Kevin James Thornton Was a Musician, an Artist and a Filmmaker. Now He Knows He's a Comic.

Comedian Kevin James Thornton has traveled a lot of long paths to find a career that scratched his creative itch, only to find a series of obstacles. He's been a filmmaker, a photographer, a musician and even the host of a defunct podcast about country music.

His hard work and determination finally paid off in 2021 thanks to a pair of Apple earbuds, an auto-tuner and TikTok.

"When I made the first couple of those videos, I didn't think anything was gonna happen," Thornton says. "Those just blew up, and I got to like a million followers in a few months, and it just changed everything. Honestly, it was just a weird afterthought. I didn't put any thought into it. It was just a weird accident."

Thornton started posting videos of himself telling hilarious, personal stories about his formative years and the struggles to find love and acceptance as a gay man in a highly religious family in the 1990s. He tells these stories in a sing-songy way by adding autotune. His style of storytelling found an audience on TikTok, and his career skyrocketed overnight. Just a few years later, he's touring the world with his stand-up show and planning to release his first comedy special with the production studio Comedy Dynamics.

With TikTok, he's reached audiences across the country and overseas. His shows in places such as the U.K., France and the Netherlands often sell out before he arrives in the country. He's performing on Wednesday at the Addison Improv, but good luck getting a ticket. The show is sold out, according to the venue's website.

"It's pretty personal," Thornton says about his act. "I let it fly. It's an open book for sure."

Thornton began his artistic pursuits in Nashville, where he got his start in music with a band that was close to getting a record deal.

"We kind of got close but it never really worked, and when that finally came to an end," he says, "I think I said I want to do something totally different."

He moved to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue a career in music and tried working as a road comic, but "I didn't sell tickets."

"I thought I burned the end of my rope," Thornton says.

He tried his hand at photography and filmmaking until the coronavirus pandemic shut down public life as we know it. He picked up his phone in 2021 and started posting stories about his life in the '90s. He recorded in his car and spoke them out to an auto-tune melody. His phone blew up and he started attracting a virtual audience.

@kevinjamesthornton Answer @Kevin ♬ original sound - Kevin James Thornton

"It's a progression," Thornton says about the subjects of his stories. "Fifteen years ago when I was in my early 30s, I was less comfortable with myself. Today I'm almost 50 years old and got some things figured out. Every comedian will say this, but when I hear a recording of myself 15 years ago, it was so cringy."

Adding the auto-tune wasn't just a way to stand out in the crowded field of TikTok comedy. It also allowed him to be free with his thoughts and make even the saddest stories land with a laugh. Thornton has even come up with a way to shrug off his most embarrassing moment by just saying, "It was the niiiiiineties."

"For me, when I feel like the audience is really relating, that's when it's the most fun," Thornton says. "A lot of my material is a coming-of-age story. There's a lot of embarrassing teenage stories and growing up in a church that's very strict, a lot of people relate to it, and when I feel the audience connecting that's when it's the most fun."