Life & Work with Matt Kinney of Glassell Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Kinney.

Hi Matt, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in North Dakota and Iowa, where the idea of the entertainment industry or chasing your dreams seems impossible. My family moved around frequently due to my Dad’s job at the National Weather Service. I lived in 4 different states and attended 5 different schools between 2008-2014. I attended the University of Iowa and graduated in 2020. In 2018, while at The University of Iowa, I checked into a rehab facility for alcohol addiction and will celebrate 7 years sober in October. This experience lay the groundwork for what would become my future career. During the pandemic, I began working in social services as a community mental health worker in Chicago. I continued down the path of social services and this experience prepared me to move to Los Angeles and continue the work.
I started doing stand-up comedy in 2017. My freshman year of college I lived a few doors down from someone who became a good friend, a stand-up comedian named Evan Hull; Evan ran a monthly stand-up comedy showcase and gave me my first few performances. I was immediately hooked. Over the next few years, I performed stand-up comedy sporadically, but the itch never went away. In 2019, my best friend from the University of Iowa moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. In the summer of 2022, I got COVID and binge-watched The Comedy Store documentary on Showtime. After watching this, I decided to take the leap and move to Los Angeles to live with my best friend and pursue the dream. I moved to Los Angeles in 2022.
Since moving to Los Angeles, I have worked in homeless services during the day and performed stand-up comedy at night. I have worked as an outreach worker in multiple council districts including Council District 1, 4, and 13. I work to connect the unhoused to resources including medical care, shelters, and eventually permanent housing. The job of street outreach has taken me to the LA River, MacArthur Park, and all over the city of Los Angeles. After meeting hundreds of unhoused individuals and hearing about their lives, many of them share a similar story. Many of them have hopes and dreams that haven’t come to fruition due to a myriad of factors including past trauma, addiction, and medical issues that have culminated in their homelessness. I see creativity all over within the unhoused community, with many of my clients being avid painters, tattoo artists, and even comedians themselves. The ability to pursue a dream is an immense privilege and I try to always keep that in mind. I have attended open mics with hosts that have reached out to me afterwards with fears of becoming unhoused and asking if I had access to any resources that could help them. There has always been a romanticized idea of the starving artist who lives in their car to pursue their dream, making sacrifices along the way. But what about those whose dreams get the head cut off of them before they can get going? For them it is not a choice. They are left with immense talent and a life of what-ifs should their circumstances have been different.
In a time of crowd-work and audience participation, I have chosen to stick with jokes. I am a joketeller and don’t know any other way to do stand-up. I tell quick, short jokes that usually have some basis in truth (my mom’s cancer) with an absurd or dark twist at the end. Stand-up comedy continues to be my dream and every day in Los Angeles I feel grateful. I’ve made numerous connections and gotten to perform on stages that I used to see only on YouTube clips. Coming from small-town Iowa, every day in Los Angeles will always leave me feeling starstruck. I’ve gotten to see my favorite comedians in-person, including Anthony Jeselnik and Rory Scovel, then perform on the same stages that they’ve stood. I have gotten to perform at numerous festivals, clubs, and recently had a stand-up clip get over 15,000 likes. I have seen comedians that I started with 3 years ago ascend to stardom selling out clubs all over the country. If I make it as a comedian some day, I will be thrilled. And if I don’t, I hope I can look back at my time in Los Angeles and say that I helped others make it who otherwise may not have. Dreams are a privilege. Every day be grateful if you have the ability to live yours.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No. Growing up in small-town Iowa, there is no semblance of an entertainment industry and the idea of chasing a dream seems absurd. I always had a passion for stand-up comedy, but due to different factors (alcoholism, the pandemic) I never fully dove into performing consistently until 2022.
Working a full-time job has also been difficult to navigate with stand-up comedy. Working in homeless services, the burnout caused by the job can be immense. It can be hard to want to go laugh after an 8-hour shift in which you’ve seen overdoses, severe mental health crises, and the daily stress of work. Along with this, homeless services is not the most lucrative field. I have lived paycheck to paycheck since moving here and have had to take out loans to continue to survive.
The financial strain of pursuing a dream and working full-time is a huge bottleneck that lends itself to ensuring those with the most time and resources at their disposal will have the biggest chance at success. Those that have the means to write and perform all day, produce shows, etc. will find success much quicker. It’s always been this way, but living in Los Angeles has given me a look at it up close.
The money side of stand-up comedy can add up quickly. Between open mics, buying tickets to shows, and driving all over the city, it adds up fast. Buying footage and photos from shows can cost $20-30. Applying to comedy festivals costs $25-50. The costs of creating something and dispersing it are absurd.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a stand-up comedian. I am known for my jokewriting; I tell short, quick jokes that usually have absurd and self-deprecating twists. I perform at shows all over Los Angeles. I recently had a stand-up clip reach 275,000 views and 15,000 likes on Instagram. My stand-up clips have gotten hundreds of thousands of views on Reddit. In an era of crowd-work clips and audience participation, I stick to straight joketelling with a huge emphasis on the writing process. I have a unique perspective being from small-town Iowa and a self-deprecating Midwest nature. My jokes are usually rooted in reality and absurd/unique events throughout my life (my mom’s breast cancer, living in a house where a mother and father were murdered by their son, going to rehab at age 21).

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love that in Los Angeles, it feels like any night you could walk out your door and see something amazing. There’s a magic in the air and so many creative people who are going through the same struggles and highs and lows in the pursuit of greatness. The food is also incredible. I’m used to Midwest food, so every meal I have here is the best meal I’ve ever had. Also the absurdity of being able to see the Hollywood sign from my office and being in the thick of a city with such incredible history never fails to amaze me. The grocery store down the house from me was featured in A Star is Born and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Where else does that happen?

Being from the Midwest, sometimes the pace of life can be a bit much and I miss being able to drive to the grocery store without wanting to rip my hair out. Also the cost of living. Iowa is the lowest cost-of-living state so moving here was a huge adjustment. The competitiveness within creative fields also lends itself to a by-any-means mentality. The allure of fame can cause others to do anything possible at the expense of others in order to get ahead.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattkinneyy/
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@MattKinneyy
• Other: https://www.reddit.com/user/MattKinneyComedy/

Image Credits
Oscar Del Aguila, Chuck Friedman, Mike Sarazin