Kevin Fraser walked away from his top-class DJ life to start over in comedy
For 12 years, Kevin Fraser commanded global music stages under his DJ moniker, "The Spin Doctor," sharing massive festival lineups with electronic icons like Steve Aoki and Avicii. Yet, at the height of his musical success, he chose to walk away from that thriving lifestyle to pursue a completely clean slate in the world of stand-up comedy. Sitting down on the latest episode of the Dam Yankee podcast, the South African comic opened up about the raw psychological shock of exchanging a roaring, high-energy dance floor for the vulnerable, unpredictable spotlight of stand-up comedy.
The artistic shift was immediate, striking, and completely destabilizing for the veteran performer, he said during his tour stop in Amsterdam last week. "But the very first time that I walked on the stage for my first comedy show versus always going on stage, and there's a dance floor rocking, it was weird," Fraser revealed during the interview, out now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more services.
"There's noise here. There's silence. And everything is is taken in the room like from me. So that's. Yeah, it was incredibly creatively difficult. There's a lot more nerve wracking."
[Fraser describes the brutal reality of starting over from scratch at 9:17]
Fraser's artistic endurance faced a massive hurdle just as he began finding his footing on stage, when global lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic brought the live entertainment sector to a grinding halt. Suddenly, his highly expressive, theatrical comedy style had to be entirely re-engineered for tiny digital screens. He was forced into a race against time to keep his career alive before losing his hard-earned momentum.
"Yeah, I think your your mindset had to change," Fraser explained, describing his digital survival strategy. "Like you start getting fed. All this stuff is suddenly TikTok becomes a thing during the pandemic. Then was this pivot of panic for me because, my career was on one trajectory. Bam! Events and entertainment wiped off the table."
[Hear Fraser talk about the unusual way his short video hype turned into a stage career at 29:00]
Now celebrating a remarkable ten years in stand-up comedy with his global Decadance tour, Fraser is also expanding his creative empire by launching a brand-new subscription wellness and fitness platform that merges physical movement with pure entertainment. His recent tour stop in Amsterdam proved that his signature observational eye remains sharper than ever, even when attempting to navigate the city's uniquely hazardous streets.
"I've already almost been killed by a bicycle like five times in the city and it's like, come on Kevin, you know this like this is not your first rodeo in Amsterdam but it gets me every time," Fraser laughed. He quickly became fascinated by the local architecture, noting, "I thought people must have like really heavy couches, because that's obviously why the buildings are leaning into the street... because like people are using the heaviest couch to bring into their house. So, yeah, it's crazy."
Fraser's sister calls Amsterdam her home, and has been a huge supporter of his career. But it was actually their late father who gave Fraser his DJ name, The Spin Doctor, even though it took years for him to fully accept his son's life as a performer.
[Frasier details how a sports contest led to the Spin Doctor name from 1:04:45]
Kevin Fraser will perform Decadance this week in Manchester, and heads to New Zealand and Australia over the summer, with more tour dates to be announced soon. Fraser announces updates on his website, with more news and clips posted on on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
This full episode of Dam Yankee can be seen on YouTube, or listen to the Dam Yankee on all major podcast platforms.