Kountry Wayne is unashamedly about his paper.
The jewels he drops on how to obtain it are not those of a man who’s invested thousands of dollars on an advanced degree, but who learned via hustling in the streets and dealing with women.
For example, Wayne recognized early on the importance of investing one’s own money into businesses in lieu of borrowing, if possible. He told Shannon Sharpe during their “Club Shay Shay” podcast interview that he pays about $250,000 per month on the videos – money he insists goes to the actors.
But he claims that he makes $600,000 on his skits “on a slow month” and has racked up about $20 million from all social media in the last three years.
Despite posting videos for almost 10 years, Wayne said he didn’t start monetizing his videos until near the beginning of the pandemic, when he made $70 posting a video of himself in the bed with his kids.
“I said, ‘I’m finna be wealthy…damn rich,’” he told Sharpe. “If I can make money on this cell phone and spend time with my kids? That’s why I put my baby mama in them videos to pay off some of that child support.”
Wayne has nearly 9 million followers on Facebook, his primary platform, and several hundred thousand on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok each. He attributed his early success in monetizing his videos to the pandemic. (“Folks will never sit down like that again,” he said.)
Most of the actors he employs are amateurs (including his own children) up-and-comers or veterans known largely in Black media circles, like longtime collaborator Rolonda Rochelle.
Wayne the complex human
Perhaps the biggest contrast between Wayne and Tyler Perry is that while Perry goes out of his way to conceal his personal life, Wayne keeps his out in the streets for public consumption. His 10 children from five different women, which he started having when he was a teenager, drives his personal narrative and much of his content.
Wayne made headlines twice in 2023: Once for admitting in an interview with Sherri Shepherd on her eponymous talk show that he spends $200,000 a month on child support alone. He freely admitted that his children’s mothers all have keys to his Atlanta home and that he takes care of them so that they take care of his children.
Just don’t ask him to rattle off their names and birthdays with the quickness…
The second headline was regarding his former relationship with comedian and new “The Breakfast Club” host Jess Hilarious, who engaged him in a public back-and-forth about their breakup. The former lovers’ spat could’ve been one of Wayne’s soap opera skits, but he told Sharpe that he’d be happy if Jess never spoke about him publicly again.
Wayne closed out 2023 with several accomplishments expected from marquee comedians who’ve been in the game much longer: He released his first film, the self-funded, self-starring “Strange Love.” He became a first-time author with a self-help book, “Help is On the Way: Stay Up and Live Your Truth,” and went on a national theater tour by the same name. He also shot his first Netflix special, “A Woman’s Prayer,” which released in September.
Stand-up fans will notice within the first five minutes of “A Woman’s Prayer” that it’s a clean routine; Wayne doesn’t swear in any of his routines, skits or interviews. That, too, is a business move: He makes it a point to be raunchy but not explicit – consciously toeing the line of “the church and the streets” so that he can entertain and profit from both. (Hmm…who else does that sound like…?)
That cleanliness translates to other parts of Wayne’s life: He’s a devout Christian, rocking an iced-out “Jesus is Poppin” pendant and tagging every one of his videos with “#God #Love #Jesus.” He’s also a vegan who doesn’t drink or smoke, but he’s not preachy or in-your-face about any of it.
Wayne comes off like an affable, around-the-way dude who will make you laugh and think in equal measure. There’s no wonder he’s ascended to a space in the industry that many comedy vets who’ve been at it much longer never will.
At this rate, it’ll be no surprise when he achieves his next Tyler Perry-esque goal: That billion with a B.