Interview with Comedian Jamie Kilstein: Too Good to Ever Be on American TV, This Weekend Live in SF

*Granny Ruth (GR) recently had a conversation with comedian Jamie Kilstein. They talked about tattoos, Texas, and how Jamie emerged from apathetic teendom to become an activist...despite growing up on heavy doses of MTV.*

GR: Being a granny, I have kids your age.  Maybe you can give me some insight into your generation. I can't help but wonder about the strong commitment to tattoos, less commitment to left-wing causes…

Jamie: Well I do have tattoos, which I will now be hiding from you when we meet up later this week. But to take the blame off kids, a lot of it’s the media's fault. They don’t show protests that work, and that makes kids feel like it is a lost cause. Why get arrested if it’s not even going to get covered? They weren’t around for Vietnam when it DID work.

Ruth: But you are an activist now, with a deep commitment to equality and, as you say, "taking care of people". You get the message out in a very palatable way in comic skits and also in your radio broadcast Citizen Radio. How did you get to this point?

Jamie: I was always really apathetic as a teenager. I knew I cared about politics, but I didn’t care enough to march or read a book. I thought smoking pot made me political. Then my partner Allison and I went on the road for 2 years.
During this time we talked to actual people. Gay kids who didn’t have full rights, family members of soldiers, single mothers with no health care, and once we met these people face to face we realized we couldn’t screw around anymore. And that’s when activism and politics became a job and not just talking points for parties.

Ruth: In you comic skits, which I enjoyed on your myspace page, you go after lazy liberals..

Jamie: Yeah and at one time I did what a lot of liberals do... which is nothing. I think the reason liberals are lazy is because...we’re right! So we kinda think “why should I have to go outside?” Those other people are fucking crazy.  No way anyone is going to listen to them! And then, BAM, eight years of George Bush.

GR: Please, Granny ears! Why do young people say "fucking" all the time? It is contagious when you've even got old grannies like me saying it.

Jamie: Ha ha. Blame MTV. We grew up on it.

Granny Ruth: So when did you first realize your talent for comedy?

Jamie: Like all artists I didn’t have a great childhood. I think that’s in the artist contract somewhere. I discovered humor as a form of denial and escape. I wish I had a peppier story like “I was 5 years old at my sister's wedding and I gave the most ADORABLE TOAST!! I was such a little angel.” But nope. Usually me and my brothers would be hiding in my room while an ambulance was outside my house and it was awful. But the first person to make a joke was king. It would cut all of the tension in the room and we would laugh like it the funniest thing we had ever heard. Looking back that’s when I learned that you can use humor to talk about really shitty, frightening issues, that a lot of times people are afraid to talk about or just don’t want to deal with.

GR: When and how did it all come together? I mean your brilliant intersection of activism and humor.

Jamie: Once I was on the road and meeting these people, I would just start talking about these issues at my gigs. The reaction was so good, and not just in Chicago, San Francisco and NYC. In Iowa, Louisiana, and even Texas. Places that aren’t “liberal” per say. I think people were just so tired of the racist, sexist, homophobic comic and were happy to hear about the war from someone other than David Brooks.

GR: So what is it going to take to change things, to get people both young and old motivated to make change when they see social injustices?

Jamie: The way I see it, humans are a selfish animal. And young people are still racking up debt before the creditors come after them, we only go to Iraq if we sign up, I didn’t get health insurance till this year and was never in the hospital. You feel invincible when you’re young, and it’s hard to see how these issues affect you. I don’t think that’s right but I think people would be more active (and not just young people, everyone) if they woke up one day and didn’t have water like in Bolivia. Those people fought their asses off and they got their fucking water back.

GR: So short of a major catastrophe, like all of our water being bought up by private corporations, what will work?

Jamie: Well, I think websites like indybay, shows like Democracy Now, hopefully my show Citizen Radio that I host with Allison are important. We tell people that it IS worth fighting, that protest CAN do something. If you turn on MSNBC or Fox,the war looks like a video game and is followed by a story about cats in funny hats.

Granny Ruth: Hey, what's wrong with funny hats? I'm wearing one now..It's a Raging Granny thing...

Jamie: Oops!

Granny Ruth: Do go on.

Jamie: Another problem is that there is no sense of urgency. We all feel invincible and we procrastinate democracy. I think if more kids knew what could be done, and how badly the rich elites are fucking us, there would be marches in the street daily. It’s just up to us to let them know.

GR: So, you mentioned that you travelled with Allison and you do Citizen Radio with her. I gather you are "taken". Not that I'm trolling for our readers in cougardom or anything…

Jamie: I'm married to Allison Kilkenny whom you would love. She writes for The Nation, Alternet and cohosts our radio show.

GR: When I tune into to your broadcast at http://www.WeAreCitizenRadio.com the two of you'll be advocating a return to the streets I'm sure. And maybe I'll see you there, although you are based in NYC and indybay readers are primarily (but by no means all) in the San Francisco Bay area. Just one more question. We can march with funny hats, right?

Jamie: Definitely.