Kofi Thomas, a Boston-based comedian moving to the Big Apple at the end of the month, has recently gone “all in,” selling his car and quitting his job to pursue comedy full time.
He has competed in the Boston Comedy Festival and is a popular man-crush of other local comedians.
When did you start doing comedy?
I started a long time ago, in 2005 or something like that. I was 21, I was working this really shitty job doing overnight security, and I don’t know what made me look at comedy. I still laugh at things I saw 15 years ago. And I thought if I could make folks laugh the way I laugh…
I like open mics and I loved the backstage of it. I loved the comics hanging out, I loved working on jokes during the week. I’d be at work and I’d do a patrol of the building all by myself, and I had to carry this magnetic wand thing that you had to tap on these magnets to show that you had walked around the building, and while I was carrying it, I’d say my jokes into this wand, getting my timing down …
So you were in the Boston Comedy Festival this past year, right?
I had a good run. I was told to do that, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’
I was more interested in talking to the other comics from all over the country. It was so cool hearing their stories. It was more important than my sets.
So your jokes: do you think up a scenario or are they things that actually happen?
I think if there’s something that moves me, like made me happy or sad, or I felt strongly about something, or if I can’t forget something, I try to find the humor.
The thing about trying to be a man all the time is bullshit,
because the smallest little gesture … like, how can you stay a man all of the time when a small family of ducks cross the road? Like, how are you not [going to] lose that gritty man voice. Like ‘Aw! Look at how cute his feet are!’ It’s impossible. Y’know, I’m kind of struggling with that.
@DAKOFI. www.koficomic.tumblr.com