Kenny Mayne spent two days last week talking with two of the biggest names in sports and entertainment.

The current ESPN personality and Thomas Jefferson High School grad was in Los Angeles on Thursday, taping an interview with teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber before jetting across the country the next day to converse with “The Ultimate Male” Tom Brady.

But Mayne wasn’t discussing Bieber’s upcoming performance on the American Music Awards or his 5.9-million Twitter followers. He also wasn’t talking about the Patriots opening the season with a 6-1 record with Brady.

Mayne was jet-setting from coast to coast to discuss Bieber’s and Brady’s hair styles. In his newest recording, “Speaking in Tongues,” the teen idol calls out Brady’s new Bieber-esque hairdo.

But that’s just another week in the life of Mayne. The 1977 TJ grad has developed into the resident class clown at ESPN.

“I’m really like a salesman with this stuff,” Mayne said about his NFL pieces. “It seems like half my job is trying to talk people into doing this stuff. You just have to hope these people are into our pitch.”

The Bieber-Brady piece is slated to air Sunday morning on the “Sunday NFL Countdown” pregame show, which runs from 8 to 10 a.m. Mayne has been doing the weekly segment that includes offbeat feature stories, titled “The Mayne Event,” for nearly a decade.

That work he has been doing on “Countdown” turned into the original scripted Internet series, “Mayne Street,” which has been running since 2008. Mayne plays himself in a fictionalized version of life at the center of sports television in the Emmy-nominated series.

This year’s season of “Mayne Street” is a little different than the first four, according to Mayne. This season features one big story spread out over six episodes, which premiere every Wednesday on ESPN.com through mid-November.

During the first three shows, Mayne has met his new ESPN boss, Jack Bagg, who gets fed up and sends Kenny to a new assignment covering Minor League baseball for the network. Bagg pulled the plug and faded to black during a story Mayne produced about Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop’s new life as a thoroughbred “stud.”

“The closest thing to having a real boss take me to black was when I was fired in high school from a produce stand,” Mayne said. “The manager said I wasn’t gentle enough with the fruit. As it turns out, the day I was fired I won $200 at Longacres race track, which softened the blow.”

Although Mayne looks pretty natural in front of a camera, acting doesn’t come as easy as reporting sports highlights.

“The closest thing I did to acting at TJ was in debate or speech classes,” Mayne said. “But it’s really not that hard to play yourself. What I’ve figured out is it’s not too hard to deliver your lines. The hard part is what you do while you don’t talk.”

Before hitting the big-time at ESPN, Mayne was just like any other kid growing up in South King County. He frequented Jack in the Box and Herfy’s in Federal Way and enjoyed “cruising” at the newly-constructed SeaTac Mall.

“When that place opened, I was probably in junior high,” Mayne said. “That was the big shiny thing. We would go down there a lot. We would also go to Redondo and hang out.”

While at TJ, Mayne was known more as the Raiders’ quarterback than anything else and losing to Federal Way High School, which featured one of his best friends, Darryl Bell.

“We would meet at IHOP by SeaTac Mall every Saturday morning and review our games from the night before,” Mayne said. “We thought we were pro players or something when we were meeting at the time.”

But Mayne’s Jefferson football team was never able to beat Federal Way during his tenure at TJ.

“They kind of overpowered us,” he said. “It was probably my fault. But when I think back on high school football, it was a great time. We had some success. We were good, not great. For some reason, I always look back to games were I didn’t succeed and think if I knew then what I know now.”

Mayne also remembers playing at Federal Way Memorial Stadium, which had just been fitted with Astro-Turf.

“It was like playing at (Cowboys Stadium in Dallas) back then,” Mayne said. “It was state of the art with the turf and covered seats on both sides. It was a blast. I’m really happy that I got to play with those guys.”

Following high school, Mayne took his talents to Wenatchee Valley Community College. While in Wenatchee, Mayne was named an honorable mention junior college All-American in 1978 before moving on to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. After graduating from UNLV in 1982, he signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks. They eventually cut him.

Mayne’s journey into the television business started after he graduated from UNLV. He began at KLVX-TV (a PBS affiliate) in Las Vegas before moving back to the Seattle-area to become a production assistant at KSTW-TV (Channel 11).

It wasn’t until 1986 that Mayne finally got the opportunity to get in front of the camera. He started working as the weekend sports anchor at KSTW, which lasted three years. Mayne remained at KSTW until 1989.

During that time, Mayne worked several odd jobs, but never stopped pursuing his dream of working at ESPN.

ESPN brought Mayne on to the fledgling ESPN2 network where he hosted RPM2Night, a show for auto racing devotees, although he didn’t know much about NASCAR and hadn’t ever been to a race. Mayne paid his dues on ESPN2 before being promoted to hosting Sportscenter on ESPN.