David Bloom:
Hi everybody. I'm David Bloom with Next TMT. I'm here with Trey Kennedy, a comedian who's made quite the career on TikTok and YouTube, but now he's getting into a much broader array of opportunities. For instance, he has a new special on Hulu. He's got a tour coming up in the fall. You are both traditional comedian and online creator, and you've got some interesting knowledge and experience about how to go from online to traditional media, which I think this area should be, or this whole show, should be learning about. Talk a little bit about what you've done and how'd you get from online to Hulu, for instance.
Trey Kennedy:
Yeah, I never thought that would happen. But my whole career has just been in the right place, the right time. Being early to things. Like hopefully-
David Bloom:
Other than the NBA.
Trey Kennedy:
... Other than the NBA? Yeah, if you look back, third grade, I said that. People say, "What'd you want to do?" I was like, "Well, the NBA."
David Bloom:
The NBA? Yeah.
Trey Kennedy:
And fell just short of that. I got a finance degree. I don't know what I was doing with my life. Went viral in college on Vine. One thing led to another.
David Bloom:
Oh, you were a Viner?
Trey Kennedy:
I was a Viner.
David Bloom:
Wow.
Trey Kennedy:
So I've really-
David Bloom:
Six seconds at a time.
Trey Kennedy:
... I've met some folks around here who were involved back in the Vine days, but I never thought that would get me to have a Hulu, a special on Hulu. But I-
David Bloom:
Six seconds to 60 minutes?
Trey Kennedy:
... Yeah. I've just been taking it a day at a time. But I was able to go viral, build a following, turn that into real fans and real rooms out in person. I've been doing this now for 12 years and kind of just blown my mind.
David Bloom:
It's interesting to think about how you make that transition. The longer form stuff has to be a real challenge for any comedian. You tell jokes at six seconds or 15 seconds or a minute at a time, and all of a sudden you need to do long form stuff. Any tricks, hints, tips for folks trying to make that journey like you did?
Trey Kennedy:
Yeah, I went from six seconds to 30 seconds to 60 seconds to three minutes, to then stand up. Five minutes, at 10 minutes, 60 minutes. So much in my mind it's broken down in jokes. I know I need 60 minutes. I need about three to 400 good jokes.
David Bloom:
For 60 minutes?
Trey Kennedy:
Yeah.
David Bloom:
So every 15 seconds, you're another yuck?
Trey Kennedy:
Yeah. When I went from six seconds to 60 seconds, it was like I just got to do that 8, 9, 10 times. It was overwhelming every step of the way, but I've just been able to figure it out.
David Bloom:
400 jokes is overwhelming to me because, most people would say, "You can't even do one buddy." So, 400, more power to you. What brought you to the StreamTV show?
Trey Kennedy:
I'm here with Crater Television. They're trying to take great online social media content and put it on your TV. They hit me up. I was like, that makes total sense to me. Take my content that's already proven itself, that people want to watch it, put it there. Streaming.
David Bloom:
Are they dealing with library content?
Trey Kennedy:
Correct.
David Bloom:
Everybody like you, you've had four or 5 million people watch a single episode on YouTube that you've done a few times. This stuff is sitting there still gathering views there and monetizing, presumably. But, it's also an opportunity. We see some of the traditional media companies going, "Huh?" There's these guys who know how to make shows and they've got all this stuff already, so this feels like a big new world for people like you.
Trey Kennedy:
Right. Not only just putting that content that's already worked on streaming platforms, but also take guys like me. Obviously we figured something out. How do we turn that into scripted series or really produced-out series? So I think, hopefully, that's a big part of my next phase of my career is, sure, making TikToks is a lot of fun and I get to be creative and make people laugh but, how can I take what I've developed and those skills to your real TV set with an episodic scripted series or whatever that is, that really excites me. I think you're going to see a lot of people in my position start to get into those spaces and succeed.
David Bloom:
It'll be interesting to see how you make that transition because that scripted traditional Hollywood development is such a pain in the rear, and it's a whole different dynamic.
Trey Kennedy:
Yeah. It's expensive and it's-
David Bloom:
It's expensive and lots of people say yes and no. You've been king of your own domain for a long time. So this is a big new step.
Trey Kennedy:
... Yeah. It is. That's a great point. But again, I've been in this for over a decade, which being on Vine, that wasn't cool. People were like, "What is he doing with his life? I remember my grandma calling me-
David Bloom:
Yeah, your grandma.
Trey Kennedy:
... "Are you going to get a job?" Then they go into Instagram and it's still, I'm like, "I'm paying the bills," but everyone's looking at me, "How long is this going to last?"
David Bloom:
"Are you running drugs?"
Trey Kennedy:
[inaudible 00:05:08] Yeah, exactly. And now here we are in 2025, people get it. It makes sense. It's cool. I think people like me now, we have the respect to go and run projects like these. But it will be weird to ... because I've only always been in charge of my creative process. So, we'll see how that goes.
David Bloom:
Well, we hope you can continue to be in charge of your creative process and your future, and we hope it's as fun and productive as it's been already. With that, we're going to wrap it up. I'm David Bloom with Next TMT here with Trey Kennedy, comedian, TikTok, YouTube guy, and now Hulu special. Look it up, it's only been on for a couple of months. He's got a whole tour coming up in the fall. Thanks.