Interview: Kerri Kenney-Silver
-by Ken Plume
The big screen adventures of Reno’s “finest” opens this Friday, as Comedy Central’s Reno 911! makes its way from the small screen to the big in Reno 911!: Miami.
At the core of Reno’s amazing troupe of actors is a trio whose performing history goes back to the legendary MTV via NYU sketch group The State - Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney-Silver.
After The State came to a close, Lennon, Garant & Kenney-Silver wrote & starred in the Euro-variety spoof Viva Variety. Their greatest TV success, though, would come with their portrayal as deputies Dangle, Junior, and Wiegel on Reno 911!, which is currently filming its fifth season (in addition to the release of that aforementioned feature). The first 3 seasons of Reno are currently available on DVD, and a single-disc “best-of” collection - Reno 911!: Most Wanted - has just been released.
We recently got a chance to go in-depth with Kerri Kenney-Silver about Reno, The State, Viva Variety, and much more…
QUICK STOP: It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you.
KERRI KENNEY-SILVER: It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you. I just clicked on, last night, the interview you did with Tom and Ben for Balls of Fury. It was really funny.
QS: Did that work?
KENNEY-SILVER: It was great. It was really great.
QS: It’s kind of being put in the hot seat, to talk to both of them…
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, please.
QS: Particularly when I’ve heard such horror stories about what they can be like.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, please…
QS: True enfant terribles.
KENNEY-SILVER: (laughing)
QS: Which I guess, considering how old they’ve gotten, “enfant” really doesn’t apply anymore…
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s so true. We’re so old.
QS: No, no, nonsense. They are.
KENNEY-SILVER: We’re like the borscht belt now.
QS: You sound like you’re out there touring as The State…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly.
QS: In Vegas.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right.
QS: When you open the new theater at The Mirage, “The State Theater…
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, exactly…
QS: Maybe that’s when you need to call it quits.
KENNEY-SILVER: No, that’s when we really get going I think.
QS: And, on Sundays, you do Viva Variety.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yep, for a brunch show.
QS: Yes, for the kids. Just to change things up a bit.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right.
QS: And to give time for everyone else to go off and shoot some special for VH1.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. We need some more Where Were They When.
QS: Why not go back to the 20s? I remember prohibition in the 30s…
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course. Those are the golden yeas.
QS: It’s only a matter of time before they go back.
KENNEY-SILVER: I remember you from then. That was a fun time.
QS: The whole flapper movement in the 20s.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, you looked great in those skirts.
QS: Well, I tried. I didn’t have the legs for it, though.
KENNEY-SILVER: What a figure…
QS: Did you real the interview we had done with Carlos (Alazraqui)?
KENNEY-SILVER: I did not. I just heard about it. It’s on your interview with Tom and Ben.
QS: In which he claimed credit for everything in the world…
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course he did.
QS: And he never corpses…
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, no.
QS: In fact he admonishes others when they break down in a scene.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh Jesus. Did Tom and Ben tell you about the jar that we used to have? That you’d have to put money in every time you laughed?
QS: There’s a corpse jar?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes. You had to put, our first season, five dollars in a jar if you cracked up and it ruined a take. You could crack up in a take, but if it ruined the take, you had to put five dollars in the jar. By the end of the season, Carlos had essentially bought us lunch. The whole crew.
QS: Did he even have a fee left by the end?
KENNEY-SILVER: No, exactly. He owed us money for being on the show by the end.
QS: So was he one of the chief proponents for getting rid of that for future seasons?
KENNEY-SILVER: We just, you know, it just got so silly because we all… you can’t help but laugh sometimes, and when Tom and Ben and I started laughing in the middle of the take it was like, “You know what? Never mind. Let’s forget about the jar.”
QS: So, really, the only ones who lost out were the crew.
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly. No more free lunches. Now they have to pay for their lunch.
QS: You issue little lunch cards, like school, right?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. It’s 20 dollars for a rubber veggie burger.
QS: It shows how much you care about them.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s so true. And they deserve it.
QS: Sometimes, they even deserve less.
KENNEY-SILVER: That’s true. 25 dollars.
QS: Well that’ll be Season Five. They don’t know that yet, do they?
KENNEY-SILVER: Season Five is they cook us lunch.
QS: It’d be great if you actually set up little burners for them.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, they each get to cook… and we judge them, and they get paid based on how good their lunch is.
QS: So, in other words, from now on it’s gonna turn into a county fair.
KENNEY-SILVER: Mm-hmm. Yeah. There’ll be someone making cream pies…
QS: There’ll be chili day.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. I’m looking forward to the corn dog booth.
QS: And whoever’s in last place gets fired.
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly. Well, that happens anyway.
QS: But hey, it’s worth it for the funnel cakes.
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly.
QS: Is this what you thought the interview would be like?
KENNEY-SILVER: Completely… Well, as I said, I saw your other interviews, so yes. I was completely prepared.
QS: If we were to go back a bit, you certainly do come from an entertainment dynasty, as it were…
KENNEY-SILVER: That’s an interesting word for it, certainly.
QS: Did you perceive that while you were growing up, that your father did something that was not run of the mill?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. Certainly when you go to school for career day and you tell other kids at school, whose parents are doctors, that your father is a cartoon bird, it is definitely different. But I always wanted to do what he did. I always emulated him and I would go with him to auditions and watch him do his cartoons and things. Yeah, always emulated him. My father - I don’t know if you know this - he was also the host of Bowling for Dollars.
QS: That, I did not know.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. And he also did soap operas and things. I knew that I wanted to perform like him, always.
QS: At what point did you actually perceive that that was something that was unique?
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t think it ever felt unique growing up. I think it just felt like that’s what my dad does. But I think when I started to realize that other kids’ parents didn’t make cartoon bird voices for a living, maybe that was a little bit different.
QS: Did you ever encounter any jealousy from the other kids?
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, I went to a party one time in New York, when Tom and Ben and I were at NYU, and someone said to me, just making small talk, “So, what do your parents do?” And I said, “Well, my father is the voice of the Cocoa Puffs bird and Lion-O from Thundercats.” And they said, “No he’s not.” “Yes he is.” And they said, “I just met someone last week who claimed that their father was the voice of the Cocoa Puffs bird and the voice of Count Chocula and the voice of Lion-O from the Thundercats.” And I’m thinking, if you’re gonna make up a lie, wouldn’t you come up with something a little bit better than my dad’s the Cocoa Puffs bird? So someone was out there basically coveting my life.
QS: Or it was part of that period when you were just drifting in and out of different realities…
KENNEY-SILVER: When I was on crack, yeah, it could be that too. When I was drifting in and out of reality from my schizophrenia.
QS: Trying to trade the information about your father’s career for rocks.
KENNEY-SILVER: That still happens. I have a kid now; I gotta do what I gotta do.
QS: Well now the DVDs are out, the cache of being the son of Lion-O is back.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s back. Are they on DVD?
QS: Yes.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh really? I didn’t know that! Oh, I love it. That’s so great. I’m amazed at how many fans that… when we did Comic-Con, you were there…
QS: Yes…
KENNEY-SILVER: I’d never seen anything like that. I had no idea what a big deal that was, the cartoon world, the animation… I don’t know what you call it… That whole world. I had no idea how big a deal that was.
QS: You’ve done a good deal of voice work yourself. Do you find that sometimes there is a bit of a bubble that exists, just doing your work as a career, and not fully experiencing exactly what the impact is of, say, being a recurring character on Kim Possible?
KENNEY-SILVER: Like my dad, no one every knows who he is. People don’t come up to him and say, “Oh, you’re the voice on Imus in the Morning.” No one knows what he looks like. So yes, it’s certainly different. We get people coming up to us and saying, “Hey, you’re Trudy Wiegel!” “Hey Dangle!”
QS: It’s probably not the best way you want to be remembered.
KENNEY-SILVER: No, but it actually is pretty good, because in person, I can only do better. What I constantly hear from people is, “Wow, you’re not as retarded and ugly as you are on TV.” Which is, you know - that’s what you want to hear.
QS: It’s good to have your own kid growing up, and someone approach you and tell his mother that, “You’re not nearly as retarded or ugly as I thought you were going to be.”
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, my poor son. He is now 14 months old, and when I was pregnant with him was when we shot the last seasons, three and four. And I was big and pregnant, obviously, for season four, and I did some things, like ribbon dances in purple unitard with my big pregnant belly, and wearing half-shirts and short shorts with my big belly and pregnant butt hanging out. And I just think, “Poor young man. This is the start that I’m giving him.”
QS: So, instead of a college fund, it should be a therapy fund.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh yeah. We’ve already started that.
QS: You know, the first time he comes home and goes, “Mom, you’ll never guess what I downloaded.”
KENNEY-SILVER: Right. Yeah, “You in a unitard.” It couldn’t be much worse. I think he would probably be more proud if he found a porno with his mom then what he’s actually gonna find.
QS: What would you choose if you were to pick out one moment from The State or Viva Variety or Reno that you absolutely don’t want him to see until you can actually put it in context and try to alleviate the pain for him?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, that’s completely easy. Me butt naked, nine months pregnant, on Reno 911 this last season. Tom, Ben, Cedric, and Carlos come busting in and do a panty raid in the women’s locker room hoping to find Clemmy in her panties and bra, and what they find is me nine months pregnant, naked, with a shower cap on dancing with a towel. If my son ever sees that, he’s either gonna love me more or we’ll never hear from him again.
QS: What is the context that you would deliver on that?
KENNEY-SILVER: You mean to tell him?
QS: Yes. When he comes to you, sort of shivering…
KENNEY-SILVER: “You need to sit down. I think you need to sit down.” And then from there, I would just say, “You know what? You remember that nice house you grew up in and those great fancy shoes you always wore? Well, that’s how we paid for them.”
QS: Do you think they’ll ever erase the picture from his mind?
KENNEY-SILVER: No. Dear God no. To quote Ben in the actual piece, “There are some things you can’t un-see.”
QS: Of course, it’s even more awkward if he has a friend show it to him…
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s going to be ugly. I think we need to sit him down and show it to him before he can get the ugly truth in school.
QS: Sort of like when you temper an egg when cooking…
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly.
QS: That’s gonna be a moment. But at least you know it’s coming.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s gonna be a moment that’s going to continue and reverberate probably into his brain for the rest of his life.
QS: Or he can be immensely proud.
KENNEY-SILVER: Or he’ll be immensely proud.
QS: And follow you in that course.
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, let’s hope not.
QS: How encouraging were your parents with what you wanted to do, once you decided on that similar path in the entertainment industry?
KENNEY-SILVER: Extremely. My father said “Look, I am a very wealthy voice of a cartoon bird who never went to college. What can I say, ‘Don’t go into comedy?’” So they were very encouraging. They thought it was terrific. Will I be encouraging for my son when he wants to go into entertainment? No way. I pray that he wants to be a plumber and be happy and settle down with kids in a trailer in Van Nuys. I just see it… I watch it in other people, and it’s horrifying to me.
QS: Do you sometimes fear even unintentionally being that sort of stage motherish type?
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course. The instant you become a parent, you can’t help but go, “Look at him. He’s picking his nose. Everyone, gather around.”
QS: “Get the camera.”
KENNEY-SILVER: “Isn’t that the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen?” With your first child it just is that way. I think it is certainly for us. So yeah, there’s certainly that aspect, but then we went and got his picture taken recently at one of those silly little picture places, and the woman said afterward, “You know, these are quite good. We could enter him in the worldwide contest.” And I’m thinking, “What? No. I’m not interested in you giving my son a score.”
QS: I love the fact that they’re actually on the lookout.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, they’re on the lookout.
QS: You wonder what the commission is for them.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes, exactly. “We found him! The perfect baby!” It’s the Dalai Lama of faces.
QS: Imagine if there was actually some kind of cult recruiting that went on in these baby centers…
KENNEY-SILVER: If they came to me and said, “We think your son’s the Dalai Lama,” that’s another story. They can have him, because I think that’s terrific. I’d be very proud. But to be the face of the picture place of kids? No, I’m not interested.
QS: It’s good to know that they automatically grade. You gotta wonder about the person waiting behind you.
KENNEY-SILVER: That’s what I’m thinking, with the ugly kid with the zits.
QS: Yeah, who’s going, “What about mine?”
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah…
QS: That’s a way to lose business.
KENNEY-SILVER: Didn’t make the grade.
QS: Time to go to Olan Mills.
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly. They’ll take anyone there.
QS: “Yeah, I have the photos…”
KENNEY-SILVER: Sitting on one of those fake logs.
QS: At what point did you decide that performing really was something that you were keen on?
KENNEY-SILVER: Just always. Really, the truth is, I always wanted to be a part of, you know - it’s that old silly story of a lot of actors or comedians - that I wanted to be a part of but I was not coordinated. So there was no room for someone who couldn’t even walk the mile to be on the track team. They weren’t interested in someone who had to wear special shoes to be on the softball team. It’s not the favorite for… literally, I literally tried out for cheerleading and literally the girls laughed. Not at me, they thought they were laughing with me because they thought I was joking. Like, “That’s a good one Kerri. You really got us with that.” So I just wanted the jacket. I wanted the jacket, I wanted to show up on game day of whatever sport it was and be like, “Hey, I’m on the team.”
QS: Did you ever think of just buying the jacket and seeing if anyone called you on it?
KENNEY-SILVER: Have my mom make me one… A makeshift one out of paper would have been a good idea. I wanted to be part of things, and all these things you had to try out for. Now the only thing in my school that you didn’t have to try out for was the theater club. I was like “Hey, this is the last stop on the bus.” So, I went there and it turned out that I actually really loved it, and just kept doing it.
QS: How were the theater people treated in your school?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, like dirt.
QS: Worse than band?
KENNEY-SILVER: There’s the one pretty girl who can sing like an angel who you’re sure is gonna be the next Julia Roberts that we never hear from again. And everyone loves her because she’s also a cheerleader. And then there’s the rest of us. The sort of like misfit toys who are prancing around…
QS: Have you heard from her again?
KENNEY-SILVER: No.
QS: You will now.
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t watch much porno.
QS: She’s still got the voice, though.
KENNEY-SILVER: She can sing like an angel while she’s doing her business.
QS: Yes. That’s how she makes at least $500 a pop. Literally. …I did not say that…
KENNEY-SILVER: No, that’s alright. You can edit that part out.
QS: I definitely will. In fact I’ll put lovely chimes or something in there.
KENNEY-SILVER: There you go.
QS: What was the first production you actually remember doing?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, this is so painful. Okay. The first production I remember doing was a play in the town center, outside. It was called the Levitt Pavilion, and we did a performance of “You’re A Grand Old Flag,” which was me and about seven other misfit children wearing white painter’s pants, white painter’s hats and white tee shirts with red scarves around our waists, and we had flags on sticks that we held up and we sort of marched in formation singing, (sings) “You’re a grand old flag, you’re a high flying flag, and forever in peace may you wave.” And we did that over and over. And then there… I forgot about this too. I did a production of MacBeth when I was in like fourth grade. My teacher had set it all to nursery rhymes, so it was like, (sings) “MacBeth MacBeth I been thinkin’, what a fine thing it would be, if my dear we should kill Duncan while he’s visiting you and me.”
QS: What teacher even conceives of this?
KENNEY-SILVER: He was a madman. Yeah, so, pretty good stuff.
QS: You gotta wonder what he was working out. “Fourth graders, this is what I have, but I’m still gonna do that grand plan…”
KENNEY-SILVER: Every play practice he did completely in the nude, so I don’t know. It’s interesting.
QS: And he’s still working today.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh please. He’s world renowned.
QS: At this point you’re kinda curious as to what happened to him, aren’t you?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, actually, I am. Yeah. I wonder which state penitentiary he’s in.
QS: He became a member of the House of Representatives…
KENNEY-SILVER: I might see him on one of those Dateline specials.
QS: You might. And he’ll do a shout out to you.
KENNEY-SILVER: (laughing) Exactly! “Hey! Love Reno 911!”
QS: “You were great in MacBeth!”
KENNEY-SILVER: “You were the best Macduff we ever had.”
QS: Is that the role they gave you?
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t even remember. Probably not. I was probably the person hiding behind the curtain with a fishing pole that had the dangling dagger.
QS: You were part of the moving forest.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly. I was second tree from the left.
QS: Well it’s good to know that you have such formative memories.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, I guess, yeah.
QS: What was the first one you actually enjoyed being in?
KENNEY-SILVER: I enjoyed them all. I really did. I always enjoyed…
QS: Did you feel you took to it?
KENNEY-SILVER: I grew up in a house where making people laugh was the most important thing. If you came home with a C, that was unfortunate, but if you could make people laugh at the dinner table, then you won in everyone’s eyes, which is to me, I think, a fantastic way to grow up. So I feel really blessed in that way, and grew up with a lot of humor. And so I just always gravitated towards it and to funny people and wanted to make people laugh and sort of got out of sticky situations.
QS: Did you ever have that period that some comedic actors have, where they want to be taken seriously?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, of course. I think on a daily basis… I mean, honestly, I will say something on a daily basis that someone will laugh at and I’ll think, “Well, I kinda wasn’t kidding, but okay, thank you for that.” Yeah, that happens often. Like right now. I’m trying to pour my goddamn heart out to you, and it’s all a big joke.
QS: See, now I feel bad…
KENNEY-SILVER: (laughing)
QS: No, I’m almost like, you know, I did wrong.
KENNEY-SILVER: See?
QS: I swear I will not laugh again.
KENNEY-SILVER: No, wait!
QS: Once you turn it off…
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, what an ugly web I’ve woven.
QS: Just remember that, comparatively, I’m nothing. I’m just some shmoe interviewer who’s trying desperately to keep up with true comedic geniuses. But don’t worry - the one saving grace I have is that you’ll forget all of this.
KENNEY-SILVER: Don’t forget that I’m just a comedian on a basic cable television show.
QS: Yes, but one that I respect incredibly.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s been around a while, I guess.
QS: Believe me, I wouldn’t have wanted to do an interview if I didn’t respect you on many levels. Granted, it’s not as much as I respect everyone else. Carlos is a true genius.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, please. He’ll be the first one to tell you that.
QS: And he did. And then he did the Chihuahua voice for me.
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course he did.
QS: Which clinched it.
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course he did. Did he do Garcia doing the Chihuahua voice for you?
QS: You know, he didn’t go that meta with me. I kinda wish he had now. I’m surprised it hasn’t worked itself into the show…
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, he’d be happy to. He’s waiting by the phone.
QS: He probably would pick up. Isn’t that his answering machine message?
KENNEY-SILVER: “Hello?”
QS: “Yo quiero hello…”
KENNEY-SILVER: (laughing) Yeah, exactly!
QS: “You can’t even remember the line, Carlos!” “Well, I only remember it with money.”
KENNEY-SILVER: You know him well…
QS: That’s what 2 hours of conversation will do. As I probed every nook and cranny of his “I’m me” psychosis. I didn’t say any of that. Please don’t tell him I said anything.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, please.
QS: I know he has power.
KENNEY-SILVER: He’s here right now. He’s listening.
QS: Is he cleaning or something?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, he is.
QS: That’s no way to have him work off the corpse jar…
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, you know, he’s Mexican…
QS: Well, but still, why do you have to play into the stereotype, even if he is cheap enough to come over? I shouldn’t have said that. I am so screwed at this point.
KENNEY-SILVER: (laughing)
QS: Now I’ll never get that follow up interview with him.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, exactly.
QS: Once you knew that you enjoyed performing, was that your element in high school? Were you in every production?
KENNEY-SILVER: High school was similar. I was actually the - this sounds so silly to even talk about this - I was actually the president of the Staples Players, which was my high school acting group…
QS: How dramatic was the election?
KENNEY-SILVER: It was intense! I’m telling you, it was a big deal at my school. The acting club was a really big deal at my school. People definitely respected it and wanted to be part of it. It was a big group. That was the highlight of my life, unfortunately. It was 17. It’s all downhill from there. But for a moment, my life was good.
QS: I’d say that moment was a lot longer than you’re giving it credit for.
KENNEY-SILVER: You think so?
QS: Yes.
KENNEY-SILVER: It just ended, just now.
QS: Oh, well. See - and I’m a bad actor, so I really can’t sell. I’m sorry about that. I’m taking you seriously! Was there at any point that you considered a different path than performing?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, every day. Every day I think, “You know what, is this really… should I be… is this something?” But no, never seriously. I never… because I’ve always worked. I’ve been very, very lucky. And it is a lot of luck. I’ve just continued to work on different shows and have friends who you do different shows together with, and if there’s a break in between, I’ve been very lucky enough to do other projects and things, so I don’t really have much time to genuinely consider something else - which I’m very, very fortunate for. That’s not to say that the time’s not gonna come again tomorrow when I’ll say, “Hmm, this is what I should really be doing?” But yeah, it really satisfies me. I really, really enjoy what I do and I don’t think a lot of people can say that. I know I’m very lucky for that.
QS: Was that always consistent, particularly during those formative high school years when you’re having to decide what you’re going to do next?
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t know. It was such a long time ago. I’m such an old lady. I think I really didn’t start to realize how great it was until I was doing it professionally, and realized like, “Oh, people are paying me to do this.” Like, people really want to see this. They’re not just coming because they have to, they’re coming and watching me because they want to. That’s a really great feeling.
QS: Was NYU always your first choice?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes, it was. Yeah, Tom and I had met as high school students at Northwestern Summer School acting camp, and said, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know.” We decided to meet at NYU. And called each other to be on the same dorm, the same floor.
QS: What was Tom like then?
KENNEY-SILVER: Tom was… if you can picture this, he would wear jeans everywhere. I hadn’t seen him in shorts ’til about ten years ago. It was the first time I saw him in shorts.
QS: And that was for a sketch…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly, it was the shorts guy. No, but he would wear jeans only. He would wear a jacket, like a sports jacket.
QS: Like a Members Only thing?
KENNEY-SILVER: No, like a suit jacket. A dress shirt, bow tie and cowboy boots everywhere, all the time, 24 hours a day. If we were playing basketball, he would be wearing cowboy boots, jeans, suit jacket, shirt, and tie.
QS: So essentially he was Garrison Keillor.
KENNEY-SILVER: Essentially he was Garrison Keillor, right. Except without all the Lake Wobegon stuff.
QS: Well, that would come later. He has to mature into that.
KENNEY-SILVER: It hasn’t come yet.
QS: So. at what point were you first thrown together at that camp?
KENNEY-SILVER: It was 1988.
QS: So, you’re about to celebrate your 20th anniversary.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly. It was 1988. No no, it was 1980… hold on. It was summer of ‘86.
QS: So literally it’s been 20 years.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes, 20 years we’ve worked together. That’s crazy. And we’re still doing the same crap. For four more dollars.
QS: Well, it’s the four dollars that makes it all worth it. If you didn’t have that, you two would’ve broken up long ago.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s so true. Can you imagine?
QS: When you have a moment like that, that obviously now has led to 20 years of a creative partnership, what was the vibe that you initially got when you were thrown into a performance with him? Was there a spark that you immediately saw - like, “Hey, I gel with this person?”
KENNEY-SILVER: Definitely. It happened with everybody in The State. It was like…
QS: Except for David Wain.
KENNEY-SILVER: Except for David, obviously. He was sort of the water on the spark.
QS: He was the one that someone just showed up with…
KENNEY-SILVER: Right. He was the water on the spark of comedy. No, it really was, as silly as it all sounds, it really was as magical as it can get for a performer, and continues to be. It’s a really powerful partnership with all of us. I can’t really explain… I never thought 20 years after knowing people I would say, you know… I mean, knowing people in the sense that I see them every single day for 20 years, that they still are my favorite performers, the funniest people I know, the most talented, most inspiring. They continue to inspire me every day. It’s incredible. Really incredible. I mean, if nothing else ever happened, I would feel that I was completely fulfilled having worked with those people and gotten to really explore every avenue. We’ve done TV shows together, we’ve done pilots together, we’ve done movies together, we wrote a book together, we did an album together, we traveled all around together, we’ve been at each other’s weddings, or kids’ births. All that kind of stuff. It really is storybook exactly how I would dream to have partners.
QS: How would you describe having that kind of copasetic feeling with another performer to where… I assume that you feel that you always have each other’s backs…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. Well, you feel really safe. You have to have that in improv, certainly, that you don’t go out there and feel like this person’s just gonna drop me and I’m gonna be swimming around just trying to make something of this piece or whatever. But also there’s something that happens in a room when we’re coming up with something that just feels that it’s a safe place to be, to throw out, “Hey, here’s a dumb idea.” I really, really commend people who do that for a living on network shows and stuff where there’s people they don’t even know. I can’t imagine that. I’ve always thrown stuff around in a room with people who are like my brothers that I’ve known forever and it still feels scary, so…
QS: Do you ever get self-conscious when there’s an outsider in that dynamic?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, sometimes. I mean, I think we’re solid enough with each other that I don’t feel like I’m comfortable in pitches and stuff. But certainly there’s always that aspect of, someone’s gonna look at me and say, “You’re a sham and that’s not funny and please leave my office and don’t come back.” I think that’s pretty common.
QS: Has that feeling - with success and the fact that you have been able to sustain it for so long - has it begun to alleviate somewhat? Are you starting to feel that “Yes, I’ve earned this. I do have the talent commensurate with being able to maintain this.”
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes and no. Again, on a daily basis I say, “Oh I’m doing really well. I’ve got this great show on cable that people really like, and we’re doing a movie, and it’s a character people recognize and isn’t this nice.” And then the very next day I’ll go, “What? I’m still doing the same old crap on basic cable, and is this as good as it gets?” I’m never completely satisfied. The only thing I am satisfied with is having worked with my partners for so long it just feels like such a great thing… you know, not a lot of people can say that they lasted that long with people.
QS: Has there ever been a point where you ever felt that you crossed a line or there was something you couldn’t say? Or some place you couldn’t go?
KENNEY-SILVER: No. You mean with them?
QS: With them.
KENNEY-SILVER: No, no, no, never. No, quite the opposite. We push each other into those places, I think. It’s encouraged to be inappropriate and to go out there and make an ass out of yourself and then your friends are still there at the end of it, and then you’re back down to earth and then you come up with something realistic. It’s just a safe, great place to be.
QS: Have you found that that can be intimidating to people who are outside the group, who come in? Particularly when you started Reno…
KENNEY-SILVER: Definitely guest actors come on who we admire and they’ll say, “By the way, this is kinda scary, because you guys have been doing this together for so long.” And we’ll say, “What? We’re scary? No, not at all!” I think, in general, it’s an intimidating art form. Comedy and improv is intimidating. It’s about completely taking risks and making a fool of yourself. So, it’s an intimidating place to be.
QS: What has been for you, in your experience, the most frightening, disastrous freefall of an improv you’ve been in that you can recall?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, they happen daily. I couldn’t even point to one. I mean, the thing that people don’t realize about Reno is we shoot on video - which is real cheap, so we can spew crap all day that we don’t use. We overshoot a lot. So there are entire pieces that don’t work that we just throw on the editing room floor and then we do another and it’ll work. I mean, we’ve certainly gotten better. Our ratio of what works and doesn’t work is certainly better than it was. But there are plenty of times when we open our mouths and nothing comes out, and we look like fools. But it’s not a live show.
QS: Where is your mind, as a performer, during those kind of freefall moments?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, panicking. Freefall is a great word for it. That’s exactly how it feels. I go in a total panic - like, I can’t hear anything, everything goes blank, and it’s like you can’t breathe. It’s completely terrifying. It’s the actor’s nightmare come to life. But then all of a sudden something will happen or someone will say something that will dislodge or make you think of something and you’re back on track. The stakes are really low because we’re not on a stage in front of people. Our crew has been around with us since the beginning. We’re with our friends, and if anything, you do something bad and at least take a step back and go, “Well that was really dumb.” You can really laugh at yourself and go, “Wow, how retarded am I?”
QS: So where does the pressure come from in the performance?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yourself. Certainly yourself. You don’t want to… when you come up with an idea and you have 50 people out there who are getting paid to stand around you quietly, powder puffing your nose and feeding your sandwiches so that you can do your great comedy, and out of your mouth comes fart sounds and that’s all you can think of, you feel like an idiot. So the pressure comes from yourself going, “Someone’s gonna come take away my comedy badge and say, ‘Excuse me, you snuck in and you were not supposed to be here, so if you could please just step aside and take your bag of funny wigs and noses with you.’”
QS: And tear off your epaulets. But do you feel though that, as the years go by. those moments become less? Or that the severity has decreased?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes and no. Yeah, I mean, that terror feeling happens… it depends on where you are. I mean, if I’m on someone else’s show, it’s back again, and it’s scary. But part of the scary is the excitement. You know? I mean, that’s why it’s great, and that’s why I love getting a chance to do someone else’s show that’s live or in front of an audience, or not pre-taped, because it feels like there’s that excited fear again.
QS: At what point are you most comfortable as a performer?
KENNEY-SILVER: On stage in front of a live audience. It’s less comfortable to be unafraid for me. When I am comfortable, and we are on location and there is very little pressure because it’s just us, and our crew and everything is going smoothly, I’m not as comfortable, because I don’t have anything pushing me farther. When I’m on stage in front of a live audience and there’s that danger zone of I could fall off the edge because if I take a breath too long here or I don’t do this line a certain way, or I miss a cue or something happens, there’s that danger that it’s gonna fall to pieces, and that’s what’s so great about it and that’s exciting because then when you do it properly and you get that laugh, or you are convincing or whatever it is, there’s nothing like that feeling. That’s why I do it.
QS: I thought it was interesting to see the difference in how performers handle that kind of pressure, particularly improv-ing on stage. It was particularly evident in the Aspen appearance you all did for Reno - it was almost as if everyone was shoved out of a plane.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, yeah. That’s how it feels. It’s amazing. And I’ve jumped out of a plane before, it’s a very similar feeling.
QS: What’s the dynamic you feel when you’re in a scene with multiple actors? Particularly when Reno first started, let’s say. Here you are with Ben and Tom, and you guys were a very cohesive unit for years, and then you had this influx of people that weren’t familiar to you…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. Well, it runs the gamut for me. It goes from feeling… because when it’s with Ben and Tom it’s predictable in a way that feels comfortable. I pretty much know that we’re going to go a direction that’s gonna work and it’s gonna be funny. To me, anyway. It might not translate, but I’ll probably feel comfortable and if I drop the ball, Ben will pick it up. If Tom drops the ball, I’ll pick it up. So it’s predictable in a way that feels like it’s gonna work. When we started working with new people, it felt at times exhilarating, like “Oh, there’s something new”… it’s like you’ve been having sex with the same partner for 20 years and then all of a sudden along comes this young stud and wow, this is new and exciting, and this person just fed me something that my partners never woulda thought of. On the downside, there’s that frustrating time when it’s like, “Come on, I just gave you something, throw it back to me. Why is there nothing there? I’m used to it being there.” So, you know, it’s all those feelings.
QS: So you have to sort of balance that newness with the fact that the dynamic hasn’t gelled in the same way.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly. It can be great and it can be frustrating, but we have an amazing cast and an amazing bunch of people, and it’s as good as it can be, I think.
QS: Just the success of the show, I think, bears that out.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. People care about these characters.
QS: Does that surprise you at all?
KENNEY-SILVER: Very much so. We expected this was just gonna be a sketch show. In fact, in the beginning, we were all going to play multiple characters, and not have guest stars. We were just gonna all play the perpetrators ourselves. And the cops were incidental to lead us to these sketch characters. After we did the pilot and Fox said - because this was originally a pilot for Fox - Fox said “No, we want you to play the deputies, and we want other people playing other parts.” We were like, “Well, alright.” So we brought in other people and started to realize that what people were tuning back in for were these cops, and what was going to happen with Dangle and Wiegel, and what’s gonna happen with Junior. And we were shocked. And that’s why we’re still on the air, I’m sure of it, because if it were just about the drunk guy on the corner, I think we would have been gone many seasons ago, because you can only do that for so long.
QS: Going into it with the idea that essentially the cops would be linking characters, at what point did Wiegel gel for you, as a character?
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, I felt like she gelled for me, surprisingly so, right in the very beginning. She’s sort of like a character that was waiting to come out of me, I think. We all joke that we’re more like our characters than we’re willing to admit. So there’s, you know, when you do improv there’s a large amount of honesty that comes out, whether you like it or not.
QS: So what are you willing to admit to, with Wiegel?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, so much. I mean, I think a lot of it is me times a thousand. I think I have in me the ability to be that insecure. I certainly have the ability in me to be that hypochondriac. To be that needing of attention. You know, all these little things that I’m not shy about in my daily life. I’m a normal, functioning human being, but when you amplify them, they’re difficult to be around! (laughing) In such a delightful way. I love it. I love people who have sort of emotional disabilities. I think it’s fascinating, it’s fun, and something I love to laugh about in myself, certainly, on a daily basis.
QS: I think Wiegel is the master of the destructively naïve faux pas.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, that’s a great way to put it. Yeah, there’s something wonderful about someone who is that inappropriate and makes no apologies for it.
QS: Because she doesn’t perceive any negative aspect whatsoever to anything that she might say or do.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. It’s horrible. It’s like watching a train wreck happen, and there’s some part of you that in real life wants to be that bull in a china shop that can walk into a room and just say what you think. So on that level it’s really fun. It’s fun for me to play her because I get it all out. But I’m certainly not saying that everything she says is things that I’m thinking as a person - it’s just, you know, funny things I can think of to say as that character.
QS: Is there anything that you remember that really hit you close to home as soon as it came out of your mouth?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, I say dumb stuff all the time that… before I had my son I really didn’t think I could have kids, so I would say things like, “Well, I’m barren.” I guess it’s those kinds of things that you laugh to keep from crying about things, and I guess I thought, you know… I like to make light of everything. There is nothing that is off limits for me. Except maybe my son. I think maybe there are certain aspects that I couldn’t go there anymore, when I used to be able to go there with jokes. If it involves children, I can’t go there anymore. Something happens when you have a kid. But I would say 99.999% of things are fine.
QS: Being a mother, and she’s a mother now too…
KENNEY-SILVER: Right.
QS: What kind of mother do you perceive her to be?
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, I’ll be totally honest with you. The way that we write the show is we leave the season not knowing ourselves what’s going to happen. So we left it as open as we could. I can tell you that today, neither Tom nor Ben nor I know, A) did she really have a baby, B) was it human? We can go… we began a season with everything being Kenny Rogers’s dream, so we certainly take liberties. So I can’t tell you that…
QS: See, I believe that, right now, we’re all living in Kenny Rogers’s dream…
KENNEY-SILVER: See, there you go!
QS: In fact, I just took a gamble on telling you that.
KENNEY-SILVER: Wow. No, I knew it.
QS: I honestly felt that I could take that love to town.
KENNEY-SILVER: Thank you. I’m glad you feel safe.
QS: Not for long. Now that I’ve said that, the jig is up.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah! (laughing)
QS: Now you’ll call me on everything I say.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, right.
QS: Is there any fear going in, or is it sort of “sky’s the limit” knowing that you can go into a season and do anything?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, there’s no fear. It’s fun. I mean, I think the fear would be if I were doing it by myself, but we keep each other in check and say, “Could we do this? Is this too much?” And two of us will go, “No, you know what, that is too much, let’s not do it.” So it’s just exciting. It’s just fun. At this point, too, we’ve been going for so long, it’s like…
QS: Are you surprised by how long it’s gone?
KENNEY-SILVER: Very. Very, very surprised. You know, we’re sort of used to doing these little cable shows and they last for a couple years and then they’re gone. So I think that’s what we thought all along was gonna happen. So we’re very shocked.
QS: How would you compare it to the experience you had with Viva Variety?
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s very different. Viva Variety was very tightly scripted. I was not a part of the writing of Viva Variety because I was doing the band at the time.
QS: That was Cake Like, right?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. So for me it was just coming in and doing the show and leaving. Rehearsing and leaving. So it was very different, in that sense. But obviously it was with Tom and Ben. And we had Michael Black in the mix, and he was Johnny Blue Jeans on Viva Variety. He moved back to Connecticut with his family, so that’s why he’s not doing Reno with us.
QS: And did Stella…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, Stella just ended this year, but he’s doing a thousand other things…
QS: Most of them, it seems, with VH1.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, and he just made his own movie.
QS: It seems like everyone’s making movies now.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, they are. It’s a big year for State movies. I just did, obviously, the Reno movie. I did a little part on Balls of Fury with Tom and Ben, their movie. And then I did a part in The Ten, which is David Wain and Michael Showalter’s movie. So there’s a lot going on.
QS: So what is your movie going to be?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, that’s a good question. My movie is me with baby vomit all over me, feeding my son while I’m trying to change a diaper at the same time. That’s the movie of my life right now.
QS: I like it. It’s got this sort of French appeal to it.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, it’s not a comedy.
QS: No, I see it as a very dramatic piece.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, it’s a dramatic documentary.
QS: Actually, it’s the comedy of life.
KENNEY-SILVER: It is, because you wonder, “Is he gonna throw up and poop at the same time, or is he gonna throw up and then he’s gonna poop?” You don’t know.
QS: You’re now passing on the improv torch to him.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly! (laughing) The improv of life.
QS: Now I’m wanting to see this. At a small art house showing where the print breaks halfway through and you have to do something to fill time.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right.
QS: A little mini Q&A entirely in Latvian.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, I would stay for that.
QS: Is being creative in that direction something that appeals to you, as far as writing a film, or…
KENNEY-SILVER: No, not in the least. In my head it does. The idea of it does. And Michael Black and Ken Marino and other State friends keep constantly bugging me, saying “Kerri, this is what you do, you’re good at it, sit down and write something.” I dread it. I hate it. I despise it.
QS: What do you despise about it?
KENNEY-SILVER: I think it’s lonely and creepy and scary, and not something that I enjoy. I just don’t. I don’t enjoy it. I’ll do it, and I do do it, and for Reno, it’s very collaborative, so it’s not me sitting alone in a room writing something.
QS: Could you envision writing with someone, with a partner, like Tom & Ben do?
KENNEY-SILVER: I would certainly have to. I just don’t… I just don’t feel inspired alone. I feel too self doubting, I think is the thing. So to me, Tom & Ben work together and their screenwriting is the perfect way, I think. They sort of go off and do their parts and then they come together and say, “What do you think of this?” And I would have to do it that way, I think. Because I would get lost in my own brain, I think.
QS: Have you come close to doing that with someone at any point?
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, honestly, it’s all about time. Tom and Ben can afford to do it because we’re together all the time doing Reno, and then after work on Reno they’ll stay later and do their thing together. So it works because they’re together all the time. I don’t have that working relationship with anybody else. So for me it would really have to be something I would have to make an effort to find, something to do while we’re on our breaks. And what I usually do and what I prefer to do when we’re not all working together on something is to go… I just like acting in other people’s stuff. That’s what I love to do. So as soon as we’re done with stuff I usually run off and go do someone else’s film or TV show, guest star or something. Because it’s just something I enjoy doing. I prefer to just show up and perform.
QS: So performing really is the thing that makes you the happiest.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, it is. Especially now that I’m a mom, my time is limited, so it feels great to be able to just, you know, pop in and get a laugh and go home.
QS: Is the schedule you have right now optimal for where your life is at this point, both with work and family?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes and no. You certainly don’t make as much money, so that’s a tough one. And I don’t know how long I could sustain a career this way. It seems the way my career has been best is creating my own work with my partner. So, you know, I really don’t ever have a path in my head. I never have. I just, you know, “So, what do you guys want to do now? Should we write a book? Should we make another show?” Or someone will come to us and say, “You know what we really need? We need one of these…” And we’ll go, “Okay, well, here you go.” It seems to be working so far. I have no idea what the next thing will be after Reno. I know we will always all work together in some form or another. Because for 20 years that’s been the case, so it seems to be a pattern.
QS: It was nice to see that little mini State reunion you did for iTunes…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, that was fun.
QS: Which really wasn’t even a reunion, per se.
KENNEY-SILVER: Because no one was in the same room, or in the same state even.
QS: It’s amazing what can be accomplished today.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly.
QS: In fact, you should do all of your reunions that way.
KENNEY-SILVER: I agree.
QS: The MCI way of doing it.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. I’m gonna work from home from now on. I’m just gonna shoot my Reno parts here at home…
QS: It’s all about editing.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly.
QS: They can piece anything together.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s all about green screen.
QS: You do this, every once in a while your husband can get in the Dangle shorts…
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, see, I’m lucky, because my husband’s a DP - so he could shoot everything.
QS: And he knows how to make someone look like someone else from behind.
KENNEY-SILVER: Exactly, right. So my son could be Dangle. Let’s not go there.
QS: I was gonna try and move as quickly beyond it as possible. Have you ever entertained… because I know that you write short stories as well, right?
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, I have no idea where that came… you read that off of IMDB, right?
QS: Was it? Or Wikipedia or something.
KENNEY-SILVER: Who knows.
QS: Does that mean you don’t bake, too?
KENNEY-SILVER: No, actually, I do bake. It’s so funny, I have no idea… it cracked me up the first time I read it…
QS: Now we need to find something to put on there.
KENNEY-SILVER: It sounded like an 11-year-old’s blog. “I like to bake, I like to knit, and I like to write stories!” I don’t know where…
QS: I was wondering if that was a joke statement you said at some point.
KENNEY-SILVER: Because that’s what it sounds like!
QS: “She’s a keen falconer…”
KENNEY-SILVER: Who the hell… yeah. “Well, I wrote a short story about a guy who saw a ghost!” I mean I don’t know what… yes, I do love to bake, it’s true. I was a baker in college. That’s how I got through college. Still love it. Knitting, yes, I am an avid knitter. I do love to knit. I knit all the time. Writing stories part, I just don’t know… it sounds like I like to make little macaroni pictures.
QS: See, what’s weird is people would naturally assume that the story part of it was the correct part. And they go, “Oh, she’s joking about knitting and baking…”
KENNEY-SILVER: No no, no no. That’s the irony of my existence.
QS: You ever trade recipes with Amy Sedaris?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, exactly. How do you know Amy? I think we probably met back in the day. Actually we did meet at the Aspen Comedy Festival, I think. I don’t know if I’d ever met her before, but she’s one of those people I feel like I know, because we are in the same world of comedy folks.
QS: Do you feel a sort of kinship to other performers, particularly those that have an improv background?
KENNEY-SILVER: I definitely do. I also know most of them, because we’ve all worked together in one way or another. Exit 57, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade.
QS: That New York scene always strikes me as incredibly - and I mean this in the best possible way - incredibly inbred.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh it is, completely. Of course.
QS: Almost frighteningly so, in terms of who knows who.
KENNEY-SILVER: It’s a small world. We have the Uprights on our show all the time. Mary (Birdsong) was Exit 57. Yeah, it’s a very incestuous group.
QS: In fact, it almost seems like it’s an impermeable group.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, well, I don’t know about that. Since we’ve come out here, at least Tom and Ben and I, we’ve discovered amazing people from The Groundlings that we use on Reno and lots of other people, so we’re not impermeable at all. We always have our arms open going, “Who’s next?” We just love being able to showcase people and play with new actors.
QS: Is there any guest that surprised you the most when they came on?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah. You know who surprised me the most, was Paul Reubens.
QS: I was just about to ask you about that appearance.
KENNEY-SILVER: He became a friend first. I met him at a table reading of a movie, and we confided in each other that we were fans. He was a big Viva Variety fan, which shocked me, and I was of course a big fan of his. So we talked and became friends, and then one time I said, “You know, if you ever want to do Reno,” and he said, “Oh my god, I would love to.” And I knew he was funny, of course, and talented, but I didn’t know how great it would be to work with him and how hard it would be to not laugh while working with him.
QS: I can only hope that there’s some kind of return in the offing, of him or his character…
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, absolutely. Definitely. He’s one of those people… it’s the kind of show where even if someone’s dead, you can bring them back. Figure out a way. So… oh, for sure. It’s really more about who’s in town and who’s available on a Tuesday, or whatever it is.
QS: Is there anyone who was not a performer that just surprised the heck out of you?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, Kenny Rogers was incredible!
QS: Really?
KENNEY-SILVER: He’s absolutely incredible. He played ball like I couldn’t believe. He was so fun, and so fantastic.
QS: What’s it like, as a performer, to be in a scene with someone who you have trepidation that they’re actually going to be able to bring it, and then all of a sudden they’re there?
KENNEY-SILVER: He just knocked it out of the park. That’s exactly what happened with Kenny Rogers. It felt like, “Where did this come from?” Yeah.
QS: And why hasn’t he been back yet?
KENNEY-SILVER: I think that’s probably about scheduling, too. People call us and they say, “I’m in town,” we go “Great, come do the show.” It’s that simple.
QS: Well, Reno does need a new sheriff.
KENNEY-SILVER: We do. That’s right. Sheriff Chechekevitch is gone. Or is he?
QS: Oh! Maybe he took the baby someplace…
KENNEY-SILVER: Maybe he is the baby. We don’t know.
QS: He kinda looks like the baby.
KENNEY-SILVER: He really does. I agree.
QS: Now it’s getting frightening.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah.
QS: I don’t like where this is going. I do, before we’re done, want to talk to you about Cake Like, which is sort of a fascinating tangent in your career…
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah.
QS: How exactly did that come about? Because it started more as a lark, right?
KENNEY-SILVER: It did start… yeah, all of my girlfriends and I, who were in the band together, we just decided one night that we would go down to a practice base and pick up instruments and just play for fun. Our boyfriends were all in bands at the time, and they were all away on tour. So we decided to just sort of do it as a joke. And, uh, we realized that we enjoyed it. I don’t know how good we were, but we enjoyed it and we kept going back, and after a few times, we realized that we actually had something, or at least some songs, and this guy poked his head into our practice base one night and said, “Hey, you guys sound really good. Do you want to play a party in Brooklyn?” And we were like, “I guess. We have five songs, is that enough?” He said, “Yeah.” So we went and played this party, and then we started playing shows from there, and eventually we had… I don’t know how many songs. Certainly not enough for an album. But we were playing at the Knitting Factory one night and someone approached us and said, “I have this label in Japan and I would love to put you guys on it.” So we quickly came up with enough songs for an album, and recorded an album and put it out and it did really well. We got three and a half stars in Rolling Stone, and had a bunch of good response from it.
QS: When you’re initially approached like that and you realize that you now have the potential to be big in Japan…
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, I don’t think we ever thought we would be big in Japan. I think we just thought we would get a record to show our friends. I don’t think we ever thought we would be big anywhere. But we just thought, “Oh this is an opportunity to put something down in CD form and have it put out there.” That was the farthest I think we really thought about it.
QS: Once you actually physically held that CD, did it surprise you even then that it existed?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, completely. It still surprises me that it exists. The three of them exist, that several tours existed, that all kinds of things exist. Yeah, I’m totally shocked by all of it.
QS: What’s the current status of the catalogue of those three CDs?
KENNEY-SILVER: They’re under Vapor Records, a Warner Brothers label. Neil Young was the one who found us, and wanted to put us on Vapor, rather.
QS: That was his vanity label, right?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, we met him through Ric Ocasek, who produced us, and Ric said, “You have to meet Neil, ’cause he’s really into this kinda music. I think he would love you guys.” And he came to a couple shows and really dug us and said, “I’m starting this new label, why don’t you guys be on it?” Elliott Roberts was there as well.
QS: What was the more surreal meeting for the first time: Ric Ocasek or Neil?
KENNEY-SILVER: It was all kind of surreal. But we were sort of in that world because our boyfriends were all in bands, so we would see these kinds of people around, so it wasn’t so weird that they were there, but it was definitely weird that they were…
QS: Expressing interest in you…
KENNEY-SILVER: In what we were doing, yeah. And yeah, I made a couple of records at Neil Young’s label, and actually we still owe them one more, and every time I see them they remind me, “You still owe me another record!” So maybe someday we will. It’s just a matter of location now, and obviously we’re geographically undesirable to one another. The girls live in New York and I live out in L.A., so it’s kinda difficult.
QS: So, really, it’s you who broke up the band.
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, I definitely had to break it up, in a way, because I moved out here with Viva Variety. So, in a sense, I did by having to leave, but we… our last album wasn’t called Goodbye So What for nothing.
QS: That’s not the best thing to call your penultimate album in a record deal.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah.
QS: You’re probably hoping the last one will be the greatest hits.
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, exactly. All four of them.
QS: Hey, that’s better than some bands.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah.
QS: Have you had ideas percolating in the past few years, or is it something that’s been so off the burner?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh no, we talk about it. We played together one time at the drummer’s… the drummer got married and had this big outdoor sort of festival wedding and we played there and that was great. So yeah, we always talk about it. It’s just a matter of what’s realistic in our daily lives now. It’s a little more difficult than it was at the time.
QS: Creatively, where does music fit into your life?
KENNEY-SILVER: It doesn’t right now. Different things come and take the front burner for a while and then move away and come back. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did come back. But for right now, it just doesn’t really exist in my life, which is fine. I have moments where I’ll go see a live show, or I’ll listen to an album, and really miss it, but for right now other things are taking my brain space, and I’m sure that’ll move back in just as everything else has at some point.
QS: Would you every say it was your primary desire, at any point?
KENNEY-SILVER: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think it ever was. Certainly sometimes it took up most of our time, but I wonder if we would have been as successful as we were had we been only concerned with that. I think sometimes we were looking the other way and it started doing well despite us, almost.
QS: In a good way?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, in a great way. Yeah. Certainly it was pleasantly surprising.
QS: Something else I definitely have to ask you about, just because I found a copy of it the other day online, would be The State’s Halloween special.
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, yeah, that was so fun…
QS: It seems like such the wrong thing for CBS to put on when CBS was known mostly as a geriatric network…
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, yeah. Well, we were saying while it was airing, our famous quote is that we felt as though we were the only people watching while it was being aired, and it turned out to be pretty much true. Because right after the first commercial break they cut to some heart attack medicine, and we were like, “Hmm, something tells me this isn’t really our audience.” So yeah, it didn’t go over very well, but we had a great time making it!
QS: Was there actually a thought at some point, by anyone in the group, that this would be a transition that would lead to more things on CBS?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh yeah, we absolutely thought… the talk with CBS was that we basically have a deal there, we’re definitely gonna do a series, let’s just do a couple specials to see how we fit on the air, what time slot and when. We were so naïve to think that that would actually work, and I think they kinda were too, but this was, as far as we were concerned, just a formality of getting us onto the air. But we didn’t… they kept saying, “Don’t worry what your numbers are this night. It’s really not about numbers, it’s really just about seeing how you look on the air,” and blah blah blah. Finally, an hour before we were supposed to air, we’re talking to one of the studio heads who said, “If you don’t get…” I can’t remember what the number was… “If you don’t get a certain number, then you can kiss your jobs goodbye,” basically. And we were like, “Oh, well, that’s never gonna happen. Obviously we’re not gonna get those numbers,” and we obviously didn’t. So that was short lived. We had plans to do a New Year’s special as well, after that. It was supposed to be a Halloween special and then a New Year’s special.
QS: Was material already written for that New Year’s special?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh yeah, we were in the process of coming up with stuff. It was well underway.
QS: So in no way, shape, fashion or form was that ever believed to be the end of The State.
KENNEY-SILVER: No, not as far as we were concerned. When it got cancelled we sort of realized, “Oh, now what do we do? We’ve made a record, we wrote a book, we did several pieces of MTV, tried our luck at network. We’ve written a movie that didn’t get off the ground. So now what do we do?” And then everyone started getting a little itchy to go try their hand at other things, and that’s kinda what happened.
QS: So it was sort of an organic breaking apart.
KENNEY-SILVER: For some. For others it was more difficult, but it seemed kind of obvious. It was just such a dark time. It was like, “Now what?”
QS: Who was the biggest proponent for trying to keep things together?
KENNEY-SILVER: You know, I honestly don’t remember any of that stuff. I always picture us as this eleven-headed monster, so I don’t remember specifically, specific people wanting specific things. I just remember the feeling of, “Ugh, this is too hard. It’s not gonna work.”
QS: I was noticing that the State By State with The State book was going for a couple hundred dollars on Amazon.
KENNEY-SILVER: That cracks me up. It’s a great book, I think. I don’t think I would pay a couple hundred dollars for it, but it’s a good book. Yeah, it’s fun. It’s a good toilet reader.
QS: Does it surprise you this sort of afterlife that The State has had?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yes and no. It was a great show, and I think it was… we were doing something unique at the time. And I was certainly aware of the cult following that was happening at the time, and people get excited about stuff like that. Little remnants of it sticking around. So I wasn’t… it surprises me that anyone would want to pay 200 dollars for that book, but… I think it’s great. I love that time in my life, still love all those people, and still am proud of all that work.
QS: So how does it feel to get that Monty Python question of “When are reunions gonna happen…”?
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, we have had reunions, in different ways. Not the, “Here comes The State, all together again…”
QS: But everyone’s in the Reno movie…
KENNEY-SILVER: Everyone’s in the Reno movie. Everyone, I believe, is in The Ten, which is David and Ken Marino’s movie. Yeah, I mean, we all do things together every day. We’re all gonna be together this coming weekend, just for fun. I think we’ll all work together always in one way or another, and I’m sure no one’s opposed to it taking the form of… everyone would love to all get together and do a show again. It’s just like a Cake Like thing. It’s like, “Well, how can this really work? Because your kids are in school at this time, and you’re doing this show, and you live here.” It’s a little more confusing than we all live in a big dorm and let’s get together and make a show.
QS: It’s really the direction you should have gone.
KENNEY-SILVER: I agree. I just love living in a dorm.
QS: Some sort of communal thing. You could have all gotten together.
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, that’s kinda how we lived for a long time. We really did live like that, and it was hard to have a life or relationships when you’re living with 10 men.
QS: I can certainly imagine that. Or you can have the most fascinatingly unique relationship of all.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, I guess…
QS: So, how quickly after that did the idea of Viva Variety come about?
KENNEY-SILVER: Um… you know, I don’t know. Viva Variety was really Tom and Ben and Mike. It was really their idea, and I was kinda brought on. Because at the time I was also doing the band. There wasn’t much time off in between doing those two shows, for me. It moved pretty quickly.
QS: What is your reflection on that Viva Variety period, and that character in particular?
KENNEY-SILVER: I loved it. I completely loved it. It was such a fun show to do. And yeah, everybody just had a blast. It’s, like, really fun - having a musical number to learn each week is a fun way to live. Kinda hard to be at all a brooding artist when you have to learn little jazz dance steps and sing silly songs. It was great. We had a great time.
QS: Do you think, in some ways, the show was ahead of its time?
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t know. I just think it was such a wonderfully weird idea. I don’t know if it was ahead of its time or it was so far behind its time. I don’t know what it was. It was different and I loved it.
QS: Seems like something that, if it had appeared in that sort of post-Austin Powers kind of throwback, I Love the 70s period would have really taken off…
KENNEY-SILVER: Right, exactly.
QS: People might have gotten the vibe a bit more.
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah.
QS: And then, obviously, Reno was a bit of a surprise…
KENNEY-SILVER: What do you mean a bit of a surprise?
QS: The life that it took…
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh yeah, that it’s had a life… yeah, it’s surprising to me. It’s surprising to me only because… not because I don’t think it’s good, but just because… you just never know what the climate is gonna be for comedy. You think you know, and we’re so far off base, and with this one I just assumed it was gonna be like any other show that we did which is just - put it on the air, it quietly gets a little cult following and then we quietly go away. So I was surprised when it got any response.
QS: Are you keen on pursuing it for as far as it goes, or do you see a natural shelf life for it?
KENNEY-SILVER: I never thought it would last this long, to be honest with you. I think it will take other forms. I think certainly films are a fun direction to take these characters, because it’s a little bit… it has a beginning, a middle and an end, and it can live on its own in a season. But as far as the TV show goes, I don’t know how much farther we can or want to take it. We don’t really think about it that much, honestly. We just sort of do it… and contracts are coming up, so that will be more of an issue coming up soon. But for right now, we just keep going.
QS: Well, there’s always Broadway.
KENNEY-SILVER: There is always Broadway.
QS: I know that’s the dream.
KENNEY-SILVER: No one is more suited for Broadway than Trudy Wiegel.
QS: I can just imagine her solo now.
KENNEY-SILVER: Of course.
QS: It’d be the most touching piece in the entire thing, I think.
KENNEY-SILVER: If she can even figure out how to make it to the theater.
QS: Wouldn’t that be half the joke?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah…
QS: Personally, at this point in your life and career, when obviously you’re juggling quite a few things, where do you see the next five years taking you? Is there any direction that you want to move into?
KENNEY-SILVER: I don’t ever think that way. And I don’t know if it’s…I don’t think it’s possible in this business to really think that way. Yeah, there are directions I would like it to take. Directions that include millions and millions of dollars. There are lots of directions, but as far as really going out there and making something happen, for me, things present themselves, and I just sort of say yes to things and it either works or it doesn’t work. I don’t really feel like I’m gonna one day say, “Now, I’m all about movies. I’m just gonna do movies.” I’m not like that. There are people who are like that. There are actors who are like that. I don’t know if it’s that I don’t have enough confidence or what it is. But I can only say that the way I have conducted my career so far, I’ve been very, very happy with it. I wouldn’t want it to have been any other way. So I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing and hope that I continue to be happy doing it. And hope that there are outlets out there that will allow me to do it.
QS: Are there things that you won’t do?
KENNEY-SILVER: Oh, certainly, yeah. Not a lot. But there are things that I won’t do. Mostly the things I won’t do are things I know I won’t be good at. I don’t want to do something just because someone else thinks I can. If I don’t think I’m gonna be good at it, I’ll be the first to say, “You know what? I know you think you want me for this - you don’t want me for this.”
QS: What’s an example of that?
KENNEY-SILVER: Well, you know, I got a call from the people at Who’s Line Is It Anyway - Drew Carey’s show. And I just said, “Thank you very much, I’m flattered to even be thought of, that you would even think that I can do that. I can’t. Trust me. It’s a form of improv that I just know that I’m not good at. I tried it. I don’t feel comfortable doing it. Not good enough at it.” So those are more those kinds of things that I don’t think I could do justice to, I would rather not do, than try and talk myself into something, get there and go, “Oh, by the way, I’m not so good at this.” There are plenty of people who are good.
QS: Is that something you’ve done in the past?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, we did it with The State and we were horrible at it. I mean, the worst improv-ers you’ve ever seen. We had a joke in our show of how bad we were at it. I’m fine if it’s an improv in character like we do in Reno, but when it comes to the games and things, oh my god we were horrible. We just sucked at it. It was embarrassing.
QS: So how long did the games period last within The State?
KENNEY-SILVER: Yeah, about an hour. It was horrible.
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