Ahead of the release of his second stand-up comedy special, "Nostalgia," Kountry Wayne sat down with Fox News Digital to talk through his rise to headliner status as a self-made star, the faith he said delivered him there and the 10 kids who inspired his material along the way.
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The self-proclaimed "country boy" hails from Millen, Georgia, an easygoing place where the residents are satisfied with "backyard barbecues, playing cards and eating coon and rabbits," Wayne said. Born Dewayne Jamarr Colley, he first pursued rapping before he began posting comedy sketches on Instagram in 2014. In less than a year, he amassed more than 1 million followers.
Kountry Wayne has been called a "clean" comic because he doesn't drink, smoke or swear, but that doesn't mean his act shies away from what's real. He said his unconventional family, including his 10 children and their mothers, supplies plenty of material he can take to stage, all of it in line with his guiding ethos of keeping comedy lighthearted and relatable.
"I'm trying to bring back just comedy, man. Just making people laugh, not trying to be controversial," Wayne said. "The gut laughter, people escaping from their bills and their heartaches and pains."
"Nostalgia" aims to be a return to the form of "good comedy, how it was back in the day," in an age when some stand-ups try to act a little too cool, he said.
"I'm not coming up here to try to be no politician. That's not what I do. I make you laugh, and it's for everybody."
He pointed to heavy hitters like Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Nate Bargatze and Sebastian Maniscalco as sources of inspiration, adding that he had focused on refining his storytelling and pacing since releasing his first stand-up special, "A Woman's Prayer," on Netflix in 2023.
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"They call me a clean comedian because I don't curse like that... but it's pretty raw when it comes to the family," Wayne said.
With relatability at the heart of his act, Wayne draws on something everyone can connect with: family. He said his loved ones are aware that anything, within reason, could make it to the stage.
"I don't write material. It'd be right there. I just have to figure out a way to structure it. If I see it, hey, I'm talking about it," he told Fox News Digital.
Wayne recounted an instance when a former partner of his was angered by a story he once included in a performance.
"One of my baby mama's teeth had got knocked out by her ex — and she was whistling. When she told me about it... there's no way that I'm not going to bring that up. And I called her a referee."
"She got mad, but I got her teeth fixed, so we're good," he said.
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Even though Wayne finds humor in his family life, to him, raising his kids is no laughing matter.
"Fatherhood changed me from the day I had my first child," said Wayne. "I didn't play with no opportunity."
He said becoming a father provided motivation to take big swings, "because I got another human being that's hungry and needs some money, needs some clothes, needs guidance, needs inspiration."
More than anything, he wants his children to know he takes his business seriously, he said.
"So I don't play. When I walk out the house to work, I don't play with those minutes and hours."
Kountry Wayne doesn't drink and has only smoked once in his life — a story he tells on stage — not to mention he's been vegan for more than a decade. But discipline and skill alone didn't take him this far, he said.
"There's no way you can have come from where I come from, that small town, to be where you're at now with everything that I've been through — don't just talent get you there," he told Fox News Digital.
Looking back on his journey thus far, Wayne said keeping his faith was the one thing he did right through it all.
"Only thing I had then that I still got now — I didn't have no bunch of money, I didn't have no fame, I wasn't known as Kountry Wayne. I always had my faith, and that's what got me through," Wayne said.
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This spiritual grounding acted as a shield against the temptations that come with money and fame. For Wayne, maintaining his clean-cut lifestyle wasn't a struggle of willpower, but a byproduct of the values he had already solidified long before the spotlight found him.
Having grown up around drug use, he said it wasn't hard to stay away from substances, even after rocketing to success. In fact, he doesn't think fame has changed him much.
"I peel my apples now," he said. "You know, it's little things like that."
Wayne has built his brand around keeping it real. That refusal to conform to an industry mold became the engine for his unconventional rise, allowing him to pivot from a stalled music career to a digital comedy empire built entirely on his own terms.
Around 2014, Wayne was attempting to break into the music industry as a rapper, but before long, he hit a ceiling.
"I knew I couldn't rap that good to be at the top of the game. So I started doing videos [in] September of 2014," he said. "I felt like I could be the ‘Drake of comedy.’"
The gamble paid off with startling speed. Within a month of posting his first comedic clips, he had gone viral. By March 2015, he had amassed more than a million followers, in part by pioneering the now-ubiquitous vertical video format.
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While his digital "mini-network" now pumps out roughly 40 videos a day across YouTube and Facebook, social media has more recently taken a backseat to live performance. For Wayne, the true validation of his career came not from a view count, but from the raw — and lucrative — reality of a live audience.
He recalled earning $20,000 in two days performing stand-up at comedy clubs. That's when he felt like he had "made it."
"When that check cleared in my bank account, I said, 'Oh man, I've made it,' because I can do this as long as I got God, I got good health and I'm here on Earth. I could do stand-up for the rest of my life. It was the easiest thing I ever attempted."
He credits his authenticity for his following. People can tell he's not "industry pushed," he said.
"It's like, we've seen you on social media. And we could go back and check and remember when the chain was a little duller, you know? Things were a little different."
And since that worked for him, he said anyone could follow in his footsteps.
"I'm basically saying, you can do this too. I'm telling you what your granddad and grandmama told you: have faith and work hard."
He believes people connect to him because he shows up as himself onstage, and audiences are hungry for sincerity.
"I think people connect to that more because it feels more realistic with me. And it's an unrealistic life, but it feels so realistic... you don't have to kiss nobody's behind, you could be who you are."
"You still could be positive in this negative world. And I just think people relate to that because it gives them hope."