After Suffering A Tragic Loss, Comic KevOnStage Found Comfort In Comedy. He Hopes You Can, Too.
After Suffering A Tragic Loss, Comic KevOnStage Found Comfort In Comedy. He Hopes You Can, Too.
Njera PerkinsWed, October 21, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC
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After losing his older brother, Jason, in late 2022, Kevin Fredericks, 43, could hardly fathom the thought of stepping onto a stage to share the raw, painful details of that heartbreak with a room full of strangers.
Yet on a warm September evening in downtown Los Angeles, the still-grieving comedian — known to his millions of social media followers as KevOnStage — stood before a packed house just two days after the fourth anniversary of his brother’s death to tape his first-ever comedy special, aptly titled “Grief Sucks.”
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Currently touring across the United States and soon heading to the U.K., the hilariously vulnerable one-man show finds Fredericks joking his way through the pain. He reflects on how he has coped with — and continues to process — the loss of his best friend and big brother, who managed the comedian’s career before he suffered a seizure and died at age 42. But for those who have seen, or even heard about, “Grief Sucks,” there’s more to take away beyond Fredericks’ own journey.
Throughout the roughly hour-long special, the comedian repeatedly reminds audiences that grief is a universal experience that eventually touches everyone in life, whether through the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or the end of something they held near and dear.
In many ways, it’s perfectly natural to lean on comedy as a therapeutic tool to process the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). As discussed in a graduate thesis from Lesley University, humor can sometimes serve as a psychological defense mechanism to help people navigate the emotional distress associated with experiences like death and loss.
And for comedians, pouring their pain and trauma into their work helps create a space for both themselves and audiences to recognize, confront and even find relief in their own feelings about grief.
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Fredericks doesn’t claim to have all the answers for navigating life’s most devastating moments. However, he hopes to show audiences they don’t have to face grief alone because, as he’s discovered, sometimes simply talking about it can bring comfort.
“It wasn’t something I ever thought I would do,” Fredericks told HuffPost. “That’s a certain type of comedy. I didn’t think it was mine, even though I have told stories. But it’s a certain skill set that didn’t feel like my strong suit.”
Perhaps that’s because “Grief Sucks” marks a departure from the lighthearted humor audiences have come to expect from him.
Fredericks stepped outside his comedic comfort zone to write his most vulnerable show yet.
For years, Fredericks, a HuffPost Culture Shifters alum, has built a multifaceted career in entertainment, parlaying his online following into opportunities in the stand-up world and scripted television. He created and stars in “Churchy,” a series loosely inspired by his church upbringing in El Paso, Texas, and is also behind workplace comedies “The Hospital” and “Safe Space,” the latter of which streams on Tubi.
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His debut comedy special will join the streamer’s lineup Feb. 21, 2027, giving audiences a more intimate look at the man behind the jokes as he walks them through his lessons via a “Grief 101” PowerPoint presentation. Fredericks says he chose the format to avoid presenting himself as an expert on grief, instead giving audiences an “entry” point into a subject he has only recently begun to understand.
“This is all I’ve learned in four years, so I only felt qualified to speak on my feelings,” he said. “I felt like if I came to it from that point of view, it would absolve me of people being like, ‘Well, what does he know?’ Like, I don’t know nothing. This is just what I think.”
In “Grief Sucks,” Fredericks walks audiences through his journey with loss using a PowerPoint presentation aptly titled “Grief 101.”Josh Gonzales
Fredericks began turning his reflections on his brother’s death into comedy after his wife and trusted comedy confidant, author and fellow influencer Melissa Fredericks (aka @MrsKevOnStage), encouraged him to try something different.
“I was just going to go to the church and do some old jokes,” the comedian said of his latest tour. “She didn’t necessarily say do an hour-long special, but she was like, ‘Come on, man.’”
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Fredericks recalls that the idea for “Grief Sucks” first came to mind after the couple attended a church comedy show, where one of the performers delivered a joke he had planned to tell. As his wife pointed out, “That’s only happening because you’re doing these jokes you’ve been doing since you were like 16.”
But around the same time, Fredericks was also gaining traction online with videos where he spoke transparently about his grief. After a friend encouraged him to put those thoughts on paper, Fredericks took his wife’s challenge to heart, opened the Notes app on his phone in late December 2025 and began writing what would eventually become the foundation for “Grief Sucks.”
“Without Melissa challenging me to write something new, I probably would have been doing them same old jokes in the church this year instead of what I’m doing now,” Fredericks admitted.
But finding the right material was only one of the challenges he faced.
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The comedian knew weaving such a heavy subject into a traditional comedy set would be difficult. But he also felt that an eight- to 10-minute slot on a typical stand-up lineup wouldn’t give his ideas about grief the space they deserved either, especially since “the next [comedian] has to deal with the results of that.” So, he began hosting local workshops in LA to see how audiences would respond to a full set of his brutally honest jokes, a process he also admitted was nerve-wracking.
“That’s one of the reasons why I call it a one-man show,” Fredericks explained, “because it’s not pure, pure stand-up.”
And he’s right. “Grief Sucks” surprisingly elicits more laughs than tears, like the heartbreaking yet comical retelling of how Fredericks learned of his brother’s death while flying to Houston to see him, stuck in a middle seat in coach despite normally flying business or first class.
But the show also leaves room for more sobering moments as Fredericks reflects on the impact of his loss, including a particularly powerful one toward the end that he prefers to keep under wraps for future audiences.
That's one of the reasons why I call it a one-man show, because it's not pure, pure stand-up.
That balance between humor and introspection was important to Fredericks, who had little experience with one-man shows beyond those he had seen and didn’t want his special to come across as a “TED Talk on grief.”
Unsure how best to approach the format, Fredericks sought advice from his friend, actor and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda — whom he jokingly acknowledges is a big name to drop — who suggested he connect with fellow comedian Mike Birbiglia.
Birbiglia is well-versed in creating one-man shows, having written and performed the 2008 Off-Broadway production “Sleepwalk With Me,” which chronicled his struggles with sleepwalking before inspiring a feature film and book of the same name. He has also released several comedy specials over the years, including Netflix’s critically acclaimed “The Old Man & The Pool,” where he brought his brand of humor to topics of health, life and death.
Fredericks studied Birbiglia’s specials before joining him on his “Working It Out” podcast earlier this year, where the two discussed finding comedy in even the darkest subjects. Birbiglia also caught one of Fredericks’ shows in Brooklyn and offered some feedback, telling him, “You’re doing great. Keep going.”
“That was instrumental in giving me some confidence as well,” Fredericks told HuffPost.
Through ‘Grief Sucks,’ Fredericks discovered comedy’s healing power.
Early on, Fredericks wasn’t sure how audiences would respond to a comedy show so heavily centered on grief.
“People could be like, ‘I don’t know about that, Kev. You on your own with that.’ Like how they are about pumpkin pie,” the comedian jokes, referring to the age-old cultural debate. But he didn’t let that uncertainty stifle the free flow of thoughts pouring from his mind “to the paper, back to my mind and to the stage.”
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Fredericks embraced the challenge of finding humor in grief while creating something audiences could relate to. “To have people laugh and cry and feel like, ‘Man, that was a great show,’ even that was something I wouldn’t have expected from stand-up comedy,” he said.Josh Gonzales
“That’s one thing I like about the show,” Fredericks added. “It’s not a sanitized thought. Some of these thoughts are like, ‘Oh, dang! Like, this is some real stuff.’ So, I think it was important for me to speak as truthfully as I could about grief. Even if it was ugly, because there’s such a relief in finding out you’re not alone, no matter what it is.”
Fredericks admits that some of the thoughts he shares in his show can be “very dark” at times, as he delves into grief’s more complicated emotions, from discomfort and jealousy to selfishness. Still, he hopes that being forthcoming about those feelings might help others feel less alone in their own struggles.
“Sometimes people just want to feel like, ‘OK, I’m not crazy,’ because I be feeling crazy,” said Fredericks. “So I just said all the stuff [I could]. I didn’t even know if it was gonna resonate.”
There's such a relief in finding out you're not alone, no matter what it is.
But judging by his show’s many sold-out dates, Fredericks’ upfront approach to even the most uncomfortable aspects of grief has clearly struck a chord with audiences. He still remembers one attendee at a New York show sharing that bringing her uncle to see “Grief Sucks” after he lost several siblings created a “core memory for two generations of my family,” per a series of Threads posts recounting her experience.
“She said that was one of the only memories that just the two of them have had in her life,” Fredericks recalled. “And I thought, as a comedian… you really get into this [business] to make people laugh. You don’t think you’re going to help heal people.”
“Early on, my goal was just to give you something to laugh at for a few hours and forget about your bills or your kids or your stinking dog,” he continued. “But actually being able to help people, I wouldn’t say that’s something I thought I would be able to do with comedy.”
In that sense, Fredericks considers “Grief Sucks” his best work to date, jokingly calling it his “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Even if he never releases another special, he’d be proud to leave behind a defining work, hoping it will continue to hit home with audiences for years to come.
“I’ve used my gift to make people laugh, bring people together and help some people grieve better, or pick up the pieces of their life and continue on,” Fredericks reflected. “That’s just not something that I thought comedy would ever be for me.”
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