[MADtv] MADtv Exclusive Access: Keegan-Michael Key

[Dartanian]

MADtv Exclusive Access: Keegan-Michael Key

"Coach Hines"

Interviewer: What was the inspiration behind Coach Hines?

Keegan: The inspiration -- I lived two doors down from these three kids, who were my best friends growing up, and they go on the website all the time actually, it's funny, and their father is the inspiration for Coach Hines. When we were little kids, he was a football coach at two schools, I mean when we were kids he was a football coach at one school, which was an all boys, private, Catholic school, just like Saint Francis is in the sketches. And because the writer, John Crane, went to an all-boys private school, De La Salle, and you know, there's De La Salle's in every city in the country. So he taught at the University of Detroit, Jesuit High School and Academy, and then as all of us got older and went to Shrine of the Little Flower High School (I mean, I was a good Catholic boy growing up), so he was the offensive co-ordinator at Shrine High School, and I think he was the defensive co-ordinator at U of D, so he was a coach and its really just the eyes (does Coach Hines eyes and pretends to chew gum), and he's a much mellower guy now but he used to have these piercing eyes, these really intense piercing eyes all the time, so yeah.

Interviewer: And how about the outfit? Is that -- did he inspire it?

Keegan: The outfit is an amalgam of three other coaches.

Interviewer: Oh okay, cool.

Keegan: Our Dean of Students in High School used to tuck his tie into his pants, and the bike shorts is what every coach -- anybody who is over 25, or 28, 29 years of age knows that coach, who wore those bike shorts (starts laughing), you know like, "why were you wearing them?"

Interviewer: Yeah!

Keegan: So my gym teacher from grade school, Mr. Kendigan was his name, and he wore those shorts. Yellow, man I loved them. And the first pair of those shorts that I wore were yellow actually, when I created the character at The Second City, in Detroit.

"Beginnings"

Keegan: I started doing drama in high school, and I was in Godspell when I was a junior in high school, and I was in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when I was a sophomore. I played Jesus in Godspell and after that I was like "forget being a veteranarian!" I mean I love animals, but then someone told me I had to do alot of math to be a vet and I said "forget that, I'm doing this. I'll just do this from now on, this is awesome!" But then the comedy stuff didn't really come until -- I mean, I didn't think about being a comedian, I just wanted to be an actor. And then I got out of graduate and made a film, it was a drama and I got killed in the film so it was all dramatic, and dreams unfulfilled and all this, and two of the guys in the film were friends of mine, they're my very dear friends now, and they were like "you should come down to Second City and audition" and I did and a whole new world opened. It was like I got three degrees: I got my Bachelors Degree, Masters in Fine Arts and Masters in Comedy. It was so awesome.

"Sketch Ideas"

Interviewer: Has it [rejected sketch] happened yet?

Keegan: Yeah ... It happened earlier this year, there was a sketch we read at the table called "Yemen" which was about a waiter in a Greek restaurant who is Yemeni, it happened to me in real life, the person who is sitting at the table asks him where he's from, and he's just positive that they're not going to know where he's from, and he tells him where he's from and the guy at the table knows exactly where Yemen is, and the guy freaks out because he knows where Yemen is. So he's like "You know where Yemen is? How do you know Yemen? I do - this - I - halalalalala!!" and he can't believe that they all know where Yemen is, and so the guy at the table is sitting there talking to his friends drinking his water and as soon as the glass hits the table, the guys there to give him water, and he gives him extra hors douvres, gives him his daughter, and they sacrifice a goat for him because they can't believe the guy knows Yemen. And they didn't pick it, you know what I mean? And I had a writer who liked it, and he said "write it" so I did, and that kinda -- did it break my heart? I guess you've gotta have thick skin, and there's always a chance that its not going to get picked, and sometimes things get picked and you go, "really? I had no idea that was gonna get picked" you know? You're surprised.

"Improv"

Keegan: Right now it's pure improv, its what we call long form improv, where we'll usually take one suggestion and we'll go all the way through and just kind of let it morph and new ideas will happen, and its very stream of consciousness. We tried to create this little world that can get as far reaching as it wants, but then it somehow thematically comes back to that suggestion. Improvisers love it, its a big thing to do in the world of improv, as opposed to short form improvisation, which is what you see on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. So its a different kind of experimental -- but its funny, its funny, its not just weird, its funny. Our aim is to make it as funny as we can, "finneus! Coem down from the mount! (*makes tribal African noise that I refuse to transcriber*). Every Saturday, 8 pm, at the Improv on Melrose. We need audience!

"Jovan Muskatelle"

Keegan: He's from Second City too, but he's actually a character that was created by somebody else. I mean he was not created by somebody else, the impetus of him was given to me by somebody else. There was a sketch we wrote about the war right as we were going into Iraq. And one of the members or the 313 wrote this sketch about border skirmish between Illinois and Indiana, and we did this whole scene that kinda played out exactly like some of the field reporters who were in Iraq qould play out. Illinois was attacking Indiana because Indiana had nerve gas in it, they had nerve gas plants in Indiana, so its like "theres this place that has nerve gas, we gotta go get it!" so they went into Indiana to get the nerve gas, and one of these reporters is saying "I'm here in Gary, Indiana" and this guy, Jovan Muskatelle comes up behind him and he's like "It's crazy as hell! It was crazy!" so that very first sketch that you saw, was almost word for word what happened at Second City.

[MysterE]

Can someone post the link for the download to this like the other E.A. has? Also need a link for the Boys of Aberbercrombie.

[MysterE]

Originally posted by MysterE
Can someone post the link for the download to this like the other E.A. has? Also need a link for the Boys of Aberbercrombie.

[OprahW]

he is great as obama in that video!!!