Comedy
Interview
Kane Brown doesn’t want Black people to know he listens to Fleetwood Mac
Chatting guilty pleasures and finding good Jamaican food in London with the rising star ahead of his unscripted UK tour
How do you prepare for a tour that’s completely unplanned and unscripted? Just by chatting away to the audience, says Kane Brown.
“I started putting on this crowd work show last year, monthly at the Backyard Comedy Club, just to test myself, just to see whether I’d be comfortable doing it. They were selling out, and they were going really well, and obviously as time goes on you get more confident, and it kind of clicks.”
No sweat, he implies, but Brown has the kind of innate personability you can’t learn. He does acknowledge: “To do an hour unscripted is like… you don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ve done probably about 30 of them now, and so far they’ve been great.”
Brown’s Crowd Work King tour is the perfect vehicle for a rising star as quick on his feet as this, someone whose best work comes from making brand new connections every night and mining his audience for material. Of course, we can all envision the sort of audience member that would be a nightmare to call on, but Brown can see them coming a mile off now – even if they do slip through the net, he has a method, he says, with a grin. When asked what it is: “The trick is to turn the audience against them.” Surprisingly devious energy from one of UK comedy’s friendliest faces.
Ahead of Crowd Work King heading out across the UK, we got stuck in a lift with Brown to chat about self-doubt, superstitions and narrowly escaping death. What else are you going to do when you’re stuck in a lift?
Who would you most want to be stuck on a lift with?
I would say Denzel Washington. I’ll just pick his brains about his career and just get tips and advice on things He would be like an amazing person to be stuck in a lift with.
What’s the weirdest interaction that you’ve ever had with a famous person?
You know when you see someone and you you realize it’s them, but it takes you a split second for it to get into your head. It was just a weird, awkward moment. Then I turned around, they looked at me, and then I went to high five, but then they went to spud, then I opened my hand to shake their hand… yeah, it wasn’t good.
What was the last live show you went to?
I went to go and see Dave Chappelle. The guy’s a master.
What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
Guiltiest pleasure is blasting out Fleetwood Mac. But I can’t let Black people know that I’ve been listening to Fleetwood Mac.
What’s the worst advice you’ve been given?
I’ve been given bad advice about my career, but if I say it, the person’s gonna know who I’m talking about!
Is there any advice that you would definitely pass on to someone else?
In comedy, I would say always try to be authentic. In any walk of life, that beats anything. That beats hype, that beats talent. Authenticity is the strongest vibration to connect with people.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
I used to deliver pizzas, and I had an argument with the guy who owned it, one of the owners. I had an argument with the guy, and he threw the A to Z at me, right? A year and a half later, the same guy I had an argument with, murdered his business partner and put him in the freezer.
Oh my god?!
I know. Look it up.
Well, there’s no non-jarring segue here…
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
‘Champion’ by Buju Banton.
What did your 12-year-old self think you’d be doing now?
I think my 12-year-old self would hope that I would be doing what I’m doing now, but probably would think that I wouldn’t make it because of the discipline. In class, I always used to be distracting other people, just talking, not studying. I would hope that I’d be here, but I wouldn’t think I’d make it.
Where did you find that discipline eventually?
When I had kids. Once I had my first son, and I was 22, I had to start focusing and buckling down.
Do you have any superstitions?
Yeah, I have rituals that I do before I go on stage. I’m like, if I don’t do this, I’m gonna have a bad gig. So I’ll always try and do the same thing. I always have trying to have an hour to myself before any show, yeah, and then go through stuff in my head and have my little ritual thing that I do.
One thing I don’t like doing is speaking to people before the show, just before I go on. Please just leave me alone. Don’t talk to me about anything, because I just need to have that mental space where I’m just focused on what I’m going to do. Afterwards, no problem, I can speak to anybody. But not before. I need to be ready for battle, because I don’t know what’s coming up.
What’s your most controversial food opinion?
Most Jamaican restaurants in London do not make good Jamaican food. If I’ve been to 40 different Jamaican food restaurants, 38 of them have been not representative of what I call good Jamaican food. They only ever have one thing that’s actually half decent. One place, they might have decent rice and peas, but the rest of the menu’s garbage. Another place will have good jerk chicken, but the rest of it’s garbage. So then I end up having to maybe drive into two or three different restaurants to get a decent meal. And that’s a problem.
What are you leaving in 2025?
I’ve got a vision board, and on my vision board, I’d put what I wanted to achieve for last year, which I achieved, and this year I’ve put some other things on there. As I was making it, I thought, will I reach that milestone? Will I not? But I need complete belief in myself. I need to believe anything that I put on that vision board is going to happen. So self-doubt is getting left in 2025.
Kane Brown’s Crowd Work King tour kicks off this March – find tickets here
