Beginning at a young age with a coming out speech delivered to her Methodist Church congregation and continuing to this very day --
-- when she's just finished filming the third season of The Big Gay Sketch Show and is doing her own one-woman five-character show at the Upright Citizens Brigade -- Kate McKinnon has been standing on stages and saying things that sometimes make people uncomfortable for most of her life. Luckily she's really, really, really funny.
We were only partially satiated by our brief red carpet encounter with Ms. McKinnon at the NewNowNext Awards (Logo's prestigious Homosexual Award Ceremony which gifted Ms. McK with a "Brink of Fame: Comic" Award), and therefore we decided to schedule more personal time with Kate this week during monsoon season in New York City. Robin photographed and Riese interviewed Kate McKinnon at her luxurious uptown penthouse over olives, whiskey and prostitutes to discuss a wide range of topics while Ms. McKinnon played with matches.* Let's get down to business!
*only the part about the matches is true.
Now What?
Riese: So you just finished Season Three of The Big Gay Sketch Show, so what are you going to do now?
Kate: I just last night did the first performance of a one-woman show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater -- they picked it up for a full run. It's called Best Actress, and it’s about five fictional actresses who are all nominated for best actress, and it’s really, you know, an exploration of the ease and the JOY! and the magnificence! of being a woman in the entertainment industry!
Riese: Especially a lesbian woman.
Kate: It’s actually not very gay, but yes -- especially a lesbian woman. I mean, that’s how hard it is to be a lesbian woman that I couldn’t even put something gay in it.
Riese: Yeah, it would have made it really depressing.
Kate: Or people just would have booed me off the stage.
Riese: Who’s your favorite of the five characters you play in Best Actress?
Kate: I wrote a monologue about this Australian actress -- inspired by Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet -- and although she's a dramatic actress she just finished shooting a Judd Apatow movie called Coming on Jane where Jack Black just ejaculates all over her face, and her trying to take that seriously. But Upright Citizens Brigade caters mostly to the 18-35 male crowd.
Riese: And they love Jack Black.
Kate: And I thought I would be booed off the stage for taking pot shots at Judd Apatow, but they, in fact, laughed the hardest.
Riese: Or maybe we're just over the peak of the Judd Apatow hipness curve to the point where they're ready to laugh at it.
Kate: It’s a little hip to laugh at Judd Apatow, maybe.
Riese: Yeah, and in two weeks, it’ll be hip to still like him,'cause that means you genuinely liked him earnestly to begin with, so you like, mean it.
The Brink of Fame!
Riese: So also, you won a really big award recently!
Kate: Which I had to give back at the ceremony, and I have not received yet in the mail. That’s how prestigious it was.
Riese: OK -- but did you notice that everyone nominated for "Brink of Fame: Comic" actually showed up, and in all the other categories, the only person who'd shown up was the person who won. But in your category everyone showed up, so you won fair & square.
Kate: Right.
Riese: So this means you’re the only one who really won anything.
Kate: Does it?
Riese: Yeah!
Kate: Okay, I’ll go with that.
Riese: Did you notice that?
Kate: Gosh, that makes me feel good. No I didn’t know this.
Riese: Were you expecting to be roasted?
Kate: No I was not, and I was certainly not expecting to win, I really wasn’t.
Riese: If your bio was on a Post-It note -- as per the roaster's suggestion -- what is the most important part?
Kate: My bio really could be written on a Post-It note; there’s not much there. I just, I got my job on The Big Gay Sketch Show during my senior year of college at Columbia University, and then I graduated.
Riese: [Alex] was intimidated that you’d be really smart, like too smart. And she wouldn't know how to talk to you.
Alex: Well I went to fashion school so…
"A channel where they can see themselves and not feel quite so freakish is a beautiful thing."
Riese: What has been the most rewarding part of doing The Big Gay Sketch Show?
Kate: I get a lot of MySpace messages from young women & men across the country who say The Big Gay Sketch Show and Logo is all [they] have. I've had a relatively easy time being gay because I'm from New York, I went to college here, but these people live in communities where they're freakish and they have to hide and they have a really rough time. I have no experience with that. And now they have a channel where they can see themselves and not feel quite so freakish. That's a beautiful thing and I'm truly honored to have been a part of that.
I really look up to Julie [Goldman]. She’s definitely been a role model for me as a comedian and as a woman, and ... I don’t know what she likes about me? But there must be something ... I think I’m just a tagalong?
Riese: Do you wanna keep doing stuff for the gay audience?
Kate: Yes! Yes, yes. I mean, it’s just so much more fun…er? To perform for people who get it already with a shared baseline of understanding. We've all had an experience of the world that is different from most people's experiences.
Riese: It's the outsider mentality.
Kate: Yeah, so it's fun to do that, but it's also rewarding to venture out into the straight world. That's why I do stuff at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, I'm also on a sketch team there. I don't know any straight people in my real life, so it's nice to have some contact with ...
Riese Straight people?
Kate: Straights.
I'm Gonna Commitment Ceremony You
Riese You and Julie both talk about being aware of your sexuality when you were really young -- do you think that comfort with yourself and humor about it is part of your great comedic chemistry together?
Kate: I don’t know ... hm. I think it's 'cause I really look up to Julie. She’s definitely been a role model for me as a comedian and as a woman, and ... I don’t know what she likes about me? But there must be something ... I think I’m just a tagalong?
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