THE BRICE KENNEDY SHOW (DVD Boxset)
Additional Info:
The show's website is here: http://bkshow.tripod.com/index2.html. It's no longer updated but has some decent info for perspective. My new website (mostly about acting, life, etc) is at http://www.bricekennedy.com.
The lowdown on the DVD itself:
"The Brice Kennedy Show: The Complete Series"
7-Disc Set
TRT: 223 mins
Full frame New Arena Entertainment
CAST: Brice Kennedy, Mark Polonia, John Polonia, Jon McBride, Mia Amber Davis, Bill Hayes, Susan Seaforth Hayes, Heather Tennant, Jacob Young, Danny Cameron, Larry Nelson, Eric McGuire, Billy Zwiener, Todd Carpenter
Available at: www.BriceKennedy.com
Street date: TBA
Special Features: BEHIND THE SCENES FOOTAGE, UNCENSORED TAKES, PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS, PRODUCTION NOTES, PROMOTIONAL ARTWORK GALLERY, PRODUCTION PHOTO GALLERY, REVIEWS, PRESS CLIPPINGS, MUSIC VIDEOS, BIOS & FILMOGRAPHIES, A TRIBUTE TO BRICE, THE HISTORY OF THE BRICE KENNEDY SHOW
"THE HISTORY OF THE BRICE KENNEDY SHOW"
It's "The Brice Kennedy Show"! Cock your guns and lick your grandmother as you bear witness to the Return of Comedy! Guitars, licking and sledgehammers... The Idiocy has descended once more! The Show's countless exploits of absurdity and displays of eccentricity will save you from the mundane world of reality television and cookie cutter entertainment! Born out of the twisted, random psyche of independent film actor Brice Kennedy, The Show is a public access comedic variety talk show television program. Equal parts nonsensical chicanery and performance art, The Show mixes live in-studio guests and musical performances with pre-taped "man on the street" segments, erratic stunts, abstract spectacles and other ridiculous ridiculosities to celebrate the absurd.
The initial concept of The Show dates back to the spring of 1999. When Brice first watched "The Tom Green Show" on MTV, he not only saw cutting edge, in your face comedy but another class clown in HIS mid-twenties still living in HIS parents’ basement putting together his own comedy show and, with that, the realization of his own lifelong dream: "The Brice Kennedy Show". Ideas came quickly as did help from friends and family. Brice immediately grabbed his family’s VHS camera and with his friend Rachel in tow, hit the Wal-Marts, the Food Lions and the fast food drive-throughs with mischief on his mind and hilarity in the lens. However, there was one lingering question: where would the studio portion of The Show be taped? After all, there was no public access TV station in Morgantown. That’s where Pittsburgh’s PCTV Channel 21 would come in. PCTV was a public access station but there was a catch. In order to use their facilities, you had to be a resident of the city of Pittsburgh. Of course, this was only a small legal matter to Brice and would not deter him for one second in his newfound quest. Using his friend Eric’s physical address and a tall tale involving multiple roommates and utility bills bearing someone else's name (not to mention the luxury of this taking place in the relatively relaxed pre-9/11 days), Brice obtained a Pennsylvania driver’s license. "The Brice Kennedy Show" now had its home.
Before the first taping (and in between studio episodes), Brice shot plenty of "man on the street" field segments featuring dozens of memorable stunts. He stopped traffic on Patteson Drive by standing in the middle of the road in his underwear. He rushed into the Mon General Hospital Emergency Room (where he would later go on to work) and collapsed into a seizure . He stood alongside The Salvation Army's bell ringer at the Star City Ames Department Store and set up shop as "The Salvation Navy" (all proceeds were given to the Army). He assumed the disturbing persona of Muffleface where he disrupted/befriended more of the good people of Star City. He dated his hairdryer, frolicked on an airport runway, licked his microwave, nearly suffocated himself, crashed a McDonald’s and a Hardee's, scared his mother "half to death", nearly got arrested posing as Santa Claus at a Wal-Mart and even created his very own dance... the "Kippa Pi".
So, in October of 2000, after a full year of pre production, the first episode was taped in the studios of PCTV Channel 21 and The Show was an instant smash among cast and crew working that day. Longtime friend and artist Heather Tennant co-hosted The Show and station intern Nathalie Evrat was the very first guest. Also, television theme song maestro and Brice Kennedy look-a-like Johnny No-Name provided the musical entertainment. Post production began after the TV taping but distractions with other acting opportunities, frustration from a near-OCD level of editing perfectionism and other factors would put things on hold. "The Brice Kennedy Show" wouldn't debut until two years later.
Before the second studio episode was shot, Brice launched The Show’s website and later, BriceKennedy.com, which would serve as a site both for The Show and his acting pursuits. October of 2002 was a very busy month. The second TV taping (which would later become Episode 3) was taped at the Mansfield University TV studio in Wellsboro, PA, which Brice’s friend and frequent film collaborator Mark Polonia managed. "The B-Movie Special" was co-hosted by aspiring singer/songwriter Jaymee Pro as original co-host Heather Tennant had moved to Baltimore. Her departure and the subsequent search for her replacement evolved into a running joke of sorts, with each episode featuring a different co-host. Episode 3 featured the iconic B-movie filmmakers Mark and John Polonia as the special guests with fellow filmmaker and musician Jon McBride rounding out The Show as the musical guest. Later that month, Brice spoke with Time-Warner cable about airing The Show in Fairmont and Clarksburg although that ultimately fell through. He was also interviewed by the Morgantown newspaper, The Dominion Post, for its entertainment section. Brice then collaborated with local musician and studio guru Mark Poole to create The Show's theme song, "Rock Your Ass Off" and the first round of t-shirts were printed and adorned the bodies of Morgantown's citizenry.
In November, an Episode 1 "World Premiere" party was held at the Morgantown Holiday Inn. Dozens of friends, family, cast and crew turned out for the first public showing of The Show and it was very well received. One week later, "The Brice Kennedy Show" finally made its television debut as it premiered on its new (and legal) home – Preston County, WV's local origination station, Mountain Digital Cable Channel 7. Viewer reaction was both very positive and wildly confusing with people calling into the studio telling station head Steve Blake they weren't sure what they were watching but they liked it. Mountain Digital 7 had been running teasers and promos for The Show for weeks and Steve fielded plenty of questions on this new local TV anomaly. Immediately after the first airing, The Show received its first fan e-mail. "The Brice Kennedy Show" had arrived.
Episode 2, "The Christmas Special", was shot and aired in December on MD7 with decidedly mixed results, which actually was the intention. The Andy Kaufmann-esque Christmas show featured camera guy and all around first mate Danny Cameron playing Santa Claus and rocking back and forth in his chair, ho-ho-ho'ing into the camera… for thirty solid minutes. Suffice to say, Santa's relentless joy confused the viewers as intended. More publicity was generated in January of 2003 to promote The Show’s first taping with a live studio audience. Brice was interviewed again for The Dominion Post and went on future guest Eric McGuire’s WVAQ morning show a couple of times.
Episode 4 was shot in January at The Digital Domain Theater in Reedsville followed by the Episode 5 taping in February. The live audience tapings proved to be a hit with Eric McGuire as Episode 4's guest and documentary filmmaker and director of "The Dancing Outlaw" Jacob Young the guest for Episode 5. Morgantown rock heroes Sandra Black and Kingwood-based band Stimulus served up the good stuff for everyone’s ears at the two tapings while musician/actress Meghan King and crewmembers Danny Cameron and Todd Bowman all shared in the madness as co-hosts. Unfortunately, these two episodes were shelved due to then-perceived technical mishaps. For a number of years, Episodes 4 and 5 were known as the "Lost Episodes" and were written off. Post production finally began some time later as it was decided that the source material, especially the guests, was simply too good to neglect, regardless of quality (which turned out much better than feared). In the end, lackluster production values or not, Episodes 4 and 5 would ultimately see the light of day.
In March, WVMusicScene.com gave The Show a great review and for the April taping, The Show relocated closer to home to the more acoustically friendly Monongalia Arts Center. WVU college radio station U92's DJ (and all around keen gal) Jamie Arnold served as co-host with showbiz veteran and longtime radio personality Larry Nelson as the guest. Easily the most charismatic guest yet, Larry provided some great laughs as this show proved to be a fun romp. Although turnout for the taping wasn’t as great as the previous two shows, Episode 6 had a real hometown feel to it. Once again, Sandra Black was a part of The Show as brothers Billy and Dan Zwiener rocked out as a duo. This episode would end up being the last studio taping and ironically, out of all the TV tapings, this was the first one to be shot in Brice’s hometown.
In May, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, "Doug and Julie Williams" of "Days of Our Lives" fame, came to town to take part in a West Virginia Public Theater production. So through the magic and influence of both Larry Nelson and the Mon Arts Center’s Ro Brooks, who by this time was serving as his manager, Brice was able to secure an interview with them. A few weeks after booking the soap stars, the biggest interview to date was about to take place... but also, a very costly lesson was about to be learned. The two NBC stars sat down for a 45 minute interview. Bill Hayes was a complete class act, happily taking part in all the fun Brice had in store including presenting him with a coonskin cap to honor his 1955 Billboard #1 hit "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and partaking in some delicious homemade toast and jelly made right there on the desk. Susan, however, was a typical prima donna as her diva attitude and expectations of network-level standards was quite out of step with the reality of a local cable access show. Ultimately, though the interview went very well, they refused to allow the footage to be used in any way. The reason? On The Show's website, there was a picture of Brice at age ten, clad only in his underwear with a Pac-Man pillowcase wrapped around his waist. The caption read "Child Porn: Brice Kennedy – The Early Years". And so ended the relationship between Brice and the NBC stars.
As luck would have it, Brice forgot to have them both sign the usual talent release forms, so the footage couldn’t legally air without their consent. Then, oddly enough, one of the two master tapes came up missing the day after the interview – a mystery that remains to this day. However, there is an interesting footnote to the story. Years later, a completely random production error on "The Brice Kennedy Show: The Movie" (more on that later) was rumored to have occurred. The post production error somehow inadvertently caused several frames of video from the Hayes interview to be spliced into a separate and completely unrelated promo where coincidentally, their images appear directly after the offending "child porn" image found on The Show's website and the sequence wound up in the final cut of the film. So maybe Brice didn’t get the last laugh per se, but at the four and a half minute mark of the movie, there certainly was a smirk or two to be had.
In August, The Show was finally set to debut on Morgantown's Channel 3. Although Channel 3 wasn’t a true public access channel, Adelphia Cable planned to start featuring local original programming and The Show was slated to be a part of that. Unfortunately, in the eleventh hour, they decided to go another route and Brice was informed they would not be opening their channel to the public. So once again, the wind was taken from The Show’s sails as it slipped into hibernation. Of course, Adelphia would go on to declare bankruptcy a short time later, which only further spoke to their lack of sound judgment – an obvious and direct consequence of Adelphia not meeting public demand for "The Brice Kennedy Show". More smirks were to be had. Things remained on hiatus until August of 2005, when post production on Episode 6 was completed and the episode premiered not on television but "live on tape" as part of the "Arts on the River" film festival. The film fest took place at the Monongalia Arts Center, the same venue where the episode was taped two years earlier. However, with no TV deal in place, The Show went on yet another hiatus solidifying its status as the "Chinese Democracy" of public access television.
As the months and years went by, numerous field segments were taped around Morgantown as well as at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and other memorable locales. Brice also won an original painting on eBay. This particular piece happened to be the work of none other than Phil Giroux, one of the co-hosts of "The Tom Green Show". Despite the painting not being featured on a future episode as originally planned, interacting with one of the guys from the show that inspired "The Brice Kennedy Show" thrilled Brice immensely. Post production would eventually resume and over the course of the next few years, the finishing touches were quietly placed upon each episode. In the summer of 2009, a "best of" feature film was produced. "The Brice Kennedy Show: The Movie" was screened that December at the Marriott SpringHill Suites for an audience of friends, family, cast and crew. Not only did the film include the "greatest hits" of the series but it also marked the first time material from the "Lost Episodes" were shown to the public.
In February of 2010, Brice got the opportunity to meet and thank the comedian responsible for inspiring his journey – Tom Green. Tom's stand-up comedy tour made a stop in Pittsburgh and Brice made sure to be right there in the front row, inches from Tom, where he shared high fives, fist bumps and even some back and forth dialogue during his show. For a brief moment, "The Brice Kennedy Show" shared the stage with "The Tom Green Show". After the show, Brice met Tom and gave him a DVD copy of "The Brice Kennedy Show: The Movie". To his surprise, Tom actually recognized the movie from the TomGreen.com forum where Brice had posted some clips days earlier. For Brice, this was the ultimate compliment. Tom Green had watched "The Brice Kennedy Show".
In the fall of 2010, after more than a decade of delay and distraction, in the wake of dozens of intermittent post production sessions, the story of a boy and his video camera has come full circle as "The Brice Kennedy Show" is finally complete. For the first time, all six original episodes are now available online via YouTube and the full series has been released on DVD.
The Brice Kennedy Show on YouTube
BriceKennedy.com (and .net)
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