Comedian Trevor Moore Died
Whitest Kid U’Know member and comedian Trevor Moore died in an accident on Friday.
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Whitest Kid U’ Know co-founder and comedian Trevor Moore died in an accident on Friday.
Many moons ago, I started a job in NYC and during training I say next to a guy who told me he was in a comedy group.
“Pfft, yea, who isn’t?” I thought.
So, I asked him the name of the group and he said: “The Whitest Kids U’ Know.” I thought that was very funny.
That guys name was Timmy Williams and he and I would forge a friendship over our time at that shitty job. A friendship that still continues, however tangentially, today.
I’m not just a music nerd, I’m also a comedy nerd, so he and I would often talk about that kind of stuff. Timmy was from South Dakota, so there is a Midwestern sensibility we shared in addition to a love of the absurd.
You can take the boy out of the Midwest, but you can’t take the Midwest out of the boy.
When the WKUK got their landmark gig doing sketch comedy at Piano’s on the Lower East Side, I was there for that first show. I don’t recall it being full …or even half full. But week by week the number of people showing up increased and increased. In just about two months, they were playing to SRO shows — that’s when I stopped going each week.
I still went, just not as frequently. And because Timmy and I were close back then, I got to know Trevor, Zach, Sam, and Darren pretty well. I even make an appearance in a sketch in the first and second seasons of their show on IFC.
I say with sincerity they were all really nice guys. And even though I haven’t seen them in years, I suspect they still are.
During their tenure at Piano’s, there were loads of comedians who would open for them. Names that were popular in the NYC comedy underground, and in a few years would become much more popular. People like Aziz Ansari, Eugene Mirman (Bobs Burgers), and Reggie Watts immediately come to mind.
As I sit her now, gobsmacked about the news, I am reminded of three great memories I have of Trevor:
After that first show at Piano’s we were all walking to another club to see more comedy and we were chatting. He mentioned that when he was an NBC Page, he worked for Lorne Michaels. He said he used to steal phone numbers of celebrities. I challenged him to call someone and he dialed up Paris Hilton (on speaker) and got her voice mail and left this insane message, playing it off like they were old buddies.
I lived with a woman who was close with him from the NBC Page program and during the one summer I lived with her, we’d have BBQ’s on the roof and it was usually he and Timmy who showed up. The apartment was close to LaGuardia so we could literally see the names of the airlines on the planes as they flew over. He, Timmy, and I started betting change on what airline would be the next to fly over. It was ridiculous, and I have no recollection who took home the pot of 1.57, but we laughed a lot.
I was lucky enough to share in his wedding day as the guest of the woman I mention above. Regardless of my feelings about marriage, it’s always special to share in a day like that.
This is truly a tragic loss because it’s not just the loss of a comedian, Trevor was so much more. He was genuinely a good person, he was a friend to many, he was exceptionally talented, he was fucking funny, he was a son, he was a husband, and he was a father.
My thoughts are with his family and friends, but in particular his wife Aimee and their son.
Trevor Moore was 41 years old and that’s too young.
Just a fucking tragedy.