Big Baby and New Beginnings: Kevin James Thornton on Sin Clowns, Standups, and Second Acts
About this episode
Comedian Kevin James Thornton discusses his memoir and personal journey through comedy and life changes.
Description:He's back — and this time he brought a memoir. Comedian Kevin James Thornton returns to For the Love, and if you thought you knew Kevin from his hilarious auto-tuned TikToks and wired-headphone microphone bits, this conversation will lovingly surprise you. Kevin's debut memoir, Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat, traces his journey from performing as a literal sin clown on a youth group mission trip in 1990s New York City, to grinding it out on the stand-up circuit in LA, to touring one-man shows across the US, Canada, and eventually the world — Helsinki, Stockholm, Paris — all the way to present-day Cincinnati, where he's navigating a major life upheaval with nothing but his 13-pound black cat Comet and an extraordinary amount of hard-won self-awareness. In this conversation, Kevin opens up about what it actually took to write a book — including the two-week-long Airbnb retreat where he mostly just slept and watched TV because his attention span had been completely obliterated — and what surprised him most about recording the audiobook (hint: he cried, more than once, and they left it in). He talks about the strange, freeing moment he…
People in this episode
Host: Jen Hatmaker
Guest: Kevin James Thornton
Topics covered
- memoir
- comedy
- self-awareness
- life transitions
- stand-up
- personal growth
Keywords
- Kevin James Thornton
- memoir
- comedy
- self-awareness
- life transitions
- stand-up
- Big Baby
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat
Places: New York City, LA, Cincinnati, Helsinki, Stockholm, Paris
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