Hotmail
By Sarah Kuhn
Back Stage
"I like playing characters," Jack McBrayer says. "Unfortunately, some of my friends might say that I am just a character."
Perhaps that's why he bears more than a passing resemblance to Kenneth, the earnest NBC page he plays on the acerbic freshman sitcom "30 Rock." The actor has an infectious excitement about him and an easy Southern charm; like Kenneth, he's completely thrilled with his current gig. "We've got some crackerjack writers, with (series creator and star Tina Fey) being the head writer," McBrayer says. "She really has just captured all of the characters' voices, which makes it so easy for us. I mean, I put on that page uniform and I just rattle off lines and everybody laughs. I'm like, 'You're kidding me!'"
McBrayer met a few real-life NBC pages back when he was acting in bits on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," but a lot of Kenneth's personality comes from his own experiences. "For the most part, what I've put into the character is just stuff from jobs that I've actually had, which are a lot of subservient kinds of things," says the actor, who has worked as a waiter, busboy and temp. "They served the role."
The show, which focuses on the inner workings of a fictitious NBC sketch-comedy series, has also fulfilled a longtime dream of McBrayer's. In the season finale, Sean Hayes, who played Jack McFarland on "Will & Grace," guest starred as Kenneth's cousin. When McBrayer was a struggling actor in New York, he tried to pen a "Will & Grace" spec script in which he played Jack's cousin. "Of course, I had no frame of reference," he says, chuckling at the memory. "It was kind of like somebody going, 'I'm gonna go to the bank and get a million dollars.' It just doesn't work that way."
The actor recalls that he didn't have a job or representation when he hatched the idea, but he mentioned it to Fey, whom he met during his stint at Chicago's Second City comedy theatre. "It means a lot to me that Tina knew the motive behind it and the earnestness behind it, and a few years later, she made (Hayes' "30 Rock" appearance) happen," he says.
McBrayer grew up in Georgia and first started acting in high school plays. While attending college at the University of Evansville in Indiana, he studied theatre management. "I was probably trying to aim for a more practical career," he says. "But it ended up that I hated it."
He relocated to Chicago shortly after graduation and was inspired when he attended a performance at Second City. "That's when the light bulb went off," he remembers. "I was like, 'Oh, that's what I want to do.'"
McBrayer went through the troupe's training program and was hired for its touring company, ultimately landing on one of the theatre's resident stages, where he performed for about three years. After that, he relocated to New York, then eventually to Los Angeles. His first experience with representation in Los Angeles was less than ideal. A rep he had in Chicago hooked him up with an agency there, and although he was grateful to have an agent, McBrayer says it didn't exactly turn out for the best. "They were not helpful; they were not necessarily good; and as it ends up, they were not nice people, at all," he says.
Luckily, a key pair of gigs -- the "30 Rock" pilot and a small role in the Will Ferrell hit "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" -- got him noticed by other potential reps. McBrayer had done improv in New York with writer-director Adam McKay and met Ferrell through various connections. "I'll be damned if they didn't kind of write me a part into 'Talladega Nights,'" he says. "I was so, so grateful. It was such a blast, and it was, like, my first break ever."
These days, McBrayer couldn't be happier with his reps at United Talent Agency. And yet he recalls the leaner times, and credits improv with getting him through. In addition to his work with Second City, he's performed at I.O. Theater in Chicago, I.O. West in Los Angeles and Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and Los Angeles. "You don't get paid for your improv shows or anything, but it's something that I love to do. It made me feel creative and therefore productive; and, socially, it was a blast," he says. "(It's great) to have that community; that network of friends with common interests, and kind of being in the same place of, 'Man, I'd love to have a job.'"
As for advice to up-and-coming actors, McBrayer offers this: "Be patient,
because if you think about it, from the time I started Second City to these
couple of breaks right now, it's been 10 years. And that's 10 years of temping
and waiting tables and catering and all these demeaning jobs. But I don't regret
one single step of the way, because if you really are passionate about it and
you have the confidence, then the patience does pay off."
