Kyle Kinane is trying to help his feature act, “my friend Shane Torres, who’s driving the Mazda 2 Snatchback,” find their way to their gig Thursday night in Hamden, Conn., as Kinane also is on the phone to speak with The Comic’s Comic.
It’s that kind of multi-tasking that also finds Kinane providing the voiceover for ads on Comedy Central promoting his latest one-hour stand-up special, I Liked His Old Stuff Better, debuting tonight at midnight on the cable network. The full uncensored edition of his new material already is available for purchase now, though, so you can decide for yourself how the new stuff holds up! This time around, Kinane is joking about how therapy is different in the Midwest than it is in Southern California, a wild story from his youth that he might have benefited from therapy for, what happens when a good-natured cop crashes your party, and the joys of drinking in the shower.
Here’s a clip of that latter bit:
Kinane told me he’s enjoying this mid-winter tour through the Northeast, which also brought him through Asbury Park, N.J., this week. “We parked on the boardwalk,” he said. Did you feel the spirit of “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen while there? “I think it’s unavoidable,” Kinane said. “I think they designed the city more after he started describing it…He’s the Walt Disney of Asbury Park.”
Titling his new CD/special “I Liked His Old Stuff Better” is his very obvious way of deflecting criticism and lowering expectations after his 2012 release, “Whisky Icarus,” landed on or near the top of most comedy fans’ best of lists. “Yeah, the last one went way better than I ever hoped,” he said. “The whole Internet is full of people who piss and complain. Listen, I beat you to it!” As he has on his other recordings, the actual tracks copy-and-paste from a classic album – on 2010’s “Death Of The Party,” Kinane used the track listing from Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police”; for “Whiskey Icarus,” KISS’s “Destroyer”; and now “I Liked His Old Stuff Better” cribs from N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton.” And no, there’s no rhyme or reason, no natural progression in Kinane’s comedy to draw conclusions or parallels from his musical influences.
“I did a silly thing on a comedy album. Jesus Christ! Plus, naming jokes is dumb, anyway,” he said. “It’s just whatever I was feeling at the time. What, you think I don’t get to laugh at my own comedy album? I want to be entertained, too.”
He opens the latest hour-plus by talking about we all should redefine our happiness. What makes him happy these days, when he’s not performing? “Not doing Reddit AMAs,” he cracked. “I just had to do one, before this interview.” But seriously: “I just want to be a really radical mountain biker. I know it sounds cheesy but it’s not. I want to be super radical on my mountain bike.” And he takes to his wheels “all over the trails in Southern California where I can get to.”
One of his many great new bits has him acknowledging that there’s at least one police officer somewhere – no matter what you may think of the NYPD, LAPD or the cops in Ferguson, Mo., or your town – that reminds you of yourself.
What was the last time you looked at someone in another profession and thought, yeah, that could have been you if you hadn’t made it as a comedian? “That’s everybody you see working construction,” Kinane said. Actually, he’ll go you one humbler. He sees his path could have gone any number of ways instead of comedy, and still could. “I went to college. Shane and I were just talking about this. Shane and I were under this impression everyone had to go to college, and you got a sociology degree or something stupid that has nothing to do with your career, but then you end up getting an office job and make $3 more an hour than someone else just because you went to college.”
“Yep. That was almost me,” he added. “This still could all go away. There’s no promise that you could be a comedian forever.”
Even though you’ve been the official voice of Comedy Central (or one of two voices) since 2011? “They could fire me any day if they wanted to,” he said. “No one’s lining up for my garbage voice…I’ve done some animated stuff here and there, which is always fun. But I’m not selling anybody Pepsi or Ford or anything like that.”
Maybe once they see this they will?!
“I’ve got to read ‘The Secret’ and I’ve got to will it to be.”
Kyle Kinane: I Liked His Old Stuff Better debuts at midnight tonight on Comedy Central. The extended and uncensored version of “Kyle Kinane: I Liked His Old Stuff Better” will be available for download on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Xbox Video, Sony Entertainment Network, Vudu and Google Play on Jan. 27. The digital album also will be available on that date on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Google Play, Spotify and all streaming services. Pre-orders already are available.
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