Jamie Kennedy is the star of MTV show Blowin' Up, which premieres at the channel's launch next week.
After small roles in movies that included Romeo & Juliet and Scream, Kennedy started The Jamie Kennedy Experiment prank show. Then came Blowin' Up, a TV reality show in which Jamie and sidekick Stu Stone try for a record contract and hip-hop stardom.
How's the quest to be hip-hop stars coming along?
Slowly but surely. It's a hard grind out there in the hip-hop world - you know how it is. I hear hip-hop is big in Christchurch. I'm trying to get MTV to fly me there because I think New Zealand needs it.
You could lay down a track with Scribe.
Or Frodo.
Have you written any raps lately?
I have a new rap about my girlfriend's left breast. Women tell me that usually one breast hangs lower than the other. It's called I Like Your Left Breast. It's a love song.
Romantic. How did you get the idea for Blowin' Up?
I couldn't get a record deal. No one took me seriously and their reaction to the music was funny and weird. I just thought, man, there's a TV show in this and pitched it to MTV.
What's a man your age doing running around dressed as a gangsta?
I'm 36 but no one would ever believe it. I don't look it. I don't act it. I was listening to Robert Palmer the other day and thinking, man, he was so huge in the 80s. Obviously I have some more years, because Palmer was the man, Phil Collins was the man and they were older when they were on MTV.
We've already had Ali G posing as a hip-hop artist. Why should we watch you do it?
I show the mix between what a Hollywood actor is like and trying to break into the rap world and the absurdity that happens. Even though I have a good life, it doesn't mean I can get credibility in another area.
But you're producing a show with Fran Drescher, so you must know a thing or two about business.
You definitely learn as you go, but I've been on sets for so long I see how things work. You find out what a producer does and it's really vague. I thought, I could do this. I know people and I'm an entrepreneur at heart. It's not brain science.
You obviously have a big little black book.
I do. Everybody from RZA and Method Man to Ice T to Ed McMahon to Jimmy Kimmel. It's a mix of Hollywood actors and rappers. And Bob Saget.
You have Marty Power to thank for your success. Who is he?
I was my own agent. I faked this old man's voice as "Marty Power" to get jobs. I lied down the phone. I thought: If I could sell things that aren't living, like office supplies, why can't I sell myself?
So you've built your career by duping people.
Yeah, my whole life is a dupe.
Do people approach you with caution?
All the time. Is it real, is it not? Is this true, is it not? Everyone dupes everyone all the time in this business. I just let everyone know that I dupe.
Do you dupe the ladies?
I've duped a few in my day. I try to be more straightforward than a duper.
You were the youngest of six kids. You must have been an attention-seeker the minute you popped out. I had to fight to get the last of the potatoes. My family is very eccentric. They're all brainiacs. My dad believes in reincarnation and my mother's a strict Catholic, so I had all these different influences growing up.
Do you have any kids?
No, although the other day I was at the amusement park and I thought, maybe I could, because the kids on the water-slide were cute. People have kids because they don't want to be lonely. You make instant friends. Your kids aren't going to not like you, right?
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