ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those in attendance at this year’s Chamber Bash, set for Saturday, March 29, should be in the mood for some good entertainment that evening.
This year’s entertainment to help wrap up the Bash will be comedian Brian Kiley, who is no comedy novice.
“I started doing stand-up when I was in college, and I started getting some paid gigs when I was a senior. Then, I graduated and started doing stand-up full-time and traveled around. I started out mostly in the New England area, which is where I'm from, but I would also go on the road to other areas,” Kiley said. “I did that for about 10 to 12 years, and then I got hired to write for Conan O'Brien's show, and I did that for 27 years. That show ended, and then I jumped on the writing crew during the last season of Ellen DeGeneres' show. I've gone back to doing some stand-up, and then Conan just hosted the Oscars ceremony near the beginning of the month, so I got to work on that, which was amazing. Right now though, I'm rather back in the wild.”
As Kiley tells it, his interest in comedy was piqued at a very young age.
“When I was young, I always loved jokes, and I remember I got in trouble in 2nd grade when I checked a joke book out of the school library and basically refused to return it because I wanted to keep it,” Kiley said with a laugh. “So I've always loved jokes and comedy, and I always wanted to be a comedian, but when I was young, I didn't fully understand how someone actually became a comedian for a living. But I would watch 'The Dick Van Dyke Show,' and he was a comedy writer, and I realized there were people who actually wrote that material and thought that would be a great job for someone like me. By the time I was about 12 years old, I knew I wanted to have some kind of career in comedy.”
And since then, Kiley said, he has been honing his craft.
“I was at a comedy show when I was in college, and I went and talked to one of those comedians afterward, Barry Crimmins, and he was running a comedy club in Massachusetts. So I went there and took in some of that, and then in the summer, I took a summer school class at Emerson College taught by Denis Leary where we wrote scripts and did some stand-up there in class,” Kiley said. “In the final class, things ended up going really well, and everyone encouraged me to keep going. I went to an open mic night that next weekend, which Barry Crimmins was hosting, and from there I caught the bug. I had some good shows and some absolute bombs when I got started, but I worked and built up enough of a reputation to keep going and keep working, which was awesome. And the veteran comics I came across were all very supportive of me, which gave me even more encouragement, and I ended up being the opener for some great comics and just kept going from there. Being embraced by that scene in Boston really helped, and I've been so fortunate to have met so many funny people and learn from them, and I've also learned a lot from the people I've come across in New York and now Los Angeles.”
Kiley said he is excited to bring his act to Liberal.
“It was a little while ago when they reached out to me, I've got an assistant helping me post some of my work to social media, and there was a particular dry bar special I'd done at a club in Utah that garnered a lot of views,” Kiley said. “I've always worked more TV-clean, but with a dry bar set, you have to be cleaner than squeaky-clean, almost like a church show. But it was a little while ago when I was contacted about performing there, and I jumped on the opportunity. I'd actually done a couple shows in Manhattan about 15 years ago, and there was also a gig I did at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, so it's been a while since I've been in Kansas, but I've never been that far south in the state. I'm very excited, and I'm very honored your Chamber of Commerce reached out to me to help entertain you all that evening. I'm really looking forward to it, and I think it's going to be great.”
After so long working in entertainment, Kiley said he remains excited about the work.
“As a comic, when you have a new joke or new bit you can't wait to try, that's always really exciting. Sometimes it doesn't entirely work, but when it works the way you envisioned it and you get an entire auditorium to laugh, that's a lot of fun,” Kiley said. “When writing for the Oscars and seeing Conan O'Brien perform some of my writing that was ultimately seen by millions, that was REALLY exciting. There's always that joy of having new jokes is always great and then when you get a great audience that ends up as a great show. I also love hanging out with other comedians, because I get to say I know some of the funniest people in the world. Writing for the Oscars was pretty big, but when I was 25, I'd actually auditioned for David Letterman's show. The producer was very complimentary, and then they actually called me to do the show 17 years later. When that happened, I was at my desk writing something for Conan O'Brien's show and they called and basically asked 'Can you come and do the show today?' What had happened was David was apparently ill that day, and Bruce Willis was supposed to the first guest and he was going to host, but they needed someone at the last minute, so I went and did the gig. I then got to do the show six more times, and it was ALWAYS a last-minute call.”
And Kiley said he has no plans of slowing down.
“There are a few story ideas I have in terms of scripts, and that's always ongoing. Because I'd had a job for so long and was fortunate in that regard, I wasn't able to do a lot of road work, which I kind of missed,” Kiley said. “Since Ellen DeGeneres' show ended, however, I've gotten to go overseas and do some shows in Israel, Dubai, and I also got to perform for the troops stationed in the Middle East, which was really, really neat.”
Kiley said he hopes to see a great audience when he makes his way to Liberal.
“I hope everyone ends up having a lot of fun and having a lot of laughs. My act isn't political at all, or anything like that, and it's something the whole family should be able to enjoy,” Kiley said. “It's going to be a very family-friendly show, and it'll be fun to be in the same room as all the different community leaders. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone and just seeing how everything ultimately turns out.”
