The One Thing Men Need To Know To Survive Their 20s, As Told By Barstool’s KFC
Still in your early to mid-20s?
Perfect. Then it's not to late to hear this urgent message from Barstool Sports' Kevin Clancy.
The popular blogger and podcaster, known to Barstool fans as "KFC," gave some advice earlier this month that was simple but ominous: Whatever you want to do, for the love of God, do it right now!
Why? Because there will be a time when you regret how free you are to take risks now, he says, and that time might be coming sooner than you think.
Clancy told Elite Daily,
It seems to be that it hits everyone right at age 27. I don't know if it's because you're getting older, you're more mature or, like I said, you've been out of school for a while and you've just been grinding at your desk and you're kind of getting sick of things in your life. But when you hit 27, you have some sort of mental breakdown where you realize: All I'm doing is going out, getting drunk, spending money, hooking up with random people and I'm going absolutely nowhere in life.
KFC has been talking about this theory of 27 for a while now, emphasizing the importance of that age as a watershed moment.
The 27 theory.
He first wrote about it on Barstool's main site five years ago, when he had a freak-out about getting older. He's recorded multiple podcasts ever since, referencing that same blog.
Now, in this interview, he's talking about it again. Like the ghost of Christmas past, he's here to warn us all.
Clancy says,
Everything up until then is a goddamn party. You have minimal responsibilities, you're during basically whatever you want, whenever you want. It's at 27 you realize, if I don't start busting my ass, focusing on something, I'm going nowhere... That old life that you once had of care free fun comes to an end. You hope that after 27 some good things are happening to you, but I don't think you can ever really recapture what you had from zero to 27.
You can file this interview under the category of advice KFC's been trying to tell all the young bucks for years. It's like a cycle, he says.
Every single time, he tells readers about how life will be, and every single time, someone doubts, until they experience it. The story was no different when he talked about what it's like to get your first job out of college, get engaged or move in with a girlfriend.
Your relationships change.
Clancy says,
I remember saying like, 'listen, you spend a couple years living with a chick, you're not going to be having as much sex.' And every time it's like, 'no, not me, not my girl, we fuck all the time, we're so into each other.' Fast forward two or three years of living in the same apartment and they're like, 'ah shit, I haven't gotten laid in a month.' ...I'm not making these things up. This isn't a schtick. I'm not saying this for comedic effect. This is the life that I've lived and I'm telling you, I'm like Billy Madison grabbing the kid's head.
Don't get it twisted, though.
Big things have been happening for Barstool and KFC, even at the grand old age of 32. Last month, he made his live TV debut when Barstool hosted its signature show, "The Rundown," on Comedy Central.
This month, he's continued adding to the website's array of podcasts with a new series: Barstool Storyboards. Storyboards goes in a different direction than most Barstool productions.
Each episode takes an in-depth, documentary-style look at a subject as opposed to the back-and-forth debates between personalities featured on most of the site's podcasts.
Of the new direction, Clancy says,
I wanted to be able to take that podcasting skill or ability and combine it with the sports and figures in entertainment that I loved. Kind of put it all together in a podcast that showed a little bit more thought, a little bit more production and it little bit more of my range.
What now?
So far, KFC has produced four "Storyboard" episodes.
The first was about the career and personality of Alex Rodriguez. The name of that production? "Kissing the Mirror," a title given for what should be obvious reasons, Clancy says,
That famous picture where's kissing himself in the mirror, which kind of sums up everything about A-Rod; the awkwardness, the narcissism, all of it.
The other three revolve around Ryan Lochte (in a spoof of Serial, aptly titled Jeahrial), the New York Knicks and Dave Chappelle, whose return to the spotlight should be appreciated, despite how many people take offense.
Clancy says,
I don't know if the era we're in could handle Chappelle, but I feel like we needed it, because I feel like you need comedians like that to come out and push the envelope and say what's on people's minds.
All of the episodes are produced by KFC's "super producer," his own brother, Brendan Clancy. Brendan made the move to work KFC after Chernin Media Group's acquisition last year of Barstool Sports, which prompted the site to move its headquarters to Manhattan.
When the move to New York happened, it was time to go balls-to-the-wall with all of my productions. I basically told old the higher-ups here at Barstool there's only one guy who can do really what I need him to do and it's him. So, similar to the way I made the jump from being an accountant to being a blogger, he made the jump from real estate property management to the wacky circus of Barstool.
Regardless of how big the site has gotten, though, Clancy insists that the content will still be similar to the type of productions readers and listeners have grown to love.
I don't think I'll ever be a journalist with a capital 'J.' That's what's fun about Storyboards, is I get to kind of play both sides. It's like, yeah I'm taking it a little bit serious, it's scripted, I'm trying to be a little more insightful, but I'm still gonna say 'fuck' a bunch of times and I'm still gonna say jokes that people are probably going to cringe or be offended by, so still lower case 'J' for me man.
At least that's one thing that hasn't changed past age 27.
