Episode Summary – “I HAVE 3 KIDNEYS AND THAT’S NO JOKE!” in Episode 45 of the Shining Brightly Podcast Show (links in the comments) – “Comedy – Growth and Kidney Disease”, I am joined by Aj Coulter, a young onset stage IV kidney disease patient, transplant recipient, survivor and comedian. He shares his courageous battle at age 27 and the feelings of isolation after being diagnosed with kidney disease, endless hours of dialysis and then a kidney transplant to help save his life. We discovered we are both TWINS too. Upon his recovery, Cj decided to share his journey and gratitude through comedy! So come listen, download, share and review this inspiring and very funny show!

Mentioned Resources

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aj_coulter2/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wix

LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jazrome-coulter

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ajcoulter2

Website: https://www.diseasedjokes.org/

About the guest –

Jazrome (Aj) Coulter has showcased his talents across the United States at conferences, clubs and events. He is a comedian who appeals to all ages and audiences by incorporating his personal experiences with clever wordplay and engaging storytelling. He also shares his journey of living with kidney disease, which adds depth and emotional resonance to his performances. His shows are sure to evoke a range of emotions, leaving you unsure whether to laugh or cry at any given moment.

About the Host:

Howard Brown is a best-selling author, award-winning international speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, and a two-time stage IV cancer survivor. He is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for corporate businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. Howard has co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He is a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Howard, his wife Lisa, and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan, and his happy place is on the basketball court.

Website

Http://www.shiningbrightly.com

Social Media

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

LinkedIn - https://wwwlinkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Instagram - @howard.brown.36

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#comedy #growth #mindset #cancer

#kidneydisease #dialysis #humor #Life #healthcare #motivation #education

#inspiration #podcast #download #share #shiningbrightly

yeah hello. It's Howard brown. It's the shining

brightly show. Your Maestro at the mic is back. And we are

going to laugh along the way today. I've got an incredible

guest, you know I normally do, but this one is really cool. So

jazz Rome. AJ Coulter is here. He's in the house. AJ, how are

you today?

I am doing amazing. Is a great day. I like to use

the mic. My struggle with the microphone, right?

That's right. You don't you? Well, I am at least

on my show, but I just love it. So listen, you're on the road

you're performing. I'm excited to follow you. Big shout out

Denise Meredith Miss Denise, thank you. You introduced us

quality introduction. And I'm just we caught up what you are

driving, putting some miles on, on the car and on yourself. So

let me give you a quick intro duction here. So jazz Rome, Ajay

Coulter, he showcased his talents and more than 26

conferences and events to date and more to come. He's a

comedian that appeals to all ages and audience by

incorporating his personal experience with clever wordplay,

engaging storytelling. He shares his journey about living with

kidney disease, we're going to dig into that he adds to this

depth and emotional resonance with to his performances on I

mean, this is truly you're using your life experience and you're

applying comedy to it. It's incredible. His shows invoke a

range of emotions. They leave you whether you're gonna laugh

or cry at any given moment. I love it. It's emotional show.

It's great. It's just amazing. So now, I told just the basics

about you share something Ajay, maybe we don't know about you,

you know, tell us something different.

Man, you know, it's actually crazy, because I

actually just got a kidney, which we do know about that

about a year ago. But before I got a kidney, I was just like,

in this weird phase, where I was actually looking girls on

Tinder. Because, you know, we're always trying to find that

perfect match. Right. And I'm swiping, and the conversations

just ended up turning into like, Hey, girl, like, what's your

blood type? Yeah. And you know, as I'm like, getting into my 30s

You know, your mind changes your body's you're into different

things. And I'm just, you know, like, what really just turns me

on organ donors. Yeah, so that's like the weird basis. So yeah,

if your lady out there, and your registered marker donor you

like, get at me, I'm still thinking,

Oh, my God, you turn you turn that into a bit,

man, this is great. Yeah. So you're swiping right. And if

they're an organ donor, they, they, you might even get a

message from you. I love it. So this is great. That's great. I

thank you for doing that. Well, listen, let's dig into it a

little bit, give me some of your background, because you're a man

with three kidneys, one of them that works and is keeping you

going. And the other two did not. So give me a quick

background on that, that leads us up to the comedy.

Um, the background on that is, when I was about 27,

I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure. I will, I was

stage four. And then about a year later, I transitioned into

dialysis. And I spent five and a half years actually on dialysis.

And it was probably, you know, just so much going on in that

life. Like, in that period of time, struggling trying to

balance this disease because people don't really understand

like, the amount of time it really takes from you and I just

value so much the time that I have now having this kitten

because I have so much freedom, when before I was sitting in a

chair for three days a week, for four and a half hours a day. And

not to mention, I had to wash my fluids, which I did not do a

lot. And I'm thankful to even be alive. Because I was always, you

know, four or five kilos over and just was swelled up looking

like the Michelin man or released the black version. But

you know, it's, it's just crazy that, you know, when I started

my comedy career, and I'm telling people about this that,

you know, so many people just don't understand what kidney

disease is. It's just, you know, so confusing, so new, but it's

affecting so many people you know, they say one in seven, one

and nine Americans might have kidney disease and don't know

about it. And even, you know, the first foundation we just

crazy enough that Denise actually connected me with was

one and nine. And right there, it just gave me the drive and

passion to like, hey, you know, I have this unique skill to make

people laugh. Why not use that to, you know, put more emphasis

on kidney disease.

Now I resonate with this so much, AJ, because

as a two times stage four cancer survivor, we're sitting in that

chair, a long time getting chemotherapy, getting fluids,

getting other types of treatments, and things like

that. And we're going to get PET scans and CAT scans, and we're

dealing with side effects. And you're a relatively young man. I

mean, you're, you're 27 years old, you're active. I know if

you're Flett IK or not. But I mean, that's, that takes about,

you know, your whole life, you have to think about things. I

mean, I stopped me in my tracks, right? As far as two different

cancer diagnosis. But when you say, I mean, when you just said,

you're sitting in the chair for three, four hours, three days a

week to get dialysis. I mean, that's one a discipline and to

the side effects where you blow up like the Michelin Man, it

people don't realise it until it happens to you, or your care

partners, or the people that understand it, but everyone has

been affected by someone with something. All right. So kidney

disease, cancer, it could be something. And so it is hard as

a young person, right? That is having to actually deal with

this type of a health issue and a stage four diagnosis with

kidney failure. And so you either you got to deal with the

deck of cards that you're dealt with. And I love the fact that

you've come out with to be able to talk about it. And so people

can laugh or cry, but they're getting some knowledge. And

they're getting understanding about that right now. Whether

you're a comedian before this,

or no, no, it was actually crazy. Because you

mentioned that you didn't know if I was athletic, a lot not

actually played football in college. Football was always a

dream. Every kid has that dream of going CNF. And it was I was

very passionate. You know, everybody I was talking about

the freshman 15 I gained the freshman agent. I was about to

40 with a 595 pound bench like I was massive. And it's crazy. Now

over the past six years, I mean, five and a half years, six,

whatever rounded up, math. You know, it just kind of like

slowly destroyed my body to you know, I'm kind of at this new

blank canvas. When I came out of my surgery, I was 155. And

today, I'm about 165. And I was wanting to keep Bob in college.

So I kind of just, you know, reversed in years and lost all

his weight. And now I'm like 18 Again, so it looks so good.

For those for those who are listening, I said

Aj is looking damn good. He's sharp. So I had the very

opposite. I lost all this weight. I ended up losing like

65 pounds, I usually go about 190 I played division three

hoops. And I actually played hoops twice this past weekend, I

finally got the clearance after my chemo port got removed. And

I'm about 165 510 165 But I couldn't bench I couldn't

adventure you were bench and you were pushing up some serious,

serious weight there.

But we're like the same size right now. We are I

think I'm like about 510 to do that's so tight. It is like the

casual like man five and they're the same height. exactly,

perfectly balanced.

But the fact is, is my clothes all big on me, all

my clothes, their clothes, wearing those clothes, you know,

from when you were a big guy, you were not wearing those

clothes anymore. So I want to ask you so so again, now, you

actually take us through just and then we'll get into much

more of the the some of the details here. But you had a

donor right you you had a transplant donor that donated

this working kidney, correct? Take us

Yes, it was actually from a deceased donor, there's

always two options you want to get it you can get a deceased

donor, which is from somebody that usually had died from like

a fatal tragedy, or you can get one from a living donor, which

is usually very much recommended and given live in donations

because the kidneys are healthier. They're more likely

to match with recipient and they just last so much longer.

Actually had got a deceased kidney from a younger kid. He's

in his 20s they don't disclose a lot of that information. But

that's about all I know right now, but regardless, you know, I

you know, this kidney is so much valuable. Just so much worse to

me, you know, and it's been a true blessing.

I absolutely you're alive. You're a miracle

man. I'm the same I might my sister's bow bone marrow, okay,

which could have killed me if my body rejected it saved my life.

So we are both very blessed, very grateful and very lucky.

Because you know that that that's medical technology. It's

a medical miracle. So I see it. I feel your inspiration there.

So

as a young man, what was the hardest moments in your life and

dealing with this disease now?

I'm just, it's really in the past. And I think

like, it will take years and years of just really like self

growth, self healing, meditation, changing mindset,

but probably one of the hardest times was, you know, I was on

dialysis. And I was also sick dealing with this. At the time,

I mean, there was support, but I mean, and you should know, like,

who can really support you when you're going through something

so tragic. I mean, there's people around, but at the end of

the day, you're always going to feel so lonely and have that,

you know, that gap in that separation from other people,

because sometimes they just truly don't understand what

you're going through both physically and mentally. Right.

And so at that time, I actually lost my twin brother. Back in

2018, he was murdered. And it was probably like one of the

hardest times in my life because I'm on dialysis. I'm sick. And

then I find out that my brother is killed. And it was just such

a huge loss. Because they took my spare kidney

to it, you know what I just said, Yes, that's

right. That was that was your if you were alive, you want to give

you a kidney? Oh, my God.

Yeah, it's like, wow, both like I joke about it,

you know, but like, in a sense, is like realism. I'm like, dude,

like, at least put it on ice. And so this is like, how I deal

with it, you know? Yeah, it's dark. But that's where humour

comes from is from like tragedy and pain and some of the best

comedy, Is that realistic pain that comes with it. And so,

humour definitely got me through that time. But just like

understanding the end, you know, a lot of people probably won't

agree with me here. But there is a lot of light and death.

There's a lot of growth. From there. There's a lot of

positivity to intuit, if you look at it in the right

perspective, because even though I would much rather have my

brother around, it gave me so much enlightenment and so much

growth, and I just hope we can live up to the world with that

part of my story, too.

That's great. It drives me push me forward. I

will tell you that so what we say in the Jewish religion, is

that all you have at the end of the day, you don't even have 144

characters on your tombstone. It's it's good brother good

husband, wife, father, son and your dates, right. But memory so

brother's name?

what's your

Jasmine Coulter,

Jasmine Coulter. So Jasmine Coulter it's

basically what we say in the Jewish religion is may his

memory his name and memory the only for a blessing for all of

those who knew and loved him. And this is beautiful your

memorialising him by bringing him up on my podcast and

remembering him with humour with a little darkness but it doesn't

matter. It's also that you are respecting that because he was a

person that in your life, and you know that I'm a twin. I have

a twin sister five minutes older and I would be dead without her

because she donated her bone marrow to me. And so she gave me

life. And I showed you are in the greenroom. You know, my, my

bone marrow bag. So we got a lot of criss crossing paths like

that. Isn't it crazy? Yeah, exactly. So

what you know, like in a way that almost say this is

not like in the way that I'm referring it, but in a way like

I need to make up a gap in in my life. But like cannot have your

twin.

CJ CJ Brown Jr. is she's she's five foot she's

taller, a little bit bitty, but I share my twin with you. She's

great. Love her out. It's fine. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, she

would give you the kidney if you need it. That's what she does.

That's how she rolls. So there she is, but we'll make that

intro. She's the best. She's positive. She's not she's Oh,

positive blood ties to positive because I'm all positive. She

she had twins. She has an older daughter and she has girl boy

twins. The girl is five minutes older than the boy and she's

five minutes older than me. Yeah. Who was older who was

older?

Three minutes,

three minutes. Oh my God. Now we talking about

twins and stuff like that. So I kind of got you know, you keep

pushing forward, and you're educating people and you're

doing it through your comedy. And it's really amazing that

you're able to do that because you're really an educator.

You're actually preaching And then teaching at the same time,

and I love the use of comedy there that so you, you learn a

lot when you get these diagnosis, what are some of the

lessons? What are you grateful for? What are the things that

that are motivating you?

Really, it's just the people, the number of people

that approached me, and truly appreciate, like what I'm trying

to do here. I'm always humbled by different people's stories,

people are always writing me. So that draws me a lot to and then

honestly, even just doing these podcasts, because it's easy, and

you know, to have been, you know, a best selling author, and

you know, all these great accolades that come with it,

it's just like, it's easy to get, you know, sidetracked or,

like, why we really do this, and then, like, hear those stories,

and people ask you again, and kind of, like, reflect on that

pain. It is very humbling. And like, for me, it always, like

reminds me of like, oh, this is why I'm doing this, because it's

easy to get distracted with things are going on the world

and you're getting excited about, you know, talking to new

people doing new events, you know, making great connections,

and then it has to come back to like, I'm doing this because

I've had so much pain, that I want other people to avoid that.

Absolutely. So how do you, you know, it's an art

form, you know, comedy, and it's not easy. I don't think I could

do it. And I'm a pretty damn good speaker. But but but comedy

is a different different flavour. So who are some you

have some role models in the comedy world that you like, or

follow that have influence on you.

Like, there's always the greats, I love Dave

Chappelle. Obviously, like, for me, he's the go, other people

will have different opinions. I love love Jim Gaffigan, because

he's just like a true inspiration for clean comics,

especially me doing clean comedy, because it's so it's so

challenging. You know, trying to write something that's edgy. But

like, also keep it clean. So a lot of into into Windows, you

know, but there definitely is a, you know, kind of a gap when you

walk into a club, and people are either expecting like blue

comedy, you know, just everything is not going and

you're coming on or you know, pretty much almost telling kid

jokes, and they're like, you're looking at who this guy is. And

so it's always that art form to make it like, oh, this can be

edgy. And PG 13 and but it's not like a kid cartoon, you will be

entertained. And so that's something that I'm slowly

learning, but also watching the games but like I like a lot of,

you know, personal comedian, mentors. One of my great

friends. He's He's a comedian, his name's Joe Hearns. Always

pushing me forward. Sandra riser Weiser. Amago I'm always messing

up her name. So that you know I love you. She's actually an

inspiration herself. She's about 84 years old and doing comedy

for so long. We're not gonna get on that day. And you know, she's

out there torn and hurt age, you know, very well known comedian

and always coming back to me and giving me words of wisdom. And

even, you know, comedians that I've met, like, Alonzo Bowden,

we did a podcast together and you know, just given me great

wisdoms, personally to keep pushing forward. Because his he

had to give his kidney to his brother. And so just different

iterations, you know?

Yeah, no, no, I appreciate you sharing who your

mentors are, and how you're developing your own style. And,

and actually, I could see that being a challenge because you

hear a lot of the racy stuff and you know, the non PG stuff gets

all the buildings and the airtime and all that sort of

stuff. But that's okay. Listen, you got lots of different

audiences that would appreciate that as well and you stick to

your values. So I appreciate that. So what would you say to

people that are struggling out there? We're coming out of the

pandemic. People I always say one of my speeches they look in

the mirror they don't like what they see. And also two things is

that tell me what you tell people struggling out there and

any advice for those people that get diagnosed the one in nine

with with kidney disease?

I would just it sounds it sounds insane. But you

know, always just embrace embrace tragedy, embrace the

hard times look at as growth because it's just another

opportunity to expand yourself expand your mind. Always

changing your thought processes. You can never know. I mean, I

never thought I went to school for engine nearing, I was

definitely that kid in college, like, look at his stupid kids.

These aren't majors, anything, you know, money, you know,

definitely was that guy like, you know, pretty much like, you

know, getting on to the drama majors and like, Look all these

people, and then you know, just terribly turn when and it turns

out that I'm an artist and you know, my analytical mind when it

comes to mechanical engineering, like it's just, it kind of like

coincides with that. And I've always been a good problem

solver. And so you never know what you go through, or know

what you are, you're working through and up. But always just

keep a conscious open mind. Because you can find true, true

Light and Darkness and it will just, you know, shine light the

way.

Well, you mean, you're looking at me and I got

the shining brightly going on, as well. But what we were saying

the same thing, because you can learn from darkness. Okay, you

can experience it in but you can learn for but you stay there in

that darkness too long, bad things can happen. So there's

lots of stuff that can happen from addiction to other stuff

and abuse and an isolation and it's not good to isolate. And so

I love that you stay in darkness, you can learn a little

bit from it, don't stay there too long. Use that light. And,

and what I tell you, what I tell me you can use it in your bits,

when I tell people is to actually take some of your light

and shine it on someone else and take the spotlight off yourself.

Because everyone is self evaluating. But if you go

something, and this is in chapter one of my book,

kindness, you can choose to be kind, you can choose to be good

and you can choose to heal yourself and others every single

day. It's a choice is a matter if you make that choice and you

follow that up with action. And my daughter always used to say

positivity alone is nothing without positivity with action.

And so that's where the light comes in. But if you are hurting

right now, okay, and if you get a diagnosis like cancer like

kidney disease, go be selfish. Go get that help that you need.

there's help out there. Right. Amen brother, right. there's

help out there brother. All right, so we're gonna we're

gonna go to the part of the show here. That's called the shining

brightly spotlight. All right, you can't make fun of my glasses

but I can't send you a pair. All right, these are my shades.

These are for those that are listening. These metallic white

shades these are my shining brightly sunglasses, because the

spotlight is on you, AJ Coulter I want you to tell everyone how

they can get a hold of you how can they can see your materials

how they can book you and what is next for you. And then close

out the show and hand it back to me with some inspiration.

You can find me on my webs website disease

jokes.org I'm really more active on my Instagram. It's AJ

underscore Coulter co ULTE Are the number two I'm also on

LinkedIn, and Tik Tok And Facebook. All of it AJ Coulter

pretty simple, pretty easy guy to look up. I can pretty much

hop from anybody. And man if I

were you performing next where some of

your next gigs Oh, yeah, this fall this fall. Where are you

hitting?

Man, I have a lot going on. I've been on tour

right now. I'm actually currently Oklahoma City I've

been going back and forth from Dallas. From next huge event

will be in Phoenix for the Donor Network. I'll be performing

between four or 500 nurses and doctors and then I'll be heading

out to New York, performing at a PGA which they raise money

through barbecue for kidney disease. And then after that,

which is all with next week. Pretty much the 16th through the

18th I will be doing that and I'll be flying out to DC to team

up with Neff cure to do inequality conference to you

know get better perspective on kidney disease in the black

community.

But they gotta they gotta find you because this

is important. And also you just hit on a really big topic is

disparities. Because I will tell you this, that the African

American community, the Latino community, the Indian

reservation community, the indigenous, they are the least

screened, at least for cancers. And so I sit there and shout, go

get your mammogram, go get your prostate checked, go get your

colon colonoscopy or do a whole at home stool test, go get your

cardio, go to the dentist. People don't put that off during

the pandemic or they just trust in the system. But you cannot be

your optimal self. If I would have been screened at age 40 AJ,

I might not have had colon cancer, I would have had stage

one early stage which is much more curable. So I will tell

people, the stuff that you and I went through if you go get

screened earlier, we can save you a lot of pain from

treatments and surgery and for me radiations and and and all

that stuff and inside effects. So go go go make sure your

health and make sure your function isn't optimal you I'll

just add to that. But I will put all of that those links inside

the show notes as well as on the socials and people be able to

find you. I guarantee you that so hit me up with some

inspiration as we close it out

he's feeling sick, go to the doctor.

I can't believe that I stopped the comedian.

That's

No, I feel like, you know, it sounds crazy. But, you

know, we're so stubborn. I was so stubborn, you know, years

ago, and we just had to talk about it. And I really wanted to

get off of that. I had signs of kidney disease, I ignored them.

There's always that fear because of money, that we won't go to

the hospital. But honestly, you know, get checked out focus on

your health, because it is truly the most valuable thing you

have. Don't put that before anything. And that is something

that I wish I would have done before all this Not that I'm

saying like I'm pretty grateful to have kidney disease now for

what I'm doing. But I don't recommend going through what I

went through.

And that's no joke, right? Yeah, that's no

joke. Exactly. Well, thank you for that. So this is you know,

you can get a hold of me the shining brightly show at shining

brightly.com. And it has information about my speaking

and I love to go speak. I want to go speak alongside you. But I

won't do that. I'll do the motivation, inspiration

education, you'll do the comedy. How's that when we meet up on

stage? That would be a cool thing to do. Oh, yeah, we got to

work toward that. You got to work today. Yeah, don't get any

of them. Don't go get any of them.

No, say no, we just get those shirts.

Yeah, exactly. So on the website, you can check

out my speaking you can check out the book. I've got

discussion guides on survivorship, mentorship, and

interfaith getting to know other people that aren't like you.

Those are my passions, as well as my podcast, which is cranking

you'll get this episode coming out very shortly, next couple of

weeks, and also my advocacy. My advocacy is entrepreneurship,

interfaith and in the cancer community. I advocate like crazy

because I don't want anyone that to do this alone and not to

isolate as well. So come find me at shining brightly.com And if

we choose Ajay if we all choose to shine brightly, just a little

bit each day for ourselves, for others and for our communities,

this world would be a better place and it really is a better

place with you and your comedy and your lessons and your

education. And I want to tell you it's a privilege to meet you

and know you and we got more living and teaching to do

we got a bright future together. We are shining

brightly.

We'll get you some shades. Well thank you for being

amazing. And we'll we will be following you I appreciate you

and much respect and stay healthy please keep keep keep on

being healthy Amen brother. And you to me