Are You Experienced: Maynard James Keenan on comedy
Let's talk about something else
You may not be able to tell from his intimidating brood, but Maynard Keenan knows funny.
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A musician comes to town, so we ask them about their new record. A director comes to town, so we ask them about their new movie. A writer comes to town, so we ask them about their new book. We know what you’re saying: Borrrring. With Are You Experienced, Decider breaks that journalistic mold by asking an artist to talk about something they’re decidedly not known for. This time, we spoke with Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan—not about his new musical project Puscifer, and not about his new Arizona Stronghold wine (which he pimped at Whole Foods just yesterday), but about comedy, which is something he’s dabbled in but never seriously pursued.
Decider: We’re going to talk to you about comedy today. Does that work for you?
Maynard James Keenan: Sure. Is it okay if I’m not very funny?
D: The less funny you are the better.
MJK: Oh, good. I’m okay with being the butt of a joke, though. That’s fine.
D: You’ve palled around with some pretty great comedians over the years. For example, how did you come to know Bill Hicks?
MJK: We reached out to him in the original days of Tool, and we actually credited him on Undertow. We were driving down the road listening to Relentless and Dangerous in the van during the L.A. riots.
D: You’ve also done some comedy performances yourself. Was there ever a time you thought you might pursue that as a career instead of music?
MJK: I guess so, but I gravitated more towards music. I’m just not a solid, well-rounded actor. I’m kind of a recluse.
D: Did other people tell you that you weren’t a good actor?
MJK: Part of it is spending so much time in L.A. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but everyone is so … jaded. Extremely jaded. When you roll into town, and you’re that fresh face wanting to tear up the world—“I’m gonna be famous!”—everybody around you who has failed, everyone who tried the same thing you did, or they’re the children of people who are successful and tried to make it but they knew too much.... They tried to take the back way and use their connections to become famous, but it didn’t work, because they forgot to write songs or bits—they’re all telling you that you can’t do it. Just to make some money, I went to do a couple of commercials, and that was a disaster. I had no training. I had no idea how to go over the top and sell products. I went in there and tried to use some of the acting skills I had learned, and they were like, “Uh, have you started?” [Laughs.]
D: One of your few comedy appearances was in some early episodes of Mr. Show. How did you get involved with that?
MJK: Back in the early-1990s, I used to go to a lot of comedy shows in L.A. There was lots of cool stuff happening back then. That was when [Laura Milligan’s multimedia comedy revue] Tantrum was going on, and UnCabaret was happening. I spent a lot of time seeing those shows, and if you go back and look at the list of people who were doing stuff back then, it’s just incredible. Will Ferrell was in Tantrum a couple of times. It was pretty exciting. It was kind of like being in Seattle right before Nirvana broke.
Maynard James Keenan: Sure. Is it okay if I’m not very funny?
D: The less funny you are the better.
MJK: Oh, good. I’m okay with being the butt of a joke, though. That’s fine.
D: You’ve palled around with some pretty great comedians over the years. For example, how did you come to know Bill Hicks?
MJK: We reached out to him in the original days of Tool, and we actually credited him on Undertow. We were driving down the road listening to Relentless and Dangerous in the van during the L.A. riots.
D: You’ve also done some comedy performances yourself. Was there ever a time you thought you might pursue that as a career instead of music?
MJK: I guess so, but I gravitated more towards music. I’m just not a solid, well-rounded actor. I’m kind of a recluse.
D: Did other people tell you that you weren’t a good actor?
MJK: Part of it is spending so much time in L.A. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but everyone is so … jaded. Extremely jaded. When you roll into town, and you’re that fresh face wanting to tear up the world—“I’m gonna be famous!”—everybody around you who has failed, everyone who tried the same thing you did, or they’re the children of people who are successful and tried to make it but they knew too much.... They tried to take the back way and use their connections to become famous, but it didn’t work, because they forgot to write songs or bits—they’re all telling you that you can’t do it. Just to make some money, I went to do a couple of commercials, and that was a disaster. I had no training. I had no idea how to go over the top and sell products. I went in there and tried to use some of the acting skills I had learned, and they were like, “Uh, have you started?” [Laughs.]
D: One of your few comedy appearances was in some early episodes of Mr. Show. How did you get involved with that?
MJK: Back in the early-1990s, I used to go to a lot of comedy shows in L.A. There was lots of cool stuff happening back then. That was when [Laura Milligan’s multimedia comedy revue] Tantrum was going on, and UnCabaret was happening. I spent a lot of time seeing those shows, and if you go back and look at the list of people who were doing stuff back then, it’s just incredible. Will Ferrell was in Tantrum a couple of times. It was pretty exciting. It was kind of like being in Seattle right before Nirvana broke.
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