Meet Mike Kim: Standup Comic & Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Kim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk is necessary in life. People try to play it safe, but if you think about it we are at risk 24/7. We could get hit by a car randomly while jogging. We could have a congenital heart disease and not know about it until it’s too late. I literally almost got crushed by a tree a year ago on a college campus. Potential freak accident, no? Knowing that I was going to die anyways I figured why not go all in with what I really want to do. By taking that risk and leaving my previous career behind, it has unlocked a plethora of new opportunities and high levels of joy and satisfaction. Every amazing thing that happened in my life is a byproduct of me taking a gamble on myself. If you can’t bank on your own being, who is? Trust yourself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
With my standup and videos I am most proud of how I have allowed myself to be authentically me. I used to hide it. Now I have literally no shame in who I am and purposely show my imperfections for the world to see. Self love. The way I got here is through massive amounts of self doubt and emotional pain. It was not easy at all. I purposely went sober for the first 1.5 years to feel every single emotion so I could understand it and master myself. Fortunately it worked. Other comics told me to “drink a beer to cut the nervousness”. I completely disagree. That numbing of oneself slows progress. What I learned in the past few years is the career itself isn’t everything. Just because you go hard doesn’t mean you’ll constantly make gains. You must take care of your mental health and understand your brain and how it functions. If you have low EQ (emotional intelligence) you can potentially lose everything due to self sabotage. Work on yourself simultaneously. The career will always be here. Life is long. Majority of my life was spent with self hatred. 28 years. I’m 31 now. I love my life. I love myself. It was a long journey. But it’s never too late. I know someone who’s 46 and finally did what he wanted to do. Now he’s happy. You can always be reborn.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a super simple guy so I’d take them to eat Peruvian food, go to a comedy club, and sing karaoke with some friends and drinks. There’s nothing better than bonding over food, laughs, and belting out some Lionel Richie. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mother. Moving back home and spending months trying to figure things about before things made sense was an integral part in where I’m at today. David Chang & David Choe. By listening to their podcast about childhood trauma, it caused me to look within my own past pains and heal them. That’s how I gave myself permission to pursue my dreams. Steven Pressfield and his book “The War of Art”. His writings showed me where I was holding myself back creatively and how to fight that internal resistance to create authentically. Robert Greene. “The Laws of Human Nature” helped me get through the first 4-6 months of standup when I wanted to quit. I was able to see what really drives people to act the way they do. Without this book I may not be here today.

Website: www.linktr.ee/mikekim

Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikekimcomedy

Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikekimcomedy

Facebook: facebook.com/mikekimcomedy

Youtube: www.youtube.com/mikekimcomedy