Season 2 Episode 6: Kevin Avery is My Name: A Conversation About Comedy & Culture
What do our superpowers teach us about our longings? How do we create spaces for young people to fully step into their voices and power? In this special episode, we’re SO thrilled to be joined by our favorite sci fi & Afrofuturism visionaries, Autumn and adrienne maree brown! Join our juicy conversation about love, parenthood, imagination, youth, magic, and longing as we explore the new scifi show “Raising Dion. Tell us what you think @thebigwepodcast and hello@thebigwepodcast.com
Supplemental Links
“Denzel Washington Is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period” - Kevin Avery & W. Kamau Bell’s podcast
On the Making of Dolemite is My Name A Look Back at the Blaxploitation Era - LA Times
Hip Hop Did Not Begin The Way You Think It Did - background on Rudy Ray Moore’s toasting culture & the origins of battle rap
About Kevin Avery
Kevin Avery is a stand up comedian and a writer. His work includes writing for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He has also had the distinction of being the head writer on the critically acclaimed and criminally short FX original series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. He is currently head writer for Comedy Central’s The New Negroes with Baron Vaughn & Open Mike Eagle. His other television writing credits include VH1’s Best Week Ever. Originally from San Francisco, CA, Kevin’s high-energy brand of stand up has been called “as rare and magical as a sparkle-unicorn doing West Side Story choreography under a liquid light show,” by the SF Weekly.
Kevin has been praised by the Oakland Tribune for his “sharp-witted” style and “impressive physical comedy.” Of his animated style of stand up and storytelling, the San Francisco Chronicle raves, “Avery is Amazing!” His debut comedy CD, Hardcore, recorded live at the Punchline in San Francisco, is available on iTunes and at RoofTopComedy.com
Kevin is the writer, star and executive producer of the award-winning short film Thugs, The Musical, about a frustrated, sightly delusional, and extremely non-urban black actor who writes, directs & stars in a disastrous musical to prove to Hollywood and the world that he can “act black.” The Dallas Weekly calls it an “uproariously funny mockumentary,” and the Texas Black Film Festival director declared it to be “hands down, THE funniest and wittiest film at the TBFF 2012 Fest! Welcome to a new generation of black social parody.” Thugs, The Musical is the winner of the Audience Award for Best Film at 2012 LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival and the 2012 MIX International Film Festival, Best Short Film at the 2012 Montgomery Film Festival, Best Comedy Film at the 2012 San Francisco Black Film Festival, and the winner of both Best Short and Best in Show at the 2012 Tupelo Film Festival.
Kevin also wrote, produced and stars in the popular web videos Black Guys on a Beautiful Day and Not in a Gay Way. He is the creator of the web series, Kevin Avery’s Obsessed, the pilot of which was featured on MSN’s The Bubble. (Episode 1) (Episode 2)
