| Paul Kaye (born: Ralph Zang) | |
|---|---|
Paul Kaye as Mike Strutter in Kilburn, London, 2008 |
|
| Born | 15 December 1964 Clapham, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Notable works and roles | Dennis Pennis Mike Strutter |
Paul Kaye (born: Ralph Zang) (born 15 December 1964, Clapton, London) is an English comedian and actor. He achieved notoriety in 1995 portraying the character of Dennis Pennis, a shock interviewer on The Sunday Show. Recently he has been known as rude New Jersey lawyer Mike Strutter with his own show Strutter on MTV.
Contents |
Born in Clapton, east London to Jewish parents. Paul was adopted with his twin sister Lisa and was brought up in Wembley where their father and mother ran a nearby schoolwear shop called 'Jackie's', first in Kingsbury and then in Kenton. Kaye was a promising schoolboy athlete who achieved an impressive time in the 100 metres and he became a fan of punk rock, particularly Sid Vicious.[1] At 16 he entered Harrow school of Art on a two year foundation course and achieved a distinction. Paul got a First Class BA Hons degree in Theatre Design at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University).
Paul took a year out of college in 1984 and worked on a kibbutz in Israel. He met his future wife Orly whom he married in 1989.
Paul designed theatre posters for the Kings Head, the Bush Theatre and the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. He was a scene painter at the Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo and illustrated regularly for the NME, i-D, Literary Review, Time Out and International Musician magazines between 1987-89. Kaye had two exhibitions of his illustration and poster work between 89-90, firstly at the Soho House Theatre, W1 and then at The Drill Hall, WC1.
He formed and sang in many bands - notably the dark psychadelic outfit We Are Pleb who played extensively on the Camden scene of 88/89 (which spawned Blur and Suede) and had a penchant for setting the stage on fire.
Paul was signed to Go Discs in 1992 with a group called TV Eye (formed with ex-members of the band Eat) and released two singles, Killer Fly and Eradicator.
In 1993, Kaye filmed a prototype Dennis Pennis, interviewing his own band on a late night indie music show on Granada called Transmission. After the interview, Kaye then went out with the crew, got very drunk and offended as many people as possible up and down Oxford Street. This tape somehow arrived on the desk of producers at Planet 24 six months later and they offered Kaye the job of knocking on peoples doors at 6 am on The Big Breakfast. Kaye turned them down, preferring to stay on the dole and stick with We Are Pleb. Mark Lamarr eventually took the job.
Paul was the in-house graphic designer for Tottenham Hotspur, he had an office in White Hart Lane and designed merchandise for Spurs, Derby County, Southampton FC and Aston Villa for the company Hummel (doing caricatures of Paul Gascoigne for school lunchboxes etc.). Being a die hard Arsenal FC fan, Paul has claimed that there are subliminal cannons contained within his work for Spurs, most notably a pen and ink drawing of Tottenham's new stand on a catalogue cover which feature a minute cannon in the crowd. 70,000 were printed up.
Paul became the in-house theatre designer of the Bet Zvi Drama Academy in Tel Aviv for 12 months in 1994, designing all the in house productions in their studio theatre.
His TV debut was on The Word being secretly filmed in Oliver Reeds dressing room. Kaye recalls "Reid had drunk two bottles of vodka, taken all his clothes off and I honestly thought he was going to kill me on live television. I swore in bed that I'd never do a celebrity interview again. Typically, 6 months later I'd come up with Dennis Pennis."
In 1994, Kaye convinced an old friend Ant Hines (a car mechanic and some time roadie for TV Eye) to help him write Dennis Pennis when he was offered the job on The Sunday Show. (Hines was later poached by Sacha Baron Cohen to write for Ali G on The Eleven O'Clock Show and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for co-writing Borat in 2006).
Celebrity interviewer Dennis Pennis – created by Kaye and his friend Anthony Hines – was one of Kaye's best-known characters. A cross between Johnny Rotten and Woody Allen, with a shock of red hair, gaudy jackets adorned with punk-style badges, and thick glasses (worn, ostensibly, to reduce the likelihood of getting assaulted), Pennis stood out from the crowd and asked celebrities atypical questions, ranging from playful to cruel.
After brief stints presenting two episodes of Transmission (ITV's indie music magazine program circa 1990) as Pennis, the character next appeared in 1995 on BBC2's The Sunday Show. The basic premise was that Kaye and a camera crew would visit movie premieres, press functions and other assorted celebrity gatherings to attempt to get an "interview" with the stars, in between short skits and sketches featuring the character.
Originally, the celebrities would be mainly British stars harassed at assorted London-based events, such as actor Hugh Grant, TV host Ulrika Jonsson and sports pundit Des Lynam. A 1995 video release of these early clips, Anyone For Pennis, assured success for the controversial comedian, who sought to broaden Pennis's scope.
When the Pennis character took off, Kaye was afforded a budget large enough to travel to Cannes, Hollywood and Venice to record footage for his video VIP – Very Important Pennis, released in 1996.
His victims from this point on were much more renowned, the most famous of whom were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis, amidst a raft of other Hollywood A-list stars. It was apparent that these victims, in the absolute upper echelons of fame, were unsettled and unhappy with Pennis's unique line of questioning. Some stars, such as Costner, insulted him back, while others, such as Moore, simply declined to comment and left. Pennis was visibly amused at the look of disgust on some of the stars' faces. There was some controversy when Pennis asked of Steve Martin: "How come you're not funny anymore?" Martin subsequently cancelled all scheduled press interviews. Kaye later said that he regretted this interview for a while, but that "anyone who thinks they can improve on Bilko and Inspector Clouseau needs a slap don’t they?".[2]
The final video release, Dennis Pennis RIP: Too Rude to Live, released in 1997, saw the character killed off. In the video's plotline, certain members of the public take such offence at Pennis that they form a protest group against him, and the leader of the group deliberately provokes lawyer Mike Strutter (another Kaye character, see below) into strangling and finally bludgeoning Pennis to death. Kaye gave his reasons for axing Pennis as expense, the effort required to get a single usable interview, the notoriety of the character, and Kaye's own boredom and unhappiness with Pennis. Although the video consists partially of more celebrity interviews in the familiar format, Kaye also used this release to portray several new characters he had created. One example was Labian Quest, an eccentric upper-class composer who turns out to have written many of the best-known English football chants, such as "In your Everton slums" and "Who the fucking hell are you?" (in Quest's words, "a generic piece concerning identity and belonging").
The reasoning for killing off the character was stated as such by Kaye, "Dennis Pennis had become too expensive. Taking a film crew out every night with no guarantee of getting even a minute's worth of footage of me harassing celebs was just stupid. And then the programme would take months to compile, and it was just boring, man..... hanging out in the rain, twiddling your thumbs, playing with your hip flask...... he had to go......"
Pennis remains unrevived, although Kaye in 2002 stated his intentions to bring him back in some form or other .[1]
Kaye also appeared as the singer of a fictional punk band called Spunk in a 1999 mock-documentary of the same name, which appeared as the 'wrath' part of a Channel 4 series on the seven deadly sins.
In 2000 Kaye starred in the comedy series Perfect World, a sitcom about a down-on-his-luck marketing manager. Although somewhat coolly received, the show did manage two series, although a third has not been commissioned by the BBC. He also briefly presented a BBC2 quiz show, Liar , in which six contestants would all have a supposed claim to fame and the studio audience voted on which one they believed was telling the truth. In the same year Kaye took a dramatic role alongside Michelle Collins in Two Thousand Acres of Sky.
In 2004, he played the leading role in the film Blackball. His role as deaf DJ Frankie Wilde in the 2005 mockumentary It's All Gone Pete Tong won him the Film Discovery Jury Award at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival. Television appearances in 2006 and 2007 include episodes of Hustle, EastEnders and Kingdom. Kaye is now the chief interviewer on rockworld.tv, in which he interviews up and coming punk/indie bands.
Kaye appeared in Hotel Babylon (11 March 2008, BBC One), Pulling (Series 2, March 2008, BBC Three) and as Uncle Gorwel in A Child's Christmases in Wales by Dylan Thomas (17 December 2009, BBC Four and 24 December 2009, BBC One Wales).[3]
Paul appeared in an episode of Channel 4's Skins drama as Cook's lawyer, Duncan.
In 2010, Paul provided the voice of Vince the fox in the BBC3 comedy Mongrels.
2010 saw him also play a supporting actor role as the caterpillar in the film Malice in Wonderland, which saw him as a dope smoking yardie gangster type who only speaks in rhymes.
He appeared in an episode of BBC's Inspector George Gently in September 2010 as a character called Max Osgood.
As well as portraying Mike Strutter in the MTV show Strutter, Kaye plays occasional live covers gigs in the guise of his character, where he fronts a live backing band.[4] Kaye's other musical projects have included a duet with London-based singer Kiria,[5] who also appears on occasion as a member of the Mike Strutter Group.
From November 2010 to January 2011, Kaye played Matilda’s father, Mr Wormwood, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's musical Matilda, based on the classic Roald Dahl novel Matilda.[6] He will reprise the role when the musical transfers to London's West End in October 2011.[7]
In 2011 Kaye appeared in "Shameless" as seedy night club owner Kermit.
Kaye married Orly, a kindergarten teacher in 1989.
Kaye is an Arsenal fan,[8] and writes a regular column for their official magazine. He is fond of punk music, particularly The Clash, and The Sex Pistols. He has two sons, the younger of which bears the middle name of Strummer, as in The Clash's Joe Strummer.
Kaye was angered watching an interview on BBC News 24 in which comedian Alexei Sayle referred to Hamas only firing 'toy rockets' at Israel. Kaye rang the BBC to complain and was invited to come on the show half an hour later with Peter Sissons to talk about his experiences. Two weeks prior to the interview, Kaye's wife had been in a supermarket in Ashkelon which had also been hit by a rocket but was unhurt.. Kaye later wrote an article for the Guardian calling for peace.[9]
Kaye has been nominated for, and won , a number of film awards: