Gesica™ - The Cookout: An Interview w/Tim Meadow

Gesica™

THE COOKOUT

TIM MEADOW

THE COOKOUT

Starriing: Queen Latifah, Tim Meadows, Ja Rule, Jenifer Lewis, Quran Pender, Danny Glover, Farrah Fawcett and Meagan Good.

By Tonisha Johnson

Why are rappers always late?

Tim Meadow: Cause they deserve to be. They’re on CPT. Color People Time

What about Eminem?

Tim Meadow: Eminem is never late. It’s his posse that’s late.

What was the attraction for doing the movie?

Tim Meadow: The attraction for me was the chance to work with Queen Latifah. And the chance to work with Danny Glover and Farrah Fawcett. And the fact that they were going to pay me with a check that was going to clear. (Lol) so, I didn’t have to worry about that. And being able to spend a month in New Jersey. You can’t pass that one up. (Lol)

Where do you live now?

Tim Meadow: I live in Los Angeles now. I’m from Detroit, Michigan.

Did you grow up on 8 mile?

Tim Meadow: People say 8 mile, 8 mile. I grew up on 7 mile. Which was even more ruff than 8.

In your scenes (The Cookout), did you improvise much? Were you the only comedian, Second City type guy there?

Tim Meadow: Yeah. I was. I did not improvise too much because most of the scenes that I was in, it was a big cast so there was not a lot of influenced improvising. I think the only improvising I did was in the one scene were I was explaining gold, hockey…I think that covers a little bit improvised, but it was pretty much all scripted.

Like your character, are you familiar with the legal system?

Tim Meadow: Me personally? No. I’ve never been arrested. I’ve been stopped (lol). I’ve been searched. I’ve had a gun put to the back of my head by a Chicago cop.

Whoa. Let’s hear the story.

Tim Meadow: Chicago? 1989. I moved to Chicago to do improv. And my roommate had been on date, I was home watching TV. And he came home asking “you know, could you give me some time…” So I said yeah, I’ll go outside and give you an hour. He had a mustang, like an old 60’ or something. So, I’m sitting on this mustang minding my own business and all of a sudden I just feel this thing go “click”. I was like Oh my God, what’s that? So, I put my hands up. And the guy goes “Chicago Police, put your hands up!” He said there was some guy…classic Richard Pryor joke “Nigga who looks just like you.” (Lol) there is a guy who snatched a woman’s purse and he looks just like you. And I told him my whole life story. I was born in 1961.i just got to Chicago. I live in this apartment building. And he got on the radio and all these cops came. And all the time this was happening the guy never took the gun away from my head. And so, the cops came. And one of the cops that chased the guy came up and looked at me really close. He said, your hearts beating really fast, why is that? (Lol). So, I say, cause this guy had a gun to my head. And if I was running I’d be sweaty. And I'm not sweaty.” And so the guy said, you know, this is not the guy. Let him go. And right when he said that this other detective in an unmarked car pushes the passenger door open and goes “get him in my car.” “Let me take him down. Get him in my car!” And I was like, to the cop that said I was clear to go, please don’t put me in this guy’s car. And the guy goes, alright. “Get your ass back in your apartment. I don’t want to see you back out on the street tonight.” I’m like, “you don’t have to worry about that”.

So, it wasn’t an hour?

Tim Meadow: No. so I went upstairs told them everything. They felt sorry for me.

Did you go back out?

Tim Meadow: Not for awhile (lol).

You were talking about Chicago, so you worked with Del. What was that experience like working with him?

Tim Meadow: Del Close. He really got me started. He was one of the first people to say that he really thought that I really had some talent. Coming from him, it gave me a lot of respect in the improve community. He was also responsible for getting me my first job at Second City. The story was that I was supposed to do this play and he was gonna direct. I was told to show up for rehearsal I showed up and he looked at me and said “what are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here. You’re not on this show?” so I was like, I was told I was supposed to be here. I’m sorry. So I left I was embarrassed. And he came out to this bar in this club and he goes, “You know I don’t need you in this show but, next time I direct a show, I promise you, I’m gonna hire you.” And so the next show he directed was Second City and I was in the touring company. He fired the entire cast that was on the main stage and hired his own actors and he gave me my job. He was a man of his word. So I’m forever indebted to Del.

Where you surprised at the success of Mean Girls?

Tim Meadow: Not surprised as much as happy. When I saw it in previews I knew that it was good. I mean what Tina had written it had made it on to the screen. And so the laughs from the audience in testing just made me feel more confident that people were going to like it But, I didn’t know that it was going to do as well as it did. To be #1 that week and to be #2 the next week…it’s done good for everybody, except Tim Meadows (lol).

Oh! How about a sequel now. Are your going to push for a Tim Meadows version?

Tim Meadow: Naw. Whatever they want to do, I’m game.

How easy was it for you to fall in to those “comedic lines” like the golf ball scene were you improv?

Tim Meadow: It wasn’t “easy”. It’s like my job. I try to do it like it’s serious, you know. Sometimes you
have material that is funny and you can’t help but laugh. But if you do it over and over and over again, you don’t find it as funny. For that scene I was just trying to keep it serious and it was something that he (Uncle Leroy) believed.

Really?

Tim Meadow: Yeah. That was the way that I tried to “play” it.

You were on SNL for quite a long time. Do you miss those days?

Tim Meadow: Yeah. I miss the Thursday night rewrite sessions. It was always a lot of fun. Cause you sit around a bunch of people and you go over the sketches and you come up with better jokes or you give their opinion of what you think they should lose or whatever. To me it was a really cool new aspect of my life. To sit around a table with comedy writers and to throw out an idea for somebody to say that’s a good idea, let’ do that…
Cause like the first week you are there you say something it’s like… (Laughing) “Ok, yeah. You keep doing that.” and once you get the respect of the other writers you can actually start throwing out stuff.

What are some of your favorite bits or character developments that you loved to do?

Tim Meadow: I love doing “ladies man.” For awhile after the ugliness of the OJ trial, that sort of became fun to do because instead of being the “smart guy” and sort of disappearing, he wouldn’t leave (laughing). He just put himself up to be ridiculed. So I took a lot of pleasure in that after the trial.

I find that there are not a lot of African Americans in Second City and for any improv for that matter. Can you tell me the reason why?

Tim Meadow: Well, with Second City, I was probably in 30 years I was probably, I’m almost positive, the third African American on a main stage cast. And I was surprised by that when I first found that out. But I think part of it is improvisation is never really been popular in inner cities. Chicago sort of benefited from having Second City because the theatre and what they do is part of the city. It’s easy for people to find it. As were I grew up in Detroit nobody did improve nobody thought about improve. So, when we started doing it in Detroit, people would come see us because they’ve never scene it before. The fact that Second City’s audience was predominantly white, I think probably affected the fact that not a lot of African Americans sought that out. I think African Americans performers that went into comedy went more into stand-up.

Do you feel more comfortable doing television or doing films?

Tim Meadow: I like doing films and I wish that I could do more. It’s just the nature and I’m speaking from my experience. I mean still have to audition for movies, I don’t get offers to star in movies even though I’ve written and starred in the movie.

How about for Mean Girls?

Tim Meadow: Basically, Tina (Tina Fey) had written a part for me in the movie, so that was an easy job to get. Even Mean Girls had its difficulties believe it or not. I also had to negotiate my contract with Paramount, when we started doing that it was like; they almost made me feel like they didn’t want me in the movie. But that’s just the way business is. They want to make you feel like they could get somebody else. And so, I said, well you guys make an offer and I’ll say yes or no. and so they finally made an offer. You know an offer where I didn’t feel like I was being taken advantage of. It wasn’t my movie so; I didn’t have to carry everything. It was Lindsay’s (Lindsay Lohan) movie.

Do you have any projects that you are looking to get off the ground that will be your movies?

Tim Meadow: I’m working on a script right now. It’s a matter of …well, I have to go out an pitch my ideas cause I don’t have like a development deal. So, I have to go out and pitch my ideas and one that I’m working on now that I’m writing…it’s like an anti-Manhattan Woody Allen movie (laughing). It’s about a guy who hates the city and falls in love with a girl who he finds out who lives there. So whenever he goes there its like bad things just happen to him but he kind of puts up with it cause he loves this girl. And they he falls in love with the city too.

What do you think of comedy in regards to Black America?

Tim Meadow: After I read the script for Soul Plane, I was very discouraged and bummed out. Because I was, you know, as an actor I go for meetings, I go for auditions, I go for roles that are even smaller than The Cookout. I still have to go and meet directors and stuff. But then you see a movie like Soul Plane and …I like read the script and I thought “there is not a role in this movie that I would even want to do.” And that stuff is discouraging when you think, oh well this is how I get paid; this is how I make my living. I got to wait for somebody to give me something to do and this is it? This is all I got this is my only choice? So when it’s like that is very discouraging and you wish that you can get your ideas off and sell them or something.

What would you like to see?

Tim Meadow: I would like to see it just me more equal. Its not that I hate a movie like Soul Plane, but give us a Soul Plane and give us Collateral. Give us a Spider Man or whatever, you know what I mean. You can make movies for Black Americans that can crossover to White audiences too and have the same messages. I was just bummed about Soul Plane, which was the message which was so convoluted. When I first started reading the script, I was like oh this is cool, it’s about a guy who’s gonna get his own airline. And then, he paints it purple…aww fuck. He hires some strippers to dance…aww no! A basketball court and gambling. And then the white people, if I was white and I saw that movie, I would be more pissed then black people, because all the white people wanted to get laid. The daughter wanted to get laid and the mother was looking at another guy that she wanted to have sex with.

Will you start producing your own?

Tim Meadow: Well, it’s easier said then done. I just like to say that I keep plug-in’ away. When the work comes I’ll go after it and hopefully I can continue to go out and pitch ideas then hopefully somebody will say, you know lets do this one.

A lot of people are saying some of those things about this film too. The hootchie mamas, the kids with no daddy, etc etc. A lot of stereotypes. What’s your take on that?

Tim Meadow: I can accept that criticism in this movie because there are other characters in this movie that are not like that. But with a movie like Soul Plane, there is nothing to balance it out. It’s all imagination. And whereas this movie, yeah there are some caricatures that it might not make everybody happy but there is a little bit of truth to those characters too. It’s just like the cousin with the little babies (little D), I have some little D’s in my family and they have different fathers and their relationships are not together anymore. But, for me to say that that doesn’t exist is not true. And also it exists in other cultures too.