Don’t get discouraged! Your journey will be challenging in every way. Getting discouraged doesn’t do anything but slow down your momentum and make you question why you’re even doing it in the first place. Always remind yourself why you started and keep your end goals in mind. Dust yourself off and try again. Perseverance is everything! If you just so happened to get discouraged and you probably will, always remember you have to fight through the adversity. Push yourself to go to open mics or shows, write for a couple of overs, or even just pick up a book. Never feel inadequate because of your contemporary’s success. You will have many successful friends in this industry, use this as motivation and strive for success!
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Reggie Kush Edwards.
Reggie Kush Edwards is a 29-year-old comedian and rapper from St. Louis and currently resides in New York City. Reggie got his start in comedy at the age of 20, he performed at venues all around the city of St. Louis and won various competitions such as the 2016 Funny Bone competition. Since his jump to The Big Apple, he has participated in several comedy festivals and battle rap events resulting in a feature on Sirius XM on the Sway in the Morning show. He recently dropped his Hip-Hop/Comedy hybrid album which is a double disc project. Reggie is the Goat and his multifaceted talents will not only make you laugh with his witty laid back style of comedy but will have you vibing to his versatile range of music.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in one of the most dangerous parts of St. Louis on the north side in a house on Taylor avenue off of Natural Bridge road with my mom, dad, and older brother. I discovered my passion for entertainment at the age of 5. I found myself rapping and telling jokes to people in my family, school, and friends around my neighborhood. Comedy and music have always been my passion and therapy. In a sense, the classroom was my first stage and my classmates were my first audience members. I graduated high school and in my second year of college I began to professionally pursue a career in standup comedy and haven’t put down the mic ever since!
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path as a comedian?
Growing up I always knew I wanted to be an entertainer, but I never pursued an actual career in comedy until my second year of community college. I also had a job at RadioShack working full time, until one day I got fired because I was selling too many phones and people weren’t paying their bills. When this happens, the store gets charged back the full price of the phone and that’s what ultimately cost me my job. After this happened I took the time to figure out what was going to be my next move and that’s when I decided to start my career as a comedian. It was this guy in my college class who was a comedian and he always suggested that I become one too because I was so entertaining in the classroom. He told me about an open mic in downtown St. Louis every Wednesday, I got on stage and did my very first open mic and that’s where my journey began.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Umm, I got booed at the Apollo. I remember it like it was yesterday. To even audition for the Apollo you have to wait in line for an Audition. I had to be up early at like 2 AM or so just to secure my spot because they only take the first 300 people and I was like number 37. This was a few months after my car accident too, so I was in line standing with a cane for hours. The audition was the easy part. I performed a minute and a half of stand up and got the callback. After a few months passed, I got to perform in front of thousands of people at the world’s famous Apollo Theater… but only for like 5 seconds. A guy who performed before me sang a gospel song and got booed and I knew if they didn’t like Jesus, they were not going to care about me! So, before I got on stage, I was told to rub the stump for good luck”, I guess the battery was low because the luck was not with me that night. I limped out there and said my first joke and it did not hit! Within seconds I heard boos so loud that my locs were blowing back from the wind. I was trying to power through my set, but it wasn’t long before a guy dressed up as Michael Jackson did a spin move and kicked me off stage. This did not discourage me at all because just doing the Apollo is an achievement in itself. This was me adapting and learning how to perform in a theater. This day motivated me to keep striving for greatness.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the first mistakes I made was trying to say all my jokes verbatim every time I performed. Trying to recite your jokes exactly how you wrote them is nearly impossible and you will scramble your brain trying to remember all that. Through my trials and tribulations, I found it better to read the audience to get a good gauge of the crowd, that way your material flows more naturally. Connecting with the audience should be your priority. You want to bring them into your world and get them on the same wavelength as you. Trying out new jokes every time you perform will have you bombing quite often if you’re an inexperienced comedian. You want to continue to work on your old jokes and develop a set that you know works. You can never finish perfecting a joke, it’s always something you can do to make it better, but that also doesn’t mean don’t create new material. You want to keep building and practicing every chance you get.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
When I first started comedy at 20, I was technically too young to enter the bars and comedy clubs, so my first open mic security wouldn’t let me. I tried to plead my case but he wasn’t budging (he took his job too seriously). I was frustrated because I thought I wouldn’t be able to step foot on stage for another year. Then moments later a comedian named Jovan Bibbs came outside and saw my passion for comedy in my eyes. Jovan walked over to the security guard and convinced him to let me in (with restrictions of course). I wasn’t able to get drinks but I had the opportunity to showcase my talent and my jokes resonated with the crowd. From this moment on Jovan became not only a mentor, but one of my closest friends, and I’m eternally grateful for him. In this industry networking and finding a village that believes in you is key.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Failure is inevitable, but it’s also what you make of it. You can learn a lesson and gain experience from every encounter. In short, never get discouraged and always remain consistent. You’re going to have ups and downs throughout your whole career. One second you’re killing the stage and it feels like you’re on top of the world then the next second you’re bombing and feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. My best advice is always to go back to the drawing board even after a great set because there’s always something you can improve on. Another piece of advice is to build a team of people who are honest, trustworthy, and not yes men. The comedy scene has changed over the years. There’s a level of awareness that you have to have as a comedian. Having friends that provide feedback may not always be worded in the way you want to hear it, but constructive criticism can determine the trajectory of your career and success on stage.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I have a couple of projects in the works. One project I’m working on is a surprise but let’s just say you expect a lot more music from me. The other project I’m working on is an expansion of my social media cooking content on a larger scale. Be sure to follow me on social media to find out more details in the upcoming months.
What do you do to get material to write your jokes? What is that creative process like?
The majority of my content comes from conversations and real-life interactions with people or just my experiences in general. I like to take an idea on stage and create the content from there. I start by getting a feel from the crowd by throwing out a premise but posing it as a question so the crowd can engage. This process allows me to draw from the conversation and extract all the funny parts to construct a joke. I hate to feel like I’m telling a joke, so I connect with the audience and essentially we write the joke together. Then I just keep practicing in front of different demographics until it’s polished and ready to be promoted from open mics.
Super. Here is our main question. What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Don’t get discouraged! Your journey will be challenging in every way. Getting discouraged doesn’t do anything but slow down your momentum and make you question why you’re even doing it in the first place. Always remind yourself why you started and keep your end goals in mind. Dust yourself off and try again. Perseverance is everything! If you just so happened to get discouraged and you probably will, always remember you have to fight through the adversity. Push yourself to go to open mics or shows, write for a couple of overs, or even just pick up a book. Never feel inadequate because of your contemporary’s success. You will have many successful friends in this industry, use this as motivation and strive for success!
Write every day! You want to keep your sword sharp and always keep those gears spinning. Find at least 30-minutes to an hour every day to write. For me, I feel most motivated in the morning and You can use this time to write about anything (it doesn’t always have to be jokes). Doing this will keep your mind creative and you will organically come up with new content.
Don’t have too much pride to ask for help! Comedy doesn’t pay well starting and most of the time it doesn’t pay at all. This makes it difficult trying to sustain a suitable life, so quitting your job to pursue a comedy career may not be the best plan at first. When I moved out to New York at the age of 24 I planned to be a successful entertainer and make my family happy. I wanted to do it all on my own without any help because this is why I moved out here. However, I quickly discovered the dangers of being too prideful. My stubbornness and inability to ask for help put me in unsafe and hard situations. I struggled financially during my first year and a half in New York all because I didn’t ask for help. My pride led me to homelessness and all I had was my car and ego. There are people around you that are willing to help you. The best advice I can give you is to lean on your community and be open-minded.
Network! You always want to network when you’re at a show. Have your business cards ready. Comedy is not just an art form, it’s a business. Trust me, the last thing you want to do is miss out on opportunities because you didn’t stick around after the show, shake a hand, or didn’t have business cards to distribute. Networking will get you on more shows, which is more practice, more opportunity, and more money!
Getting Intoxicated does not make you funny! If you ever have to depend on intoxication to make you funny then might want to reconsider doing comedy. I never got too intoxicated before I performed on stage but I’ve seen people get so intoxicated to the point where they were wasted and their words were slurring. This makes you look very unprofessional and people may not want to book you again especially if you bomb. Know your tolerance and limits before you hit that stage.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I’m a firm believer in “you can do anything you set your mind to.” This is relevant to me because I’m a jack of all trades. I’m a comedian, a musician, and a battle rapper. I probably can be a surgeon if I watch enough YouTube tutorials. If you are disciplined and dedicated you can achieve anything. I said I was going to create the first comedy/hip-hop double disc album and a year later I did just that. You can manifest the things you want, and speak all your desires into existence.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would say world peace and overall happiness. I feel like we as people get so caught up in our careers and lifestyles we want for the future selves that we forget to enjoy life. Sometimes work consumes us and we get so wrapped up in it that we don’t appreciate the smaller things life has to offer. Never forget about the stuff that truly inspired you. Mental health is very serious and that’s why it’s always good to check on your people. You can change someone’s day around just from them hearing your voice or seeing your face. You want to have as many happy days on this earth as possible because tomorrow is not promised. The world peace movement would be impactful because it will allow everyone to live longer, further extending the human race for generations to come.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Snoop Dogg is an icon, I see parts of myself in him. He’s truly someone I’d like to learn from. I respect his business ventures, and how he balances work and life. He has one of the longest relationships in hip-hop history. Snoop and I would probably be in the studio recording hits. I want to dicuss how it was for him coming up in the rap industry from him being in Death Row to him owning the label. Not sure where we would have lunch though but I’m sure we will have the munchies.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Photo cred: Deondra J. Edwards
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Reggie Kush Edwards: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.