Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Kevin Maye

Mined the friction between nineties gay culture and Deep South grit.

1 special · 1997

Log in to follow

Get an email when there's a new special. You'll need a Google account.

When Kevin Maye takes the stage, he casually drops domestic gay life into unexpected environments. He doesn’t defend his existence to straight crowds. He just explains the logistics of gay men trying to go camping, or recounts a trip through Mississippi by noting that the local “gay white trash” keep their Cuisinarts on cinder blocks. The rhythm is relaxed, conversational, and observational. He relies on the visual contrast of a high-end kitchen appliance sitting on a makeshift outdoor shelf to get the laugh.

Specials

On stage

Today, gay comedians regularly headline arenas. In the mid-nineties, being out in a mainstream comedy club usually meant bracing for a hostile room. Maye helped force the door open. Alongside his partner, the late Scott Kennedy, he co-founded the Gay Comedy Jam in 1994. They took an all-gay lineup on the road, playing clubs in over 150 cities across the United States and Canada, putting out comics in front of crowds that had never seen one.

Because he was booking rooms in the middle of the country rather than just playing coastal theaters, Maye’s material had to work anywhere. He won over mixed crowds by refusing to be precious about his own community, roasting gay stereotypes as happily as he dissected straight ones. The 1997 album The Gay Comedy Jam: Freedom Tour Live captures this dynamic: a comic standing in front of a Portland club crowd, making the daily mechanics of a gay relationship sound as ordinary as a trip to the hardware store.

At a glance

Topics