In not so long, comedian Ken Warner will be taking his talents to New York City, but not before a few more events within the cozy confines of St. Louis City.
One’s this weekend, with a Friday, February 9 edition of his comedy showcase, Coffee Break. It’ll again take place at Foam, with a start time of 8 p.m. Taking part will be this deftly-built lineup: Nick Tacony, Meredith Owens Hopping, Emily Hickner, Reena Calm, Lael O'Shaughnessy and Libbie Higgins. Admission is $5, and 20% of proceeds go to Grounds for Health, with the balance split by the performers.
While this series of monthly showcases has been running for a bit, Warner’s bringing an eye-popping bit of local cinema curation a week later, when the Heavy Anchor hosts Hobbitstock at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 16. Warner writes of the three-part experience: “I am a huge Tolkien fan. I have read The Lord of the Rings twice, The Hobbit thrice, and almost HALF of The Silmarillion. The Lord of the Rings movies are great and some of my all-time favorites. The Hobbit movies are... not that. Still, I wanted to go back and re-watch them to see if they're as unenjoyable as I remembered but couldn't stand to do it alone. Please join me in this quest.”
Before leaving town, we caught up with Warner for a digital Q/A, touching on both of the above events, his preferred name and cameos about coffee, jazz and car repair.
Kenny or Ken, by the way?
Ken. People call me Ken, Kenny, Biggie, Bigs, and Boss; but for comedy I just like to keep it short with Ken. I had one professor that somehow started calling me Kenneth which was kind of strange, but somehow it fit the professor and material (it was a class on the connection between visual and music art, and the professor was very much a well informed, high brow person).
Tell us about this, particular version of Coffee Break? Any thoughts on the performers, their material and why you enjoy working with them are welcome.
This particular edition of Coffee Break has a couple great comics from Chicago, some of my favorite local comics that are doing the show for the first time, and someone who's done the show a few times and is always great. I haven't met the comics from Chicago, but all the local comics are really wonderful and hilarious people. I really respect what they do. Every time I book a show I just try to to book one that I would enjoy watching and this will definitely be true to that idea.
How long's Coffee Break been going and what've been some of the highlights?
This will be Coffee Break's sixteenth monthly show. I started it in October of 2016. There have been so many moments I really cherish. So many of the moments are too context-dependent to really explain, but I just love every time a comedy show gets goofy and weird and that has definitely happened A LOT at Coffee Break. Also, I've had the opportunity to introduce people to a lot of great jazz by playing it before the show starts which makes me really happy.
Foam's an interesting that serves a lot of audiences through the day. How did you find a home for this gig there?
I just thought Foam could be a really great place to hold a showcase and reached out to the management there and built up a relationship over time. The guy who runs it, Mic Boshans, is a super-great guy.
You've performed in a lot of the recurring, sketch-based shows that've emerged here in the last few years, a la your show-spanning role in Fatal Bus Accident. What have been some highlights for you in those type of shows?
I always have so much fun doing sketch shows. Personally I really love the work I did on Aaron's Sawyer's sketch show, Boondoggle, which he unfortunately seems to be ending soon. I got to write a bunch of stuff with him and it was just a really exhilarating experience. Aaron has an incredible commitment to physical and conceptual jokes unlike anyone else I know. I also love doing Fatal Bus Accident, the best show in North America. The highlight of FBA for me was probably the time I spent a bunch of time with my shirt off onstage. I used to keep my shirt on in the pool as a kid so I've come a long way from my awful adolescent years.
And we should've asked this right off the top: can you give us the when's, where's of your upcoming move? And maybe some of the motivations behind that?
Sometime in April. I don't have an exact date yet. The move is primarily because of comedy, but I've wanted to live in New York for almost a decade now. I love ridiculously urban environments. The air just has an energy to it when you're in them. My other favorite city is Mexico City and hope to retire there one day if it hasn't sunk into the lake bed it sits on by then (a slow moving but still terrible ecological catastrophe, Mexico City is absolutely incredible) .
With Coffee Break, Yale Hollander's taking over, yes? How'd that come to pass?
Very simply. Yale is a comic I really enjoy and respect, but more importantly, he is the only other comic I know that loves coffee and jazz as much as I do. He's going to do a great job.
And we can't go without talking about Hobbitstock. Can you give us the basics of the how this came together?
Again, very simply. I thought it'd be fun to hang out with a bunch of people and watch and talk about all three of the Hobbit movies in a row.
For someone who's seen the first two Hobbits, but not the last, would you predict they will: find a deep sense of satisfaction in the conclusion, artistically, or from simply surviving the three-part conceit? Asking for a friend.
Simply surviving. I was completely dumbstruck by tons of stuff in the last movie when I first saw it. It's the worst one, which is great, because people will be at their rowdiest at that point. I can't wait to see everyone's reaction on this one part I particularly hate where Legolas steps on a bunch of stone in midair as some kind of bridge. God, I cannot believe that I just typed that. Even moreso, I cannot believe someone else typed that on a script and it made its way onto a massive blockbuster movie.
Anything else we should know?
I have an oil leak in my 25 year old Camry and it's driving me nuts, but I think a buddy from high school is gonna be able to sort it out. I spent all last weekend working on a fix that ultimately didn't work out and now my whole body hurts. Besides that I think we've covered everything going on in my life right now.
