Daily show correspondent Michael Kosta to perform at Dallas Comedy Club on 2 nights

Michael Kosta’s career did not start in a comedy club. It all started on a tennis court.

For the first half of his career, Kosta was a tennis player who ripped the circuit as a championship player in the Big Ten and peaked at No. 864 in the world as a championship player. tennis pro.

“I played all the tournaments,” Kosta says. “Dallas for me was Thanksgiving playing the [USTA] National Indoor Championships Boys 16. ”

Success in his career and the financial support to compete required a constant stream of wins, and between long periods of downtime between games, Kosta jotted down jokes in a notebook. Eventually, he would use those notes on stage when he moved from tennis to acting while working as an assistant tennis coach for the University of Michigan. Between shows he found himself struggling again, but just like in sports, every loss made him better.

Eventually, Kosta scored his own albums, such as Comedy for attractive people, that he recorded at the Comedy Store; one-hour specials such as Detroit. NEW YORK. THE. for Paramount +; his own podcast, Tennis anyone? and a corresponding spot on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He continues to headlining between his corresponding appearances, including two shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday November 12 and Saturday November 13 at Dallas Comedy Club at Deep Ellum.

“Looking back, I’m impressed with my resilience, and I guess it’s because of the sport,” Kosta said. “You have so many bad shows you don’t know what you are doing and you fail so much but in so many ways because I think I was still close to tennis I just approach it [like] Losing a match. You wake up the next day and go to workout. ”

Kosta’s acting career began in open mics and then as a road comic traveling in his grandfather’s Buick LaSabre, playing concerts where he opened for headliners. He played anywhere that would pay him. Kosta remembers doing what is called a “hellish gig” in a bowling alley where he was bombing. The audience could also hear the people upstairs constantly bowling, “So there was this dichotomy between me failing and them succeeding.”

“You keep improving,” Kosta says. “I enjoy every time I go to a comedy club and head the bill and someone pronounces my name correctly and there are people in those seats.”

Kosta became a correspondent for Trevor Noah’s Daily show just over a year after Noah took over the chair from host Jon Stewart. He says he remembers when he got the call after several auditions.

“I was in a park in Manhattan crying on the phone because all you hear is no,” Kosta says. “You just hear no to everything all the time and I realized it was a free profession. strength is good when someone says, ‘Yes, we want you.’ ”

The daily show Took him to places even crazier than a bowling alley that pokes fun at bombing comedians. In Sonoma County, California, he spoke to “water witches” about the state’s droughts. He flew to Switzerland to talk about gun violence. He traveled to New Jersey to speak to a woman who hangs profane anti-President Joe Biden flags in her yard.

The field interviews are a mix of improvisation and pre-written material based on how the producers and writers think the interview topic might react to basic and sardonic questions. Kosta says that just like the instantaneous nature of comedy, the key is to stay alert and react on the spot.
“We have a game plan, and you better throw it away and do something when it doesn’t work,” Kosta said, thinking back to a specific example. “As much as you get ready and we do it with the producers and the writers (…) the three things that we think are the three things this woman is going to say and then they say something totally crazier or she gets presents wearing a pink Victoria’s Secret nightgown top – and as many smart, award-winning writers as we have now, we could never have guessed that’s what she would show up in. ”

“You have to be in the moment,” Kosta adds. “You have to listen. This is one of the hardest things, but… you have to listen because you aren’t listening, you will miss it.”

Kosta appears to be at the top of his game, but he says he’s learning to perfect his gear and delivery, whether it’s on The daily show, a stage or behind the microphone for his podcast. He always relishes every opportunity he has to train.

“That’s why there is John Oliver,” says Kosta. “That’s why there’s Samantha Bee. That’s why there’s Stephen Colbert. You do everything and you’re not always good at that point, but you’re getting good.”