Kevin Woolery |
Bio:
Mostly untrue stories, and rants from an aspiring stand-up comedian, and comedy writer. Born, raised, and currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/kdubcomedy
Kevin is the first writer to be highlighted with the “Featured Writer Of The Month” award. Kevin first wrote for HumorOutcasts on June 2, 2011, and has since published more than 90 articles. His debut article Trip to Walmart was well received. One of the biggest reasons that Kevin was the first of the many qualified writers to be selected is that his article Louis Vuitton Condom has been a real hit. It is currently the number one article all time in terms of page views, as of this writing it has been read 3447 times. It continues to be found by search engines and sends many visitors each day to HumorOutcasts.
Although each author posts a bio, we decided that we should learn a little more about our Featured Writer of the Month, so Kevin, our first guinea pig, was gracious enough to answer some questions for us.
Who Is Kevin Woolery?
I was born in a ramshackle log cabin in rural Nebraska in the early 1970’s (way back in the 20th century for you history buffs). To give you some context of how long ago that was, the web didn’t even exist yet. My birth was unexpected; I fell right out of my mother’s uterus, onto my head, while she was making homemade TV dinners for herself and my dad. They cleaned me off, named me Kevin, and put me on the porch to ripen for a few more years. Unfortunately, that’s how I wish I was born, but in fact, it’s much more mundane, and boring. I was actually born in Los Angeles, raised in the suburbs north of Los Angeles, and have pretty much stuck around the Greater Los Angeles area for most of my life, give or take a few times I’ve ventured into to Oregon, or Nevada to live, as well as that one time I was in the US Air Force basic training in San Antonio, Texas.
I’ve got a wonderful, supportive girlfriend, and two great kids, a daughter who just turned 18, and headed off to college in Washington, D.C. this year, and a prodigious 10 year old son who lives with his mother in Las Vegas. I cherish the time I get to spend with them, even if it’s only to collect more ideas for humorous material to write about. They seem to come up with some great scenarios of absurdity that I, no matter how much I prepare, am never able to see coming. I constantly carry a notebook, and ask them to repeat themselves often, so I can get the tone exactly right. They’re annoyed by this, which in turn creates more material that I need to write, which annoys them even more, ad infinitum.
In my real life, I write software for a living (yawn), and over the last 10 years I’ve been fortunate enough to create a couple “successful” companies; however, not quite successful enough to retire to a life of leisure sipping margaritas by the beach all day, but successful enough to pay my bills for the most part. I’d like to retire soon, and just write for a living, but alas, I’ll have to stick to dreaming.
Standup Comic? Where do you perform?
I really only discovered stand-up comedy in the last year and half or so, and it’s one of those things that I wish I had started much earlier in my life, because the 5 to 10 minutes I get on stage to make people laugh are some of the greatest times in my adult life. There’s something about being able to get in front of a group of people, and have a license to say absurd, bizarre things, and to make an ass out of yourself all in the name of comedy. I’ve been performing mostly around Santa Monica, LA, and Hollywood. I started a new show of my own at the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, California called Kamikaze Comedy. It’s unique type of standup show called an improvised set list, where comedians come on stage without knowing what topics they’re going to be talking about until the last moment. It really lets the audience peer into the twisted minds of the comedians, and how they take what can seem like an ordinary topic, and turn it on it’s head. The first show is at 10:30pm on December 7th at The Westside Comedy Theater at 323-A 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, Ca 90401.
What inspires your humor writing and comedy?
Most of my inspiration comes from a little thing I like to call life, some of you may have heard of it. Actually, truth be told, it’s a mystery to me where most of my inspiration comes from, sometimes I’ll be taking care of business, if you know what I mean, and a thought will pop into my head, which leads me to believe that there’s a connection between me staying “regular” and coming up with funny things to write about. That reminds me, I need to take my fiber pill, but I digress. Some readers may say that there’s really no difference between what’s left as the output of the “business”, and what I write, and to those people, I’d like to give them slobbery raspberries. Mostly, I’ve led a life of observation, and internal commentary, usually ending up with a skewed perspective of what most people take for granted as the truth. I’m very fond of words, I love the mystery of putting words together to form thoughts, and I really enjoy forming thoughts that are completely unexpected. One of the beauties of writing jokes is the ability for the writer to take the reader on a journey, and let the reader feel like they’re heading in a nice safe direction, then at the last minute, turn the wheel and take them some place completely different. It’s like being a cab driver in New York City.
Favorite topic to write about?
I really don’t have a single favorite topic to write about, but I love taking a well known topic, and looking at it from a different perspective, finding relationships and patterns that most people aren’t even looking for. I can write about a trip to Walmart, or world domination by Apple, or one liners about my fictional relationship with my real girlfriend, which has put me in hot water more than once, believe me. I also love writing fictional stories with an actual beginning, middle, and end, sometimes not in that order, and sometimes not even a story, but just pure ridiculousness. I recently tried extending my structured writing skills by taking a sketch writing class, and it was very different from any other style of writing I’ve done, but enjoyable, nonetheless, and the topics can be as bizarre, and outlandish as you can imagine. Long story short, I love writing about everything, sometimes even serious topics.
Favorite hobbies?
I’d love to say that my favorite hobbies are rock climbing, hang gliding, surfing, kayaking, and bungee jumping, but that would require that I actually do those things, and I’m not really interested in doing those things, I’d like to say that I’m interested in doing them. Most of my real hobbies are more intellectually adventurous, rather than really adventurous. I love reading anything, and everything I can get my hands on. I usually get obsessive about a topic, and pursue it until I get bored with it. If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone who knows me, and my current obsession with international macro economics, or my previous obsession with quantum physics. I know this hobby sounds nerdy, and you’d be right, I’m a big nerd, who loves nothing more than curling up with a good textbook on the principles of string theory. As of this summer though, I’m a proud owner of a kayak, so I really lied in the beginning, I do have an outdoor hobby, if you can count using it three times in the last two months.