We recently connected with Max Kerwien and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Max thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’m very lucky in that I have a work-from-home job that has nothing to do with my creative work that pays the bills, gives me health insurance, and keeps me afloat. That is an incredibly rare thing to have and I remember when I worked two part-time jobs to barely make rent. I had to muster the energy in the evenings to go out and do standup and it was exhausting. I think when I started comedy I wanted all these things, like a special, a world tour, lots of money, and now, I just want to get paid for my work. It’s funny how hard even that is right now. The entertainment industry is a bursting bubble at the moment and we’re all just “wait and see”ing. But that is the dream! To get paid full time for creative work. I’d still rather be doing this than having my soul sucked out of my body from a 70 hr workweek being a software engineer (sorry engineers I love you).

Max, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started writing poetry in college because my family are engineers and so doing anything creative was an act of rebellion. There, I discovered this thing called “emotions”, and how I could express them in a healthy way. Unfortunately I caught the deadly virus of needing to be funny, so I transitioned into standup comedy. I still write poetry but I separate it from my comedy. Poetry is when I want to be pensive, sentimental, thoughtful, and comedy is when I want to be silly, stupid, and a performing idiot.

Above all I would describe my work as alternative and thoughtful. I’m really always trying to divert expectations or have a fresh look at things. I also often like to parody people even stupider than me, so I will make fun of homophobes, grifters, and bad comedians whenever I can.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Rant alert! I hate that this is a part of being a creator now. Your social media following is seen as net worth, and it impacts everything. Putting aside the fact that the “algorithm” is mysterious and will do whatever it wants with you, you can also buy followers, do “collabs”, be a brand ambassador, all these gross lateral socioeconomic moves that remove any joy out of discovering someone you like or being discovered.

And yet it is a necessary evil? I think? I don’t really have any of the answers here. To participate in social media is to recognize that it is a playing field for engagement. However, engagement, content, all of it is overwhelming. It feels like there are more creators than people. So don’t be afraid to put the phone down and make eye contact every once in a while.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I have a controversial opinion that right now, society needs to go back to hating standup comedy. There are too many comedians, too many bad ones, too many good ones, and it really lowers the value of an individual joke, or comedy special, or funny person. We need a weird artistic revolution to despise standup so that the idea of comedy can be reset and we can get back to the basics: court jesters trying to make people cry laugh.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maxkerwien.com
• Instagram: @kerwien

Image Credits

Ian Zandi, Greg Feiner