Meet Kevin Brandt, the hardest working man in Milwaukee show biz. You know KB. He's that sarcastic sports guy with his "view from the couch" on the Dave and Carol morning show. He's also the PA announcer for the Admirals, as well as the frontman for a local rock band. In his spare time, he also holds down a full-time job at a local ad agency and finds the time to play husband and dad, too.
How does the 38-year old Brandt pull it all off? He's scaled it back a little, he says, dropping the gig as stand-up comedian from his bag of tricks. But he hasn't slowed down. When his recent heart scan showed him in great health, he said to himself, "Oh great, I've got a few more years to run it hard." In this installment of Milwaukee Talks, we chat with Kevin Brandt, jack of all trades. Or as KB calls himself, a victim of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.
OMC: You must be the busiest man in Milwaukee: You work full-time at a local ad agency and you do Dave and Carol five days a week.
KB: Right.
OMC: How do you do pull that off?
{INSERT_RELATED}KB: I guess when you have a mortgage, it's pretty easy to find ways to occupy your time.
OMC: What time do you get in to start Dave and Carol in the morning?
KB: I get in there about 5:45 a.m.
OMC: What time do you have to you get to your other job?
KB: I get there at about 9 a.m., and I'm there until about 5:30 or 6 p.m. Then I go home, eat dinner and get the couple of obligatory hours in with the family. Unless it's a band night. But now it's hockey season, and I do the P.A. (announcing) for the Admirals. That's 41 home games.
OMC: I didn't know about the hockey thing. Is this your first year doing it?
KB: No, it's my second year. I took over last year.
OMC: Are you a hockey fan?
KB: Yeah, I've been a hockey fan most of my life, so I have the best seat in the house, right on the red line between the penalty boxes. And I get paid for doing it, so as a hockey fan, it's pretty much a treat.
OMC: So that's four jobs. Are you still doing stand-up comedy?
KB: No, I haven't done stand up for a couple of years, but every once in a while, I'll go back to the Comedy Café and do a guest set, just to kind of get back into it a little.
OMC: How long have you been doing Dave and Carol?
KB: This will be my sixth year in December.
OMC: And the ad agency life?
KB: I've been in the agency business for 15 years.
OMC: And how long has the band been together?
KB: Four years. I'm sure one of these will fall off and I'll find something else to occupy my time. I don't know if it's so much a commitment to each one of the jobs as it is adult ADD.
OMC: Which one of your jobs do you enjoy the best?
KB: I think if I could do radio full-time, I probably would. You get up the morning, you have a cup of coffee, you read the paper and you talk for four hours. Now, obviously Dave and Carol do a lot more work and being sidekick is a pretty lazy job. Not a lot of pressure. But the morning show is just kind of an exaggeration of my personality. It's not anything that's fabricated. So it's just liberating enough that you don't have to be quite as reserved. And when I get into the agency side of things, I'm a little bit more reserved, a little quieter.
OMC: Dave and Carol found you through stand-up?
KB: I'd done stand up with Dave and Carol and I had come into the studio on Comedy Café day. When the previous sports guy left, I called Dave and said, 'Hey, can I come in and fill in and do a week? And he said, 'No, we're not gonna do that, but if you want to audition for the job, you can.' So I came in and auditioned for the job, and actually had gone up against a couple of more well-known personalities, Pat Hughes (a former radio announcer for the Brewers) and Len Casper. But something about the chemistry of Dave and Carol and I just sort of clicked together. That's the fun part about working together with them; when it's going good it's almost as if the headsets and microphones disappear. It's like the listener is eavesdropping on a conversation between the three of us.
OMC: Are you guys friends off the air? Do you hang out?
KB: Yeah, certainly when we go on the road to broadcast. You know, people think there's this friction between Carol and me, and there's this animosity that people think exists. Actually, the fact of the matter is that when we go one the road, it's Carol and I that are the last ones home. We're the ones closing the bars.
OMC: You went to Oktoberfest? Did you burn up all your vacation days on the trip?
KB: I burned up a lot of vacation days in Germany. With the radio show, where else do you get to do that and get paid? We've done Oktoberfest, we've done Vegas, we've done Hawaii. Oktoberfest was probably the most interesting of the trips simply because, for anyone who's ever been there, it's phenomenal. These beer halls hold 20,000 people.
OMC: I saw the special on E!. That's as far as I know.
KB: It's just insane. What you've got is 600,000 people on the grounds, whose one and only reason to be there is to get hammered. There is no other reason. The food is nasty, they've got dead fish on a stick and it smells. You know how when you walk in to Summerfest you can smell Saz's or all the great smells? You get off the subway and you walk into this thing, and it smells like dead, rotting fish. It's like, just get me into a beer tent.
OMC: In addition to your other gigs, you have your band.
KB: Yep. kb'smidlifecrisis (all one word). This kind of came up about four years ago. It was the year that Styx and REO and all these bands were going out and having these 20th anniversary reunion tours. They had no compelling reason to do it, but it seemed like everyone was. It just happened to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the band I was in in high school up in Antigo: Whiterock, Antigo's finest rock band.
OMC: So these are the same people in the band?
KB: No. But seeing as how no one else was interested in a reunion -- I didn't know where any of them were -- I claimed rights to the name. It's like The Temptations. You go see The Temptations now ...
OMC: It's like one guy, maybe.
KB: Right. Last time I saw the Temptations, I think three of them were white. So I just put a thing out on the air and said I wanted to have a band, do a couple of church festivals, and that's it. But the guys that I found turned out to be quite good musicians. We've stuck together for four years, and we're not going to stop now. It's an awful lot of fun. And we've got to open for some great bands, too. Joe Walsh, America, Kansas, REO. It's a great way to bring a little bit of the radio show out into the community. Like an outreach thing.
OMC: And you got to work with stars like former Brewer Jeff Juden.
KB: Jeff Juden. Right.
OMC: I was at the show at Kelly's Bleachers in Mequon.
KB: That was the show where we didn't plug him in. He was a unique guy. He couldn't play guitar at all. It got to the point where we brought him up with us at Summerfest, and we didn't plug him in there, either. He was gassed. But I took a little bit of my promotional knowledge and in putting Jeff Juden on stage, we were on ABC, NBC, CBS and ESPN and FOX here locally. For a band that's just a bar band, we've been covered in the Tribune, the Sun and the Times. And there are a couple of Brewers now who play. Richie Sexson is a guitar player, and he'll play with us next year. And we almost had Randy Johnson with us -- he's a drummer -- but he cancelled. It's all about "B List" celebrities. Ted Perry has played with us. Nicole Locy has been out with us.
OMC: I saw that. And Julie from the Real World.
KB: Julie has been out with us. The Stormin' Mormon. Matt Vasgersian, too. When you come to one of our shows, we don't care if you know the words, just jump on stage with us and start singing. Some of the news people tend to be a little more reserved. But the ones that are fun are like, 'screw it, I'm gonna go out an have some fun.'
OMC: You managed to get Teddy P jammin' out there with the hat backwards.
KB: He had the college look going on.
OMC: Does the band do any original stuff?
KB: All covers. Some of the guys do their own stuff on the side, though. When we put this thing together, it was all about big festivals and beer. And fun music. Who are we trying to kid? We're all in our 30s, and the chances of us getting a record deal -- first of all, I don't even want a record deal. Any cover band that does their original music in the middle of set, it's so self-indulgent. It's like, play it for your girlfriends. I don't want to have a band together where three songs out of your set are "bathroom songs." Our set list is reflective of what you hear on KLH, but it's a little bit more ambitious than most of your cover acts. We're doing Elton John, Springsteen, some Supertramp. We're not coming out and doing, "That's What I Like About You" and "Mony, Mony." Any time we start a song, we want people to say, 'I can't believe they're doing that!'
OMC: Do you have a decent following?
KB: I don't know if we have a following at all. We're not like the Love Monkeys or the Sweet Tarts. We have people that come out for the shows. We don't have a lot of young people. It's kind of weird because instead of the Britney Spears schoolgirl look, we get chicks in Packer sweatshirts. But at least chicks dig us. A lot people want to see if that guy from the morning show can play, but the people I have in the band are from great Milwaukee bands around here. I'm just the front man, the guy who gets us the gigs. These guys carry the weight. They're the talent in the band.
OMC: So through all these jobs, you've remained the family man. Do you have kids?
KB: I have one son who's six years old. I wouldn't say that I fall into the family man category. I'm a man with a kid. I guess I look at myself and see myself as a 20-year-old guy, until the next morning when I realize that I'm almost 40. It's really one of those things that it depends how you look at it. I just had a heart scan done, and it came back healthy. There are two ways of looking at it. One way is I'd better quit every bad vice now, but the way that I've taken it is, oh great, I've got a few more years to run it hard. I'm sure that if you talk to people they'd say I act much more immature than my age, but I just can't help it. It's just the way that it is.
OMC: When did you move to Milwaukee?
KB: 1985. Right out of college.
OMC: Were you a funny kid?
KB: Actually, it was AJ who got me into stand up. He was a clown around town and a stand up comedian. I met him, and he kind of liked my sense of humor. He said I had to do stand up. The first couple of nights I tried it, I was just God-awful. Somewhere down the line I figured it out and got good at it. I still have a friend who likes to tell the story: 'I was there the night that you really sucked.' It was painful to watch.
OMC: Everyone thinks they're funny until they get up on stage and have to tell jokes.
KB: It's a different kind of thing. Before I quit, I made it all the way up to headliner. I was headlining Zany's in Chicago. Seinfeld, Leno, they all worked that room. I had to work the night that Desert Storm broke out. Actually, it ended up being one of the best shows of my life. There were about 80-100 people in the room, and I just killed them. I think they were just looking for a release. The president of the company that I was interviewing with was in the audience that night. Actually, the next day he called me and offered me the job and said, 'Anyone who can control a room on the night that a war breaks out can work for me.'
OMC: You need that guy in your client meetings.
KB: Right. People don't understand that with stand up, it's just you. With the band, I've got five guys who can back me up. With stand up, you are the most exposed and vulnerable.
OMC: On the radio, are you writing your material the night before?
KB: I would say that 99% of it is extemporaneous.
OMC: Does that surprise people?
KB: I would say so. A lot of the stuff I say would get you hit in a bar, but because you're on the radio, it becomes funny.
OMC: You project a certain sense of light-hearted chauvinism on the air, a guy mentality. Do some women find that not so funny?
KB: You know, the way I look at it is I think stereotypes promote diversity. The fact of the matter is that we're not all the same. With men and women, there are differences and tendencies that are seen as being humorous. As long as it's not malicious in intent, what's the harm in it? You've got politicians and activist groups that say we all have to be the same, but we're not. There's smart people and dumb people. We're not gonna be equal. By promoting that, I think you're doing less to promote diversity and more to promote uniformity. When it comes to men and women, most of it goes down that chauvinistic line, and it's just easier for me to do that, because I'm a guy.
OMC: I heard a segment you did once about things you were thankful for, and one of them kind of came out of left field. You said you were thankful for being able to roll over in bed at night and touch your wife's hand, just to make sure she hadn't left you. And that kind of sensitivity surprised me, and it seemed like it surprised Carol, too.
KB: Right. I consider myself to be very blessed. My wife gets it all the time. You know, 'how you can you live with him?' It's not what it seems. I'd be a pretty one-dimensional person if I didn't have the other side. When it comes to humor, though, you can go down the path about things that are offensive, until the audience senses that it becomes real. So if you dislike something, an audience has a keen sixth sense for that. They know when you're kidding and when you're not. All of a sudden you'll cross that line and then it becomes totally not funny. Now, there are things that just drive me crazy. Oprah. I can sit there and tell my wife about finances, and all of a sudden Oprah comes on and says something. For eight years, my wife and I have been married, and couples always argue about money. For eight years, I tell her it's not the big stuff, it's the little stuff that adds up, blah blah blah. One day I come home from work, and my wife says she was watching Oprah, and Oprah said it's the little stuff that adds up! So I want to call Oprah and tell her that if women believe everything you say, then I want you to do a show about how bringing another woman into your relationship will strengthen it!
OMC: Bingo! So anyway ... what's it like to be Milwaukee celebrity? Are you shielded a little because you work in radio and people don't necessarily know what you look like?
KB: When I first started doing this, a friend of mine gave me the best piece of advice. We were at a Badgers game, and we're standing in Jingles, and I actually ended up in a conversation about myself. I was going to say something. And this friend of mine said, 'No man, don't say anything.' And I never said anything, and when the conversation ended he said, 'Dude, I hang out with you because I like you, not because you're on the radio. You don't need to play that game.' And since then, I really never have. Sometimes, it will work against me, in the sense that I'm not a real outgoing person in the first place. So if I do go out, and I'm not really very bubbly or if I just sit there, people will look at me and judge me as being stuck up or aloof or what have you. If I wasn't on the radio, I'd just be another quiet guy sitting at the bar. But being recognized, it's just weird. I never know what to say. Al Pacino is a celebrity, I'm just on the radio. It's not all that impressive. Local celebrity, in and of itself, is a bad term, because you're barely successful enough to be recognized, but not successful enough to be reclusive.
OMC: What's the five year plan for Kevin Brandt?
KB: Who knows? I have never been one to set goals. My epitaph will say, "I didn't think this would happen." It's wherever the road takes you. I don't what I'm going to do. If they keep offering me contracts at the station, I'll keep signing them.
OMC: Aren't you a little exhausted?
KB: It's one of those things where I just can't stop. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be doing something else. I don't know if it's just that I'm driven to achieve or whether if I keep myself occupied, I won't have to do stuff around the house. I think it's more of the latter. You don't have to hang pictures when you have a gig. Without getting too philosophical, you don't know what life's gonna deal you. I'm going down in flames! If get the chance to do something, I'm going to do it. There are things that I get to do that some people would kill to be exposed to. Through the radio show, I've gotten the opportunity to do some of those things and the experiences that go along with them. And a lot of it I do for my son, too. I can take him to ball games. I can get him down on the field.
OMC: Are you a Brewers fan?
KB: I love the Brewers. I love baseball. I was in Minneapolis for the last game at County Stadium, watching it in a bar with no sound, and it still almost made me cry.
OMC: And the Bucks?
KB: I like the Bucks. I think that George Karl is perfect for Milwaukee. You can't get a guy who's more down to earth. The team is reflective of Milwaukee, hard-working, blue-collar guys.
OMC: Are you happy in Milwaukee?
KB: I love Milwaukee! I moved down to Chicago for a while in the early '90s, and when I would come home it was my home. There's just a comfortable feeling in this town. It's just a real town. You can get anywhere in 20 minutes, and there's no fear of going anywhere in this city. I'm not gonna be hanging out in certain parts of the city in the middle of the night, but we just don't have the problems that other cities have. As much as I would like to see the city advance and become a little bit more metropolitan, you don't want to have that happen at the risk of losing what we have now.
kb'smidlifecrisis plays next Sat., Dec. 9, at the Trysting Place in Germantown. For more information about the band, visit their Web site at www.execpc.com/midlifecrisis
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
