How to Connect with Your Audience by Using Your Authentic Voice with Kevin Bozeman

On today’s episode of Branding Matters I’m sitting down with world-renowned comedien Kevin Bozeman. 

You might recognize the name, as Kevin was a semi-finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”.  He has also appeared on Comedy Central, NBC, CBS and FOX.

During our fun conversation we cover everything from parenthood to cancel culture.

Other topics we discuss include:

How speaking your truth makes you more relatable

Why it’s important to be be flexible 

The value of pushing boundaries 

How to build a fan base

Why you should take your audience on a journey 

The value of stepping outside your comfort zone

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘆 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸 - 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮’𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟰𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀.
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Hey there, I'm Joelly - the Branding Badass. My badass superpower is helping you build a brand that matters. From branded merch to brand consulting, when you work with me, you get results!

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Transcript

Joelly Goodson : 0:10

Hi I'm Joelly, your Branding Badass. Welcome to Branding Matters - a podcast I created and host to help you create brand equity. My guest today is world renowned comedian Kevin Bozeman. You might recognize his name because Kevin was a semifinalist on NBC Last Comic Standing. He's also appeared on Comedy Central, NBC, CBS and Fox just to name a few. During our really fun conversation, we cover everything from parenthood to cancel culture. Other topics we discuss include how speaking your truth makes you more relatable. Why it's important to be flexible, the value of pushing boundaries, how to build a fan base, why you should take your audience on a journey and the value of stepping outside your comfort zone. Branding Matters is brought to you by Genumark - one of North America's most trusted merch makers for over 40 years. Did you know brandedn merch is one of the best ways to create brand awareness? It's true. From promotional products, custom uniforms and clothing to sports co-branding, web stores and warehousing, Genumark is your number one partner for creating brand awareness. And being ISO certified you can rest assured ethical sourcing and sustainability are front and center. If you're looking for help with your next project, email BrandingMatters@Genumark.com. That's Branding Matters at G E N U M A R K.COM. And now on with our show, Kevin, welcome to Branding Matters!

Kevin Bozeman: 1:45

Thank you for having me. How did you find me?

Joelly Goodson : 1:48

You know this is so funny. I love this story. So I don't know if you remember but I actually saw you in Calgary. So I'm in Calgary right now. Where are you?

Kevin Bozeman: 1:56

I'm in Chicago.

Joelly Goodson : 1:57

You're in Chicago. I love Chicago, by the way, one of my favorite cities. So you were performing in Calgary and I went to go see you and you were with I think there was three other comedians, I don't know if you remember wasn't that long ago, a few months ago, and you are great. I just I never heard of you before. But we were so impressed. So then afterwards, I connected with you on Instagram. And I don't know if you remember and I sent you a message and I said, Hey, we just saw you last night and you were awesome. And you said Oh, thanks. And we kind of had a little back and forth. And then that was kind of it. And so fast forward. I have this podcast and it's called branding matters. And it's really to help business owners entrepreneurs with creating brand equity, right? So whether it's personal brand or corporate brand, we all have a brand and it's how do you leverage that. And so I tried to bring on people from all different industries from all over the world to share their stories and then incorporate bradney into that and what it takes to have a brand and I didn't have a comedian on so I thought well, maybe Kevin will be interested. So I was really excited that you said yes. So thank you for being here.

Kevin Bozeman: 2:56

Awesome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I love it. I remember the it was the big IG Wealth Tour. Yes. Yeah, like of course I remember. It was such a great time. We did, like 24 shows in 34 days. So yeah, quite the season. Quite the fall season.

Joelly Goodson : 3:11

Well, I like I said I'd never heard of you before. But now I'm a big fan. And so thank you for coming on here. This is so fun. As I said, I didn't know anything about you before. But then once you said yes, I did all my research and learned a lot about you. One thing that I thought was interesting was that you used to be a dancer. Can you share about that experience?

Kevin Bozeman: 3:30

I'm about to one up your research and this story is great. Okay, so I am actually not a dancer.

Joelly Goodson : 3:40

Okay.

Kevin Bozeman: 3:42

So this is what happened. Chadwick Boseman. From the Black Panther movies who died recently of cancer a couple of years ago. Great actor plaid James Brown.

Joelly Goodson : 3:54

Yeah, yeah. No, I know. Yeah. Right.

Kevin Bozeman: 3:56

He has a brother.

Joelly Goodson : 3:58

Oh, god. You're not his brother?

Kevin Bozeman: 4:00

His name is Kevin Boseman, as well. And he is an actor and a dancer. And so white people combined us

Joelly Goodson : 4:13

Hilarious! BUt I looked you up in Wikepedia?

Kevin Bozeman: 4:16

Yeah, Wikipedia. That's what I'm telling you. They combined all of our accolades and amorphous into one person. That's terrible. You know, sometimes it's It benefits it benefits. I probably benefits both of us, because they probably go to him and say, I didn't know you did comedy. That is crazy. It's like, oh my god. I didn't you know, I didn't know you danced.

Joelly Goodson : 4:40

Well, I was shocked and so did you play football or that's not you either.

Kevin Bozeman: 4:44

That is also not me. I did play basketball.

Joelly Goodson : 4:47

Okay, that is a crazy story

Unknown: 4:51

Right? Even though I the spelling of my name. I mean, mine is what is Z and his was with an S.

Joelly Goodson : 4:57

That's amazing. So do you get people, do they come up to you and say, Oh, my condolences about your brother

Unknown: 5:02

at the time I got so many messages. At first I was just like, what? I go, this is so weird to get this many messages. But then someone came up to me and said, Show me the Wikipedia page and show that they combined us both. Pretty funny. We him and I have had a conversation about have you. Oh my God, is he laughing off?

Joelly Goodson : 5:23

I have never heard a story like that. That's crazy. You're listening, you gotta do. I can't

Unknown: 5:28

dance. You cannot I just not, oh, I just shouldn't get paid for it.

Joelly Goodson : 5:34

Well, I thought that was so interesting. When I read that. I'm like, I have to ask him about that. Okay, so my next question to you then. And I hope this is for you all for a whole week. So I also research that you were a finalist on Last Comic Standing in 2015. Was that you?

Kevin Bozeman: 5:49

Yeah. Okay. That was me.

Joelly Goodson : 5:54

Kudos to you. So can you share about that experience? And how did that change your career,

Unknown: 5:58

it was great. It was a great experience, it was probably the last time I've done to competition. Actually, in probably the last time I'll do a competition. But I have a sell comics like says you're kind of like your own business. You always need to go out and see where you're at. Because you don't, it's so hard to figure get a gauge of your talent. So you enter these competitions, of course you want to win, but you just want to see, kinda you belong. So anytime I did a competition was just to see if I belong in a group. So they reached out to me, I auditioned in Chicago, and then I went to New York to audition again. And Wanda Sykes was running it and her team. So I got to perform in front of Wanda Sykes. And then they told me I made it to like the top 100. Because I made the two signifies I'm at the top 100. And then for some reason the show was not there was worried that they were going to even run the show. And then they decided to air it. So they flew me out to Los Angeles. And then I made it through the next round and then around to get to the finals. It's the round and I came up short that but it was a great experience. For one it was on their own dime, like anytime something is on somebody else's dime. I'm generally gonna Dounreay try to pay for my flight paid for my hotel, give me food and money to survive. What are the days I'm out there? Yeah, it's a great time. It's a great time. So yeah, you know, it's it's good exposure, just all the little things that I've done, has kind of morphed into one ball. Like, I don't know, if I have one specific thing that's greater than the other. But like, just being on on national TV is always good. It's always,

Joelly Goodson : 7:51

definitely. And I'm going to create an awareness for your brand. I mean, for people who didn't know you before, all of a sudden they knew you. So how did your career change after that?

Unknown: 7:59

Yeah, my career's just monumentally just taken steps. You know, people like to have credits, people like to be able to say, you've done something, but it changed it changing the aspect of like, club just like being able to charge more money. Really, okay, moms. Because I work, it's just been able to say, you know, it's almost like, when you go to college, and you get your master's degree, you're still doing the same work. But because you have a master's degree, you can you can charge more. Are you worth more? Yeah, you have TV, when you build TV credits, it's also something that you can go, Alright, I have credits, I need more money.

Joelly Goodson : 8:35

Yeah. And what you said to as far as asking for money, it comes into the whole value thing. I mean, you're creating this brand, because really, I mean, you're a comedian, but you're also creating a brand, you're in a very, it's a very saturated industry. There's tons of Canadians out there. So what makes you stand out right, and what's gonna, what's gonna motivate and inspire people to actually come and see and pay what you need to pay? Before we continue? I want to back up so then if you weren't a dancer, how did you get into comedy?

Unknown: 9:03

Yeah, you know, I, most people, it's almost everyone that's a that's a comic will probably tell you comedy kind of find you like it's just in you, right? So, basically, as a comic, I get all the information that you get, I just process it differently. So anything that I'm talking about on stage, it's not like people are like, What is he talking about? I just have the way I process it comes out, like in a funny rhythm, a funny take. So I've always had an ability to make to make people laugh. It was just a matter of like, I didn't think I wanted to do it. I just want to see if I could do it. Okay, and once you start going up, and you do it you want to you know you'll just say I did you I want to you want to get good at it. Yeah, definitely. I've been good at it and you start getting paychecks you like why am I doing anything else? Like oh, I love that. So This is the gig. So yeah, so what I originally did it, I thought that I could do it. And then I did it and I want to get good at it. And then once I got, you know, good and I was like yeah, this is doing nothing else.

Joelly Goodson : 10:14

Were you a class? Were you a class clown in school? Like were you teachers always telling you

Unknown: 10:19

I have my moments? I have my moments, but I wouldn't I wouldn't call myself a class clown. I just I was able to pick and choose my moments of when the when the steal the spotlight, but I wasn't always running around doing goofy shit. I was just, you know, I'd be able to pick my moment and things would happen. And I would be able to get laughs But I was not the class clown because we had class clowns. And I was like, Nah, I don't want that. I don't want that life. Class Clown. Yeah, I would just, you know, be able to say funny things. And yeah, things and in the moment, I'm actually a pretty much an introvert. I'm a very I'm an extroverted introvert.

Joelly Goodson : 11:01

I am two. That's called an ambivert. It seems a lot of comedians are like that, like a lot of comedians, when they're on stage. They're out there. And they're, you know, but then when they're by themselves, I mean, I've seen Jerry Seinfeld talk about, you know, what seems to be a common theme. Why do you think that is?

Unknown: 11:15

Well, because the intensity of the show is probably one of the things like having so many people listening to hanging on to every word that you're able to get things out. Right. So then, when you're not on stage, it's downtime, because people will have weird conversations with you. i One of the things that always kills me is like when people ask me what I do, and I tell them, I'm a stand up comic. And then they'll follow up with like, oh, like, can you tell joke? They'll do that. Yeah. Also asked like, so like, what do you do for a living? I mean, we think I'm just sharing a hobby with you. Like, oh, what do you do you all you do I collect baseball cards? No, like, I'm telling you what I do for a living. But if they haven't heard of you, because they think that you can't be any good, right? When there's so many comics, and there's so many ways to make money. He's like, you know, there's more comics than just Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock there.

Joelly Goodson : 12:13

Yeah. Well, and you know, and that's, again, why I want to bring you on because it's like, like I said earlier, I mean, it's show business, and it's still a business and you're still a brand. And you still, you know, when you're competing with everybody else, even when we saw you up on stage, you totally stood out. And one of the things with business and with branding is connecting with your audience. So when you're up on stage, you connect with your audience so well, and you do it through the whole concept of fatherhood. And you talk a lot about your kids. So can you share how how so you have three sons if again, if Wikipedia is correct. So you're like, No, I have one daughter. I have a cat. So you have three sons. So how did becoming a dad bring that into your routine? And how did that help change it and help you connect with your audience? It was

Unknown: 13:04

it was actually the best thing for my comedy. I just feel like when you're on stage, you just speak a certain truth. It's just easier to be the more honest I am on stage, the more relatable I am because I'm speaking a truth and my truth isn't my only truth. It's other people's truth. So well. So I might be saying things that may be inappropriate, but people have thought it Yeah, I'm just giving voice to it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily like that, but I speak it. So speaking about parenthood and fatherhood is super relatable, so it's easy to do that sort of comedy because it's relatable, and it's a truth and those are the things that I think are really sustainable for me as a standup Yeah, and how old

Kevin Bozeman: 13:48

11,18 and four

Joelly Goodson : 13:48

are your kids wow that's quite a stretch between the three so you although you have a lot of time a lot of material still.

Kevin Bozeman: 13:56

My pullout game is trash

Joelly Goodson : 13:58

what's what does that mean? By pull out game?

Kevin Bozeman: 14:00

Yeah, that means I didn't pull out

Joelly Goodson : 14:04

Oh, my God, that went right over my head.

Kevin Bozeman: 14:07

Alright, badass clearly that went right over Yeah.

Joelly Goodson : 14:11

Oh my god that went right over my head.

Kevin Bozeman: 14:12

Shaking up the podcast a little bit.

Joelly Goodson : 14:14

I love shaking things up. So staying on that theme because you travel around a lot right? You go to places all over I'm assuming North America

Kevin Bozeman: 14:23

I was in Winnipeg for New Years.

Joelly Goodson : 14:25

Poor you! How was that?

Unknown: 14:30

You know what's crazy? Winnipeg has one of the best comedy clubs in North America.

Joelly Goodson : 14:35

Oh, you're kidding. Oh, wow.

Kevin Bozeman: 14:38

It's probably the top two or three clubs in Canada for sure.

Joelly Goodson : 14:41

What's it called? You can give them a shout out

Kevin Bozeman: 14:42

It's called Rumors. Rumors comedy club in Winnipeg.

Joelly Goodson : 14:46

Okay. And you were there at New Year's Eve.

Unknown: 14:48

I was there New Year's Eve. And then I was there. New Year's Eve we had two shows. Got down at midnight. may have had a couple of cocktails to 2am boarded a flight at seven Been 30 AM. Luda Toronto had a three hour layover that flew to Charlotte. Gotta rent a car drove from Charlotte to Asheville to have a show on January 1.

Joelly Goodson : 15:12

That's crazy. So you do a lot of traveling. But now you're back in Chicago. So let me ask you a question then when you're traveling, and you're going to all these different venues and all these different places, because each audience is so different, right? And very unique. So do you change your routine based on the audience and have no, it's a two part question. And have you ever changed it mid routine? Because you're not getting the feedback that you needed?

Kevin Bozeman: 15:41

Yeah, for sure. My set is like kind of my set, I make certain tweaks, but the bulk of my materials, still the bulk of my material. So like, you know, if I'm in southern United States, of course, is different than Calgary, because some things that I do jokes about are just dates related. So I wouldn't even do them in Calgary, of course, but sets where I'm not married to my act in that sense. So I'm not married to the exact order of my set. So if the audience is weird or something I need to do different things like those Winnipeg people, those times I'll change it up

Joelly Goodson : 16:20

I've actually never been so I'm just joking. It's just because it's so cold in the winter.

Kevin Bozeman: 16:23

It's colder in Winnipeg, then Calgary?

Joelly Goodson : 16:26

yeah. It's, it's I mean, what was the temperature when you were there? Minus I'm sure.

Kevin Bozeman: 16:29

It was like, somewhere between freezing and death

Joelly Goodson : 16:34

Yeah,exactly. Probably closer to death. So yeah, it is colder. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you.

Kevin Bozeman: 16:38

You're fine. But I'd like throwing curveballs, I like going a little bit have a little bit of unscripted in my act just to allow breathing room. Right? Try to keep in some flexibility of changing things up and adding or subtracting some jokes.

Joelly Goodson : 16:53

Well, all that dancing must help with your flexibility.

Unknown: 16:55

Listen to you keep reading my Wikipedia page. And I show you I'm a yoga.

Joelly Goodson : 17:01

Any so do you do research when you go like when you're coming to Calgary? If you've never been to place before? Do you try to do some research to find certain things to help you connect with the audience

Unknown: 17:11

some like to look and see like when I get to town like top 10 things to do while you're in Calgary. And then I'll look and see if there's anything that stands out and I'll make fun of it. Otherwise, I'll go into town. And then I'll just kind of walk around and stuff and just get the vibe Yeah, to the hotspots or something like that. And just try to get the vibe of the people and then put it out there on stage. But I don't do a lot of hard research.

Joelly Goodson : 17:37

Interesting. Okay, so I want to talk to you about something now change the subject a little bit. I want to get your take on canceled culture. Because I've had a lot of conversations with people with canceled culture specifically with comedians, because I've read that canceled culture is ruining ruining comedy. And comedians are feeling that they have to pull back the reins, and they can't really be themselves. You talked about authentic and everything else. So I just want to get your take on that. Do you think canceled culture is ruining comedy?

Unknown: 18:07

Is it ruining comedy? No, it's not ruining comedy. It's just not what comics. This is not comics favorite thing, but it's not ruining comedy. My take on Castle culture is canceled culture exists because much like everything when something goes unchecked for a very long time. There's an overcorrection, right? Yes. So do I believe in Kancil culture? No, but I believe so many people have done so many things, just not great for our culture. And now that there's pushback, there's an inevitable overreaction to that. But I just My goal is to make people laugh, and I want to do it on my terms. But it's it doesn't do me any good to go and say things that's offensive to people. And they're not going to laugh, like, either you adapt, or you get devoured. And so I just I choose to adapt, but I also take Kancil culture and push the boundaries of it for sure. Even if I don't say any bad words, or anything at all that I still like for people to be a little uncomfortable with the stuff that they're laughing at with me, if that makes sense.

Joelly Goodson : 19:17

Yeah, totally makes sense. So how do you push the envelope in the back of your mind? Are you always thinking, Oh, I can't upset anybody. So I there's a bunch of things I can't say. But so how do you push the envelope in that case?

Unknown: 19:27

Yeah, you I mean, you take whatever it is you can't do and you go right up into that limit.

Joelly Goodson : 19:35

Or, like,

Unknown: 19:36

just even like jokes I do about my kid, like I have a kid that's really tall, like six foot seven, and he doesn't play basketball and then I have another kid to play soccer. And then I do a joke about you know, I failed as a parent because of that, because he doesn't play basketball, right? Because they play basketball, which is you know, socially and culturally like Hey, you can't say say that, because you're just What are you saying as far as a parent, but I, like I push boundaries like that. And jokes about going to marriage, as you know, people don't belong together. But you don't say anything because you want cake. And just so it's always like little things where everyone says, This is how you should be in a community or culture. I kind of pushed back that way.

Joelly Goodson : 20:28

Right? What? Okay, let me ask you this. What about people? And now I'm really gonna go way out there. But people who say do it. You can't even say father and mother anymore. Right? That's offensive. Now you have to say, birther. Have you heard this? Like, you can't?

Unknown: 20:43

That's but that's the that's the thing that people want to hang their hat on. So they can have gripes. Yeah. You can absolutely say father and mother, just because someone says, You're not happy for father, mother.

Joelly Goodson : 20:59

But you're offending a lot of people. When you say that, though. There's a lot of people out there going, you can't say that. That's incorrect. I think we're gonna cancel Kevin because he called himself a father.

Unknown: 21:08

I don't I don't think is that I don't think he's gotten to that extreme. I think it only gets there. If you buy into that. If you buy into everything that people will say, then you will succumb to it. But I don't subscribe to that. So therefore I don't I don't think like it's ever been a problem me like being a father and mother brothers there. But there for sure. There are super sensitive people that's always trying to do that. But I don't think they control or have any real say about like, I don't think it's an alone along the lines of like, the me to movement or issues about sexuality issue about race? I don't think yeah, I don't only if people give that life. Like if I, if I read, I want to hear birther I just don't give it life. I just go Well, that's good for you. Yeah, you can refer to it as a birth there. But to me, it's still mother, father. And I don't think there's any problem with that. But when people go, Oh, can you believe that's what's giving it that energy. But I think that it's, it's so few and far, that people I don't think that my show is going to suffer because they can be like he was all right till he said the word father. When I was like,

Joelly Goodson : 22:26

I know, I know. It can be a generational thing too. So you have your niche market, which is parents, and that's who you connect with. And you know, you a lot of everything that you say is all based on reality, and being authentic, and being yourself and everything else you just said. So when you do those other shows, and they're probably few and far between, but it's totally different audience. It's the younger generation, or it's way older, but it's probably way younger, I'm assuming then how are you still being that authentic Kevin? And still, how do you connect with them? Because now you're not really being and doing your authentic?

Kevin Bozeman: 22:59

No, I'm still speaking of truth. I'm just speaking a truth that I don't normally do in my act. But I'm still speaking a truth. And I'm still doing also my act. But I'm also just manipulating I did a show for the Mormon community. It's like a big, it's called dry bar comedy. It's pretty big in the States. And they had all sorts of rules about even like masturbation, not to talk about about marriage and premarital sex. So I would do the same joke, but I would preempt it with like, marriage is great. And then go into my job where normally I wouldn't say that I would just go in and bash marriage is what I want to do. But just little tweaks, like that allows me to still get away with the same jokes, as long as I'm pre emptive. And do little. Oh, interesting. So by setups a little bit, but yeah, it just, it just depends on that. And if I'm doing it for a younger crowd, I might say like, listen, here's why your parents are unhappy.

Joelly Goodson : 23:59

Yeah, so I see.

Unknown: 24:01

Just little things like that. Still do the same, the same joke. Yeah, I just, I just got to do little tweaks to get my message across.

Joelly Goodson : 24:10

Okay. Well, I mean, and it's all about building, you know, trust with your audience to knowing that when they've seen you, once you've made that connection, and they know who you are. Now, they'll seek you out and want to go find you. They trust that you're gonna you're gonna deliver everything because of the past experience they've had with you.

Unknown: 24:27

Yeah, that also is like, you know, helps with the building a fan base. When you build a fan base. Your fans kind of know the things you talk about. They know you know, your rhythm and everything. So they expect a certain style from you, which is great.

Joelly Goodson : 24:43

I love that you said that because you know, again, I'm gonna go back to branding. This is called branding matters. And that is what I've talked about with so many business leaders is what you just said it's about building that trust with your audience and it takes time, right? It's not overnight when you think of big brands and you think of like Nike or Apple. They didn't they weren't an overnight success. It took years to build up that trust and resonating with their audience so much. So that what you said before about building that fan base, right? I have two teenage boys who are the biggest fans of Apple, they won't even touch another brand. Right? That's a huge fan base. So that's again, that's a lot of similarities. I read this quote, I want to read to you, I want to get your feedback on it says there's a lot of similarities between branding and comedy. The biggest being they're both about people with branding, as with comedy, you're always trying to capture people's attention, and then sustain their attention to elicit an emotional response. What do you think about that?

Unknown: 25:40

What's the last part it did elicit an emotional response?

Joelly Goodson : 25:44

Yeah. From your audience.

Kevin Bozeman: 25:45

So yeah, so but yeah, but there's different ways. So earlier on, when I was funny, I was a different kind of funny, I would get big laughs But I was just kind of running the audience in place. But now I try to when I get loud, I like to take them on a little bit of a journey. So me speaking their truth. I also say things that might make people rethink things that they've always thought about, like so I'm always that's what I mean, like push the envelope. I'm not just talking about eating at Taco Bell, or, you know, going to the mall, or don't you hate when clothes used to fit and don't fit, like I'm speaking real things about real dilemma and real conflict, and how I deal with that real conflict. And hopefully, by the time I get off stage, an hour later, you know, something about me, you kind of know who I am, as opposed to when you people to just tell a joke joke. It's super funny. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you're also just kind of running the audience in place. You might that person might go get a standing ovation, but you don't know you know, where they're from, and how many kids they got, like, what's their personal beliefs, any of it? Because all they just do is just kind of tell just, you know, jokes. But yeah, so I tried to take people on a journey. And I think if you make people really, really laugh, you build it, you build a connection, just like if you're if you're really good and bad. Really good and bad. You tend to make a good connection with somebody out here too.

Joelly Goodson : 27:26

That's what I've been told. But no, but I want to go back to that. Because what you just said, is all about connection. You take people on a journey? Well, a lot of times when there's a brand out there and are trying to connect a business and like from the business perspective, but the founder stories, right? It's taking people on that journey. Now more than ever, the consumer and the audience, they want to get behind the curtain. They want to know who's behind what and what are they really about, you know, we talk about transparency and comedy. We talk about transparency and branding and business all the time. So I think that is how you're connecting with them is not only making them laugh, there's that saying it's funny because it's true. It's because we can we can relate to what you're saying. You can relate to the person who's creating the content, whether it's a comedian or someone on social or business out there, and you can relate to what they're saying. You instantly connected and then that's how you become their loyal fan.

Unknown: 28:19

Yeah. And then you end up on the podcast in Calgary.

Joelly Goodson : 28:22

30. I love that. Okay, so I'm curious to know what stand up comics or do you have any stand up comics that you look up to?

Unknown: 28:31

I always say that there's so many great comics. I don't know. Like, I wouldn't say it was the best I think, maybe not stand up comedy wise, but I think the funniest person to me ever is Eddie Murphy. I think he's just if you take his whole body of work, I think he's the funniest person. But I start I started watching Def Comedy Jam when I was in college on HBO. But I've always been a fan of people to just are really polished and good at what they do. So Jerry Seinfeld is way different. And Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, but I, you know, I still enjoy watching all of them. But I have really good friends is good and stand up comedy. Darrell Lennox, who lives in Vancouver is great. Chad Daniels is great. Pat McGann is great. Roy Wood Jr. is great. And there are all kinds of my peers. Do you

Joelly Goodson : 29:23

have any women on your list?

Unknown: 29:24

Yes, I do have. That's great. That is me calling you out? No, that's great. What do you think? She's really good. And she she's really good because she speaks to enough people where she can sell out an arena. If I was in arena, I would ask the concession people to sit.

Joelly Goodson : 29:46

Oh, after this podcast you're gonna work at you're gonna be off the charts. So

Unknown: 29:49

here we go. There we go. Misha rice is fantastic. She's all over. Kristin, to me is a Chicago comic. She's fantastic. Yeah, I just thought

Joelly Goodson : 30:01

you mentioned Wanda Sykes earlier. She's funny. I like her.

Unknown: 30:04

Why does Sykes last specials? So good? Yeah, she's great. So good. So yeah, I mean, there's all sorts of fantastic comics that go about the process differently than I do and different than anybody else. I just, you know, you just you find your voice. And once you find your voice, I think that's the key for anyone in the entertainment business, find your voice. Because once you find your voice, then you start speaking your truth.

Joelly Goodson : 30:32

That is, I love that you said that. Because again, I hear that all the time when I talk to business owners, and they say the first thing you need to do is find your voice. And then right and that's what it's all about. So going back full circle to the beginning, when I said, you know, you are a brand, your personal brand, and you're creating these connections with people, but you you're speaking your truth, and your found your voice, and now you're sharing it. And that completely goes over to a business, whether you're an entrepreneur, solopreneur, or you're a CEO of a big company, it's still what makes you different than all the other comedians out there is your voice. There's no other Kevin boat. Well, actually, I shouldn't say that. Because there was another Kevin posted up there as another Kevin Bozeman. It's funny, but you know, you're only you, you're my style. Exactly. So do you have any advice that you would give someone who either isn't stand up comedy, or who is looking to be a stand up comic,

Unknown: 31:24

lots of advice. Let's go. Here's the most basic advice, get up on stage is the best teacher, the stage teaches you. And also record every set. You want to listen to see where you're getting laughs and where you're not getting laughs also, no matter no matter how much you write means nothing. If you don't get up on stage, there's people just like, write all the time. Who cares if you're not performing it, and then challenge yourself, when you go to the open mics and you start going up, try to identify who's the funniest person in the room and try to go after them. Oh, really interesting. Yeah, it's about gauging and figuring out where you're at. So if the funniest person in the room goes up, and then you can follow that person, then you start to feel good about yourself. But if you're just following people who aren't good, how do you really know if you're any good, you might just be better than the trash is in front of you. But find someone that's good. And go after that person? Then you start figuring out all right, I think this is true for all walks of life. It's all about the energy you put out. So sometimes somebody goes out and they just got this mad, crazy energy. And you have to find a way to channel your energy to follow that to be able to keep taking the audience somewhere.

Joelly Goodson : 32:46

What about the hook? What about the idea, though, of tough act to follow? Like someone just went on and the whole house was crazy. And everybody was up standing ovation and cheering and it was the best is what about that thought of like, how am I going to match that?

Unknown: 32:59

That's real. It's real. But you know what, you just go up you do, it's gonna happen, you're gonna run into people, and they're just super funny and super polished. And it's a learning experience. But that's why you record yourself. I think I was just watching something where Jay Z was talking about performing with DMX way back in the day before DMX rest in peace. And he said, half there have to go after DMX, made him a better performer because DMX was such a great performer that Jay Z had to step his game up. So the only way you will have to step your game up is to go after that tough act to follow. Otherwise, you're going to just run in place, because you're not challenging yourself, which is where we talked about earlier, like if you all you do is go up and do well. You're not doing comedy, right, you're doing yourself a disservice. You should be able to constantly put yourself out of your comfort zone. Always whatever your comfort zone is go out of it. And if it gets the bigger your comfort zone gets the bigger strides you have to go out of your comfort zone to get that final perfect stew

Joelly Goodson : 34:11

That's great advice for your right for everybody for I think a lot of most of us are scared to step out of their comfort zone. But of course the magic happens right outside your course

Unknown: 34:21

that's that's why stand up comedy is such a treasured art because with stand up comedy, you know exactly where you stand. So if you will. Yeah, exactly. So if you and I are at a bar, and a band is plan and we're having the conversation the music is playing, they can stop and we be like, Oh, they're pretty good, right? Even though we haven't a conversation in the music plan. But with stand up comedy. If you and I are having a conversation with Stan what's going on? Then that means that comics not good? We tuned them out. So we stand up comedy you know exactly where you stand. I say a joke and then Either you laugh, or you don't. So right there, we know. Well, it's instant

Joelly Goodson : 35:05

feedback, right? Yeah. Instant feedback, which is can be scary sometimes, but you're right. It keeps you you're on your toes the whole time. Okay, so before we go, I do have a question for you. If you weren't a stand up comic, what would you be doing?

Unknown: 35:20

Um, I That's a great question. I would probably, I mean, I guess my dream job would probably be copper and sports like a sports where like, just one of those like raid Sports Radio people to just talk sports 24/7 I love it.

Joelly Goodson : 35:37

So you like all sports? You don't have one in particular that you like better than the other?

Unknown: 35:41

You know, I probably watched football the most but I mean, but I love to play was basketball football the most. I actually follow hockey a little bit because I bet a lot of money that the Blackhawks were going to be awful this year. And guess what? They're awful.

Joelly Goodson : 35:59

That's funny. What's funny, when I was growing up. I did all sports. I did basketball. I did soccer and volleyball, diving, swimming, skiing, you name it, but I don't like watching sports. Like I like doing them. But I'm not a big fan of watching a live event. Well, when I go to the live event, I watched people and I talked to people I don't actually, I can be turning the other way.

Kevin Bozeman: 36:21

I love going into live games.

Joelly Goodson : 36:24

I mean, the energy and the vibe is definitely different when you go live games. It's fun. But yeah, it's just funny. So I'm not hugely into watching but I did all sport tennis. I was pretty good at basketball, actually. So yeah, there you go. Well, Kevin, this has been it's gone by so fast. I really enjoy talking to you.

Kevin Bozeman: 36:41

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's it's good times.

Joelly Goodson : 36:43

Before we go, though, you mentioned you have a podcast. So can you quickly tell what that's about?

Kevin Bozeman: 36:46

Yeah, it's got the ball hog podcast, okay. And I just because I just didn't have a long time. I just had no guest tell me about the podcast. I just get on a rant. I talk sports, a low pop culture, some social stuff very little once in a while. Go politics trending. But it's mostly a sports driven podcast. And then I give gamble like how to gamble on different games and stuff for it. Because it's the sports betting world is just booming. Oh, I know. Yeah. So I give sports tips on that. And then I bring in very funny comics as guests and we help we give our pics and stuff. So I have a podcast every week, every Friday, the ball hog podcast, you can stream it wherever you pick up podcast. You can pick that up and also my Instagram is Kevin Bozeman one and it has you know, I put videos up and then I also have my tour dates and stuff are there but yeah,

Joelly Goodson : 37:42

so are you anywhere else on social?

Unknown: 37:44

I have a fan page

Joelly Goodson : 37:46

You have an Only Fans page?

Kevin Bozeman: 37:47

No, Lord. If I did, I would just show my feet

Joelly Goodson : 37:54

well, you know, a lot of money in showing your feet. I think there's actually websites that are just for people to show their feet.

Unknown: 38:03

I believe that these feet are our deal breakers. Okay.

Joelly Goodson : 38:08

fanpage sorry.

Unknown: 38:10

like fanpage on Facebook, just Kevin Bozeman, Kevin Bozeman, comedy. Yeah, you'll find me okay. Bozeman on a real Kevin Bozeman. Exactly.

Joelly Goodson : 38:33

All right. Well, this has been so nice and great to connect with you visually. I mean, we're connected on Instagram and definitely want to see you again. So whether you come to Calgary or we make it to Chicago, I'll look you up.

Kevin Bozeman: 38:44

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Joelly Goodson : 38:46

Okay. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin Bozeman: 38:47

Take care. Bye.

Joelly Goodson : 38:54

And there you have it. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and maybe learned a few things to help you with your branding. This show is a work in progress. So please remember to rate and review on whatever platform you listen to podcasts. And if you'd like help creating brand awareness for your business, please reach out to me on any of the social platforms under you guessed it, Branding Badass, I promise you I reply to all my messages. Branding Matters was produced, edited and hosted by Joelly Goodson - also me. So thank you again and until next time, here's to all you badasses is out there.