YRB Magazine

by Josh Gloer  

Photography by Jeff Forney

You might not know his name, but if you’ve gone to the movies to see a comedy in the last few years, then you’ve almost certainly seen Ken Jeong as a variety of characters. It was his idea to pop out of the trunk of a car completely naked in The Hangover. He played the egomaniacal king in a fantasy world in Role Models, and took inspiration from his real-life medical degree as the angry OB-GYN, Dr. Kuni, in Knocked Up.  

The Michigan native has also appeared on the small screen in The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm and MADtv, and has now landed a spot as a prime time regular. Mr. Chang, an overbearing Spanish teacher on NBC’s new hit Community, is Ken’s latest role, but in spite of his busy schedule Ken managed to find some time to sit down with YRB and answer some questions about his life in comedy.

YRB: What draws you to comedy? 

Ken: I think it’s just something that’s innate. I always just loved to laugh. I always just loved it as a kid. Some people are drawn to music, some people are drawn to art, some people are drawn to drama… You know? It’s just something that even as a kid, before I ever wanted to do this, ever wanted to do comedy, I loved to laugh. 

YRB: What makes you laugh now? 

Ken: Everything. It’s just like anything else in arts and music you can just draw upon – anything from my family, something my wife or my kid says. Lately, it’s really been drawn from there. In fact, and I’ve never said this in an interview, but I married my wife simply because she made me laugh. That was the most important thing. And I really did think this before I got married: “Looks will fade, but personality will always stay the same.” And if I fucking have a laugh every day for the rest of my life, that will be a pretty great thing. 

YRB: So do you act just to make yourself laugh? 

Ken: Yeah. At the end of the day, did I have fun doing it? Was I laughing while I was doing it? It’s pretty important for me [to be] having a good time doing it. Especially comedy. And it doesn’t have to be anything that’s an obvious joke that would be in final print. It’s maybe something behind the scenes that’s just really funny, something small that will make me laugh. 

YRB: And sometimes it does make the final print. I hear you put your own spin on the trunk scene in The Hangover.

Ken: It was my idea to do it naked. It was something that just kind of fit with the story, and I just politely asked Todd [Phillips], “Can I do it?” And he was like, ‘You don’t have to ask me twice.’ I was just in the zone and I was getting into the character and I was reading the script and was like, “God, it’d be really funny if it was naked.” 

YRB: Do you have limits?

Ken: No, I just think you do what fits with the story. As an actor, your mind should be as open as possible – an open book. And then you should make choices that make sense based on your character in the story. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to do it naked. I was actually thinking of  Ving Rhames’ character in Pulp Fiction, Marsellus Wallace. He was a gangster and The Gimp humiliated him. I was thinking like, what could be so painful to have him come back later in the film to really want to murder these guys? Oh ok, maybe by being naked in the trunk. 

YRB: You seem to appear in every new comedy that hits the screen. You have this sort of bizarre level of fame.

Ken: I love that! I have a bizarre level of fame. That’s very true. I’m just happy to be working. I’m never craving this kind of fame; I just want to keep working. I just want to keep enjoying what I do. If I can do this full time supporting my wife and kids? Come on, that’s a dream come true. 

YRB: So you do this to make yourself laugh and have fun. Which project was the most fun? 

Ken: I’m not lying, every single project I’ve done, they’ve all been great. I have to say the greatest moment was my first movie Knocked Up. If it weren’t for Judd Apatow I wouldn’t be working. He got me in the door. It was after Knocked Up [that] I started doing this full time. And I didn’t really expect to. I thought maybe I’d go back to my day job and be forever known as that guy from Knocked Up.  

YRB: And now, you’ve gone from the “King of Cameos” to landing a role on the new hit TV show Community with Chevy Chase. 

Ken: It’s really surreal to do a TV series with a guy who you grew up [watching]. I’ve stolen moves from Chevy. He’s honed deadpan to an amazing degree. Joel McHale says, ‘It’s like working with Nolan Ryan. Even now, at his age, he’s still got it. He can throw the ball harder than anyone else.’ It’s just great. 

YRB: It must be a huge switch to go from small film roles to a weekly TV show.

Ken: What’s been very surprising is how similar it is to how I’ve been working before. I really didn’t know what to expect, and I’m loving every second of it. The hours are long and can be demanding, but the same with film. Every great movie you’re working many hours, it’s the same thing – which I like, actually. I enjoy that, because that’s where you get the great stuff. Just when you think you ain’t got nothing left in the tank, all of a sudden, bam! You got the take that you needed. You kind of thrive on that adrenaline.

YRB: What is it like to work on Community?

Ken: Being part of an ensemble, part of a great cast – and I mean this – every single person in that cast is amazing. They all come to play. The cool thing about doing the TV show is that you see them on a regular basis. They start becoming my influences. I see certain things they do as actors, and I’m like, “That’s just so great.” And then that can influence, whether consciously or unconsciously, what I’ll do in the future. 

YRB: If you follow on your current path, you’ll be doing a lot of funny characters in the future. Where do these characters come from? 

Ken: I don’t know. I don’t objectify it much. I think there’s just a passion to do this. You either love doing this or you don’t, and I love doing this. I love the small parts where I have one line, and some of the cameos I do. You know, Step Brothers, I think I had one line in the movie, but I was working with John C. Reilly for a day. I was working with Adam McKay, who’s one of my heroes, in a Will Ferrell film – another one of my heroes. Those things are really important to me. I really love everything I do, whether big or small parts. You can only do that if you really love it. 

YRB: So the goal is really doing what you love.

Ken: Yep. That’s the only goal I have right now, to continue to do what I love. And continue to be happy in my daily life and my family life and to keep laughing. 

by Jason Newman 

Photography by Chad Griffith

Comedy’s lovable Queen of Mean didn’t find her calling until the age of 30, and she hasn’t looked back since. 

As with most things related to raunchy comedian and Queen of the Roasts, Lisa Lampanelli, controversy has ensued. At her YRB photo shoot in Manhattan, iPods were accidentally switched and the previous sounds of Meatloaf emanating from the 48-year-old insult comic's iPod have been replaced by The Black Keys. “This can't be my iPod,” bellows Lampanelli, clad in a fashionable top and sweatpants. “This is way too cool for me.”

Whether she knows it or not, Lisa Lampanelli is, to many people, “cool.” Just ask the people of all races, ethnicities and sexual orientations that attend her sold-out shows and bought her recently released autobiography Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks. Between working on her next stand-up special, talking to producers about possible talk show and sitcom deals and planning a wedding set for October, the raunchiest person in the game found some time to share her wisdom. You may not want the kids to read this one.

YRB: So when I told my girlfriend I was interviewing you, she was worried that you were going to rip me a new one.

Lisa: NO! NO! [Laughs] That happens all the time, though. I don’t, because I'm nice. Well, I'm not overly nice – I'm not going to be all smiley and fake happy all the time because I'm always miserable like every other comic on the planet – but the only time I'll do the insulting thing offstage is when a guy will go, “Could you please call my wife and call her a cunt?” And I always do it. How could I resist that invitation? I feel honored.

YRB: How much of what we see on stage is your actual personality?

Lisa: I turn it off immediately when I get offstage. Ten percent of the time, I'll be an insulting twat offstage, but usually I'm just like any normal person on the street and not funny. I hate that guy who can never turn it off. It's like, “Can't you just go to a club and do that, douchebag? You don't have to be funny all the time.” When I used to do autographs after the show, people used to say “You fuckin' bitch” or “You cunt” just to joke around and I'll say, “Uh, all you have to say is 'Ms. Lampanelli, can I have an autograph?'”

YRB: In the beginning, would you get offended by it?

Lisa: I got pissed off by it two weeks ago! I threw a book at a guy! With my fans, 90 percent of them are great and the rest are just hillbilly retards who go, “I'm going to be funny to her.” Guess what, audience? Listen up. You're not funny. You never will be. Lick it. I'm not here to be shit on by you.

YRB: You began doing stand-up at the relatively old age of 30. What was it that sparked this desire to get on stage?

Lisa: When I hit 30, I kind of snapped. I was working at Rolling Stone and Spy and I was bored, and I kept saying, “I really want to try comedy. It seems like a good fit for me.” And year after year, you take more and more chances. I say things now I didn't think I'd say last year. I think a lot of comics start too young and it takes them a while to develop their own personality then the stage personality. With my show, I'm just being me. The audience doesn't want to see disingenuous bullshit.

YRB: Do you think things would have been different if you started out at 22?

Lisa: I would have quit immediately because I wasn't funny enough and I would have been insecure. You always want to quit anyway when you're not making any money and you're driving 21 hours and you don't have money for a hotel room. Or you have a show that's not your best and you're crying and saying, “Can I quit? Can I quit?” The next day you wake up and you don't want to quit anymore.

YRB: Was there any particular moment when you realized you could do this for a living or was it more gradual?

Lisa: You want to know what a conceited twat I am? The first time I did comedy, I called in sick the next day and quit soon after. I always said, “I bet I could be a big headliner.” I always had a headliner personality.

YRB: Are you worried about being typecast as just an “insult comic?”

Lisa: No, because look at [Don] Rickles or [Howard] Stern. You are what you are. You can't be all things to all people, so these comics that don't commit fully never really make it. You become this cruise ship guy; it's all bland and boring. I don't even get pride in saying I'm a comic. If I say I'm an “insult comic,” that I get pride in. I don't want to do any growing. I'm sick of growing.

YRB: Having done so many roasts, are they still fun for you?

Lisa: Naw, it's not fun. It's never fun. It's the worst night of my life because it's so hard. It takes me about a month to prepare correctly and then you're up the whole night before with all your writers totally stressing. I turn down roasts now that I don't think anybody's gonna watch. I knew nobody would watch the Bob Saget and Joan Rivers roasts, and I'm not going to kill myself for a month to be not seen. There's very few things I'm above, but I'm above being on Bob Saget's roast. I like him, but suck it. Also, I was roastmaster for Larry the Cable Guy so I'm not going to do some Joan Rivers cunt and take a downgrade. I'm the best at this in the business. You have to pick and choose – otherwise, you become one of those guys who that's all they're known for.

YRB: What's the process like and how many people that you've roasted have you known personally?

Lisa: Virtually none. I knew Larry and [Jeff] Foxworthy. I usually have to go last because all the guys have it in their contract that they can't follow me because they're fuckin’ pussies. I hire a bunch of people and we find out little-known facts about the people. Like you're not going to go up and do Pam Anderson boob jokes after it's all been done. Then you write, write, write for two weeks and a lot of people drop out so you have to write on the new people on the dais. Then I have to take all the stuff and compile them into a script, which is why my roasts are better than everybody else's. There has to be segues, beginnings and endings, and that's what the guys forget to do. It's all a string of jokes to them. It has to be like a story.

YRB: What's the difference between what's funny and what's over the line?

Lisa: If I can't make it funny, then it's over the line. There's nothing forbidden to say. It's not just funny to spout out crazy shit and expect people to go, “Oooh, it's edgy.” If Pam Anderson really looks hurt at a set of jokes, I'll pull back on it because I'll have some sensitivity. That's why I sell tickets. Nobody wants to see someone just be mean. You gotta like them. If you don't have likeability, they're not going to want to see you more than once.

YRB: Your book details a less-than-perfect childhood. What was comedy's role in your life growing up? 

Lisa: I went to this co-dependency rehab and they taught us this thing called the Family Atom where you analyze what role you played in the family. I was always the “mascot,” which means that you joke around and say things that under any other circumstance, one of the other kids would have gotten hit. But I had a way of defusing the situation, so you kept it light at home in moments that were really dark. So I served that role without knowing it. It definitely helped me get through little things. But I do believe that the happier and more emotionally healthy you are, the funnier you are. I don't buy that whole “comics need to stay fucked up to be funny.” It's all bullshit.

by Michael Menachem

Photography by Jason Goodrich

Together, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain are Stella. Apart, they’re – well, still Stella – continuing to crack one quirky joke after another

Here’s a little quickie advice for future journalists who might have the opportunity to engage the members of the comedy troupe Stella in an interview, or even for anyone who attempts to approach the guys in public: the trio will probably mess with you. The jest comes all in good fun, though. Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (from the current sketch comedy show Michael and Michael Have Issues on Comedy Central), along with longtime friend David Wain (director of Role Models and cult classic Wet Hot American Summer), make up the stand-up group whose unconventional shows are at the top of New York City’s comedic heap. The offbeat smartasses met at NYU in the early ‘90s and are also former members of The State sketch comedy cast, which ran for three years on MTV.

Trying to hold a conversation with these guys is like interacting with three five-year-olds in a Gifted and Talented program who’ve had too much candy. The interview started off with planned questions, but when it came time for answers, the guys went off into their own manic tangents, accomplishing almost nothing except a host of clichés, an impressive display of vocabulary and, of course, plenty of obscenities. So what did YRB learn from Michael, Michael and Dave? Not much other than they really know how to take any topic and turn it into a punch line. This pretty much sums it up.

David: Sometimes I’m looking the other way and that’s when life happens.

Michael S: The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Michael B: The one thing I’ve learned is to expect what’s expected.

[Have fun following the rest…]

YRB: So if Michael and Michael have issues, where does this leave you David?

David: We all have issues.

Michael B: He’s a germaphobe. David famously will not shake hands, but he will take any load blown into his mouth.

David: I have Mac issues, and I have a full archive of MAD magazines.

YRB: So what do you tell your kids, or what will you tell them, daddy does?

Michael S: I had my dick tied so I can’t have kids.

Michael B: I am telling my kids I’m a cop.

David: I plan to be out of the house by the time he can Google daddy.

Michael S: I can’t. My penis is tied in a knot.

YRB: After leaving The State, the three of you started your own comedy group and the name changed one night to the unborn baby name of the then pregnant club manager.  How old is baby Stella now?

David: Twelve. Once in a while we talk to the manager.

Michael S: In the mid-’90s we went by the name Midnight Expressions.

David: Then we had the name Stella when we started to go on tour.

[It was here that the conversation started to shift into Stella-isms and what can kind of be described as a lightning round of absurd answers from the guys.]

YRB: So Stella has gained a following in large part due to a fan base watching your videos on CollegeHumor.com.  How did you link up with them?

Michael B: In the late ‘90s the web just exploded.

Michael S: It was a boom.

David: I thought it was just a boomlet.

Michael S: I got a wireless keyboard.

Michael B: Then you know what happened? It was like a bubble that burst.

YRB: So Michael, what’s VH1’s I Love the… series really like? I mean, as a commentator do they tell you to talk about some cheesy topic and you respond?

Michael B: No, everything is important. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders – to me it’s all important. Punky Brewster.

David: One-hit wonders.

YRB: What do you think about around holiday time?

Michael B: I think everyone should get a warm piece of pussy to cuddle up in. Fluffy, warm, cuddly pussy.

David: I think Christmas has become too commercialized.

Michael S: Let’s be thankful we’re here in America and that we’re white.

Michael B: Thank God for being white and American.

Michael S: It’s the thought that counts.

YRB: What will you look back on the 2000s for?

Michael S: It’s a thousand years of history.

David: Doesn’t the new decade technically start in 2011?

Michael B: I can answer this in two words: Ronald Reagan. He was alive for part of it. He liked jelly beans and started out as an actor.

Michael S: Well, Jelly Belly.

David: For me, it was my thirties so there was lots of masturbating. Four to seven times a day. That lasted until I got married. Sex with my wife is filling the void.

Michael S: Didn’t 9/11 happen in this decade? Hurricane Katrina.

David: I was sad to lose Burt Reynolds. His phone was dead in the airport. We didn’t end up hooking up ‘til Cabo.

Michael S: Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics.

David: For me it was Megatrends. The way the future is changing.

Michael S: We’re going into the multi-verse.

[Showalter continues talking about green initiatives, fossil fuels, wind, solar energy and clean coal until we find a way to segue back into somewhat safer topics.]

YRB: Who are some new comedians you are all about these days?

Michael B: Robin Williams and Bill Cosby.

[Starting to play along…]

YRB: How about musicians, chefs?

David: Mostly Mos Def. Fiona Apple and Kelly LeBrock.

Michael S: For chefs, Boyardee is good.

David: Wolfgang Puck is good. The Naked Chef, Julia Child.

YRB: What are some projects you have coming up?

Michael B: I don’t know if I’m supposed to talk about this, but I was cast to be in The Hobbit. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. I play an archer; it’s not a speaking role. I have to be there for three years in New Zealand.

Michael S: I’m doing a Broadway national tour of The King and I and I play the king. It’s in Fall 2010.

David: I’m going to be working for VH1. Production stuff. The go-to guy for whatever needs to get done around the office.

Michael B: He’s going to be a PA.

David: An intern actually.

Michael S: After The King and I I’m going to be playing the Man of La Mancha. I have one week in between and then we re-group.

[Once again the conversation shifted, coming the closest to a “normal” exchange all evening, and the trio get a little deeper with insight into their comedy and life in general – well, as deep as they’re willing to get.]

David: Our comedy, the way we perform, it’s looking at the world holding up a mirror to society.

Michael B: I would say it’s holding up a funhouse mirror to society.

YRB: What are you missing in life?

David: We want love. We want peace.  We want to be creative and share this with the rest of the world.

[As you can see, even when Stella is in the hot seat, they’re running the show – completely.]

by Nancy Dunham

Photography by Andrew McLeod

From the football field to the stand-up stage, Anjelah Johnson has been keeping us entertained for years – and there’s plenty more where that came from.

Anjelah Johnson can feel your energy. Whenever she’s backstage before a performance, the audience chatter, buzz, karma – whatever you want to call it – drifts back to pump her up.

Perhaps that energy is one of the reasons that Johnson, at age 27, has already excelled at three entertainment careers – as an Oakland Raiderette; an actress starting off with roles as an extra in high-end comedies like Friends and, more recently, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Family Wedding (slated for release in Spring 2010); and, of course, as a comedienne. Whether her craft comes in the form of stand-up or a televised comedy special, her “everyday people” sense of humor kills.

So just where is the wellspring of Johnson’s creativity that has allowed her to succeed in areas where countless others have faltered? We went right to the comedienne herself to get the answers.

YRB: How do you define yourself?

Anjelah: I start off by not defining myself. I could be labeled a cheerleader or a comedienne or an actress. I just go with the flow and never know what I’m doing next. In a couple of years we might be talking about my album or who knows what? I call myself an entertainer.

YRB: What has always struck me is that you seem so grounded.

Anjelah: A lot of that is because of my family. I grew up in San Jose, California part of a really big family. We are all very close so I grew up with a lot of family support and love. My parents were divorced but even growing up in a broken home. I still had so much love from my entire family.

YRB: You were a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders. How did you get into something like that?

Anjelah: I started competitive cheerleading when I was young. After I left college, a friend said, “You should try out [for the Raiderettes].” At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I liked working with kids, I liked speech communications and theatre, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I couldn’t even go to the movies with my friends and just enjoy them because I’d watch a movie and was mad I wasn’t in it. I would sit there and see this girl in the movie and think, “Why is she in it? Why aren’t I in it?”  Growing up in San Jose, I didn’t know anything about Hollywood. To me, Hollywood was more like a fantasy, not an attainable dream. But a friend invited me to sign up [for tryouts hosted by] the Raiderettes and another friend said, “Come out to L.A. and I’ll show you the ropes; I’ll show you how to get started here.” I was just like, “OK, if I try out for the Raiderettes and that works and I make the squad, I’ll take it as a sign from God that I am supposed to pursue entertainment.”

YRB: Was it a difficult decision to try out for the Raiderettes?

Anjelah: In a way, because I was always one of the boys and the Raiderettes are more glamorous. I thought it wasn’t really me but I thought I’d try out and see what happened. I made the squad and that was the year we went to the Super Bowl.

YRB: Were you worried about being stereotyped as a cheerleader?

Anjelah: I wasn’t worried about it. I knew myself and my identity and who I was. I did get flack [from some members of the] Christian community. In every kind of religious organization there are some people who just don’t get it and see it as nothing about honor. They say, “Oh, you’re showing your cleavage,” or something judgmental like that.  It didn’t bother me, though, because I really felt that was what God had called me to do.

YRB: So how did you first break into TV?

Anjelah: My first job, I was an extra on Friends. I spent two years as an extra, literally learning first hand from Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox, seeing how they take direction, how they learn lines, everything. Then after Friends I was on The Joey Show, one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and some random pilots and other roles. In Love Inc. on UPN, I had a co-starring role on the very last episode.

YRB: What is the big secret people need to know about working as an extra if they come to L.A.?

Anjelah: The craft service is extras heaven. They have donuts, sodas, chips, pizza, whatever. Every production has a service. The funny thing was, I was so excited about that because you’re making extra’s wages and you’re so excited because you know you’ll eat that day, too. When you’re an extra you’re hungry, and you know if you have a job tomorrow as an extra, you’ll eat at least one full meal.

YRB: How did you move into comedy?

Anjelah: I was taking a writing class at my church. I had been in the drama department of my church and the teacher saw that I was funny. She said, “Hey why don’t you take my stand-up class?” I asked her if it was free and she said it was. So I took the class for about two months and at the end of the class I had to perform at a real stand-up club. 

YRB: You had to be nervous.

Anjelah: Comedy wasn’t something I had dreamed of and wanted to do, so I had a carefree attitude about it. I was a bit nervous before I went on stage, but I knew I was funny and I knew that my material was funny. 

YRB: How does your humor differ, if it does, from the humor you grew up with?

Anjelah: Growing up I liked to watch [BET’s] Comic View. I liked comedy that was very edgy, kind of dirty, very ethnic humor. That is what I watched in high school. That’s not really the kind of comedy I do though.

YRB: Who do you admire now?

Anjelah: Now, Ellen DeGeneres is a big influence in my life. I love her natural ability to make people laugh just in conversation. She makes it look so easy. George Lopez is great. I can relate to all his jokes. I love his facial expressions. Definitely those two are my favorites now that I am a comedienne. I didn’t grow up wanting to be a comic. Now I’ve really gotten to know a lot of comics and find they are just hilarious.

YRB: If you had to describe your humor to someone who didn’t know your work, what would you say?

Anjelah: I am very observational so my act is a lot of stories about things that have happened to me, my observations about the way guys hit on us, very specific to ethnicity, things about my mom or day, a flight attendant. It’s all very observational.

YRB: So what is the end goal that will tell you that you’ve made it?

Anjelah: I guess it would be different for everybody. For me, personally, it could be any number of things. I just finished taping a one-hour special for Comedy Central. There are so many comics that dream about [appearing on] Comedy Central or HBO. That is a major goal. I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a comedienne, but I am so excited about it, so blessed and honored to have this one-hour special and be able to sell out shows. There’s no doubt – I have been blessed.

By Phillip Mlynar

Photography by Lionel Deluy

Nothing is off limits with stand-up comedian and actress Margaret Cho, and with her musical debut on the way, explicit lyrics may apply.