We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Lewis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyle, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

While many comics jump into the deep end, I started by taking a class. I took an improv class first that had a bunch of stand-up comedians in it. I told them I was interested in trying the stand-up class and they recommended I try it out.

A stand-up class may sound silly, but it teaches you how to not suck for 5 minutes and a lot of people can benefit from it. I didn’t even know how to write a joke. With the class, I learned joke structure, joke writing, what can turn a joke from funny to unfunny and vice versa, and gained a lot of perspective about stand-up comedy.

Knowing what I know now, I could have started earlier or done more mics, but I am happy with my initial growth and think it was the perfect intro for me.

The most essential skill was writing and listening to feedback. I wrote funny material before, but never in a stand-up capacity. Also, no one loves getting notes, so it was good to get used to getting notes on if anything was working or not working. Everyone was starting from the same place, so it’s an easy way to get and stay humble.

Initially, there were no obstacles, but the biggest obstacle after you start stand-up is getting stage time. You want to get on stage as much as possible, but sometimes the open mics are not beneficial and the shows you get require you to bring a second family to perform. It can be really discouraging.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was always interested in comedy. When I was younger, I always wrote sketches, scripts, or anything to make my friends laugh. My goal was to be a TV writer and that did not change until one day, I was at a dead-end job, and I just kept picturing myself on stage performing stand-up comedy. I liked stand-up, but I never saw myself doing it until I literally envisioned it!

Something that I bring to stand-up is that my personality and comedy are relatable. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you can see or hear a set from me, and be like, “…Yeah. I can see that happening to him.” Whether that’s a good or bad thing for my social life!

Besides doing stand-up comedy for over 10 years, I am most proud of my monthly show: Character Select Comedy. The show came about after I left my job and was looking for my next steps in comedy and in life. I put the show together in November of 2016 in a bar basement with no microphone, and thankfully friends and some curious comedy fans showed up. 8 years later, the show is now at a major comedy club (The Stand) and consistently sell-out. While it’s not exactly having a child, I’ve raised it from the ground up and it causes me a lot of stress sometimes. But I love it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Tunnel vision is not always a good thing.

When doing stand-up, sometimes you branch out to other forms of media like YouTube or influencer content to add a skill and get your name out there. I was in a situation where I was trying to show off my hosting chops on YouTube. A friend invited me to a party, but I was not press and not allowed to get interviews with the talent (Influencers were okay). An opportunity came up where I was standing near the press area, microphone in hand, and a handler asked who was next? I jumped on the chance to ask a couple of questions with the celebrity, put it my video, and sent it to my friend for approval. When she reacted negatively, I couldn’t understand what I did until I realized me doing that with their kind gesture, could have put their and other employees’ jobs in jeopardy. It temporarily soured my relationship with them and the company and my tunnel vision backfired on me in a major way. I felt horrible about it and thankfully, it is now in our past. I could not see past that goal and how my actions would affect the people around me. Tunnel vision is only good if you have common sense!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing your concepts come to life. Whether that’s a joke, a video, a set, an idea, etc. Being able to think of something, work on it, see it come to life, and see people enjoy it is an incredible feeling. Not everything may land, but the hardest part sometimes is just putting the idea into execution.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kylelewiswastaken.com
• Instagram: keepitfivestar
• Facebook: keepitfivestar
• Twitter: keepitfivestar
• Youtube: kylelewiscomedy

Image Credits

JT Anderson
Kat Soriano
KLYK Productions