Comic-Con: Ken Marino – actor, writer, director and now Co-Executive Producer of Childrens Hospital – stopped by for a fast interview at Comic-Con and while it was short, it was definitely sweet.
In this quick interview, Ken talks about his comedy circles, being a Co-Executive Producer on Childrens Hospital and the 6-Degrees of Ken Marino.
You have been in a lot of like pretty big comedy circles. Are they just related and you just go where the wind blows or do you actually seek out people you want to work with?
Ken Marino: I wish I was aggressive enough to seek people out, I guess I don’t, but I have been lucky enough to know people who are involved in certain things that I am invited to be a part of, you know what I mean? So The State was its own thing and started when we were very young but then Party Down, you know those guys I think knew The State and they asked me to be on their show and then it turned into a bigger part which is really nice.
We had written a movie called The Ten, David [Wain] and I were in the movie called The Ten, that [Rob] Corddry was in and we had a great time together and so then he was working on this project and he invited me in. So I’ve been very lucky, and that’s nice.
So there could become like a 6-Degrees of Ken Marino type thing happening here.
Ken Marino: That’s what I’m banking on. I’m hoping for that to happen. Everybody should have a goal in life. That’s what I’m going for.
You’re the Co-Executive Producer this year, have you do that before?
Ken Marino: I have not, so I was more involved creatively than in the past. It was much more time consuming and, you know, it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy working creatively on shows and coming up with ideas and writing episodes and directing and stuff like that, so I was involved earlier on in the process in structuring what the shows are and where we’re going for this season.
This season happens to be like a pretty ambitious season, whereas a lot of the past seasons there were a lot of right up the middle episodes that were just hospital drama. This season everything kind of seems like it’s breaking away and we’re doing something slightly special, you know, like they were all special episodes. Whereas like that first year we did the Do The Right Thing episode and the rest are more straight up the middle medical dramas. This one it feels like every episode is like that. We were all different and fun and crazy and it can go anywhere.
Do you feel like that’s more supported now, doing the themes and ambitious shows?
Ken Marino: I don’t know. I know Community does that a lot but I don’t know whether shows that do that – I mean Childrens Hospital just kind of does anything, we have the freedom to do anything on that show, because you don’t have to emotionally connect to the characters. It’s simply there to be funny and to be ridiculous and so that’s the goal each time we write a script or perform it. It’s not, what is the emotional core of these characters, you know?
