Ke'juan Moses: Gloves On, Jokes Out

It's clear he holds a lot of admiration for the city of Wichita, Kansas where he grew up. From arcane facts about Kirstie Alley and Harrison Ford to a strong admiration of the public library (where he spent time educating himself and enjoying A/C), he knows a LOT about his hometown. He was also fortunate enough to be educated by his elders, including his great grandmother which is a rarity for most people. His time as a comic began in a breakout role in a talent show for Wichita Beautillion, a program that serves inner city kids. In the program's 20 year history, Moses was the first student whose chosen talent was "comedy". The talent show happened to coincide with his mom's birthday, so he gave her the gift of performing comedy for the very first time. Apparently, she's not one to mince words and would have told him if he had sucked. Luckily, after the shock wore off, she found him to be hilarious.

We hear this a lot from touring comics that you become a better comic by performing outside of your home scene. Moses agrees. What he learned by performing outside of Wichita is it never pays off to cover divisive topics. He tried writing material that was funny whether the audience was old, young, black, Asian, agnostic, Christian, whatever the label was. Being relatable became his key to success. And one other ingredient was needed: confidence. He found that if audiences in bigger markets like Georgia, California, Florida, or anywhere in between could feel you being scared of them, they would check out of the show and not respect you.

Last night was the 50th season debut of Saturday Night Live and if you know the show's history, you know that many SNL alums have bona fides from Second City, UCB, The Groundlings, all institutions of improv theater. Moses is a big fan of improv and Valerie was thrilled to share that Austin has a thriving improv scene at Fallout Theater, ColdTowne Theater, and Hideout Theater. His improv teacher at (and founder of) Flying Pig Improv, Jessie Gray, in Wichita would sometimes scratch her head about his techniques, but he loved the games and techniques that improv provided him. He can't wait to practice in Austin.

But not too much. When looking at moving elsewhere, Moses felt that Dallas was "too familiar" since many Wichitaians vacationed there. Houston was too fast (Houston, slow down!). But Austin felt just right - with a glint of familiarity to his hometown, but the ample opportunities that Austin comedy had to offer, it was an easy decision to move here. Plus, the central location with easy access to other comedy towns sealed the deal. He's gotten more than his fair share of special moments since moving here, too. He landed in the Semifinals of the 2024 Cap City Comedy Club Funniest Person in Austin contest and in December 2023, he got invited to do a guest spot for Ralph Barbosa (right before his Netflix special all but graduated him from small clubs to big theaters).