Brenden Clinton Q&A: How a former Division III athlete became comedian Coach 30

“Class Clown” was the only award Brenden Clinton ever won in school. He received it, ironically, at the end of his lone year in the Laurel (Md.) High School Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), which his parents enrolled him in to get his act together.
Not only did Clinton, a Laurel native, not “straighten up” as his parents hoped, he refined his jokes and storytelling during that time.
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“(My parents) understood that they failed,” Clinton said. “I don’t know if (my dad) ever figured out I got the award, but they did tell him not to sign me up for ROTC II. Those were good times.”
Clinton is thankful he didn’t lose his sense of humor, because he eventually turned it into a career he loves, as well as a successful social media persona: “Coach 30.”
Whenever there’s a big sports event, people seek out the 24 year old’s film-study breakdowns. Athletes across sports have commented on Clinton’s videos and consigned them as being spot-on interactions between players and coaches. This is by design, as Clinton is a former Division III football player — a wide receiver at Salisbury University (Salisbury, Md.) and then a defensive back at McDaniel College (Westminster, Md.) — and has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be in the film room — particularly after a bad game.
Since the end of 2020, when his videos gained popularity on TikTok, Clinton has been amusing the masses with his reenactments. Some of the jokes are PG. Some push the envelope.
The Athletic spoke with Clinton about becoming a content creator, developing the characters in his skits and what’s next in his career.
(Editor’s note: The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.)
When was the first time either you, or someone close to you, recognized your ability to tell jokes?
It came from joking around with my friends and our specific sense of humor and pairing that with things that made me laugh. I think that was the biggest part. Once I felt like it was funny, I would put it out, get a reaction from others that was positive, (and) it made me even more confident.
What are things or people you find humorous?
I like dark humor. I’m not gonna say I like when bad things happen to people, but I can find the humor in it. It is (about) realism, too, things that everyone can relate to.
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You’re from Prince George’s County, Maryland, and a popular comedy style there is making jokes on the spot about people, or “joanin’.” How much did growing up there influence your delivery of jokes?
It did, because that was part of me growing up. Going through that, sometimes you don’t recognize it from the start. I can see that it helped me, the ability to sometimes spot what other people don’t or make a comparison that people can look at and say, “Oh, that’s accurate,” then it makes them laugh. It’s all about what they don’t expect. I think that’s the biggest part of it. All the components from joanin’ would help me make jokes.
When you were younger, what did you envision yourself doing?
Two things: I wanted to be a football player, and I wanted to be a strength coach. I saw the lifestyle (of football players) and the income and thought, “OK, I enjoyed playing football, so that would be cool. That would be, like, a dream job.” And then for strength coach, it was something that felt like it was connected to football. I enjoyed learning different things about how to change the body and movement. I got good at putting programs together.
What was the appeal of Salisbury University and McDaniel College?
Football was always at the heart of it. I was recruited to play at Salisbury, and when I got there, I didn’t like the scheme they were running, so I transferred to McDaniel.
Why did it not work for you?
I was playing receiver, and they were running this triple-option offense, which basically all you do is run the ball, and the receivers are skinny linemen on the outside. I didn’t want to be a part of that, so I left. (McDaniel) ran a spread offense, so they were throwing the ball a lot more. The funny thing is I moved to defensive back when I got over there, so it didn’t matter.
Is McDaniel where the coach character in your skits came from or was it a combination of different coaches you had during your football career?
Yeah, it was inspired by my defensive coordinator. He was a defensive coordinator when I was there, and he was also the DBs coach. That’s where that whole thing came from. That was how he would talk to us. Some of the lines were lines that he would say to us.
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When you finished with your college football career, what were your thoughts on your next move?
I was ready at the time. That last camp and that last season, I was like, “Oh yeah, I know that I’m good after this. I want to figure out something else to do.” I had no clue, though. I was like, “I’ll keep going to school, (or) maybe I’ll become a strength coach or a physical therapist.” I had a sales job at J.G. Wentworth (Clinton then sings the jingle.), but I was getting tired of it. … I worked at other jobs — Trader Joe’s, Amazon Flex and driving. At this point, though, I had started to make skits with my friends, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the process of doing it. I had high energy while I was doing it, so I was like, “OK, I want to keep doing this.”
One of the ideas — the coach skit — (was) about how our coach interacted with us in the film room. So we did that, and it was received well. The numbers were good, and I received advice that if anything works or pops to go back to that. It started getting a lot of traction on TikTok first. It kept growing from there.
Film session w/ Coach 30 – #Lakers vs #Knicks #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/dBbSP9rZoS
— Brenden Clinton (@MrGo30) March 14, 2023
What did you learn from that first skit?
It was two things: It was the realism, when people can relate to something, and that dark humor. When you go there, people react to it.
How did you develop “Davis,” “Jacobs” and the other characters?
I was making characters off the top of my head, and then I would kill them off. Some of them would transfer. But then as it got more popular, and you have more people that are in the dark, I kind of just settled on, “All right, cool. We got ‘Davis,’ we got ‘Peters,’ ‘Charles’ and all them.” From time to time, we get new people, “Davis’ mom,” etc.
Was “Davis’ mom” and the mama jokes something that you knew you were going to do, or was it improv?
I wanted to end the skit on something that was real savage. It wasn’t always about a mom. At first, it was other things, stuff that was really crazy insults for somebody to say to you. The mama thing was just one part of that … (and) that was something that people liked, so it continued.
The first time one of your videos went viral, what was that like for you?
It was cool. I was delivering packages when that was happening. That was my schedule: I would stay up all night and make the video, or do it that morning. Then, I would post it right before I went out to work. So, while I’m at work, a lot of times, I’m checking my phone, and the numbers just kept going up. I was replying to comments, because I thought that would help it, too. Basically, I wasn’t even working that day, because I was focused on the phone.
When did you move to content creation as your full-time job?
I was continuing to work until I got paid opportunities for my videos. At that point, I didn’t have to work anymore. … Really it was August 2021.
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Who was the first famous person who responded to your videos?
It was the Clemson (football) players. Some of the players … were commenting (and) talking about, “Oh, this dude must be in our meeting rooms.” People were in the comments sharing their experiences with their coaches, and it was a big thing. That’s what I talked about (with) the relatability.
How do you decide which clips to analyze for your skits?
A lot of times, it’s what’s popular, what’s trending, what a lot of people want to see. Sometimes, I want to try something new. Sometimes, it’s a different sport. Other times, I want to wear a certain uniform — I want to buy somebody’s team gear — so I do the video. Sometimes, something will happen, and I’ll have a specific joke.
Do you have a favorite skit?
It’s always hard, ’cause I’m always thinking about the next one. Once it’s done, it’s kind of like I forget it’s there. I can name some of the ones that I love the most. The ones that are outside of football, like Dragon Ball Z, or I did a Marvel one with Infinity War.
What do you want to come out of all the work that you’re doing right now?
I want to break into mainstream entertainment. When you look at somebody like Jordan Peele, who’s creating and acting in movies, that’s what — if I’m able to — I want to do. I want to be able to create great things that the world can see and be entertained by and enjoy.
I think everything that you do, every step that you take is preparing you for the next thing, and you’ll get there in the perfect timing. I want to create stuff that’s in the ranks of the greatest of all time. When you think about one of those staple movies like “Forrest Gump” … when you see iconic things like that, (they’re) almost timeless. That’s what I want.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton, The Athletic; photo: Courtesy of Brenden Clinton)
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