Latest news with #Spenny
Edmonton Journal
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Kenny vs. Spenny, Ivan Decker polar opposite hilarious at Grindstone Comedy Fest
Organizers wary Kenny vs. Spenny would get somehow illegal at Grindstone Comedy Fest didn't have to long to wait to grit their teeth a little as the former was waving a weapon around at the latter's face on the mainstage Friday night. Article content 'Anyone out there have a knife?' 58-year-old Kenny Hotz beckoned the way improv artists usually ask for audience prompts — 'TOILET!' — his long-time comedy partner Spencer Rice begging him to just kill him already when one showed up. Article content Article content The now-grey, former reality TV stars doing a two-night headliner stand at Grindstone's sixth annual mixed-maniacal-arts fest did not exactly disappoint their 23-year reputation of being sloppy, vicious and preposterously cruel to each other in a peak Gen X version of Abbott and Costello, walking out already spilling drinks with one working mic between them, bitching about being put up at — content warning from here on — a word that rhymes with Bum 'Fart Inn.' Article content Article content Like any resilient bully victim, Rice deflected the jabs away from him, towards the audience and our city, calling the Oilers losers — he lost $300 betting on them — and dismissing Edmonton as the r-word version of Calgary. Article content Article content 'The truth is we're only here because we were cancelled,' Rice moaned, noting they used to take meetings in Hollywood. 'This was not the dream we had growing up.' Article content Article content In the spirit of things, the crowd cheerfully yelled 'F— you!' back at them. Article content This sounds insane, but it was all somehow therapeutic, tension still kept in since the second year of playoff disappointment, maybe? Article content They did not do any gross-out challenges, though they threatened to have Spenny perform oral sex on his former Toronto babysitter. Article content One heckler in a Kenny vs. Spenny T-shirt kept yelling back and forth at the duo, Kenny calling her to the stage, which she obliged, then yelled, 'Sit down, you f—ing slag!' which she seemed to appreciate. Article content Yeah, so not exactly Folk Fest 'what a glorious city!' banter, but essentially an escalation between performers and audience where the two basically checked off every sort of offensive thing you can't say any more, except they can and they did.
Telegraph
06-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Sam Underhill: what I've learnt about business
I established Grass & Roots with team-mate Ben Spencer in September 2021, converting my 1990s Land Rover Defender into a mobile coffee shop which has become a regular sight in Somerset, serving everyone from Bath fans at the Recreation Ground on matchdays to guests at a range of events – even wedding receptions. Here's what I've learnt so far from my experience… You need to have a good business partner Ben was a great person to start this venture with because he's my friend, team-mate and captain at Bath. The coffee van is based at his house and then we take it to the Rec on matchdays. Spenny does a phenomenal amount of work in the day-to-day running of the business. He does a lot of the practical stuff and knows a lot of baristas as well, which has proved invaluable. We got some really useful advice early on and that was, 'Just get out there and do it' rather than try to come up with the perfect business model. And that's so true. It's about getting out there, trying things and seeing what works. Ultimately, the fundamental of our business was 'Can we sell coffee from a van?' It turns out we could, so we built on that and went from there. Early on it was about meeting people, finding out what they liked, and what they didn't like, and seeing what the demand was. We have changed our offering based on what people have said they want. We introduced a batch-filter coffee – because it's quicker and people often want just a quick coffee – and changed the number of dairy alternatives we carry. It's things like that, which might be quite small individually but when you add them up they can determine whether you are successful or not. Time management is key I have a wife and a young son, while Ben has got three kids and three dogs so his household is particularly busy. Time-management is therefore very important and I'm appreciating that more now after Freddie was born last year. Since Spenny became captain of Bath, his responsibilities at the club have grown, and we have both been in the England set-up quite a lot. We used to sell coffee from the van during England camps if we weren't involved. That was good for the business because we had two weeks off and could get out and about with it a bit more. But now we're regularly in the England squad we generally only do the home games at Bath. When things go well on the pitch it's way harder to find the time to do it. We were both away at last year's Guinness Men's Six Nations, the autumn internationals and the summer tour in between. We are open-minded about the future of the business because the coffee van works well on its own and would also work well if we were to replicate it elsewhere. I think that's the brilliance of it – if we can't get out and serve people then it's not a loss-maker; we don't have any overheads for renting space or equipment so the flexibility of the venture is a big benefit. We can work as much or as little as we want. A sense of perspective I think running a coffee business is a really cool thing to do but I never forget that we are in a privileged position as rugby players. Ultimately, we don't need to run a coffee business whereas a lot of other vendors do. I am quite conscious of that when we are at the Rec because it's a passion project for us and for other people it's their livelihood. I have a lot of respect for food and drink vendors who do it as a full-time job because it is hard work and can be very challenging. We can pull back on our business commitments when things are very busy in our lives with rugby, and that's something which not everyone can do. I think with sport – and indeed a lot of careers – there is a sense of being driven, not being happy with what you've got and always wanting more. There are plenty of things I am proud of in my career but also a lot more I want to achieve. I would like to win something big and meaningful, such as a Gallagher Premiership with Bath because the club have not been champions since 1996. So things like the coffee van are nice to do because they provide a sense of perspective; it takes you outside the rugby bubble and into the real world, albeit not fully. But it does help. Having trust in your team When you run a business, you are relying on customers spending money with you, on providers delivering their services and, of course, on employees doing their jobs. That trust in other people is so important and is unique for Ben and I because we have full-time jobs as rugby players as well. We don't have anyone who runs our coffee business – it's just us – but obviously we have some great baristas who work for us. One of them is a guy called Ben Lewis, who is brilliant at what he does. 'Barista Benji' is an expert at making coffee – he really has made it an art form and he has been in the UK Latte Art Championship final four times. He's way over-qualified to run our coffee van, but he has helped us a lot with connections. Enjoy it! This is a big one. Quite simply, we run a coffee business because we enjoy it. We are passionate about coffee and getting high-quality coffee to people where they perhaps wouldn't normally get it. Being able to tie that in with sport is also important to us. Our business venture has allowed us to meet new people and connect with them. We meet all sorts of people and have some great interactions with them, especially the fans at the Rec on a matchday. And if we take the van down to a local rugby tournament you get to meet all kinds of people, be they players, parents or general rugby fans. There are lots of people who we serve who haven't had specialty coffee before because they have never been to a fancy coffee shop in town or might not have one nearby. Being able to give people their first taste of what I would describe as decent coffee is pretty cool. Connecting with them and developing friendships on the back of that is even better. Running a coffee business has probably taught me what I enjoy most: meeting people. I'm probably at my best when I'm actually working, serving customers and chatting to them. For me that's what it's all about. Funding Circle, business finance that backs you Funding Circle knows that, just as rugby players can't win matches by themselves, business owners can't succeed on their own. The online platform for business finance has backed more than 100,000 UK small businesses with more than £13 billion of funding – and counting.
