Jamie Kennedy, a comedian best known for his movies and work on the show The Jamie Kennedy Experiment is at Saint Louis University today to perform a show that claims it will “give your brain a break.” Maybe this is because that is the only way most people will find him funny.
Kennedy got his start in Hollywood after impersonating a fictitious screen agent named Marty Power. Using this persona to get the attention of agents and managers in the industry, he soon landed his first major role as Randy Meeks in the Scream movies.
After that he landed several small parts in a variety of films ranging from Bongwater to Enemy of the State to Max Keeble’s Big Move. He did not achieve true celebrity status until 2002 when he got a sketch comedy show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, on the WB. The show, which often had Kennedy placing people in awkward situations, had high ratings initially, but was cancelled in 2004 due to falling viewership.
By the time of the show’s cancellation, however, Kennedy had starred in the hit comedy Malibu’s Most Wanted, which was released in 2003. In the movie, Kennedy played Brad “B-Rad” Gluckman, a young man who aspires to be a rapper much to the dismay of his father, Bill Gluckman, who feels his son will have a negative affect on his plans to run for governor of California. This leads to B-Rad being dropped off in Compton to try and ‘deghettofy’ him. Simply genius.
Since the cancellation of his show, Kennedy has again fallen off the radar for the most part. Starring in the 2005 clunker Son of the Mask probably did not help matters, although he did get his first award nomination for his role. Unfortunately, the nomination was for worst actor by the Golden Raspberries, which are given out annually to the year’s worst films and actors. On the bright side of things, he lost the “award” to Rob Schneider.
Recently Kennedy and his friend Stu Stone started a show on MTV called Blowin’ Up. They released an album on Warner Bros. Records giving advice on how to be a successful rapper. Critic Peter Grumbine claimed that the album was “more offensive to the African American community than slavery.” This caused a conflict between the two, which climaxed when they appeared on the G4TV program Attack of the Show together.
After Grumbine picked him apart, Kennedy resorted to name-calling among other things, as retaliation. Eventually he reconciled with Grumbine and said he’d apologize for the album if there was a large response of people who were offended by it.
Lately Kennedy has kept a low profile, appearing on an episode of Mind of Mencia as well as hosting the Fuse Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. He has been doing stand up comedy as of late, but also has a new movie set for release next year called Kickin’ It Old Skool, in which he plays a break dancer who falls into a coma in the 80’s and reawakens in present day.
Kennedy will be performing tonight at 8 p.m. in The Billiken Club.
