FEATURED
Comedian Kevin H. Brady keeping us laughing through it all RICHARD DUCKET T
Productions presentation of “Helen’s Most Favorite Day” that Christie Brady directed, although her main t was no laughing matter for interest remained acting. comedian and Worcester In Worcester, the couple lived native Kevin H. Brady. in the Burncoat Street/Lincoln Now living in Hackensack, Street area. New Jersey, his day job was working “My wife and I were both involved for “an essential retail business” that with the arts for 10 to 15 years. My had stayed open through the panwife is an actor. She had always demic. Until it filed for bankruptcy. talked about how she had wanted “I got laid off yesterday,” he said to go to New York to pursue acting over the phone last week. “It’s a fun professionally, and she never did. and exciting time all around.” Kevin Brady will be one of the I just said I’m not going to be 60 one So Brady, 35, noted that “Today’s the first official day of being laid off. comedians on the “Friday Virtual day and hear you say ‘I never went Yoo Hoo Room Comedy Show” to New York.’ “ I’ve already submitted my unemThey were, Brady said, “Young ployment paperwork. I’m looking at from Flappers Comedy Club in a handful of places. We’ll cross those Burbank, Calif., starting at 10:30 enough to do something stupid, old enough to be smart about it.” bridges when we get to them.” p.m. (Eastern Time) Jan. 8. They moved to Hackensack, But although the day job had SUBMITTED PHOTO about 45 minutes from New York gone, the night job, making people he said. City, in 2017. They live with two cats. laugh, isn’t going too badly under And since Brady is relatively new “Right now that is sufficient,” Brady the circumstances. There are virtual/ to the world of comedy himself, said. Zoom bookings, including being The company that Christie Brady one of the comedians on the “Friday some learning curves might have been expected, although 2020 may was working for at the time actually Virtual Yoo Hoo Room Comedy have bent them out of any previous gave her a raise and a promotion to Show” from Flappers Comedy Club shape of recognition. make the move, her husband said. in Burbank, California, starting “It definitely wasn’t a late develShe’s now working for another at 10:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) Jan. oping interest,” Brady said of his company after the previous employ8. Ray Lau is the host. Tickets are interest in comedy. “When I was er went out of business. $7. For information, visit http:// younger, when I came home from Regarding the acting, “She’s gotwww.flapperscomedy.com/shows/ ten a few decent acting jobs locally. friday-virtual-yoo-hoo-room-come- school, I was putting on Comedy Channel. I came home watching Some behind the stage stuff. She dy-show/62148/ stand-up comedy, watching comeworked on a few professional shows,” Brady has more virtual shows dians I had no business watching. Brady said. Then the pandemic booked for later in the month. George Carlin.” closed the curtains on that for a Unfortunately, it’s also the case Brady grew up on Vernon Hill in while as well. that his in-person comedy conWorcester, and went to Vernon Hill Brady was aware of open mic nections as he commuted from Elementary School and the “old” nights here where prospective Hackensack to clubs in New York City were increasing just prior to the North High School. College included comedians can get up and see how a stint at Quinsigamond Communi- they fare with stand-up or, for more pandemic. ty College. experienced hands, try out new “Things were trending upwards But “music was what I was doing material. when the world exploded,” he said. for the longest time,” said Brady, who He said he would say “’I’m gonna “I was booked the week New go, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go.’ I York shut down all of the clubs. That was in several New England metal bands. never did.” week alone I had six or something “I fell into acting when I was 23, Then in New Jersey he shows that were canceled.” 24 … On a different stage to music, thought, “You know what, I’m gonna Brady, however, does not come it exposed me to that live experigo. We’re a 30-minute bus ride from across as bitter. Rather, he seems New York City (where) you can’t go a like someone who sees silver linings. ence.” Something else, however, was block without finding an open mic.” Closing the clubs “in hindsight This time he did, and as Brady put was absolutely the right call,” he said. also lurking. Comedy, “was always in it, something terrible happened: A comic he was supposed to appear the back of my mind,” Brady said. In 2012 he met his future wife, “I went on stage, did my material, with at one of the engagements Christie, when they both appeared and people laughed.” that week tested positive for the Life might have subsequently coronavirus shortly afterward. Brady in a show put on by Pilgrim Soul Productions. been easier “If no one had laughed,” feels he may have dodged a bullet. He later stage-managed a Braid he noted. “I would have said ‘I tried Fortunately, the comic is now OK,
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J A N U A RY 7 - 13, 2021
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it. It’s not for me.’” Too late. He was hooked. Well, pretty much hooked, anyway. From March 2018 for six months he did open mics in New York, and then for no particular reason stopped for six months. “There are a lot of different things I find funny,” Brady said. “I’m not above doing a stupid pun. Not above those stupid, silly one-liners.” His grandparents lived at home, and “Dean Martin roasts where very popular in my house,” Brady said. He avoids politics in his material. “I try not to go that route, not because that’s taboo but I’m not after low-hanging fruit about something that’s going on (now). It should be relevant one year from now, two years from now … “Most of what I write is your standard in-my-life type of thing, and you might find it funny too.” Brady said he has “a couple of jokes about Worcester — not disparaging.” One is, “Birthplace of the Smiley Face and oral birth control. I don’t think those two are mutually exclusive.” In March 2019, Brady responded to a Facebook announcement looking for comics, and much to his surprise “booked my first professional show.” The show was “Fashionably Funny” run by comic Maryssa Smith at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York. “It was my first audience experience with people that weren’t just comics looking to try out material.” Furthermore, he was at “a known and famous comedy club.” Evidently once again people laughed. A while later, Smith messaged, “ ‘I have another show coming up if you’re free.’ It was kind of downhill from there,” Brady said. “I did her show five or six times.” Other venues he’s performed at include New York Comedy Club and Greenwich Village Comedy Club. Along the way Kevin Brady has learned the importance of his middle initial as in Kevin H. Brady. “There are way too many of us out
there,” he said of the Keven Bradys of the world. Back in Worcester he once got a message from an actor he knew after casting for a show had been announced saying he was looking forward to working with Brady in the upcoming production. Brady replied, “ ‘I didn’t audition for that show.’ “In Central Massachusetts there’s another Kevin Brady into acting.” There are at least two other people named Kevin Brady in comedy — one from Seattle and the other from Nebraska, Brady said. There’s also a Republican Congressman from Texas, Kevin P. Brady. As was mentioned earlier, Kevin H. Brady was getting known in comedy circles just before the pandemic. “I had been booked for my first comedy festival in Pennsylvania in April,” he said. “I was starting to get booked at venues I hadn’t performed at with people I hadn’t performed with. It was that slow build.” But “on the other side of the coin,” Brady said he is thankful there has been Zoom. He has done five comedy festivals virtually since the pandemic, including the recent Boston Comedy Festival. Also upcoming for Brady is an All-Massachusetts show hosted by the Chicago-based improv duo Flower Shop Bangers. The show is at 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24 and broadcast on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. “It does feel like there’s a silver lining to the COVID cloud,” he said. Brady acknowledged that early on in the pandemic his attitude had been “it’s not really gonna be that bad.” People were doing online shows as early as mid-March but Brady tended to think “ ‘I don’t really need to.’ “ A friend posted Brady a message on Facebook: “ ‘If you’re not willing to do Zoom shows, comedy is going to pass you by.’ “ Brady saw the light. “OK, I’ll give it a try.” There was technology to learn, and etiquette, Brady said. Performing online, “You don’t C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 7
