Gary Valentine – Kevin Can Wait

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) We are on set right now of our new sitcom “Kevin Can Wait” for CBS. We’ve been spending a lot of time on that. It’s going to be on Monday nights at 8:30pm. I’m also working on writing a couple of short films. I’ll be in Tampa coming up in November and Kevin [James] and I will be doing a theater tour that will hit the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area later this month. It will be great to be out there at the clubs again and talking to the audience to see what they really like. It’s amazing. When the “King Of Queens” aired, at first everything was great. Then, it went off the air and it actually became more recognizable. I would go to clubs in Tampa and people would tell me that the show was on four times a day. It was crazy! The reruns were what really got the notoriety, which was really nice. So, we’re hoping for the same with this show.

Q) Please tell us the premise for “Kevin Can Wait” and about your character Kyle Gable.

A) The premise is that Kevin plays a retired cop and he has three buddies that are also retired cops. He is finding that life at home with his kids is more difficult than being on the job. He’s thrown into the family life and he has a ten-year-old, fourteen-year-old and twenty-year-old that he has to deal with at home. I play his brother, their uncle, and I am a fireman. So, we have that conflict over who is the bigger hero – the cop or the fireman. These guys are retired and I’m still working so we have plenty to work with!

Q) What about the role made you want to be a part of the series?

A) This is actually the third fireman I’ve played. For some reason, I get cast as a fireman. The chance to work together with Kevin and do another sitcom after a long layoff from “King of Queens” just felt right, especially because we are shooting on Long Island where I am from. It’s just a crazy scenario and we’re doing the first ever live sitcom ever filmed on Long Island.

Q) What is it about working with Kevin that makes it so enjoyable for you?

A) He and I are brothers. Some people still don’t know that. We always appreciate each other’s comedy. We have worked together as standups for twenty-five years writing jokes for one another. Then, when we got into the acting world it just seemed like a perfect fit. Whether it is doing the sitcom or any of the films, it’s great. We did Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 last year and we just have a lot of fun. I just love playing these character-y parts in the movie and the sitcom just feels like a perfect fit. It kind of takes us back to when we were little kids putting on shows for our parents.

Q) Was there anything you added to role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) Absolutely. I brought my humor. Some of the writers didn’t know me personally so they would have had to watch tape on me. Some of them did know me from “King of Queens” or from my standup so they got me. There are things that I am adding to the character that weren’t necessarily written on the page.

Q) You have great comedic timing. Do you think that is something that comes naturally for you or have you had to work at it?

A) Without sounding like I’m boasting, I do. It comes natural to me. I don’t know why. Even as a kid, I was this goofball and had this timing. The kid who plays the ten-year-old on our show, I look at him and think, “Gosh, he just has this timing.” It’s hard to teach timing. You can’t teach that. Some people have it and some people don’t. People always ask me about standup and it’s really the easiest thing I do. Standing up in front of people and making people laugh just comes naturally to me. I always say you have to have it inside of you or the business will eat you alive. If you don’t completely have it and enjoy it, you won’t be able to stay in it because it is too difficult. It just comes natural to me. And I’m happy about that. I work on my acting. It’s more difficult for me to act other peoples’ lines than it is for me to do my own standup, which I’ve written. The writing here is good that we gear stuff towards what I do and I write a little bit of the lines here and there to fit my persona more.

Q) What have been some of your most memorable moments from behind the scenes?

A) When we came out to New York, I had been living in LA for twenty years. So, when we came back to shoot the pilot the whole cast was here for two weeks. Every night we went out to dinner from James [DiGiacomo] the ten-year-old to everyone else. The whole cast really just became friends. It was instant! It was crazy! The whole chemistry of it worked. We started going to dinner and the place we would go wanted to do karaoke so we jumped up there and did it. Now, it’s an ongoing thing. So, we’ll take one night a week to go out to dinner and do some karaoke. I feel like I’ve known these people for twenty years.

Q) What do you think it is about “Kevin Can Wait” that will make it a fast fan favorite show?

A) It’s a family comedy. There are a not a lot of them out there right now. It’s a very likeable show like “King of Queens” was. Although there are different dynamics to the show, we have kids now on the series and more buddies with their families. There are more storylines that will make it more interesting to a wider range of people.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the fan feedback you will be receiving to episodes?

A) Yeah, I am. In fact, I’m just in the middle of hiring a social media consultant to help with everything. I’m not great at it and it is very important. I think she will do a great job and she has worked in the business before. I think it will be great with her, me and CBS. It will be interesting to watch to see what happens.

Q) You worked most recently as a panelist on “Chelsea Lately.” What do you miss about your time on the show?

A) People ask me how I got my persona for my standup and I’ve been doing it for twenty-five years. I knew I was funny and that I’d get laugh, but I didn’t really have a certain persona onstage until I started doing the “Chelsea Lately” show. I was forced to write jokes in about an hour to perform on the show and I just felt like if I wrote some stuff that comes from left field out of nowhere it would hysterical. It ended up being really comfortable to do that. Even if something didn’t make sense it was all in the delivery. My standup act is all about commitment and when you commit to a certain joke it might not be the funniest joke, but if I commit to it and make the audience believe I believe it then it becomes funny. So, I kind of miss doing that on her show, but what I’ve done is taken the jokes and the persona and transferred it over to my standup, which has worked out nicely.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I would just like to say thank you. It’s really, really humbling and very nice. I completely feel blessed to be able to do what I do. To have the support and love that you get, I really feel it when I’m out there in the clubs and theaters. These people are coming out to see you, as opposed to before when I started out doing standup I was just another guy at the club. Now, they are actually coming to see me and that is really, really humbling. It’s really nice to see. So, I would just say a big thank you.