PART 2: LOUD 103.3 Radio Personalities, BIG KESS & SNACKS Join me on UNSCRIPTED!

Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer

“Being on the radio has been a dream of mine since childhood, now it’s here and I’m beyond excited for the opportunity to represent my city.”

~ Kam “Snacks” Coleman LOUD 103.3

I feel encouraged when I have the opportunity to spend time with talented people that want to bring excitement and a “sense of community” to our city, and I think that these 2 men had Fort Wayne’s best interests in mind when they decided to combine forces and share their gifts with us. I was so impressed by their candor and willingness to support our city with their gifts that I’m devoting space for each of them individually to share their thoughts. Please join me in welcoming LOUD 103.3 Comedian/Personality, Kam “Snacks” Coleman to Part 2 of this piece in today's UNSCRIPTED.

UNSCRIPTED: Tell me a little about your background in radio and what brought you guys together?

SNACKS: “I started doing comedy about 3 years ago and was going through a difficult time in my life battling self-esteem issues and trying to find my way. I started doing comedy skits at work to make myself feel better and I enjoyed the process of producing my own stuff. Well, they started going viral on Facebook, and TicTok then Instagram followed as well. It made me think that maybe I could do something with this as a possible career so I started doing stand-up and ended up going on tour with DC Young-Fly, Gary Owen, and Desi Banks. The real turning point was when my show at the Embassy was a complete sell-out ( the only urban act to sell out this venue as a headliner!) Kess approached me after watching some of my videos and took me under his wing as a friend and mentor. When he was approached to return to radio he brought me on board, and here we are rocking it out!”

UNSCRIPTED: Kam, what lead you to the point where you said maybe this is the lane that I should be traveling in? Was it people’s reaction to you or other factors?

SNACKS: “I think that not only was it people’s reactions, but also my angle was that I really want to get into acting and I love the fact that some of the greatest stand-up legends get into film and movies. You have to find your niche doing stand-up, and hopefully that will allow you to progress into other venues that showcase your talents on a broader scale. I certainly have plenty of funny stories and believe that I can present myself well as a story-teller. After killing it in my first show it gave me the positve momentum that I needed to move forward in this craft and see what would happen!”

UNSCRIPTED: Kam, with you having done stand-up comedy as a solo act, why didn’t you feel threatened by working with someone that is so established in this business by bringing laughter in this format?

SNACKS: “Kess allows me to be who I am, and I think that is what is so unique about what our show brings to the public. We know how to “flip the switches” in that when it’s a serious topic we roll with it, when it’s time to be funny we can be funny, or when we don’t have anything planned we can “free style” our way through. I’m a big fan of Steve Harvey, D.L Hughley, and Ricky Smiley and seeing those guys in radio, and still be successful stand-up comedians allows me to have a blueprint to follow, and makes our show so unusually different.”

UNSCRIPTED: I know you get this a lot but I have to ask, where in the world did the name “Snacks” come from? (Lol)

SNACKS: “This is the most boring story… I got locked out of my snapchat account, (I was working at Pepsi at the time) and had to create a new snapchat name. People that know me know that I’m always smashing snacks and asking, “Who’s got the snacks” so it just stuck with me. To be honest, my family nickname for me was knock, knock so they have no idea how people identify me as snacks! Hardly anyone calls me Kam in this city which is kinda funny!”

UNSCRIPTED: So Kam, walk me through a typical day (if that’s possible) of a comedian and radio personality working together to produce a great show.

SNACKS: “To be honest man, it’s very unorthodox. When we come in daily we are pretty much freestyling it which is not always the best way to approach it, but a lot of people don’t recognize that because we’ve become very good at this format. As the show becomes more structured, we’ll start getting more prepared to give you our very best! I don’t feel that there will be anyone’s show/podcast that will touch us but for me it’s always creating new format for us to be genuinely funny and keep our audiences locked in and then go home, spend time with my kids, and begin creating again.”

UNSCRIPTED: Kam, having grown up here how important has your faith impacted your growth as a professional? What would be the ULTIMATE compliment be for you as a professional?

SNACKS: “Faith is extremely important to me having just gotten recently baptized. But also having faith in myself and my abilities because so many kids have a distorted view of what reality is. There are many lanes that they can travel in to be successful and it doesn’t always have to be the sports lane. The main thing is: Be passionate about whatever it is that you’re pursuing as your life goal and don’t be swayed by negativity. You have a unique skill-set so go be whatever it is that God has gifted you to do. Love yourself and be yourself!”