After Singing an American Carol, Kevin Farley Dons Directors Hat in Hollywood and Wine

Multi tasking is easy for Kevin Farley – he does it all with a fabulously contagious sense of humor, both on screen and off. And now, actor and comedian Kevin Farley moves behind the camera as co-writer and co-director of Hollywood & Wine, a fall release that takes an irreverent look at an actress struggling because she’s a dead ringer for a tabloid train wreck-type actress. Hollywood & Wine follows Farley’s lead role in last October’s An American Carol, a parody that breaks (and laughs) at all the rules. One thing is certain; if any of the actors in Hollywood & Wine needed encouragement to take comedic chances they only had to look to Farley himself. Watch our interview with Kevin now!

Dramatic actors get all the attention for taking risky roles. A guy puts on a dress or a girl wears a prosthetic nose and somehow it’s instant Oscar nomination. But what Kevin Farley did as leading man in An American Carol showed more daring than all the cross dressers and accent deliverers combined; he dared to spoof director Michael Moore in a satirical look at Moore, Hollywood and America’s politically correct culture.

LAs The Place Daily TV Interview with Kevin

An American Carol

Farley’s warmth and charisma prevents An American Carol from ever coming off as mean spirited. He removes the soapbox as a potential set piece by never taking himself too seriously while portraying Moore’s cinematic doppelganger, “Michael Malone”. What’s striking about Farley is that he always seems at ease in interviews or even when confronted by wandering paparazzi. Perhaps it is this quality of Farley the man that speaks to Farley the actor’s ability to perform without pretense.

From getting slapped in succession by General George S. Patton, President John F. Kennedy, and Bill O’Reilly or firing at ACLU zombies that are attacking a courthouse, Farley delivers an organically hilarious performance. He holds his own while acting with a cast of Hollywood heavyweights like Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, James Woods and Leslie Nielsen.

Hollywood & Wine

Farley is surrounded by family and long time friends in his writing and directorial debut, Hollywood & Wine. Joining him in writing the film were his brother John Farley, sister in law Jennifer Farley (as Jennifer Herron) and Matt Berman. Berman also joined as co-director on the project, which stars SNL‘s Chris Kattan.

Starring in the film is Nicky Whelan, the fresh-faced Australian import known for her work as Pepper Steiger on the television drama Neighbours. She appears poised for a sensual takeover of American audiences as Whelan’s undeniably stunning appearance is matched only by an affable and inviting charm.

Whelan plays Diane Blaine, an aspiring actress who can’t land a role because her face is “Too Jamie Stephens”; a Britney Spears/Lindsey Lohan type that has fallen on hard times. When her boyfriend (played by Chris Kattan) becomes indebted to a mobster, Whelan’s Blaine must play the only role ever really meant for her; pretending to be Jamie Stephens as she has dinner with the crush-struck mobster. The film also stars Norm MacDonald, Chazz Palminteri, David Spade, Horatio Sanz, Chris Parnell, Pamela Anderson, Vivica Fox and includes an appearance from Farley himself.

Back in the Saddle

Farley has now turned his attention to starring in Back in the Saddle. A devout fan of the film Blazing Saddles, Farley wrote Back in the Saddle as an homage to the Mel Brooks classic. Back in the Saddle (a western comedy) is the story of a train-robbing cowboy who tries to go straight. He retires to the town of Tumbleweed to live his life happily ever after. Unfortunately, rumors of an impending railroad coming to town have the jealous sheriff and ambitious mayor of Tumbleweed grabbing for gold and looking to neutralize any opposition…to their dismay, our hero comes out of retirement to ride again. “We want to shoot in Wyoming because people care about real characters, and I wanted the locations to be as real as the characters on screen,” said Farley.

American Regal

He’s also partnered with Fay Byrd to develop a clothing line that caters to bigger men. Farley and Byrd are tweeting the progress of American Regal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/americanregalby. Kevin also updates his fans through his personal page, .

More About Kevin

At first, Farley resisted the call of comedy. Growing up in a family that used humor to deal with life, it was fate that he’d end up sharing that laughter with the world. Once he graduated from Marquette University with a degree in business, he began work for his father’s asphalt company, Scotch Oil. While that road may have been paved by good intentions his love for making people laugh grew too strong to ignore. He would get off work and jump on stage at the local comedy club. Farley studied at the famed Second City in Chicago, and would spend time watching his brother Chris Farley and cast create comedy for Saturday Night Live, which was a tremendous education, before moving to Los Angeles and landing a role in Adam Sandler’s The Waterboy, and never looked back.

His breakthrough role came as boy band member Doug Linus in the MTV parody 2gether: The Series. The role was distinctly different from anything that Farley had done and attracted high praise from many reviewers.

Farley’s roles include films such as Joe Dirt, Beverly Hills Ninja, The Third Wheel and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. He lent his voice to Eight Crazy Nights and has had guest appearances on programs like That ’70s Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Just Shoot Me and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Many thanks to the beautiful $35 million dollar refurbished LA landmark Hotel Shangri La for hosting our interview with Kevin Farley.

www.shangrila-hotel.com
1301 Ocean Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-2791