Interview with Kyle Dunnigan
Kyle Dunnigan is a comedian. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Tim Dillon, Steve Martin, and Ben Avery
Contents
Max Raskin: I want to start out with the fact that you made a video for me and my wife on our wedding day doing your Joe Biden impression. I’d be lying if I said it made my day, but it really made the day better.
My question is about the accessibility of comedians to their audiences nowadays. I couldn’t imagine Don Rickles or Henny Youngman making a wedding video for a fan. How do you feel about being so accessible to your fans?
Kyle Dunnigan: I think it's double-edged. I actually like making videos for people, but I don't really promote it. Your brother-in-law supports me and what I'm doing, so I was more than happy to do that.
I like it because I play a character — I think I'd be uncomfortable doing it as myself. I feel good making something as opposed to just saying hi.
Where it gets tricky is sometimes people go past that — some people have mental problems. I'll email people back that email me, but sometimes I’ll realize that they have some kind of mental issue, and I’ll start to get a little worried with them showing up at shows. I've had some people at shows that were concerning. Women have it much worse in that area. But that's the negative. Everything else I think is positive about it.
MR: Were there any comedians you’ve met who have been a big deal for you?
KD: A lot of them. Probably the biggest one is Dana Carvey. I love Dana Carvey. I've had dinner with him a couple of times because I'm friends with David Spade, and they're good friends. I'm really nervous around him because I just idolize that guy — he's really nice and funny. Meeting him was a big deal because when I was in college, I didn't really fit in, and Saturday Night Live was a big escape for me. Carvey was my favorite.
I met Steve Martin in an audition, and I kind of freaked him out. He was weird about cell phones, but he had an earpiece, and I was like, "Oh I heard the earpiece makes the radiation go directly into your brain.” I didn't say I was joking because I was nervous. And then it made him upset. I do things like that. People ask why I bring certain things up. And it's nerves.
MR: When you meet other comedians is your instinct to make jokes or is it to kind of acknowledge you’re both comedians and then talk about politics or the stock market?
KD: More of the latter for me — there's some comedians that are very playful all the time, but I'm not so much. And most of my friends aren't like that.
MR: I have this impression that comedians really hate successful comedians. It’s worse than jazz musicians who really loathe other jazz musicians.
KD: I didn't know about the jazz thing.
MR: You want to hear someone talk shit about jazz music? Talk to a jazz musician.
Do you hate successful comedians?
KD: No. But there are a couple of people whose success I don't like. I know in my head it's silly, but I am a little competitive about some things — but it's not hate, it's jealousy. I use it to drive me sometimes, but it's not something that occupies much of my time.
I think now that everything is so dispersed and everybody's doing so many different things — it’s really diluted it. It used to be that there were a few channels and just a few coveted spots, like a late night show or an HBO special. It doesn’t just doesn't seem to be an issue as much — although maybe that’s just because I’m older.
MR: Do listen to anyone now that you think is great?
KD: Yeah. I love Bill Burr. He’s helped me a lot and promoted me. And I just think he's just really, really on his game right now in term of stand-ups.
MR: What do you think about Tim Dillon?
KD: I really like him — he makes me laugh. But I'm not a big consumer of comedy…I think because I've been in comedy clubs for decades. But when I catch his rants, they're very funny.
MR: It looks like you just hired Ben Avery, Dillon’s old producer. Do you like working with others or do you prefer to work alone?
KD: I love collaborating. It gets lonely in this house. They don't come over often though.
Science, Stocks, and Space
MR: What’s the last show you binge watched?
KD: I watch things like Game of Thrones: House of Dragons or I'm watching The Rehearsal from Nathan Fielder right now. I don't really watch straight-up comedies.
MR: What kind of media do you consume — do you watch TV? Listen to a lot of music?
KD: I don't watch TV much at all. If anything, I go to YouTube, but I watch mostly financial and science things. I find myself spending most of my time absorbing things other than comedy.
MR: What kind of finance stuff are you interested in?
KD: I like the complexity of trying to figure out what companies are going to start doing well. I'm very focused on certain stocks.
MR: What stocks are you focused on?
KD: I like artificial intelligence and Tesla.
MR: The aesthetic of your impressions is very Max Headroom. Are you interested in computers and technology?
KD: I am interested in technology, but I'm not really a computer nerd. I wish I was a little more adept at using the computer.
Where the future is going is really interesting to me. I feel like the next big leap in innovation is going to be general artificial intelligence, and it brings up philosophical questions. And I'm also interested in what's happening in space. I think those are the big questions for me. It's probably what my religion is or it's filling up that part of my brain.
MR: How would you describe your religion?
KD: Well, religion, a lot of the times is seeking. I guess I'm psychoanalyzing myself, but I'm fascinated with space and certain big questions. But I'm not religious.
MR: Is there any space movie that you really like or has impacted you? I’m thinking like Contact.
KD: If you make a space movie, I'm going to go see it. I love most space movies, even when they're not that good. I did like Contact. I was watching a little bit of Stowaway yesterday.
MR: Do you read science fiction?
KD: I have a lot of trouble reading. When I do read, I read science fiction books. I read Sphere.
MR: Are you dyslexic?
KD: Something like that — probably. I've never been tested. When I was in high school Spanish class the teacher told me I wrote all my b’s and d’s backwards. When I read, I don't read the sentence, I go back and forth, and then when I get to the end, I try to figure out the sentence. It's a really a long process and it’s exhausting.
Face Swap
MR: Can you look up how long you are on your phone a week — what’s your iPhone screentime?
KD: Daily average is four hours and 11 minutes
MR: Are there any apps or technologies you use to do the impressions?
KD: I use an app called Perfect Video, which is for editing. And then for the faces, I use the Faceswap app. I've done stuff with real face replacement using high-definition video, but it's not as funny in my opinion. It's creepier.
I find the goofy Faceswap is just funnier because when your brain has to work and then realize something is slightly off — it's not freed up to laugh. But when it's so ridiculous looking, almost cartoonish, you know this is a safe thing in some lizard part of your brain.
MR: Is this the most successful thing you’ve done independently? Are you surprised how popular the videos are?
KD: Oh yeah. I feel like I got saved by the internet and this Faceswap thing.
I’m very lucky in that I could get a writing job, but I was really not happy in the job I was doing. I had been writing for other people for years, but I wanted to have my own success and I was bored.
So I had been doing impressions of the other writers, and I just started playing with Faceswap. I realized I could do a FaceTime call — so I had one of the girl writers get asked out by one of the boy writers in this awkward encounter. They would play it in the writer’s room, and it became popular. Then I realized I could do this with celebrities. I wasn’t really doing impressions at that point in my career, but I knew I could do it. When I first started doing standup, I was doing impressions, and managers told me not to do them.
Mirror Mirror on the Maher
MR: Who were some of your early impressions?
KD: Bill Maher.
MR: He’s public about thinking your impression of him is no good, right?
KD: Yeah. He brought me up on Joe Rogan out of nowhere, just to point out how bad my impression was of him. It really bothers him. I know a couple people who know him. I've been with him on vacation. He’s aware of the impression and I think he really hates it.
MR: Why do you think he hates it so much?
KD: I think he's a lot more Donald Trump than he wants to admit. I don't think he has a sense of humor about himself. I think he's a very smart guy. I think he's a very great comedian.
MR: Did you ever watch his interview with Howard Stern?
KD: I might have.
MR: So it’s Maher’s show, but Howard starts asking the questions and Maher gets real uncomfortable, real quick.
KD: Some girl came up to me at a Whole Foods and she told me she was a stewardess on a private jet with Bill Maher. She asked him if he’d seen Kyle Dunnigan’s impression of him. He wouldn't answer her and turned away. And then her boss told her to sit in the back of the plane and not to talk to Bill Maher again. And she lost her tip. Enough people have come up to me with stories like this. He really doesn't like it.
Free Will and the Hard Problem of Consciousness and Bennifer Shrimpo
MR: Do you know if anyone else has seen your impressions?
KD: Someone found out that Ben Shapiro’s Minecraft username is Bennifer Shrimpo, which was what I called him as Joe Biden. I thought that was pretty awesome.
MR: Are you political?
KD: No. I go issue by issue. I don't understand why there's teams.
MR: What do you think about the fact that the Right now loves your videos?
KD: I'm just a jester and the jester makes fun of the king. When Trump was president, I was doing Trump videos and the Left was like, “Yay.” And the Right said I was a Democrat. And I was like, “No, I'm just a comedian.”
Something happened recently where comedians are taken way too seriously. I'm just trying to get a laugh. I'm not a politician. And I'm not that well educated on a lot. Some of the issues I am.
MR: What issue do you think you could really go toe-to-toe with someone on?
KD: Science. A.I.
And to be clear, I'm joking. I should not be an advisor on A.I. either.
MR: Why are you so interested in AI?
KD: I'm interested in the future and where we're going, and I think that's the next big level up for humanity.
MR: Why do you think you're interested in the future and where we're going?
KD: I don't know. Why are people interested in who God is? To me, it’s one of the big questions. It’s also interesting to me because I won't be here, and I'm curious about what’s going to happen.
And there's also the moral dilemma about consciousness — I think it's going to be very confusing when you come to questions of consciousness. What is the difference between a hyper intelligent algorithm and us? Is consciousness something that just happens at as a kind of complication.
MR: You should check out David Chalmers on the hard problem of consciousness — I think you’d like him.
KD: He was on Sam Harris’ podcast. Harris’ free will book really bothers me.
MR: Are you religious at all?
KD: I was raised Catholic. I don't know the answer to who God is. I know that if I was born on the other side of the planet, I'd be trained to worship Mohammed. It bothers me that a lot of your religion just depends on the time you were born or where you were born. I couldn’t just jump into a religion, so I step back and ask, “What do I know?”
There’s a feeling of something bigger than myself, but it's so undefined that when I try to define it or I have someone else tell me that it's this thing or that thing — it always gets to just having to believe and stop questioning. And I don't feel like that's the right thing to do because whenever you close the door by saying “This is the answer” — you’re not open to the real answer.
I don't think science and religion should clash at all. They shouldn't clash because science is always changing and retesting. And people who talk about science in this stale, cold way, as if there’s no magic to it — they just aren't up to date on what's happening. We know that every atom in our bodies was created in supernovas. I think that there's something spiritual about that.
MR: Do you have any spiritual practice? Will you meditate? Will you pray?
KD: I need to meditate way more. That does help. Meditating is the most spiritual practice I do.
Belly Laughs
MR: Where do you get your ideas and how do you track them?
KD: They come from different places. Sometimes if I have nothing, I'll just sit and try to think of what's going on in the world and think that through. Or sometimes somebody interests me, like Megan Markle. So I started to do her, and then I would record myself doing her. And then an idea would just sort of develop.
MR: How do you record yourself?
KD: Usually first on my phone, and I'll just record a really bad version.
MR: Like a voice memo?
KD: No, I'll do a Faceswap. I'll put the face on, and that sort of helps me. I don't always do that though.
[Switches face to Joe Biden]
MR: How did you get your face to become Joe Biden’s so quickly?
KD: Oh, I have it linked up to my Snap Camera and then I use fast keys. [Cycles between different faces]. I have Warren Buffet here.
MR: Who are you working on now?
KD: I'm trying to get Warren Buffett into my next Fresh Prez video. I'm working on Fresh Prez right now. All I got from him is he has 15 Coca-Colas a day.
MR: He eats McDonald's breakfast every day.
KD: And he's like 90 something, right?
MR: Yeah.
KD: Billionaires fascinate me right now.
MR: Dillon has a great bit on Jeff Bezos. You and he can just always get me to laugh. My wife knows this — I can’t really listen to either of you in the car or else I’ll have to pull over.
KD: Oh, thank you. That’s my goal — just belly laughs. My favorite comments are when people say they cried laughing.
MR: We were listening to Fresh Prez and we had to stop driving.
KD: Oh, that's so cool. I love that. That's the best answer I could come up with for myself — is making something that makes other people feel good and laugh — to me, that's a good enough purpose.
MR: And when was the last time you cried and laughed?
KD: Cry laughing? I know it's recently at writing sessions with my friends John Bush and Kurt Metzger. I don’t count when I’m high. That doesn't count.