Kevin Iso’s ‘One Star’ Web Series Bangs Like a Classic Mixtape

One Star featuring Kevin Iso and Bryson Brown

Remember when Lyft and Uber first took off? I know you remember the prices for a ride back then. We lived through it becoming a norm to call a total stranger to come, pick us up, and deliver us to a location. What I always remember is the interactions with the drivers. I’ll never forget asking a driver the most memorable story he had from driving Lyft. “A couple having sex in the back seat.” My friend asked, “how’d you know it was happening?” The driver (Ryan) said, “well, first I smelled it.” To this day I burst out laughing thinking about that. Nowadays, I feel like we don’t get interactions like that too often, especially since you can request a driver not be talkative. I always remember that as a fun interaction, and I don’t get that feeling going into rides anymore; however, Kevin Iso’s new web series, One Star, captures that feeling. 

I first saw Kevin Iso a few years ago when I was tagging along with a friend to a comedy club. He was the comedian I gravitated to that night, and I had to tell him. He then told me about the web series he was working on at the time along with fellow comedian Dan Perlman called Flatbush Misdemeanors. The show was brilliant and then a few years later got picked up for 2 seasons by Showtime. A huge draw for that show is how down to earth, squirrely, awkward, and sincere the characters were. In One Star, Iso’s new project, I can see that same sense of honesty. Iso has a knack for capturing situations that you can either feel yourself in or have actually been in before. 

One Star Deserves Mad Stars

In the first episode of One Star, he’s driving a woman talking to her partner on speaker phone. Her man starts wanting to talk that “Cinemax after dark” talk, asking what she’s wearing. When she mentions the driver, dude’s response is immediately, “man, fuck that *****.” Iso’s character turns around, entirely apologetic, saying, “oh, it’s no problem, I got earbuds in,” in order to accommodate his rider. Meanwhile, the dude on the phone is still going off. When I tell you, I have been in that exact situation. Except it was the driver talking to his girl on speakerphone, and I turned up my music in my earbuds so damn loud. I saw that first episode and knew this man had a banger on his hands. 

The second episode deals with trying to put on the right song for a passenger (Bryson Brown), but he keeps messing up the vibe due to a common thread among all the artists he’s selecting. Bryson plays up the frustration over the music perfectly as he has to keep reminding the driver about the very subtle issue at hand. The third episode, tho? You gotta see that shit. It’s the most energetic one and a perfect build as the passenger (Raven Jenai) consoles her friend with a trifling boyfriend. They way she elevates the scene to a crescendo is perfect as Kevin Iso reacts solely through facial expressions to how outrageous things are getting.

I’m going to show my age a bit here but, yall remember that late night HBO show Taxi Cab Confessions? For those of you that don’t, it was basically a documentary series that ran from 1995-2006, where taxi cab passengers were spilling their guts. At the end of the show they are told about the camera and could sign a waiver to release the footage or not. That shit sounds insane now, but back then it gave way to real ass stories. Unfiltered, graphic, and hilarious, it was a look into what strangers were going through in their day to day lives. I feel like One Star is a return to that time that never went away but through the lens of a skit. Being able to capture that feeling and turn it into comedy feels like putting a thunderstorm in a Pepsi bottle, but that’s what Kevin Iso excels at.

When it came to the inspiration behind One Star, Iso stated, “creating takes so much time. To get financing. To get green lit. All that stuff makes you feel like your work is good depending on someone else’s approval. I wanted to make something on my own. So right before I bought a car, I was thinking what if I drove Uber. What would it look like if I was the worst Uber driver? Hence, the title ‘One Star’… I learned a lot about arcs, structure, and being cheap during ‘Flatbush’. Applying some of that here. If anything, this project feels like a mixtape.

I asked Kevin what made him want to tell this story. “I haven’t even really started telling it yet. I’m just making videos of a dude that’s already kind of over his job. The real story I want to tell when I’m done playing around is one of a man that has to humble himself to take care of his family.” That’s why I rock with this comedian. I love a story where a man gotta humble himself in order to move forward. It’s one thing to write some shit that’s funny but putting a heartfelt story behind it with a character going through trials and tribulations? That’s my shit right there, and that’s the shit Kevin Iso stays on. You can catch the rest of the series over on Kevin Iso’s Instagram page and social media.

Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here! Follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram!

Tags:

  • Omar Holmon is a content editor that is here to make .gifs, obscure references, and find the correlation between everything Black and Nerdy.

  • Show Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

comment *

  • name *

  • email *

  • website *