Our Interview with Sean Kent

[Wayner]

Last week I was able to track Sean Kent and talk with him about pasta, tennis, and his experience on "Last Comic Standing." This interview took place they day after the reunion show taping. I'd like to thank Sean, and all the comics who took the time to speak with me during the run of "Last Comic Standing"; it was a pleasure to interview each and every one of them.


How are you feeling?

Better every day. I’m going through a tandem stem-cell transplant right now, which is basically the equivalent of getting a bone marrow transplant. Only they use your own stem cells so there’s no chance of rejection. But the levels of chemotherapy are just as high – they’re the highest you can give someone without killing them. I went in for the first part about a month-and-a-half ago, and I spent a month in the hospital, the last week of it just fighting a fever. When I got out I couldn’t walk from room to room; I was very weak. I lost about thirty pounds, which if you saw me on the show, I didn’t exactly have thirty pounds to give up. That being said, I sometimes think I’m like Wolverine in my recuperative powers; I get better pretty quick. I’m making dinner, going out and doing things – I went to Vegas last week to film the reunion show. I had commitments, and I wanted to honor them, so I went.

I have a number of relatives that have gone through cancer, so I can really appreciate what you’re going through.

Yeah, it’s rough. In some ways I think I’m lucky that I’m only twenty-nine going through it, because it’s much harder when you’re older. I really think that in like twenty years when they’re not doing chemotherapy anymore and they’re using vaccines to treat it, people will look back on it the same way they did like bleeding people; it’s just barbaric – it’s truly horrible. Beyond losing hair, and nausea and fatigue, there are a cornucopia of side-effects I could go into that would cripple most people. But you just get through them. It’s a lot harder when you’re older, and the chances of the treatment working are even less when your older. At twenty-nine I’ve already been to the point of like “Okay, no more doctors, no more hospitals, if anything else goes wrong I’m giving up.” I can’t imagine going through that in your seventies. It’s funny, because when I’d be in the chemotherapy room at Kaiser, I would be the youngest guy in there by fifty years every time. All the old people would look at me and go “It’s not fair! You’re so young!” It’s tough, but it is what it is; complaining about it isn’t going to make it go away. It’s hard, but my life is really full and really amazing in a lot of other ways.


I understand you’re fairly recently married?

Yeah, January. This is my six-month anniversary. That’s the best thing to ever happen. It’s an adjustment but it’s well worth it. I want to have kids. We’re planning on starting kids next year. I can’t wait.


How long have you been doing standup?

About six years.


What made you decide you’d like be a comic?

I was living in Los Angeles working at a coffee shop, probably had a goatee, pretty typical twenty-two year old Los Angeles resident, and they had an open mike there, and everybody was really bad. And I thought “Well, I can at least be that bad.” And sure enough, for probably the first year, I was. And then I started getting paid professional gigs, about eight months in. I actually managed to get passed at The Improv in L.A. Very shortly after that I got in front of the right people. It’s funny, because Ant from the show is a big part of any success I’ll ever achieve in this business. I was driving by The Improv one day – I had dropped off a tape that was probably not very good – and I just happened to go in while Ant was planning a benefit for "Caring for Babies With AIDS"; he does a lot of charity work. I remembered a bit he had done, and he was sitting there with Erin, who at the time booked the Improv. I said “Erin, I’m sorry, I don’t want to interrupt, I just wanted to see if you had seen my tape yet?” and she said “Don’t worry, I’m going to get to it, and I’ll call you.” Then I said “You’re Ant, right? I love that bit you do about the airplanes and stewardesses.” And said “What’s your name? I’m giving you ten minutes on my benefit show.” I guess he thought I was young and a spunky go-getter, which I was, and he was such a sweetheart to take a chance on me, because he’d never seen me. He gave me a spot on that show, and there were so many good, important people to get up in front of; that night I got my first manager and my first agent; all because I happened to stop at The Improv. It’s definitely “right place, right time” in this town. I sent Ant a little nice ceramic angel, and I said he was my guardian angel, and he’s been a great friend to be ever since; one of the people you can always count on to call you when you’re sick. He’s a good person – more so than the show let on.


Some of the comics in the house have said they thought you were portrayed unfairly. Do you agree? If so, why do you think NBC made you out to be the bad guy?

I’d say that’s accurate, but to be expected. If you’re expecting anyone to do you a favor in Hollywood when they’re the producer of a show and have a totally different agenda than you, then you’re more naïve than I am. I thought that episodes one and two were fine – I was barely in them – so I’m not sure how they could have portrayed me. Episode three certainly they tried to make me look like I was more evil than Hitler, but the best thing they could come up with was me saying someone’s pasta sauce wasn’t very good. But what am I going to do about that? Am I going to spend my whole life worrying about that? It hasn’t hurt my career at all. I actually get more attention, and not in a negative way.


Did you hit Vos with the tennis ball on purpose?

Well, I’m not that good a tennis player. Was I not aiming at him? Look why ruin the mystery? (laughs) Rich and I are both Alpha Males and we locked horns pretty hard the first two days. By the third or fourth day we were sitting around making each other laugh. I think that speaks to the fact that we’re friends now and you read what he said about me on your website – there are absolutely no hard feelings between Rich and myself. We just go off to a bad start; neither one of us had had any sleep. I told him I didn’t mind if he smoked in his room or his bathroom, but please refrain from smoking in the other areas of the house. They didn’t show this, but I’d just finished radiation therapy on my chest two months before, and I had a really bad cough – it was hard for me to be around smoke. People say “Well, then why were you on a reality show?” Well, because you can’t let things in life hold you back because of timing. It was a good opportunity, and I wasn’t going to let cancer cost me everything. A little story about Rich. I went into the dressing room during the reunion show, and when he saw me, he immediately put it out in a cup of water he was drinking, out of respect. Because he’s a good person – deep down – under all the “I stinks” and everything. Was I mad at him for voting against me? That’s like getting mad at Shaquille O’Neal for dunking on you; it’s part of the game.


How did you first hear about the show?

I know Ross Mark, one of the bookers. I’ve known him and Bob Reed for several years. Ross used to play poker in my house, where believe it or not I used to room with Brian Dunkleman from “American Idol.” He would have poker games with a lot of famous comedians. Ross said to me “Sean, I’ve got this show where we’re going to take ten funny people and they’re going to live in a house together.” And I asked “Are you trying to end my career, you (jerk)?” (laughs) And then the more I heard about the show, I thought it might be fun. I wasn’t really doing anything and I was looking for something jumpstart me after taking time off for cancer treatment. I called Ross and he told me when the auditions were. I was at the auditions with Geoff Brown and Ralphie and Tess, and a lot of us who made the house came in at the same time. Bob and Ross are great guys and big supporters of mine; genuine people in a disingenuous industry.


Were there any comics in the West Coast semis or Vegas Finals that you were surprised didn’t advance?

No, because it’s a reality show, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the ten least funny people had been chosen. Honestly, they had us upstairs in the Laugh Factory, and they brought us out in groups of five. There were twenty-six of us, and halfway through they refreshed the audience. The taping took five or six hours, and we weren’t allowed to go watch any of the other groups of five. So when people say they were surprised or they weren’t surprised that somebody made it, I think “Well, you didn’t see their act.” I read that Ralphie said I wasn’t that funny in his interview; he wasn’t on until three groups later, and he was in a soundproof room upstairs where he couldn’t hear me. I can’t make that judgment on anybody else; it’s not my place to say who’s funny and who’s not. Rob Cantrell said it best: people love to hate. If you want to judge my comedy after seeing five bits, out of order, with two of them with the punch-lines cut off because they were deemed “too risky” by NBC, then good - because if you ever see me live you’ll think “Oh, okay, now I see what he’s about.” But that’s the society we live in now – it’s not terribly supportive. That’s what you get when you get when you become an entertainer. Look at Marlon Brando – who I’m not comparing myself to at all on level of talent – he is in my opinion the greatest actor of the Twentieth Century, and what Picasso was to painting, he is to acting. And all anybody can say about him is “He’s fat.” Nobody says nice things about entertainers because either a) they’re jealous or b) it makes them feel good to say nasty things for some reason. And if you know that before you get into the business, you’re never going to be upset. I think the smartest actors and the smartest comedians are the ones that don’t read the reviews, or that do read the reviews but let it roll of like the proverbial water off a duck’s back; you have to.

There’s a guy on the radio here that says “If your house burns down, mine looks better.”

Exactly – it’s very junior high. But that’s okay, I have perspective, I have more important things in my life. I have a beautiful wife and I live in a great house. I consider myself blessed, because the fact that I have cancer and people still want to work with me in this town shows that I must have something; they’re taking a chance on me that I’m going to be able to show up and do the job. It was funny – I was reading on your site that people said they just picked me because of the cancer. Well, if they did, they didn’t really play it up a lot. There was only one mention of it, and that bummed me out – to the cancer community I’m a little bit of a hero right now, because it’s not very often that you see someone in remission or not that goes on TV and does something cool, which is what I felt I did. That was the best part of the show for me, was the literally hundreds of cancer patients around the world. All of them incredibly supportive and finding inspiration from it. I find a lot of inspiration from Lance Armstrong, so if I can do for someone even on a microscopic level what he’s done for me, then I’ve done my job.


Who do you think was portrayed the most accurately on the show?

Dat Phan, because he was genuinely picked on, and he’s a little “out there” in a sort of naïve, good way, not in an evil way. And Ralphie – I think that’s who Ralphie is.


Who do you think was portrayed least accurately?

Well that would definitely be me. (laughs) I read all the time that nobody in the house liked me, but only three people voted for me. I get along with Tess. I get along with Rob. I get along with Dat Phan. I get along with Geoff. It’s just goofy. And I was getting along with Rich by the end – it wasn’t personal, it was just the way it was.


You’ve mentioned that you read some of threads about the show on the FORT. Have you read anything that surprised you?

I was reading Ralphie’s interview, and I was a little shocked at some of the vitriol that came out of his mouth, because two days after he did that interview with you, I saw him in Vegas, and he was so nice to me, and then I read what he said about me. I thought “Wait a minute, he doesn’t like me?” The twelve hours thing, where we were stuck in a room? The reason Ralphie got upset? He thought according to the contract we were owed an $8,500 lump sum talent payment, which we were not. He was saying “My light bill’s going to get shut off. We need to walk. We need some solidarity.” Had he been right I absolutely would have been with him, but reading the contract and having my manager read the contract, I wasn’t going to walk away for something I didn’t believe in. The other comics had their own reasons for saying they wanted to stay or go – it had nothing to do with being an open, middle, or headliner. As far as not being able to eat, there was a cafeteria twenty feet away where we could get anything we wanted to eat for free. The reason they kept us there was that they were still trying to get the house lit, so there was a delay, but it wasn’t twelve hours. I never said “No, I worked hard, this is my big chance, I’m not leaving.” I just said “I don’t agree with you.” We didn’t have them over a barrel, if Ralphie had walked they would have taken the next alternate.

I went to Vegas and gave him a big hug on TV to show that even though he went on TV and called me what I felt was an inappropriate name, I wasn’t going to hold any hard feelings, I don’t want to hold his career back and make people think he’s a (jerk), I don’t want people to think he’s not likeable. And then I go home and read that he’s planning a benefit for me – that’s absolutely untrue. There’s never been a benefit for me. Don’t latch onto my disease to make yourself look good. There is a benefit that I’m putting together for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, because if I put together a benefit for me, it would only help me; if I put one together for the Society, it helps everyone with these diseases. Yes, I did make that comment about Cory and her spaghetti, but to be honest it was more of a shot at New Yorkers because Vos and I had been having a running argument about New York. I thoroughly enjoyed the pasta. They actually edited that scene from three different nights. The last thing that Ralphie said that upset me was that the laughs I got weren’t mine, and that I couldn’t get a paid audience with four or five cocktails in them to laugh – that’s absolutely untrue. Every laugh I got was mine. The audience was not paid. They had half a glass of beer in them. I had to go on after forty-five minutes of technical setups. I did not do as well as Dave, I will easily admit that. But in between us, Jay Mohr did another twenty minutes, then they brought out Dave. Dave basically got to be the headliner that night with Jay Mohr as his middle act. I’m not saying Dave’s not funnier than me, that’s a matter of opinion – I think Dave is a very funny person. But for Ralphie to come out and say those things, that’s upsetting. I would not say things like that about another comedian because it’s completely unnecessary.


Which comic in the house made you laugh the most – on or off stage?

Honestly, nobody really made me laugh that much off stage. I didn’t think the show was terribly interesting, because I didn’t think the chemistry was there. I thought Rich and Dave had a special chemistry all their own, but it was almost too inside. Maybe my sense of humor’s different. I was also awaiting the results of some medical tests that I didn’t think were going to turn out very good, and I had some stuff going on – maybe I wasn’t in the best headspace. But again, you can’t let stuff like that (cancer) stop you.


What was the funniest thing (and maybe there wasn’t one) that was said in the house that we didn’t get to see on the show?

Well, I was only there about five days. There were about a hundred things, but they were horrible, nasty, hilarious things that comics really say but can’t air on TV. This is the way comics work. When I was writing for “The Best Damned Sports Show: Period” and I got diagnosed with cancer, I went back and told all the writers. I said “Don’t treat me any different” and five minutes later I wish I could have taken that back. They were emailing me funeral poems Guys were coming over and sizing up my desk saying “I’m not saying you’re going to die, but if you do I’d really like your parking spot.” “Not for nothing, but your girlfriend’s pretty cute, would it be alright if I asked her out?” That’s the kind of stuff that makes me laugh; kind of dark humor. Bill Hicks is my hero – that should tell you everything.


Did you get a chance to spend time with the other comics that were at the hotel?

No. I think we were all pretty sick of each other by that point, and we wanted to do our own thing. There was even less to do in the hotel than there was in the house. I was lucky in that my house is five minutes from the hotel and my wife would come over and hang out.


What effect has being on the show already had on your career?

It’s all been positive so far. I’m being talked about – whether good or bad – in a way that I wasn’t six months ago. My name is out there. I don’t really want to be a performer, I really want to be a writer. I only did the show on a lark to get something going again. I’d been working for “The Best Damned Sports Show: Period”, that ended, I had nothing to do. I was just getting out of cancer treatment. I thought “Let’s go do this”, because I still like doing stand up. I don’t have the ego to want to be a huge sitcom star. I have the ego to want to be the guy who creates the huge sitcom for somebody else. Most actor’s careers are five minutes long. Most writers careers are twenty or thirty years if they’re lucky. The ironic thing is – you know what’s killing all the writing jobs in Hollywood? Reality shows.



If you'd like to comment on this interview, you can reach me at wayner@fansofrealitytv.com

[Google]

 

[Ralphie May]

you know what I am going to do something I dont do often, shut up. I deny Sean's assertions, if he doesn't want my help, great. Wonderful, I wish him nothing but success and I hope he conquers his disease. I am done with him.

[CashMoneySoviet]

Great interview, Wayner!

[marybethp]

Ooops - double post - computer went Wacky. Guess I really wanted to thank you!

[marybethp]

Thanks for the interview Wayner

[CashMoneySoviet]

You posted it twice, marybeth.

[dvm]

FABULOUS!! That was a great read Wayner! Great job !!! I wish nothing but the best for Sean. He seems like a really strong person

[Galactic]

Boy, he sure had a lot to say...

So Dat Phan really was picked on, eh?

Not a big fan of Reality TV, but had a blast watching LCS.

And yeah, I agree that Sean was probably portrayed the least accurately, but that's because he was voted off first. Didn't have much time to develop his character.

Anyway, nice interviews, Wayner. I mean all of them. I've been reading this forum for the past month or so and I must say you've been doing an excellent job of keeping me coming back.

Heh, so of course I pick the day after LCS ends to register...

^_-;

[dvm]

Originally Posted by Galactic

Boy, he sure had a lot to say...

So Dat Phan really was picked on, eh?

Not a big fan of Reality TV, but had a blast watching LCS.

And yeah, I agree that Sean was probably portrayed the least accurately, but that's because he was voted off first. Didn't have much time to develop his character.

Anyway, nice interviews, Wayner. I mean all of them. I've been reading this forum for the past month or so and I must say you've been doing an excellent job of keeping me coming back.

Heh, so of course I pick the day after LCS ends to register...

^_-;

Galactic. Better Late than Never!!

[marybethp]

Originally Posted by Galactic

Heh, so of course I pick the day after LCS ends to register...

You could always follow Wayner and his witty writing to "The Family" forum