what's happening now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Also, you do a podcast, Correct Opinions with Trey Kennedy
and Jake Triplet and you have her something like fifty
thousand listeners per episode.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
We have a great, great podcast with my co host
Jake other comedian Hilarious Skuy. My wife's also on most
of the episodes, which is fun. She's the nice voice
of reason when me and him get going too far
down a a bit. But yeah, we would do that
podcast like five years, have a great, great listener base.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean, that's quite a success just by itself.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I know, it's I've never really known what was coming next,
so I've just tried to try everything. You know, some
stuff didn't work, but it's been fun to have that
podcast go for so long.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You mentioned your wife's participation, as I understand that she's
a biomedical engineer.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, my wife. It's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
She went to Georgie Tech, which you know, if you
know is one of the top schools in the entire country.
And I went to o Holoma State, which Gopoke's Proud Cowboy,
not known as one of the best schools in the country.
But I had a great time and got a great
degree there. But it was just funny to hear, you know,
in college, I was like, yeah, I had so much
free time. I goofed off and went viral on social media.
(15:20):
And she was like, I had to do ten hours
on home work every day to be a biomedical engineer.
And she had this like fancy job. As I was like,
have fun to work, honey, I'm gonna stay home and
make skits.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I just say, there's a whole thing here about the
biomedical engineer in the comedian Oh easily.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
It's so funny too, because her world, everyone she knows
are like surgeons and engineers, and she's like, luckily it's
worked out now we can say, well, he's a special
in Hulu. But for years they'd be like, and what
is your you know, what was your boyfriend new? What's
your husband who? She'd be like, well, he's he's doing
his best.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Go to a cocktail party at Georgia Tech. You will
be the only comedian at the cocktail.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Party thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So thank god it's gotten to a point where people go, Okay,
I think he can pay his bills because she had
a real challenge there for a number of years to
be like yeah, yeah, Now.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
You have sort of a breakthrough in that your new special,
Trey Kennedy Growing Up is going to be on Hulu.
How did that come up? I mean, that's a real breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Thank you very much. Yeah, I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's my second special, so my first one we put
on my YouTube a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That was great.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This special, it's been years in the making. We toured
it to one hundred plus cities and we shot it
last April in Salt Lake, amazing crowds. It's been a
labor love to get it done. I self produced it all.
We had a great team put that together. My agent
shopped it around all the networks, and Hulu has just
(16:50):
entered into the stand up world. They've got Gaff again
and Bill Burr and a bunch of others and honored
to be anywhere on that lineup too, So they gave
me opportunity. I didn't know what to expect, but I'm
really really pumped in honor. Hulu gave me the chance.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Here's a little sneak peek of Trey Kennedy grow up.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
My sister. She came to me. She's like, Trey, don't
kill me.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I want to do a little gender reveal, something simple,
nothing that like birds down the West Coast. And she
was like, Trey, as my one and only sibling, my
big brother, I want you to do the honor. I'm
gonna have the doctor call you at the results, and
then you tell the bakery what color I see to
put inside the cake?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, and Utah. I thought about ruining us.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I thought about it, you know, I asked. I was like,
I'll pay double for yellow. I'll play a double.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
What does that mean? He's like, oh, you're having a teletubby.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, I do my job right. She's there with their husband.
They cut the cake, revealing pink. I scen meaning it's
a baby. Everyone's excited. And then the first thing out
of my sister's mouth, I mean instantaneously, she wants to know. Sometimes, ladies,
you give us too much credit, you do. She was like, Trey,
how hard was it to keep the secret? How hard
was it he was.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
The only one you knew in the whole planet. How
hard was it not to tell everyone the gender of
my child? It was like, not hard at all.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Not you cutting the cake reminded me what it was,
so I didn't even.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
No one was more surprised than me. Y'all do that
you give.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Us too much credit on weird things like I don't
know wh my sister was picturing.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
She's known me her whole life.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What. I'm just hanging out with my boys, like watching
the games. They're all like, hold on, Trey, pause the game,
pause it. We're not watching the second half until you
fess up about the gender of your sister's unborn child.
It's like, you know, I wish I could call her.
I wish, but I locked the key threw it away.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That's not what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Half of my friends if I told her my sister's pregnant,
they'd be like, what sister. I was like, you've met her, dude,
several times.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I would think that writing a special where it's going
to be locked down, it's going to be there primarily
and it has to fit into certain time parameters is
different than just doing stand up. I mean, I understand
they had to be randomly being funny. But how do
you undertake writing the jokes and putting together all the
things that go into a special.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I do plenty of writing in my office at home,
and so much of my life where oh that pots
my head, I write down a note, and I think
in the early stages it's really just get it on
stage and trying out stuff and like, Okay, that wasn't funny,
I'll work on that, or that's not worth doing again,
or okay, we got something there, let's work on that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And those early.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Stages you're kind of just doing these shows and putting
together an hour on the stage that's funny. And then
as you tour around, you know, I started to see
this theme of I became a dad, so I talked
a lot about that, and I wanted people to get
to know me more. So I talked about how I
grew up, and I like to make fun of people
and tell them to grow up. So this idea of
(20:36):
grow up I saw a vision. And as you prepare
for the special, I think that becomes less of like
let's just be funny every night, and really more precise,
like all right, this is what's going to be printed
and live on forever. It's time to really technically put
this together, tell the story, and I guess be happy
with the funnel product that's going to be edited and
put out for the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You do that in front of a live audience, right.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Oh yeah, Salt Lake beautiful hall there in Salt Lake,
Bravino Hall, and we had two sold out shows, twenty
five hundred people each.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
They were awesome. It was great.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
The Mormons. They love a nice, clean white comedian. It
was funny one of the time, so we shot. The
funniest part was I'd have this one punchline where the
jokes about drinking alcohol. I won't ruin it, just watch it.
But it was funny because I said that and Mormons
famously they don't drink a drop of alcohol. Right, So
it was like, that's a joke I'd done a hundred times.
Got a huge laugh, and they're in Salt Lake. They
(21:31):
were kind of like eh. I was like, guys, really quick, listen,
I get it, I get it. We are taping this,
so I'm gonna say it again and just laugh for me,
so I will be honest. Everything's one hundred percent authentic.
But on that one, I said, just give me a laugh,
all right, because I need it.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I mean, in that sense, if you're shooting a special
like that, could you imagine doing it without a crowd?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Sadly, I kind of can because of COVID. I did
a couple virtual cob these shows, or I did even
one kind of like livestream comedy show, which was a mistake.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I shouldn't have this.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We were all so bored and nothing to do. So
it was like you could watch online as I did
a show to no one. You could watch it virtually.
And that was, like you said, it, really, stand up
really shouldn't be done unless you have people in the
room that are feeding off the energy.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
But do you find out you need the feedback from
the crowd to sustain the momentum and to sustain you're adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
I think you can kind of do it.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But yeah, I think stand up's really really fun in
that regard where there's not much else. You know, with music,
it's like you can kind of play music anywhere, and
that's great, But stand up really is this medium where
it's you and the crowd. You're both involved. You talk
to them, you listen to them, you react to them.
I think that's what makes us so exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
If you watch President Trump, he needs that crowd. I
tell people he's avoid Villa, and I mean he's one
third humor, one third really serious, and once they're just random.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You hear comedians say like he's funny, like he could
do it if he wanted. I mean, there's no question,
like him or not that he has a pretty impressive
talent for feeding off crowds and entertaining.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yeah, so he actually gains energy. I mean people wonder
how he can do these hour and a half. During
the campaign, he was doing three a day.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
That's what blows my mind because there's two types of comedians.
I'm the one where I have my hour, I have
at planned, I'm doing it and I'm done. And then
some of these comedians are President Trump. They look up
and they've been talking for three hours. They're just having
the time of their life up there. I don't know
how they do it. It's unreal.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I think that's their ability to get the energy reflow
from the audience. So they actually gained strength, which is
a little scary if you think about it.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It is.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Trust me, I do not I get off stage and
I'm like, oh my gosh, that was exhausting in a
good way.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Because you're right, they're two different styles. But let me
jump totally different thing. You have a new project, which
is a children's book, How You Got Your Name? What
led you to go from comedy to writing for children?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, I just had my second child, so very much
in this world reading books to my oldest, I got
the opportunity. I thought it was great, and as a comedian,
it is supposed to be a goofy, silly book for kids,
and so How You Got Your Name. It's been out
for a month or so now. I think people are
really enjoying it. And I really wanted to write a
book that was fun for the parents as well with
(24:31):
the kids, to keep it kind of fresh, interactive, because
I know as a parent you read some of these
books over and over and over again you're like, oh
my gosh, so mine's meant to be silly, fun and
How You Got Your Name kind of playing on the video,
we talked about the role calls and the silly names.
It's playing into that culture where it follows the story
of a kid all these ideas for some crazy name,
(24:51):
and at the end it explains how he got his
name and gives you opportunity to explain to your kid
how they got there.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Was writing a book different than developing comedy.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
A children's book for sure, because I have hopes to
write my own book book one day, but a children's book.
My first pass at it was kind of like it
was too adult humor. It was like insulting children's names,
and they're like, well, this is for four year olds.
You can't just teach them to make fun of kids.
I was like, all right, fair enough. So we had
to lighten it up and make it really wholesome for
(25:25):
the young kids. So I had to learn that a
little bit pull in the reins, but like with anything,
it's just being creative, which is what I really enjoyed doing.
And so it was a nice new project and experience
and really proud of what we ended up with.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
What do you hope kids and their parents take away
from How You Got Your Name?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
The wholesome kind of payoff at the end is you
get a moment to explain your child how they got
their name. And you know, I think a lot of
folks have a good reason behind that, and it has
a nice nod to how your parents know your name.
It's special for reason, it's your name. God knows your name,
and that's the sweet payoff. I don't see a lot
of books out there sharing that message. So hopefully that's
(26:04):
a cool moment between kids and parents, and the first
ninety five percent of the book is just hopefully a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Okay, So since you wrote a book about the significance
of names, how did you and your wife choose the
names for your own children.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We have good reasons. Thank god, we have two kids.
We want more. So we were joking like we got
to have good reasons for these next kids because the
first two they're family names. My son is Thomas the fourth,
so I'm Thomas the third.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
That's why I go by Trey.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And my daughter's name is Eva, and that's one of
my wife's family name, like one of her great grandmothers
the family really looked up to. So both family names nice, easy,
you can pronounce them, you can spell them.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
We're proud of them.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
How old are your children?
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Two and four months?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, well, congratulations, thank you very much. It's been fun.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We have a great family of a very smart wife,
and you have a special on TV. I mean life's
pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's very very good. I'm blessed.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I graduated college about ten years ago, and I would
have never ever guessed any of those things will be true.
So very fortunately, very grateful.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
We talk a lot about cheerful persistence, and you're a
pretty good example of it.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I want to thank you for joining me. Your new
comedy special, Trey Kennedy grow Up is available to watch
on Hulu now. In your new children's book, How You
Got Your Name is available now in Amazon and in
bookstores everywhere. We're going to feature a link to buy
it on our show page. And I want to let
our listeners know they can keep up with all you're doing,
which is a lot, by visiting your website Trey Kennedy
(27:37):
dot com, or by following you on any of your
social media platforms. This has been a lot of fun,
and I really appreciate you doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Thank you. I had a great time. Thanks for having me.
It's great to meet you. I really appreciate it me
so much.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Thank you. To my guest, Trey Kennedy, you can get
a link to watch his new comedy special, Trey Kennedy
up on Hulu on our show page at newtsworld dot com.
NEWT World is produced by Gengish three sixty and iHeartMedia.
Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson.
The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.
(28:17):
Special thanks the team a Ginglish three sixty. If you've
been enjoying Nutsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast
and both rate us with five stars and give us
a review so others can learn what it's all about.
Right now, listeners of newts World can sign up from
a three free weekly columns at gingishtree sixty dot com
slash newsletter. I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Nutsworld
In this episode of Newtsworld, comedian and viral sensation Trey
Kennedy is bringing his fresh brand of humory Hulu this
weekend with the premiere of his comedy special, Trey Kennedy
Grow Up and Grow Up. Kennedy takes audiences on a
hilarious journey through the ups and downs of adulthood. The
special was filmed in front of a live, sold out
(00:26):
audience in Salt Lake City. The family friendly special dives
into the universal theme of growing up, from navigating fatherhood
to reflecting on his own brunt bringing, riffing on what
makes him and his wife so different, and more, all
while touching on the aspects that all of us could
use in some growing up. Here to talk about his
(00:47):
new special, and I have to say this is a
new one for our podcast, and news World is very
pleased to welcome my guest, Tray Kennedy. He is an
entertainer and social media content creator known for his unique
ability to find humor in the everyday aspects of life.
Is new children's book, How You Got Your Name is
available now in Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. Cray, welcome
(01:19):
and thank you for joining me on news World.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Thank you it's a great honor to be here. Good
to meet you, and thanks to the in show.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, I've always admired comedians for the courage it takes
to get up in front of an audience. I've tried
occasional in my life. I think humor's really hard, and
so I have great admiration.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, I joked that I don't know if we should
be admired or studied or something. I don't know why
a psychopath would get in, you know, because I was
good at it at the start. So I just get
up there and post a video or try a joke
on stage and no one laughs, and you're kind of like,
why did I do that? But for some reason I
kept going, And so I like to think people are
laughing a little more.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
When did you start doing humor?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yes, you know, we're all different. My story is I
grew up born and raised in Oklahoma to a great
family and you know, a funny family, and so my
dad was the funny guy. So it was my grandfather,
my grandma. It was always a good time. So I
grew up as like the funny guy, you know, amongst
friends or making my classmates laugh, but never crossed my
(02:22):
mind for a second to do that as a job.
I was just like, I'm funny, that's great. What am
I going to do with my life? If it weren't
for social media, I would have never ever gotten anywhere
near this because I wouldn't have had the courage to
just go to a city and just try stand up.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was raised way too practically, get your good degree,
get a job. And social media was my outlet to
kind of try humor amongst people that weren't just my
friends and family.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And had some viral videos.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Which social media? Did you try humor on?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Vine?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Was what started me Vine, which here came and gone
within a few years from twenty thirteen to like twenty seventeen,
the six second videos. I was able to get millions
of followers on there while in college. Even then I
was like, well this is cool, but time to go
get a job. But I just kind of kept making videos.
And as we know, social media's become what it is
(03:13):
and it's evolved in all this crazy stuff like touring
and now I have a special on Hulu.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How are you doing the videos?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The beginning stage is all the phone. It evolved into
I have a couple of videographers and everything. But you know,
even now, the phones are so good with the camera.
You know, plenty of these kids are making videos just
on their phones again, because I was at a time
where there's a big gap between your phone and a
nice camera, and that GAP's closing. But the start, it
was really old school on the iPhone five, just making
(03:43):
it happen.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
When's the first time you actually did humor for a job.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I graduated college. I was making money through Vine the app,
and honestly enough where I could have paid rent and
done that, but it was still very much like a
loss is going to last, Like I need to find
a career. So I was applying for jobs while making
the videos. Couldn't really get a job. This is twenty
fifteen where I was trying to tell marketing She's like,
(04:10):
social media is the future, and they were kind of
like whatever, you know, And so that aged twelve for me.
But I couldn't get like your typical job. I was like,
forget it, I'm skinny apartment. I'm gonna try the video thing.
So that was January of twenty seventeen and had a
little ups and downs, but it worked out, and social
media took off, and I took off, and so I
(04:30):
did a couple of your like corporate internships in college,
which is my only cubicle nine to five experience. And
right after college, I just got going with comedy and
been able to make it work.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
How did you get on stage?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
So I've been doing full time social media content for
four or five years at this point, millions of followers.
And my manager, who so I mentioned at the time,
was you know, beat a good manager. He's like Trey,
I think there's opportunity beyond this. You have this fan base,
you could sell tickets. WME signed the talent agency and
they wanted to book some shows and I was like,
(05:04):
what show. I just make videos in my apartment. I'm
a kid. I don't know what's going on, and they're like,
we should put together show. It's like, well, let me
try it. They got me in the doors at a
few comedy clubs where I could just try it and
start doing five ten minute sets, which went about as
well as you could think. But I saw the potential.
I enjoyed it, so I kept at it. But my
first times at a comic club where I opened, the
(05:24):
experience come a long way.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It says to me, when you're doing social media, the
audience you're getting are people who've already pre selected you,
and now you're walking into a live audience, and some
of them may like you, and some of them may
not get it.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Social media's evolved, you know, back when I was starting.
You know, now with these algorithms, the videos go everywhere.
But ten years ago, six years ago, it was very
much like you see the people you follow those contents,
and it feels less daunting in that way. But when
you're just going up on stage and no one in
that room's ever heard of you before, you learn really
quick if you're funny or not, for better or for worse.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean, that takes a certain kind of courage.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I don't know to this day. I don't know because
I grew up very, very shy. So I was funny
once we were good friends, but I was kind of
a shy, reserved kid, and that's still very much in me.
And so I'm not this one of these crazy people
who's like I love being on stage. It's my happy place.
It's very scary for me. I feel like I've been
given a gift. I've gotten better at being on stage.
(06:26):
But my girlfriend at the time. My now wife supported
me to just get up on stage and do that
first set. Thank god, the first one wasn't a total disaster,
so I was able to keep going. But it's the scariest.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Do we have a comedy club and Naples that we've
been to. Hey, I think about the people who are
on a circuit.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh sure, the circuit.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I built this tough social media, which was tough in
its own right. But some of these guys who spend decades, yeah,
just kind of plug it away doing these shows. They're
built different, truth be told, I don't know how long
I would have done that grind.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
You know, I've got a wife and two kids. Now,
it's all that.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So social media lets you kind of expedite the process
a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You go to a comic.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Club the back green State. I don't know what comic
club you're talking about there in Naples. I've done one there.
Some of them are nicer than others. You learn real
quick if you want to do this or not. When
you get off stage and you bombed and you feel
like you aren't funny, and then you go back to
a green room, which is they call it green room
but it's like part of the kitchen and they're like
cooking fries next to you.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They're like, wow, good set, Like what am I doing?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Man?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Those kind of tours don't you usually do like two
or three at night?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah? Those kind of the weekends are usually two a night.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Do you have that sense when you come out onto
the stage at first minute and you're looking at that audience,
are you comfortable? Are you a little bit worried about
how's this going to go?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Comfortable? Now I've gotten to that point.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
You know that early stages is terrifying because you're just
you're figuring it out. But I truly enjoy it now
and you learned that's still part of it. You go
up sometimes that joke didn't work, You don't let it
bother you because now I've forked up a certain amount
of confidence that I think I can figure out something
that's funny. But it took me years to build that
up to truly not be fearful of the stage up there.
(08:17):
But now it's really fun and you've learned to almost
appreciate the horrible moments where the audience is like what
is this guy talking about? And you're like, yeah, that
wasn't funny, was it. It's always this act of humility.
It's very humbling profession.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Do you have a fair number of things that you've
dropped over the years that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I'll never forget. I've had a number of horror stories.
But the very first time I started, I went up
my third or fourth time ever doing a stand up set,
and it was an all black audience, and I was
kind of like, Okay, I haven't done that.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Before, Let's see how it goes. And it went really,
really well. They were great.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The next weekend, I went back up and it was
another all black audience. So I'm thinking, I mean, I
got these folks figured out, and I started with a joke.
You could hear a pin drop. They're like what, and
I just fell apart. You could start to hear they
were laughing. It's a really low, low moment as a
comedian where you hear laughter, but You're like, they're not
(09:10):
laughing with me, they're laughing at me. They're now making
fun of me. I'm the joke and I just got out.
I go off stage and just went home thinking why
would I ever do that again?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
But I did. For some reason, I tried.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Humor in high school and at one point my fellow
classmates were not very kind, and we're throwing pennies at them.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah that's old school. They're pelatry with pennies.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's right. I was just thinking, this is really bad.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Now, I guess that's a good thing. Everyone's got Apple Pay.
Now they can't chuck their phones at me.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I was surprised, given how busy you are and how
much that you actually are becoming a national figure as
a comedian. But you're also, as I understand it, at
Oklahoma State getting your MBA.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I did.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I did already, Yes, I did already. That was as
I was doing those videos. Kind of still great parents.
My dad was a businessman, so he really encouraged me
and he could see maybe the opportunities. My mom was
your classic like you better get a four point, you
better stay on it. So she was always like, better
do your homework, quit these little videos. What good's that
(10:33):
going to do? So they in a good way. They
pushed me to always have the be okay, but just
keep so. I stuck around and got my MBA, which
sounds impressive, but to be honest, I was just kind
of like, I don't know what else to do, so
I'll just keep doing school.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Did studying business in that sense help you.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I think it, no question helped me in certain ways
in terms of business. But I think the best thing
you did for me was just and my undergrad was great.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
It was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I did fine, But my MBA was my opportunity. I
felt to really grow up. Shout out to the special
on Hulu. But I took that a lot more seriously
and made straight a's and went to every class, and
I think in a good way to learn how to
handle stuff and get stuff done, but also see more
(11:21):
and more of like, I don't think this corporate stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I don't know if it's for me.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think I really am meant to do something else,
because you hear some of these kids, they're like, I'm
not meant for a desk job. But those people, they
often aren't meant for any job, you know. So I
wanted to make sure I was truly not supposed to
down that route and pursue this other kind of insane
thing as comedy.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
As a kid from Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I was a little surprised to learn that you didn't
start as a comedian. You started singing Yes, I mean,
what was that evolution?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like, well, I have to give a lot of credit
to the singing talent kind of reveal that happened in college.
I grew up, wasn't fully aware I could sing. And
I made some friends in college who are musical and
they're like, you can really sing, and so they encouraged me.
We kind of meet a couple buddies, formed this little
trio where we'd sing, you know, at coffee shops and
(12:14):
frat houses and sorority houses. While I was at school
just kind of like enjoying that and exploring that, and
I started going viral online for not only being funny,
but for the singing. So I was in my head,
I was like, I think, I mean, I'm the next
justin Timberlake.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I got to.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Pursue this, you know, American Idol called me, the voice
called me to come try out, so I'd go try
out and they tell me no, It's like, why'd you
call me? But you know, I was pursuing that, and
I kept making the content and the comedy just kept
working a little better than the singing, and when it
came down to it, I felt like comedy suits me
(12:48):
better anyway, So I pursued that, but the singing in
the special, I do some comedic singing because I enjoy
it so much.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
So it's fun to be able to blend the two.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You began doing these viral videos. He had one on kids'
names called roll Call in ten Years, which has had
almost six million views. Did you expect anything like that reaction?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You never know what to think with some of these videos.
Some you think are the best videos ever they get
no views, and sometimes you think they're off when they
get a lot of views. That was definitely one where
I was pretty shocked at how much people love that.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That did.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, six million on YouTube, That did tens of millions
of views other places, Facebook, TikTok. So that one was fun,
and it's great because the bit is I'm doing a
roll call of a classroom and it's like axel Ansley,
Denim Journey. All these new names were seen. And the
best part of that is I didn't really even write that.
I just went to our social security website and picked
(13:45):
the most popular new names of like twenty twenty one.
Wherever I made that video, I just read them off
and made fun of them and it went viral. People
were like this is insane. This is what people are
naming their kids.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's wild, and that's still out there pople who are
still going to it.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I've think even reposted a couple of years ago and
it went viral again. It's still very much what's happening now.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Also, you do a podcast, Correct Opinions with Trey Kennedy
and Jake Triplet and you have her something like fifty
thousand listeners per episode.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
We have a great, great podcast with my co host
Jake other comedian Hilarious Skuy. My wife's also on most
of the episodes, which is fun. She's the nice voice
of reason when me and him get going too far
down a a bit. But yeah, we would do that
podcast like five years, have a great, great listener base.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean, that's quite a success just by itself.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I know, it's I've never really known what was coming next,
so I've just tried to try everything. You know, some
stuff didn't work, but it's been fun to have that
podcast go for so long.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You mentioned your wife's participation, as I understand that she's
a biomedical engineer.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, my wife. It's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
She went to Georgie Tech, which you know, if you
know is one of the top schools in the entire country.
And I went to o Holoma State, which Gopoke's Proud Cowboy,
not known as one of the best schools in the country.
But I had a great time and got a great
degree there. But it was just funny to hear, you know,
in college, I was like, yeah, I had so much
free time. I goofed off and went viral on social media.
(15:20):
And she was like, I had to do ten hours
on home work every day to be a biomedical engineer.
And she had this like fancy job. As I was like,
have fun to work, honey, I'm gonna stay home and
make skits.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I just say, there's a whole thing here about the
biomedical engineer in the comedian Oh easily.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
It's so funny too, because her world, everyone she knows
are like surgeons and engineers, and she's like, luckily it's
worked out now we can say, well, he's a special
in Hulu. But for years they'd be like, and what
is your you know, what was your boyfriend new? What's
your husband who? She'd be like, well, he's he's doing
his best.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Go to a cocktail party at Georgia Tech. You will
be the only comedian at the cocktail.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Party thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So thank god it's gotten to a point where people go, Okay,
I think he can pay his bills because she had
a real challenge there for a number of years to
be like yeah, yeah, Now.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
You have sort of a breakthrough in that your new special,
Trey Kennedy Growing Up is going to be on Hulu.
How did that come up? I mean, that's a real breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Thank you very much. Yeah, I can't believe it.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's my second special, so my first one we put
on my YouTube a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That was great.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This special, it's been years in the making. We toured
it to one hundred plus cities and we shot it
last April in Salt Lake, amazing crowds. It's been a
labor love to get it done. I self produced it all.
We had a great team put that together. My agent
shopped it around all the networks, and Hulu has just
(16:50):
entered into the stand up world. They've got Gaff again
and Bill Burr and a bunch of others and honored
to be anywhere on that lineup too, So they gave
me opportunity. I didn't know what to expect, but I'm
really really pumped in honor. Hulu gave me the chance.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Here's a little sneak peek of Trey Kennedy grow up.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
My sister. She came to me. She's like, Trey, don't
kill me.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I want to do a little gender reveal, something simple,
nothing that like birds down the West Coast. And she
was like, Trey, as my one and only sibling, my
big brother, I want you to do the honor. I'm
gonna have the doctor call you at the results, and
then you tell the bakery what color I see to
put inside the cake?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, and Utah. I thought about ruining us.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I thought about it, you know, I asked. I was like,
I'll pay double for yellow. I'll play a double.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
What does that mean? He's like, oh, you're having a teletubby.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, I do my job right. She's there with their husband.
They cut the cake, revealing pink. I scen meaning it's
a baby. Everyone's excited. And then the first thing out
of my sister's mouth, I mean instantaneously, she wants to know. Sometimes, ladies,
you give us too much credit, you do. She was like, Trey,
how hard was it to keep the secret? How hard
was it he was.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
The only one you knew in the whole planet. How
hard was it not to tell everyone the gender of
my child? It was like, not hard at all.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Not you cutting the cake reminded me what it was,
so I didn't even.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
No one was more surprised than me. Y'all do that
you give.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Us too much credit on weird things like I don't
know wh my sister was picturing.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
She's known me her whole life.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What. I'm just hanging out with my boys, like watching
the games. They're all like, hold on, Trey, pause the game,
pause it. We're not watching the second half until you
fess up about the gender of your sister's unborn child.
It's like, you know, I wish I could call her.
I wish, but I locked the key threw it away.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That's not what happened.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Half of my friends if I told her my sister's pregnant,
they'd be like, what sister. I was like, you've met her, dude,
several times.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I would think that writing a special where it's going
to be locked down, it's going to be there primarily
and it has to fit into certain time parameters is
different than just doing stand up. I mean, I understand
they had to be randomly being funny. But how do
you undertake writing the jokes and putting together all the
things that go into a special.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I do plenty of writing in my office at home,
and so much of my life where oh that pots
my head, I write down a note, and I think
in the early stages it's really just get it on
stage and trying out stuff and like, Okay, that wasn't funny,
I'll work on that, or that's not worth doing again,
or okay, we got something there, let's work on that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And those early.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Stages you're kind of just doing these shows and putting
together an hour on the stage that's funny. And then
as you tour around, you know, I started to see
this theme of I became a dad, so I talked
a lot about that, and I wanted people to get
to know me more. So I talked about how I
grew up, and I like to make fun of people
and tell them to grow up. So this idea of
(20:36):
grow up I saw a vision. And as you prepare
for the special, I think that becomes less of like
let's just be funny every night, and really more precise,
like all right, this is what's going to be printed
and live on forever. It's time to really technically put
this together, tell the story, and I guess be happy
with the funnel product that's going to be edited and
put out for the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You do that in front of a live audience, right.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Oh yeah, Salt Lake beautiful hall there in Salt Lake,
Bravino Hall, and we had two sold out shows, twenty
five hundred people each.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
They were awesome. It was great.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
The Mormons. They love a nice, clean white comedian. It
was funny one of the time, so we shot. The
funniest part was I'd have this one punchline where the
jokes about drinking alcohol. I won't ruin it, just watch it.
But it was funny because I said that and Mormons
famously they don't drink a drop of alcohol. Right, So
it was like, that's a joke I'd done a hundred times.
Got a huge laugh, and they're in Salt Lake. They
(21:31):
were kind of like eh. I was like, guys, really quick, listen,
I get it, I get it. We are taping this,
so I'm gonna say it again and just laugh for me,
so I will be honest. Everything's one hundred percent authentic.
But on that one, I said, just give me a laugh,
all right, because I need it.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I mean, in that sense, if you're shooting a special
like that, could you imagine doing it without a crowd?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Sadly, I kind of can because of COVID. I did
a couple virtual cob these shows, or I did even
one kind of like livestream comedy show, which was a mistake.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I shouldn't have this.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
We were all so bored and nothing to do. So
it was like you could watch online as I did
a show to no one. You could watch it virtually.
And that was, like you said, it, really, stand up
really shouldn't be done unless you have people in the
room that are feeding off the energy.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
But do you find out you need the feedback from
the crowd to sustain the momentum and to sustain you're adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
I think you can kind of do it.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But yeah, I think stand up's really really fun in
that regard where there's not much else. You know, with music,
it's like you can kind of play music anywhere, and
that's great, But stand up really is this medium where
it's you and the crowd. You're both involved. You talk
to them, you listen to them, you react to them.
I think that's what makes us so exciting.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
If you watch President Trump, he needs that crowd. I
tell people he's avoid Villa, and I mean he's one
third humor, one third really serious, and once they're just random.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You hear comedians say like he's funny, like he could
do it if he wanted. I mean, there's no question,
like him or not that he has a pretty impressive
talent for feeding off crowds and entertaining.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yeah, so he actually gains energy. I mean people wonder
how he can do these hour and a half. During
the campaign, he was doing three a day.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
That's what blows my mind because there's two types of comedians.
I'm the one where I have my hour, I have
at planned, I'm doing it and I'm done. And then
some of these comedians are President Trump. They look up
and they've been talking for three hours. They're just having
the time of their life up there. I don't know
how they do it. It's unreal.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I think that's their ability to get the energy reflow
from the audience. So they actually gained strength, which is
a little scary if you think about it.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It is.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Trust me, I do not I get off stage and
I'm like, oh my gosh, that was exhausting in a
good way.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Because you're right, they're two different styles. But let me
jump totally different thing. You have a new project, which
is a children's book, How You Got Your Name? What
led you to go from comedy to writing for children?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, I just had my second child, so very much
in this world reading books to my oldest, I got
the opportunity. I thought it was great, and as a comedian,
it is supposed to be a goofy, silly book for kids,
and so How You Got Your Name. It's been out
for a month or so now. I think people are
really enjoying it. And I really wanted to write a
book that was fun for the parents as well with
(24:31):
the kids, to keep it kind of fresh, interactive, because
I know as a parent you read some of these
books over and over and over again you're like, oh
my gosh, so mine's meant to be silly, fun and
How You Got Your Name kind of playing on the video,
we talked about the role calls and the silly names.
It's playing into that culture where it follows the story
of a kid all these ideas for some crazy name,
(24:51):
and at the end it explains how he got his
name and gives you opportunity to explain to your kid
how they got there.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Was writing a book different than developing comedy.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
A children's book for sure, because I have hopes to
write my own book book one day, but a children's book.
My first pass at it was kind of like it
was too adult humor. It was like insulting children's names,
and they're like, well, this is for four year olds.
You can't just teach them to make fun of kids.
I was like, all right, fair enough. So we had
to lighten it up and make it really wholesome for
(25:25):
the young kids. So I had to learn that a
little bit pull in the reins, but like with anything,
it's just being creative, which is what I really enjoyed doing.
And so it was a nice new project and experience
and really proud of what we ended up with.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
What do you hope kids and their parents take away
from How You Got Your Name?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
The wholesome kind of payoff at the end is you
get a moment to explain your child how they got
their name. And you know, I think a lot of
folks have a good reason behind that, and it has
a nice nod to how your parents know your name.
It's special for reason, it's your name. God knows your name,
and that's the sweet payoff. I don't see a lot
of books out there sharing that message. So hopefully that's
(26:04):
a cool moment between kids and parents, and the first
ninety five percent of the book is just hopefully a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Okay, So since you wrote a book about the significance
of names, how did you and your wife choose the
names for your own children.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We have good reasons. Thank god, we have two kids.
We want more. So we were joking like we got
to have good reasons for these next kids because the
first two they're family names. My son is Thomas the fourth,
so I'm Thomas the third.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
That's why I go by Trey.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And my daughter's name is Eva, and that's one of
my wife's family name, like one of her great grandmothers
the family really looked up to. So both family names nice, easy,
you can pronounce them, you can spell them.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
We're proud of them.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
How old are your children?
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Two and four months?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, well, congratulations, thank you very much. It's been fun.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
We have a great family of a very smart wife,
and you have a special on TV. I mean life's
pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's very very good. I'm blessed.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I graduated college about ten years ago, and I would
have never ever guessed any of those things will be true.
So very fortunately, very grateful.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
We talk a lot about cheerful persistence, and you're a
pretty good example of it.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I want to thank you for joining me. Your new
comedy special, Trey Kennedy grow Up is available to watch
on Hulu now. In your new children's book, How You
Got Your Name is available now in Amazon and in
bookstores everywhere. We're going to feature a link to buy
it on our show page. And I want to let
our listeners know they can keep up with all you're doing,
which is a lot, by visiting your website Trey Kennedy
(27:37):
dot com, or by following you on any of your
social media platforms. This has been a lot of fun,
and I really appreciate you doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Thank you. I had a great time. Thanks for having me.
It's great to meet you. I really appreciate it me
so much.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Thank you. To my guest, Trey Kennedy, you can get
a link to watch his new comedy special, Trey Kennedy
up on Hulu on our show page at newtsworld dot com.
NEWT World is produced by Gengish three sixty and iHeartMedia.
Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson.
The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.
(28:17):
Special thanks the team a Ginglish three sixty. If you've
been enjoying Nutsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast
and both rate us with five stars and give us
a review so others can learn what it's all about.
Right now, listeners of newts World can sign up from
a three free weekly columns at gingishtree sixty dot com
slash newsletter. I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Nutsworld
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