Kenny Kane: From Stand-Up Comedy to Coaching, and the Critical Nature of Context

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Kenny Kane
From Stand-Up Comedy to Coaching, and the Critical Nature of Context

Kenny Kane is a life-long performer and coach who is fueled by improving quality of life for people in principled ways. He bought CrossFit Los Angeles in 2014 with a vision to build a unified coaching team and the business to support it. The business rebranded in 2017 as Oak Park, a nod to the Kenny’s roots in Santa Rosa, CA as well as a symbolic transition to something evergreen. His dream has always been to create an environment where he can be a student and learn entirely new things from the people within it. As the Oak Park coaches and community continue to evolve, that dream becomes more of a reality.

Kenny has an extraordinarily diverse background. He grew up in a family fitness business with a mother in the Swimming Hall of Fame and a father who was an officiant at the Olympics. At 15, he earned his Black Belt and began his coaching career as a martial arts instructor. Kenny attended UC Davis where he played soccer, ran track, and competed in triathlons. He then went on to teach physical education and drama in his hometown while training for the Olympic Trials. A career ending running injury pushed him to shift focus to stand-up comedy and private training. Kenny spent 14 years splitting time between training clients and touring the world. He performed standup and gave motivational talks while simultaneously transforming people as a coach. Kenny retired from performing in 2013 to do what he loves. He now dedicates all of his professional time to coaching and the business endeavors that support it.

For more info about Kenny or to connect, check out Oak Park Los Angeles or send him an email!

Olympians, Comedy Clubs, and Rappers mentioned in the episode: 

05:30  Kenny lives on the west side of Los Angeles and his gym, Oak Park LA is in Santa Monica
06:55  Kenny grew up in Santa Rosa and his family was quite athletic
08:00  Kenny’s mom was a world class swimmer and coach and used to swim out to Alcatraz from SF as a teenager in the late 40s and early 50s (this is while it was an active prison);
08:47  Kenny’s parents’ sports background had a big impact on Kenny’s trajectory; Mark Spitz
09:35  Interestingly Kenny rejected swimming and went with soccer and martial arts and moved on to track (and soccer) in college and beyond
11:00  The best life lesson Kenny ever got from his mom was the necessity of developing your mind and your body simultaneously
13:55  There’s something about performance that allows a human being to step into the moment
14:35  We’ve got to retire the siloed approach; Andy Galpin
17:35  Kenny toyed with the idea of turning his mom’s gym into a human performance institute, but that building burned down in the 2017 fires
18:00  Kenny’s mom wanted him to take over the family business but he had to rebel and only circle back after being a stand up comic for 15 years
18:45  After graduating UCDavis, Kenny was a school teacher but also doing stand up open mics for about 3 years before going on tour in 1999
19:45  In 2010, Kenny’s first child was born and he started realizing that the stand up lifestyle may not be what he wanted
20:10  Stand-up comedy is maybe the hardest job in existence
22:55  Kenny describes his worst stand-up comedy experience(s); Eve’s album Scorpion; It Might Get Loud
29:15  Laird says, “if you can’t eat a hamburger as prepared, you’re a liability”
29:45  The life changing reality of Las Vegas; Budd Friedman; Allan Havey
31:35  Kenny once had to perform at The Laugh Factory after Dane Cook performed for 2 hours (and no one wanted to follow that)
34:09  Juliet is a gamer; 100 Foot Wave
34:55  Kenny owns the gym Oak Park Los Angeles, home of CrossFit Los Angeles; San Francisco CrossFit
36:00  The CrossFit fitness pyramid is simple but Kenny thinks it should be expanded to have ‘life’ at the top
38:29  Kenny’s philosophy for Oak Park LA – the why and the cause
40:00  Kenny has a men’s group at Oak Park called Treehouse including physical as well as psycho-emotional programming
44:30  Ideas scale but human relationships do not; Dunbar; Self-determination theory
49:50  The timing of launching Treehouse had a lot to do with an unbelievable stretch of misfortune in Kenny’s life
55:08  Kenny doesn’t do social media, personally or professionally

Full Transcript

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