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23 November 2009 - newstimes.com
Comedian Andrew Kennedy says he's more of a storyteller than a joke-teller, but -- unlike that relative at Thanksgiving dinner who you're never sure how you're actually related -- Kennedy's stories are funny.
Kennedy, who lives in Newtown with his wife and three children, will perform Saturday night at the Treehouse Comedy Club at Marisa's Ristorante in Trumbull.
Born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and British father, Kennedy has had his own Comedy Central special. He's also been featured on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" and "The World Stands-Up," along with BET's "Comic View."
A lot of people don't realize you're half Colombian; does it surprise them when you speak Spanish?
It does. It has for over 20 years I've lived here. I think racial profiling will soon be a thing of the past with everybody interbreeding. You just can't tell where anybody's from anymore and I'm one of those examples. I turned out looking completely white. My younger brother looks like Ricky Martin. Same parents, it's very odd.
Does Connecticut make it into your act at all?
Yeah. Here, I grew up in South America, in the Caribbean and Asia and at 14 we moved to New Canaan,
Connecticut. New Canaan, Connecticut! I mean, how anticlimactic can that be from vacationing on islands off the south coast of Malaysia, hunting for poisonous crabs at 4 in the morning, thinking `this is what everybody does' to moving to Fairfield County, Connecticut?
New Canaan is such a rich town. If your outdoor pool isn't heated, you're a piece of garbage in New Canaan. Kids will not be friends with you. If you live in the house while it's being remodeled, there's something wrong with you. I swear to you, the neighbors will be like `Oh, you mean, you're living there while you're doing renovations, how ghastly!'
In 2008 you performed at the World Travel Awards in Dubai. What was that like?
It was really interesting. We stayed at a five-star hotel where the two B-list actresses that I was working with got fondled by an Egyptian butler. And there began the producer taking advantage of the hotel by ordering a whole bunch of different things and billing it to the girls' room and then the final deal -- he wanted to really do the hotel in -- we sat at the most expensive restaurant in the hotel. It was so expensive nobody else was there and we charged up about $4,000 or $5,000 between four people for a dinner. That was the deal with the hotel to make up for the fondling.
Wow! Was the dinner that good?
The dinner was probably the best dinner I've ever had in my entire life.
I heard you use comedy instead of therapy. What are the advantages?
I guess in therapy you're supposed to talk about things that are on your mind and you pay them to listen to you. Here, I talk about things that are on my mind and I get paid for people to listen to me.
It's a great way to open up and unload what you've been thinking about in a comedic way and you realize just how connected you are to everybody else and how we're so similar to each other as human beings.
Kennedy, who lives in Newtown with his wife and three children, will perform Saturday night at the Treehouse Comedy Club at Marisa's Ristorante in Trumbull.
Born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and British father, Kennedy has had his own Comedy Central special. He's also been featured on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" and "The World Stands-Up," along with BET's "Comic View."
A lot of people don't realize you're half Colombian; does it surprise them when you speak Spanish?
It does. It has for over 20 years I've lived here. I think racial profiling will soon be a thing of the past with everybody interbreeding. You just can't tell where anybody's from anymore and I'm one of those examples. I turned out looking completely white. My younger brother looks like Ricky Martin. Same parents, it's very odd.
Does Connecticut make it into your act at all?
Yeah. Here, I grew up in South America, in the Caribbean and Asia and at 14 we moved to New Canaan,
Connecticut. New Canaan, Connecticut! I mean, how anticlimactic can that be from vacationing on islands off the south coast of Malaysia, hunting for poisonous crabs at 4 in the morning, thinking `this is what everybody does' to moving to Fairfield County, Connecticut?
New Canaan is such a rich town. If your outdoor pool isn't heated, you're a piece of garbage in New Canaan. Kids will not be friends with you. If you live in the house while it's being remodeled, there's something wrong with you. I swear to you, the neighbors will be like `Oh, you mean, you're living there while you're doing renovations, how ghastly!'
In 2008 you performed at the World Travel Awards in Dubai. What was that like?
It was really interesting. We stayed at a five-star hotel where the two B-list actresses that I was working with got fondled by an Egyptian butler. And there began the producer taking advantage of the hotel by ordering a whole bunch of different things and billing it to the girls' room and then the final deal -- he wanted to really do the hotel in -- we sat at the most expensive restaurant in the hotel. It was so expensive nobody else was there and we charged up about $4,000 or $5,000 between four people for a dinner. That was the deal with the hotel to make up for the fondling.
Wow! Was the dinner that good?
The dinner was probably the best dinner I've ever had in my entire life.
I heard you use comedy instead of therapy. What are the advantages?
I guess in therapy you're supposed to talk about things that are on your mind and you pay them to listen to you. Here, I talk about things that are on my mind and I get paid for people to listen to me.
It's a great way to open up and unload what you've been thinking about in a comedic way and you realize just how connected you are to everybody else and how we're so similar to each other as human beings.
Source: newstimes.com
