In this edition of Life Outside Of Adland, B&T chats with Kellyn Coetzee, head of AI & insights at Kinesso Australia. When Coetzee is not fighting the forces of operational inefficiencies, she likes to do all the sports, tell jokes on stage and read B&T articles. Coetzee has lived and worked in 4 different countries and done comedy shows and festivals from MICF to New York Gotham Club.
B&T: What do u do besides Adland?
I don’t sit still. If I’m not playing AFL, Cricket, Tennis, Softball, kickball, 10 other sports (or winning the Unltd Big Clash, Media #2024 FTW ), you will find me scouting comedy clubs across the city, performing, supporting, critiquing (in my head).
On the rainy days, I spend my time building gaming PCs in a PC simulation game, or playing Dota, to balance out the jock / comedienne with a sprinkle of nerd.
I go through phases of devouring books back-to-back, painting, playing guitar. I tend to collect skills like Pokémon. If I had a life motto it would be, “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes is better than a master of one”. & I’d say the same applies to media for me too.
B&T: What inspired the side hustle?
I’ve always loved comedy. It was becoming quite expensive to pay cover for each show, and it got to a point where I figured, “instead of paying to watch comedy, I’ll just do it, get paid for 5 mins and watch the other 85 mins for free”. I started in New York, and took it back to South Africa. Early in my comedy career, I was generously supported by the local comedy community and given many opportunities, magazine covers, I even hosted a radio show “The Rock and Lol show”, and I would have gone full time professional but then I got a job in SEM – every girl’s dream. Now I am one of those annoying people who genuinely loves her job, comedy is like sport, a hobby. It’s like I was doing comedy until my media career took off.
B&T: What’s the one thing you can take from your comedy into advertising?
There’s a lot, but the ability to read a room and naturally redirect a narrative when something isn’t landing has proven to be most useful. Experience has taught me how to judge what is appropriate and use language tactfully.
People in my role will have to know how to make complex topics not only accessible but I have the added talent of making it fun…Storytelling.
There’s also the confidence to speak (authentically) to anyone of any level. We’re all human at the end of the day. A little bit of humour can disarm, re-ignite attention, and inclusion happens with a simple joke…until it doesn’t.
My biggest fail was back when I was starting out in Comedy, I was MC’ing a corporate event, and introducing a speaker, the ex-minister of finance. It was a charity gig to sponsor the development of an old age home, and in my introduction of the minister, I said “This charity perfectly aligns with his interests considering he will be there soon, please welcome straight from pudding night, Mr X”. Let’s just say it didn’t land well and I haven’t done a corporate gig since. There’s an element of bravery and vulnerability, taking risks and sometimes they don’t always pay off.
These days I like to bring this skill to media events. Everyone loves a panel – especially when they’re spicy. Often my jokes are the only quotes people remember, and to be honest, I don’t hate that.
Pure joy is being able to connect with anyone through humour, figuring out what someone would find funny and tuning into that, whether its sharing jokes or favourite comedians, shows, it’s a unique skill to possess and be an “authority” on.
In a space where I am expected to always have the answers, be accurate, comedy is the place where I can play.
