Catching up with......Scott OKen

Scott OKen is an American original.  There literally ain't no one else like him.  I sat next to OKen at last night's Actor's Night for Mop Top Festival (3 more short weeks!), an experience almost as entertaining as the show itself.  This is a guy who gives it everything he possibly has -- even when he's just sitting there watching a show.  Granted, it was a show he himself wrote and directed, but still.  

When White Trash Wedding And A Funeral was in its first few weeks, the Chicago Tribune decided to grace our ramshackle theater company for the very first time with its exalted presence.  Until then, we usually had great luck with the Reader and had done fairly well through word of mouth.  We were putting butts in the seats, but the major Chicago media continued to ignore us -- until that fateful night in late '95.  

So Larry Bommer sat uncomfortably in our dilapidated seats at 1257 W. Loyola Ave., while we the cast tried our very best not to freak out too much backstage.

Anyway, White Trash began with the opening notes of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", and at the very top the lights went down one by one with each drum fill -- as opposed to a traditional slow fade.  It really gave the show a rock n' roll feel (I swear, this whole aside has to do with OKen.  I tend to ramble).  As the first organ notes began to play that night, with our destiny before us and the liquor-fueled crowd of about 45 starting to whoop it up, OKen suddenly and violently took me aside.

"The Tribune is here,"  he said to me with fire in his eyes.  "We're gonna be fucking famous."

I obviously never forgot that moment, and 14 years later he still gets excited about the theater and about the Factory in particular.  In many ways, right now he is the Factory.  So we put the following tough questions to him!  

NAME:
Scott OKen
 
Member of the Factory Since: 

1996
 
You wrote and directed Mop Top Festival, the Factory's latest hit show.  Now that it is up and running, what's your take on the finished product? 

I have never been so proud of a cast and crew. They brought my exact vision on to the stage. I am 100% Artistically satisfied.
 
Movie you are looking forward to the most this summer:

Xmen Origins: Wolverine!

Explain the genius of Bill Bixby.

I grew up on Bill Bixby...he was in a lot of tv series ingrained on my early tv watching brain...My Favorite Martian, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Magician, and of course, The Incredible Hulk..(you wouldn't like me when I'm angry...).  Truly a genius....plus I just like saying "Bixby".
 
You have now written several shows for the Factory, beginning with Surface Dwellers.  Do you have a favorite show out of all them?

I like different shows for different reasons. Surface Dwellers holds a place in my heart because that is mine and Ernie's first script. Toast of the Town may be the most perfect play that Ern and I have written. Top Shelf was my first solo effort and first lead role..GI's in Europe, I got to play Elvis essentially...Bustin' out of the Hell, was a subject matter that I really had a good time exploring, and Mop Top Festival may be the most personal and satisfying.
 
The "delivery room" scene near the end of Toast of The Town belongs in the Pantheon of All-Time Great Factory Scenes.  How did you come up with the idea and was it easy to write?
It was a slightly heightened version of what really happened with the birth of my first son. Ernie and I added some bits in, and Nick Digilio, the director, really took it to new heights. Yes, it was very easy to write!
 
What's your prediction for the Cubs this year?

WORLD SERIES!!!!!
 
Do you have a favorite role out of all the Factory shows you have ever done?  If so, what is it?

Tie between, Chet in GI's in Europe, Satan in Bustin' Out Of The Hell, or the Detective in Preying Manthis

 
What makes Thin Lizzy one of the all-time great rock outfits? 

Outfit.....ha!...Phil Lynott is a vastly underrated songwriter and singer. I love the dual guitar attack of Scott Gorham/Brian Robertson(and a few others) Every song on every LP is good...and they jam so hard!!!!!
 
Toast Of The Town is heavily influenced by the Marx Brothers.  Is that how it started out when you first began writing it?

Exactly. Ernie Deak (the co-writer) and I are major Marx Brothers fans...this was the perfect formula for us to use.
 
Will Jay Cutler be the finest Bears QB since Sid Luckman? 

3 Superbowls...just to start out....
 
The "Sexy Sadie" scene is my current favorite in Mop Top Festival.  What led you to choose that particular song?  Was it for the reasons that Christine Jennings' character describes in the show? That's part of it. I didn't want to use an "easy" crowd pleaser, like Imagine, or Hey Jude, or something like that. It was always one of my favourite Beatle tunes, and I think it lends it self to the rest of the character participation and buildup perfectly.

 
As the artistic director of the Factory, what is the accomplishment you are most proud of?
Getting more people to write and submit plays.
 
What are your goals for the company going forward?

I want the Factory to be on the MAP! I want everyone to know that THIS is the place to be...where creative expression is NOT dead!!!! In a perfect world I would love for us to be in a financial postion to do 6 plays a year.
 

You are trapped inside an elevator with the members of Genesis.  What do you say to them?

Why did you try to ruin music? It almost worked! Stop now! Go now and destroy all the master tapes now! Please! I see why you picked the name Genesis....the beginning...of the END OF MUSIC!!!!
 
Hardest song to play on the guitar:

Any song by Genesis, Wilco, or R.E.M.  because the guitar instantly rejects the bile that those songs produce...it locks up...I have to talk to it and promise to play some Hendrix...

Secretly the most difficult chord progression is the bridge from "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung....took me forever to figure it out!!!!

Your five desert island discs as of this week:

1. Thunder and Lightning-Thin Lizzy

2. Let it Be- The Beatles

3. Montrose- Montrose

4. Captain Beyond-Captain Beyond

5. Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath

Catching Up With.....Kirk Pynchon

As a follow-up to yesterday's blog, I caught up with Kirk Pynchon for another hard-hitting, provocative interview that only the Factory blog can provide!!!  Enjoy.....at your own risk!  This back-and-forth is EXPLOSIVE!

Name:

Kirk Pynchon

Favorite Factory Memory:

My Favorite Factory Memory has got to be playing UNO during "Bitches". All of us guys in drag while we fought over a stupid kid's card game was truly hysterical. The fact that we changed the cards that read "pick four" to "pick 25" made it all the more funny.

Have you recently boycotted any store or product? If so, why?

I am currently boycotting Quizno's Subs because their free sub giveaway turned out to be a fiasco with many of the Quizno's shops refusing to participate. Fuck Quizno's.
 
While in L.A., you spent some time working with Tim Robbins and the Actors' Gang. What are the three things you learned as a result of that experience?
1) Bush was a bad president
2) Bush was a bad president
3) Bush was a bad president
 
You and Jesse Dienstag wrote ManCard, which was a huge hit and helped put the then-fledgling Factory Theater on the map in Chicago. What was it about that show that appealed to so many people?
I think what people liked about it was that we celebrated and mocked young white guys at the same time, which back then hadn't been done before. People seemed to appreciate the fact that we knew we were stupid but that we loved being that way.

If you could challenge George Clooney to any game, what would it be? If you won, how much would you taunt him?

Honestly, it would be basketball. Everyone says he's really good, but I think I could bully him on defense a bit. And, actually, I would taunt him very little. After I beat his ass I would walk up to him, shake his hand and say, "Good game, Mr. George Clooney. You played basketball like you acted in "Batman and Robin" - poorly and with enlarged nipples."

What Hollywood actor/actress most deserves a punch in the face?
Your mom. See? See how I do it?

(Editor's Note:  I just like to hold Kirk's mom gently, and caress the thigh.....)
 
"The Crying Game" sketch from Man Card is still one of the all-time great scenes in Factory history. What are your memories of it today? It always got HUGE laughs and often applause. How did you guys come up with it?
That movie was so huge in 1993 and everyone kept talking about "the secret". And one of my idiot friends went ahead and told me the secret (that the woman Gabriel Byrne was in love with was actually a guy) BEFORE I saw the movie. So when I went to see "The Crying Game" anyway I knew ahead of time what I was getting into. And the whole time I'm watching the movie I kept thinking, "I know that's a dude - but that dude is pretty fucking hot". So the whole confusion of feelings inspired the sketch. And when I talked to Jesse about he said, "I feel the exact same way." And we just knew that we had to write something about it and put it in the show.

And just a side note, let me thank you, Mr. Beyer, for coming up with the idea of doing our reaction of realizing Jaye Davidson was a dude in slow motion. It literally made the piece (you will get no more thank you's in this interview).

Jesse and I loved doing that sketch. it was really our centerpiece. Even if we were having an off night we knew "The Crying Game" sketch would win the crowd back. Even when we did it in LA five years after the movie came out we still got a great response. And in the great Factory Theater tradition we kept adding and extending the sketch just to milk more laughs and stroke our egoes!

You ended Man Card with "A Whole New World", which at first seemed out of place with the rest of the show but was in fact the perfect ending. What was the idea behind putting that at the very end?
Lip syncing to "A Whole New World" was really just a fluke. Jesse and I knew we needed to end the show in some big way but we were too lazy to write another sketch. That fucking song was everywhere in 1993 and we just thought it would be funny if two guys sang a love duet to each other. We barely rehearsed and when we did we mostly just laughed. And when we performed it we figured at rock bottom the gang at the Factory would enjoy it. We had no idea that it would work so well and only later realized that the lyrics of the song fit with what we were writing for the show.

Another side note - Now that I have 2 kids I constantly have to play that "A Whole New World in the car for them. And all I can think about when I hear the song is how lucky Jesse and I were that we got away with lip syncing to it. It's such a dumb song.

Word association: I'll give you a name/word and you type whatever comes to mind.
1. Prince - The man plays over 25 musical instruments.
 
2. Cookies - The one weakness I cannot overcome.
 
3. LeBron James - Cleveland's savior
 
4. Scott OKen - This is the God's honest truth. Scott is one of the most naturally funny people in the world. He doesn't even realize how much of a genius he is.

5. Crack cocaine - Only good when combined with whores.  (Editor's Note:  Hooray!)
 
6. Oreos dipped in French Onion dip - A delicious taste sensation from the early 90's that makes me miss my days in Chicago.
 
7. Grindhouse - A massive disappointment.
 
8. Counting Crows - Music to kill yourself to.
 
9. Los Angeles - I truly love living in LA. Ironically, the weather is my least favorite part of it.
 
10. Anthony Michael Hall - Should be a bigger star.

You also wrote Poppin' & Lockdown 1 and 2 with fellow Factory alum Mike Meredith for the Factory, which ran both in Chicago and L.A. What are you two working on these days?
We now write screenplays with a fellow Chicagoan, James Leary. We all hate each other.
 
How does it feel to know that if we played one-on-one in hoops tomorrow, I would beat you like a little bitch?
Mike, you are a very talented player. You've got a nice jumper, good handle and shockingly good hops. That being said, you are weak minded, lack the killer instinct and after I beat you I would pimp slap you with my dick.
 
Billy Joel: thumbs up or down?
Geez, that is a hard question. His early stuff is AWESOME but the fact that he wrote that travesty of a song, "In The Middle of the Night" really brings him down. I'm going to give him a hesitant thumbs up.
 
Who's the hottest Asian chick out there right now (besides Ann)?  

Kelly Hu

(Editor's Note:  If you click on one hyperlink in your life, make it this one.  Sweet Christ.)
 
Your thoughts on the upcoming Three Stooges movie starring Benicio del Toro as Moe, Sean Penn as Larry and Jim Carrey as Curly?
The greatest casting choices in the history of cinema.
 
Explain the genius of White Men Can't Jump for those who need to learn:
It is genius based on this one line from the movie. Before a big game a rival basketball player taunts at Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes: "You and the Cream of Wheat Man get the fuck back to Mayberry. And tell Aunt B. she better get me my bean pies or I'm gonna kick her ass!"