How KevOnStage is building a better entertainment industry
"I consider the best method to explain how I got to where I am today is taking one person at a or one clip at a time," is comedy and author Kevin Fredericks - better known by his online moniker KevOnStage. Kev talks to us from his workspace and studio in Los Angeles, the epicenter of his biggest creative endeavor so far: KevOnStage Studios. But the digital creator did not get Hollywood-sized production space in a matter of hours. Kev's venture grew from an occasional side job to full-time job in nearly 10 years of digital grind.
"Before, a comic's path was to relocate to L.A., get on The Tonight Show, and try to convince an agent," he says. "Now thanks to the growth of the internet, you can find an audience of your own and become a celebrity." Since 2011, KevOnStage has slowly but slowly amassed over 1M+ Instagram followers and 800K+ YouTube users, through sharing candid bits of comedy to his loyal online followers, lovingly known as the Stage Crew.
"I think charting your own destiny, for me, is very important," adds Kev. "Right moment, I'm putting together my own show which I created and directed and financed that nobody in Hollywood had to okay. I'm able to create the whole thing and give it directly to my audience."
Learning the ropes
Kev began developing his online community more than a decade ago, but the site took while to take off. "I did not see any significant growth as KevOnStage up to probably 2017" states Kev. "Before it, I was just working extremely hard, but not getting much views like many others."
In that period Kev had to figure out the north star of his life in order to create the content that was true to him and his values. "When creators don't work from their core, the achievement is exhausting," states Kev. "I had always felt comfortable not blowing up every now and then, but just being okay to create content I enjoyed. In my opinion, because of that, I've seen more success instead of doing what did the trick."
When his comics career started to take off in earnest, Kev took to touring throughout the United States with comedians from the same genre. However, the pandemic brought the meetings in person to a stop. Keen to come up with new methods to sustain the momentum his brother approached Kev with an idea of his own which was to launch streaming services.
Reclaiming the power
Kev is the first person to acknowledge that an OTT service wasn't not in his plans for a possible next move in business. "We initially tried to create our own independent films and my brother suggested"I've found a way we could create our own app,'" Kev says. "I wasn't even thinking about that as possibility."
Kev approached his business partner and producer Brennon Edwards. He offered to collaborate on launching an OTT app. "It was an obvious choice," says Brennon, now President of KevOnStage Studios, because it allowed them to develop (and generate revenue by selling) their content on their own terms. "We have a world that the bar of entry when it comes to the ability to become creative is significantly lower. It has changed our game."
"We could step beyond what we had been waiting for Hollywood to provide for us and instead to take on the task ourselves," he says. "We are in direct contact with the audience that we've got. They're the ones that give us the money that allows us to create the things we'd like to do. They give us our rights back as creators."
Empowering fellow creators
Since the launch of KOSS Brennon Kev and Co-Founder and co-CEO Melissa Fredericks have consciously created an environment that is supportive and inspiring for others Black creators to take a chance on their creative work. "I simply am thankful for this place and that there are people working here, that people get to pursue their goals in this space," says Kev.
The beautiful thing about this particular journey is that we are taking things, regardless of the conventional wisdom of Hollywood claims, and putting it in our own hands." she adds Melissa. "We're having an effect on people. That is not waiting for Hollywood to accredit the apron of your success. We did this by ourselves. Period. This is something we can handle for ourselves. Period. And we can give people chances that they would not receive. Period."