Sun 4/28 @ 7PM
At the turn of the century when the entire world was presumably stealing Metallica tunes from Napster, a young Brian Kenny was also admittedly joining in on the illegal downloading. However, instead of it listening to Metallica, the fifth grader was listening to comedian Brian Regan.
“Between Brian Regan and Comedy Central Presents every Friday night, I just fell in love with stand-up comedy,” said Kenny, 30, a 2006 Rocky River High School graduate. “My first comedy show was seeing George Carlin at Playhouse Square. I was a freshman in high school. At the time it really never felt like it was anything really attainable.
“That changed when I was a senior at Mercyhurst College. It was at the height of the recession trying to find a job with a useless marketing degree. I was just kind of thinking of different things that would be fun.”
His first night on stage was in Erie, Pa. Whereas the vast majority of comedians retell horror stories of their first time, which may include one joke that sort of got a laugh from the audience, Kenny’s introduction to stand-up comedy — which literally took place the day before he graduated from college — was the opposite.
“I’m a storyteller, and the set actually went really well,” Kenny said. “It’s not your typical random open mic that guys or girls usually start out at. I started in a club with 200 people in it and it went great. I told a story that I’ve expanded upon and still tell to this day about being handcuffed to a girl at a party and getting food poisoning.”
Over the last decade, Kenny — who draws comparisons to Bert Kreischer and Jim Jefferies — has worked his way up from open-mic nights to opening for the likes of Dave Attell, Norm Macdonald, Dom Irrera, Kevin Pollak, Rob Schneider, Aisha Tyler and Joey “Coco” Diaz.
Also, his “Reese’s Pieces” clip from Fox’s Laughs has been viewed more than six million times.
“I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but typically if a show is there to do well — if it’s not a show where everybody is going to fail, no matter what — I think I’m typically going to do well,” Kenny said. “I’ve gotten to do some really cool things.”
This includes headlining at Hilarities, where he returns April 28 at the 4th Street Theatre.
“It’s a top 10 club in the world,” Kenny said. “This is my second time headlining there. The first time was in October, and it’s a big achievement because Hilarities is very selective with who they let emcee and even more selective with who they bump up to feature.”
Known for his Northeast Ohio comedy, Kenny said the one joke that he still thinks is funny despite receiving a cold reception from audiences had to do with LeBron James’ infamous 2015 wardrobe malfunction. The basketball player accidentally pulled down his shorts.
“The Internet roasted Lebron because they didn’t think he was big enough,” Kenny said. “I kind of came to his aid saying, he’s a big dude and that’s a big frame. My thought was, it’s a regulation-size rim, it’s just a gigantic-size backboard. It was an unfortunate optical illusion.”
So did Kenny ever hear back from James about having his, um, back.
“No,” Kenny laughed. “He never talked to me about his dick, unfortunately.”
Tickets to his show range from $13-$18.
[Written by John Benson]
Cleveland, OH 44115