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Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Trey Kennedy

Grow Up

Trey Kennedy

Hulu · 2025 · 62 min

A clean-cut look at weddings, homeschoolers, and early fatherhood.

Trey Kennedy made his name on Vine and TikTok by playing characters that anyone who grew up in suburban America would recognize. In his first major stand-up special, he takes that same observational eye to the physical stage, making the case that everyone, including himself, needs to finally act their age. Filmed at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, the special debuted on Hulu in January 2025 as part of the platform’s push into stand-up. Kennedy keeps the material strictly clean, leaning into the contrast between his childhood and his new life as a parent. His best moments come when he picks apart the absurdities of modern domesticity, from the elaborate choreography of white people’s weddings to the specific, quiet terror of trying to conceive a child. He also targets homeschoolers, boomer moms, and childhood bullying. While the show is primarily traditional stand-up, Kennedy occasionally breaks up the set with prerecorded videos and musical numbers, marking a calculated but successful transition from phone screens to the theater stage.

The set list

3 bits
  1. Friends without kids complaining about everyday inconveniences to new parents

    Compares pre-baby problems to post-baby privileges, joking that getting rear-ended at a red light or stuck talking to insurance would be a relaxing break

  2. Late-night parenting exhaustion and early-morning marital tension

    Humorously contrasts his wife floating down the wedding aisle with sleepwalking at 4:00 a.m. to feed the baby while she is hooked up to a breast pump

  3. White people turning every milestone into a get-together, including gender reveal cakes and baby names

    Recounts being tasked with keeping the baby gender secret for a cake reveal, and mocks pretentious modern baby naming rationalizations like Roman and Rhett

How it plays

Tone
Clean, family-friendly, observational, and lighthearted
On stage
Relatable, family-friendly, and observational
Pace
Engaging comedic delivery featuring stand-up, multimedia, and original comedy songs
About
adulthood, fatherhood and parenting, marriage and relationships, family gatherings and gender reveals, baby naming trends, homeschoolers

What the critics said

Highlighted as a clean, family-friendly hour blending stand-up, music, and videos suitable for audiences across generations

In the room: Energetic, receptive, sold-out crowd

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: variety.com, imdb.com, tv.apple.com, filmalist.com, weownthelaughs.com, en.wikipedia.org, treykennedy.com.

Backstory

Entering fatherhood, marriage dynamics, and life milestones; released as part of Hulu's 'Hularious' stand-up comedy slate following his national 'Grow Up' tour