Kevin Gibbons: Radio Theatre Actor, Loving Husband and Father
I first met KEVIN GIBBONS when I moved to Albuquerque in the autumn of 1989. I had directed a radio drama for Chicago’s WFMT and offered it to KUNM upon my arrival here. Pat Wolfe, the program director asked if I would be interested in producing and programming radio drama for KUNM. Any pay? Right… The station was playing JOE FRANK on Sunday evenings and Kevin Gibbons was the board operator for the show. Kevin was a theatre student at the University of New Mexico and he did not want to chance missing or recording a single episode of Joe Frank’s WORK IN PROGRESS series. I was a huge Joe Frank fan as well and a lifelong friendship was born! Kevin became one of my go-to actors when I had a radio theatre project to record and we worked together numerous times in Studio A.
Kevin was a member of THEATRE IN THE MAKING and became a founding member of a long-form improvisation group from UNM called DAIDA. DAIDA performed 30 minute long improvised shows at the University, in the Albuquerque community and on RADIO THEATRE. Kevin formed his own improv troupe outside of UNM and organized the first Albuquerque Improv Festival encompassing all of the arts.
The lure of Los Angeles took Kevin to the coast in the mid-’90s. Kevin trained at THE GROUNDLINGS and was a member of several sketch and comedy troupes including EXTEMPORE. I relocated to Los Angeles in 2000 and Kevin and I resumed working together again on video and stage projects.
Kevin met his future wife Jennifer Pittman in Santa Monica through a fateful meeting arranged by his LA friend Kahlil Sabbagh. That evening Kevin and Jenn had their first kiss in the back seat of my truck on the ride home. The fellow Jenn had come to the party with was sitting in the passenger seat. Awkward. Kevin and Jenn’s relationship took a long and steady course towards marriage and having two precocious and delightful boys – Beckett and Phinneas – literary characters fer sure!
Kevin was active in Los Angeles theatre and film, but eventually put show business aside to grow his family. In an ironic startling full circle return, Kevin received a telephone call from his longtime hero – Joe Frank! Joe wanted Kevin to have their phone conversation recorded for Joe’s new radio show THE OTHER SIDE discussing and divulging the melodramatic and sexual side of Kevin’s relationship with his former girlfriend Debi Mae West – who was a regular on Joe’s show. After tortured consideration Kevin decided against it because of how it might affect his burgeoning relationship with his future wife Jennifer.
Kevin became a solid husband and father and was successful selling solar installations for homes all over Los Angeles County. That gig led Kevin to selling refurbished loft spaces in downtown LA. Kevin ultimately moved his family to San Francisco where he was hawking newly erected high-rise condos overlooking the Giant’s baseball stadium and the San Francisco Bay.
One of the many reasons Kevin was successful at selling new homes was because his sincere and caring nature reveled in helping folks find the home that would best fit their family, lifestyle and budget. Kevin’s low pressure, personable instincts enabled him to buy his first home in the East Bay high in the hills above Berkeley.
Months after moving his family into their dream home, Kevin was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Maintaining a mantra that “diagnosis is not destiny” Kevin was able to invite his many friends from all over the country to come to San Francisco to help him celebrate his 50th birthday on December 8, 2018.
Despite the disease and debilitating treatment, Kevin moved his family across the country to Essex, Massachusetts so that his wife and sons would be close to their larger family and support system. Kevin Gibbons sadly passed away in September of 2019.
Kevin’s improvisational credo was to take an idea and realize it through to its inevitable conclusion and make it seem altogether surprising. It was often dramatic and always very funny! We will miss Kevin Barry Gibbon’s irrepressible humor and sublime generosity toward his audience and to all his many friends and family. Thank you Kevin. We love you.
-Tim Forrest
