“Children, exams are important. If you don’t do well in exams, you’ll end up like me… Happy.” Sounds a bit cliché, right? But the word ‘happy’ best instantiates the ever-relatable stand-ups of Kenny Sebastian.
This multi-talented comedian has made a name for himself in showbiz through his unique blend of observational comedy and social commentary.
In 2008 “9 hours to live” was the first-ever video that Kenneth Mathew Sebastian posted on YouTube. Fast forward to 2019, Kenny Sebastian is already one of the best stand-up comedians of India. How did an amateur YouTuber become a successful comedian? You ask. Well, the story is not that straight-forward.
Kenny Sebastian Wiki
Kenny Sebastian Age
Kenny (December 31, 1990) was born in a catholic family based in Kerala. As of 2020, he is 29 years old now.
Kenny Sebastian Parents
His father, Sebastian Chacko, was a Navy official. So, the Sebastian family had to move from one city to another quite frequently until his father retired. They finally anchored in Bengaluru.
“At a young age, I developed the habit of consciously connecting with people as soon as I meet them and have relationships built faster”, he said on how he adapted to that vacillating lifestyle. Young Kenneth was not the most obedient student. But he was a witty one with a hyperactive mind. He connected with people.
As a young boy, he loved painting and music. Alas! The schools he went to didn’t really encourage those activities. “In Class 10, when I started shooting videos and editing them, it was after a long time, I was genuinely excited to do something. It gave me a purpose; it made me feel useful.”
He didn’t have any camera. So, he borrowed one from a friend. Filmmaking has let Kenny showcase his music, acting, writing, and composition skills in one platform. He wanted his stories to be heard.
Not that it all came easy for him. In school, he had this bad stage fright. Ironic, isn’t it? Future successful comedian getting cold feet on stage. Such is life. You must work your way up to achieve something worthwhile. So did Kenny. He gradually forced himself to get on stage and volunteered to give speeches.
While in college pursuing a degree in Visual Arts, he took up theatre for this very reason. One thing led to another, and comedy found him!
“It was in the Mood Indigo festival at IIT. There was a stand-up comedy competition, which I took part and won. The whole feeling of watching people laughing and enjoying, I never felt like that before.”
It was destiny. Kenny found comedy in the unlikeliest of places. Filmmaking was always his passion, but after graduating from college, he knew what he wanted from his life. Since then, he has performed in over 500 live shows. He has toured countries like the USA, Singapore, UAE, Australia, and so on with comedian Scott Capurro.
In this era of social media and super-fast internet, it’s quite easy to disparage one’s struggles towards fame. The channel “Kenny Sebastian” on YouTube has a following of over 1.89 million subscribers now, even though his first 100 videos didn’t gain much traction. Then, there’s his love for music.
He used to play music in restaurants with his band. They published an album together, which didn’t really sell. “I still have 200 to 300 CDs in my house to remind me of that fact,” he reminisces.
The path that Kenny embarked on was riddled with rejections. Luckily, he met some kindred souls along the way. Despite struggling with music, Kenny was earning decent money shooting freelance corporate films and doing small shows.
By that time, the comedy scene in Bengaluru was booming. He partnered with YouTubers like Kanan Gill and many others. One of their videos went viral. Just like that, Kenny found his footing. Even now, he paints, plays music. But, all of that is to supplement his comedy.
English is his primary form of delivery, with a bit of Hindi and Malayalam thrown in between for comic effect. His performances are distinctively clean. That is because his stand-ups are heavily influenced by Jerry Seinfeld, his favorite comedian. Much like him, Kenny’s stand-ups are mostly observational.
“My first exposure to comedy was through Jerry Seinfeld, and what I liked about him was that he was a Jewish comedian raised in upstate New York, and I could laugh at his jokes sitting in Bengaluru.”
Kenny wanted his content to be relatable beyond the boundary of his country, his culture, and his time. He attacks stereotypes, vituperates social norms. And he does all that without cracking any sex jokes or using excessive curse words.
It has been 11 years since ‘9 hours to live’ first debuted. Kenny now has his own production studio named ‘SuperHuman Studioz’. He has broadened his creative horizon by writing and acting in hit comedy sketches like The Living Room, Star Boyz, Son of Abish, and many more.
And he is particularly proud of his Amazon Prime originals, Die Trying and Sketchy Behavior (alongside Kanan Gill). He appears as one of the judges in the reality comedy show ‘Comicstaan’. Kenny believes his comedy is a constant work in progress. He has had his fair share of bad shows. But the grind never stops.
We don’t really know much about Kenny’s family life. His father made an appearance in one of his YouTube videos. That’s about it. When asked about his personal life, Kenny said he doesn’t have any. Riveting, isn’t it?
Many people want to know about Kenny Sebastian’s girlfriend but we couldn’t find any news about his girlfriend.
But hear him out, “You know, I think the term ‘personal life’ came up when people had nine-to-five jobs, which wasn’t something that you liked doing. So, when you’re doing something that you don’t like, having a ‘personal life’ becomes important. But I love stand-up, and when I’m doing it, it’s awesome.”
And it totally makes sense. Because when he is up on that stage, he is happy. Kenny is happy.