Part 1: Getting Deep with Chad Kroeger

On one of Chad’s more recent videos he attended a certain political protest with a sign saying that he did not want a job, rather, wanted robots to take his job, the protest leader narrowed in on him and challenged, “Why don’t you want to work?”
“I just wanna surf!”  

The protest leader was not very impressed but I certainly was, these events can get pretty heated–much more so than a town hall–so to cruise through with a prank in mind is really bringing some heat. Given his answer, I thought it would be a great idea to catch up with the (tan) man and learn more about his life, his character, where surfing fits in and, of course, his overall situ-aysh. 

Surfer: Chad, my man, much appreesh for taking time to join us. Let’s take it from the top, tell me about your early days surfing. 
Chad: Well, I was 12 when I first started surfing, my mom was living up in San Francisco so I actually learned at Pacifica and eventually Ocean Beach. Then I went to college in Santa Clara and surfed mostly in Santa Cruz at Pleasure Point, the Lane, and other spots around there.  

Surfer: Who were some of the big figures in surfing that you looked up to early on?
Chad: Bruce Irons for sure, I watched the Bruce movie countless times. Dane Reynolds too, I was obsessed with those two growing up. I liked action sports in general so I always watched the X-Games. We actually hosted Selema Masekela on our podcast a few years so it was awesome to hang out with him after watching him on TV for so many years. Chris Cote too, I got to meet a few years ago and when I was in college I was always watching Cote’s Cube. 

Surfer: As for your character, tell me about the development of who you embody. Was it an intentional choice to mock surfers?
Chad: My intention wasn’t to necessarily mock or satirize surfers or surf culture or even Southern California, I just knew it was something I was really good at playing this kind of surfer-stoner persona. Essentially, playing myself but dumbing it down…how I present myself in my material is basically me (laughs) I just dumb it down. My brother likes to say all my content is who I actually am but, “you’re just too scared to actually be that way in everyday life so you found an outlet through comedy to be yourself.” If that makes sense?

Surfer: It does, totally does. I mean that’s what I saw in the protest clip you posted, ‘I just wanna surf!’. I can relate because I just wanna chill and I just wanna surf and, ultimately, I want people to be happy or, at least, not all bummed out and stressed all the time. 
Chad: Exactly, that was always the intention. Not to mock surfing but to stoke people out. When I got out of college, I went to acting school…but it was like Shakespeare, and I knew that wasn’t for me thinking like, ‘I don’t do Shakespeare, this is ridiculous…”

Surfer: What was the school and why did you go there?
Chad: American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Paul Rudd went there so I thought maybe that was the move. I didn’t know anyone in entertainment so I figured it would be good to go to an acting school in Hollywood and, you know, it was a good foundation for acting but more so like theater acting and dramatic acting. I kinda knew that the only way I would thrive was if I was doing my own material so from there I got into stand up and open mics starting late 2014 and then really got into it in 2015. From there I started developing this persona. At first, it was really vulnerable because most comics (at least at that time) would go on riffs about how their life is shitty. I tried to do that but people would look at me and be like, ‘nah, your life can’t be that shitty.’ (laughs) So I thought, ‘what if I was just really positive and lacked self-awareness?’ That was the jumping off point...

We’ll be back with Part 2 of Getting Deep w/ Chad Kroeger next week