VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Jamie Kennedy Reveals His Comic Hero

Comedian Jamie Kennedy, who famously starred in Scream and Son of the Mask, sat down with uInterview to talk about his approaches to comedy and how they play into his new special Stoopid Smart.

“It’s like, people know me, like as a little goofy, and I’ve played some goofy roles, and I’ve been animated, but then I get into smarter stuff as I go on,” the comedian told uInterview’s Erik Meers about his special.

“Comedy is so hot, and it’s never been more needed right now,” said Kennedy about doing comedy during today’s social and political climate.

“It’s tough right now. I think you’ve got to like right the ship. There’s a lot of things that are not great, and I think people are getting overwhelmed, and I think some of them want to escape, but we can’t just escape,” said Kennedy. “We have to attack our problems one by one, and then when you need a little escape, do some comedy. But we can’t just binge away our problems, that’s not going to help you there.”

Kennedy noted that the late George Carlin, who’s known as a stand-up comedian, but also a philosopher and social critic, as one of the comedians he looks up to.

“He’s just like a stand-up philosopher, I mean I laugh, but I’m more just like ‘Oh my God,'” said Kennedy. “I’m just more so amazed, so I feel like that’s like where you want to end up … I just like can listen to him for hours, you know what I mean, and I don’t care if I laugh, and I think I have to work on not caring about laughter as much as just being interesting.”

And being interesting is what Kennedy wants to work on next.

“I think that a good comic is a voice of society to hold a mirror up to itself,” he said. “This special has a little bit of that, but it’s a lot more fun escape, but I will do one of those next. And I think that you kind of have to do that because no one’s going to listen to anybody else right now.

“The nice thing about comedy is it being more respected than ever. I mean people respect the ability to do it, but I think they’re actually listening to comics as like the orators of truth,” said Kennedy.

“My biggest hurdle is making something really deep and dark funny,” explained Kennedy. He went on to say that although he doesn’t go into a room worrying about what the audience will find offensive, he has to make his comedy “listen-able.”

“Comedy is, all art is to me, a try. So, you want to try to do something, and it’s messy, art is messy,” said Kennedy.

You can watch Jamie Kennedy: Stoopid Smart for free on Tubi TV. Check out the trailer below: