Key & Peele
Hello. A new show premieres on Comedy Central tonight called “Key & Peele.” It’s sketch comedy by two guys named Keegan Michael Key & Jordan Peele. I shot parts on two episodes so I will tell you what I know about it. FIRST: Key and Peele are FUCKING funny and smart. They get RIGHT in there and use their formidable funniness on topics that are actually important, like politics, race and more. SECOND: The director of every episode is Peter Atencio, who is not just a hired gun who they thought “Oh, he’s safely and dependably directed a bunch of sketch comedy shows or a bunch of Comedy Central shows so we know he won’t fuck it up.” No, he’s a very young precocious asshole who is (and I apologize for using this word) an artist. I mean that in the best way; there are cinematic techniques used in the show that are wildly creative and exciting and beautiful that add elements to the show’s feel that Rick Sloan, a hack director I just made up, would never have thought up or bothered with. THIRD: It’s executive produced by Ian Roberts. Anyone even peripherally involved with comedy in 2012 knows that no one living is funnier than Ian Roberts. Will Ferrell would tell you that. Tina Fey would tell you that. Ricky Gervais would tell you that. (Just kidding; Ricky Gervais is an asshole and would be like “He’s never written a Wall St. Journal op-ed disproving the existence of God, so how can he TRULY be funny?”) In any case, Ian Roberts EPs the show and helps write it and was super involved when I was on the set, tossing out lines for people to say and being hilarious. (Also: I should say that seeing him, along with Amy Poehler, Matt Besser and Matt Walsh of the original Upright Citizens Brigade do a show in NYC in 1998 is [no joke] why I am a comedian today.)
There are many others involved in the show who produced and maybe helped write it; I don’t know; this is an unsolicited blog post, not an article, so maybe everything I’ve written is false other than the fact that I laughed a lot at what I saw on set.
In any case, watch the show, because if it’s as funny as what I saw it will be excellent.
