A quick word with Jamie Kennedy

Jamie Kennedy

Jamie Kennedy is the star of MTV show Blowin' Up, which premieres at the channel's launch next week.

After small roles in movies that included Romeo & Juliet and Scream, Kennedy started The Jamie Kennedy Experiment prank show. Then came Blowin' Up, a TV reality show in which Jamie and sidekick Stu Stone try for a record contract and hip-hop stardom.

How's the quest to be hip-hop stars coming along?

Slowly but surely. It's a hard grind out there in the hip-hop world - you know how it is. I hear hip-hop is big in Christchurch. I'm trying to get MTV to fly me there because I think New Zealand needs it.

You could lay down a track with Scribe.

Or Frodo.

Have you written any raps lately?

I have a new rap about my girlfriend's left breast. Women tell me that usually one breast hangs lower than the other. It's called I Like Your Left Breast. It's a love song.

Romantic. How did you get the idea for Blowin' Up?

I couldn't get a record deal. No one took me seriously and their reaction to the music was funny and weird. I just thought, man, there's a TV show in this and pitched it to MTV.

What's a man your age doing running around dressed as a gangsta?

I'm 36 but no one would ever believe it. I don't look it. I don't act it. I was listening to Robert Palmer the other day and thinking, man, he was so huge in the 80s. Obviously I have some more years, because Palmer was the man, Phil Collins was the man and they were older when they were on MTV.

We've already had Ali G posing as a hip-hop artist. Why should we watch you do it?

I show the mix between what a Hollywood actor is like and trying to break into the rap world and the absurdity that happens. Even though I have a good life, it doesn't mean I can get credibility in another area.

But you're producing a show with Fran Drescher, so you must know a thing or two about business.

You definitely learn as you go, but I've been on sets for so long I see how things work. You find out what a producer does and it's really vague. I thought, I could do this. I know people and I'm an entrepreneur at heart. It's not brain science.

You obviously have a big little black book.

I do. Everybody from RZA and Method Man to Ice T to Ed McMahon to Jimmy Kimmel. It's a mix of Hollywood actors and rappers. And Bob Saget.

You have Marty Power to thank for your success. Who is he?

I was my own agent. I faked this old man's voice as "Marty Power" to get jobs. I lied down the phone. I thought: If I could sell things that aren't living, like office supplies, why can't I sell myself?

So you've built your career by duping people.

Yeah, my whole life is a dupe.

Do people approach you with caution?

All the time. Is it real, is it not? Is this true, is it not? Everyone dupes everyone all the time in this business. I just let everyone know that I dupe.

Do you dupe the ladies?

I've duped a few in my day. I try to be more straightforward than a duper.

You were the youngest of six kids. You must have been an attention-seeker the minute you popped out. I had to fight to get the last of the potatoes. My family is very eccentric. They're all brainiacs. My dad believes in reincarnation and my mother's a strict Catholic, so I had all these different influences growing up.

Do you have any kids?

No, although the other day I was at the amusement park and I thought, maybe I could, because the kids on the water-slide were cute. People have kids because they don't want to be lonely. You make instant friends. Your kids aren't going to not like you, right?