Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brian Kearley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Brian, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my purpose like most people did; by complete accident. Ten years ago I was working second shift at an aluminum factory in Methuen, Massachusetts (where Sully from Godsmack lives and everyone is a close personal friend of his) listening to podcasts to get through the night. I was listening to Joe Rogan at the time and he basically said something along the lines of “hey you! You can do stand-up comedy. Just go out and do it.” So I went out and did it. I did a few open mics in the New England area and bombed about 75% of the time. A couple of months went by and I decided to move to Phoenix on my way to L.A. to pursue comedy. I loved performing and really everything about comedy, I became quickly obsessed like so many hopeful comedians do. One night I was performing on a competition at the dive bar that had a comedy club called “Crack Ups”. I ate it SO HARD that night, my dad was there and he was kind of giving me shit about it (sorry if I can’t swear). I was feeling so bad about myself until this woman came up and told me I did great, which made me feel even worse about the night. I told her that I didn’t need her to boost my ego, like the complete degenerate that I am. For some reason, she decided she really liked me, and that’s how I started to become friends with Hillary Hutson. During the next few years, she would hire me to run her comedy festival (Big Pine Comedy Festival) and we would work very closely together. Eventually, the pandemic happened and I decided to stop performing. It was honestly such a relief to remove the stress of performing, but I was definitely missing something in my life. At the end of 2022, Hillary told me that she was opening a club in Chandler and they offered to hire me on as a floor manager. I was hired thinking I would be working 20 hours every other week, basically a part-time job to help make ends meet. I quickly fell in love with the club, it is truly one of the most amazing places I have ever been in, and worked hard knowing that this would be MY club. It really seemed like everything I was doing over the last 10 years was leading up to this. We opened in February, and last week (mid-August), I was offered the General Manager position. I accepted, knowing that this is where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the Production Manager for Big Pine Comedy Festival, one of the most successful and long-running comedy festivals in the world. At Big Pine, we have created a space of opportunity for comedians. We pride ourselves on the connections that comedians are able to make at our festival. What sets us apart from the rest is the programming we have for comedians outside of performing; we bring industry members such as agents, managers, club owners, other festival producers, etc. and we help them and the comedians form relationships with each other. We do an event called ‘Speed Networking’ which is basically speed dating, but networking with industry professionals. It might seem a little silly, but the 3 minutes that each comic gets to talk to each industry member is invaluable, and has created so many incredible relationships as a result. We are proud to showcase such high level, but relatively unknown talent to both the public and these professionals, and we hope that our festival can help change the career trajectory for many of these hopeful attendees.
I am also the General Manager at Mic Drop Mania in Chandler, AZ. We are the second Mic Drop club to open, the first being in San Diego. I am proud to be a part of this growing chain of clubs. We are trying our best to do things differently and really shake up what people think about comedy clubs. We treat the talent well, like they deserve to be treated. We have amazing spaces to perform that look and feel cool and really feel so, so different than the traditional club. We are also some of the only clubs that don’t enforce drink minimums! It is important to us that people come to a show and enjoy themselves, which is why we never pressure anyone to buy anything, and people really appreciate that.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Confidence, communication and persistence.
It is easy to say ‘be confident’, it is much more difficult to actually be confident. Confidence is definitely something that comes with time and experience but it is also something that can be faked for a while if needed! I think that it is hard for some to be confident in themselves and their abilities, and that’s completely natural. When/if someone asks me for advice on being confident, I just tell them to pretend like they are. You can project confidence while secretly dying on the inside, which is a feeling I am VERY familiar with. But if you SEEM confident, people will THINK you are confident, and then eventually you may realize that you are not pretending anymore.
Communication is SO important in life in general. My girlfriend Devin has taught me how valuable it is to communicate what you want and need with others. The average human being is not a mind reader, so thinking that anyone knows what you want or what you need from them without communicating it is kinda crazy.
Lastly, you just have to be persistent. Right now I am the GM of a comedy club, but ten years ago I was an angsty 23 year old guy with a bad haircut and a terrible fashion sense. There have been hundreds of times when I wanted to give up, or just sit around and do nothing (which I have admittedly done a lot of), but I pushed myself to go out and do a terrible open mic. Being persistent and just trying again and again will eventually pay off.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
When I am overwhelmed I always try to step away from the situation and give myself time to calm down and process what is happening. Sometimes that means hiding away in my office for 5 minutes while I just breathe and calm down. Exercising has helped a lot when I am feeling too overwhelmed. I absolutely love rock climbing and yoga and go to the gym 4-5 times a week. It is an amazing way to remove yourself from a situation and let your brain process it. I highly recommend everyone find some sort of exercise that they actually enjoy doing. Stop going for runs that will leave you devasted for the rest of the week and go for a swim or something! It is amazing for your mental health and will often alleviate the feeling of being overwhelmed.
You could also get a dog. Dogs are pretty great and will really chill you out when you need them to.
Contact Info:
- Website: micdropmania.com | bigpinecomedyfestival.com
- Instagram: @brianjkearley
Image Credits
Shaun Baker
