He spent the nineties winding up celebrities with his unique interviewing skills as Dennis Pennis but it's been a while since we last saw Paul Kaye. Female First caught up with him to talk about his new role, as an evil piranha.
Chop Socky Chooks starts on Cartoon Network Monday 8th September at 5.30pmYou made your name as Dennis Pennis- how did this character come about?I was playing in a band called We are Pleb and we got interviewed for a Granada show called Transmission and I got pissed with the crew, went out and walked down Oxford Street abusing people with a pair of glasses on and then a year later I got a phone call from someone at the BBC who'd seen this tape and the rest is history. So I'd never acted or done comedy before and I was 32 and it came out of the blue and I just went for it!
So it was a year later? Did you know what they were talking about or had you forgotten it?
Yeah the guy who had done the film for this music show, a guy called Ewan who was actually a roadie for the band, cut it together at the BBC for his show reel and I think the VHS just got handed around the department and it suddenly arrived on a producer's desk a year later. I think it was kind of like an in house joke. It was not your normal career path it just sort of came along and I jumped at it!Was he as much fun to play as it looked?
Oh man it was a riot!I was completely out of control around the world for a year and a half! Completely unemployable afterwards! I pissed off so many potential employers, I went back to milking cows afterwards.What was your favourite reaction you got from a celebrity while interviewing as Dennis? And why?
I think probably Courtney love. She whacked me round the face and I said "I heard you were a slapper".
Is there any celebrities around at the moment that you would like to interview as Dennis?
I think interview's the wrong word, abused really! Yeah too many to mention I'm just amazed no-one's picked up the baton. I guess everyone's a bit too career minded now and they're be worried about upsetting people. i mean I'm glad i didn't go down the chat show route where you've got guests been paid five grand to laugh along as you take the piss out of them. I'm sort of glad it didn't get spoilt by me getting greedy or anything.
Would you ever consider bringing back Dennis Pennis?
No, no I think let him rest in peace
Mike Strutter has also been a massive cult hit on the net- is he based on anyone you know?
Yeah me! And a bit of Sean Penn out of Carlito's Way. He's my psychic bin!
As well as being in comedy shows you have also done some serious acting, in 2000 Acres of Sky for example, how does this differ from the comedy? And which do you prefer?
I like them both I have to say. It's a bit boring but I never quite know what I want to do until it finds me really. Or something like Strutter it's a great hobby and it's good therapy and it means I don't have to do it in real life! But I don't mind really, you hope to be surprised and get something exciting now and again, obviously you have to do kind of mortgage jobs but i think it's a pretty decent life really. I don't know what my ambitions are until they turn up really but I'd love to work with Shane Meadows, I know that much!
Tell us about the new film Chop Socky Chooks- what character do you play?
I play Dr Wasabi who's a kind of psychopathic, megalomaniac shark with a heart. He's kind of like a gay Nazi!
What was it like voicing an animation?
Oh fantastic, I loved it. To be honest we didn't do much of it to the actual animation because it was all being done over in Canada and it takes so long. I was just in there screaming my head off once a fortnight in a studio in London and now watching it it's so exciting!
Would you do more of this type of thing?
I'd love to, absolutely.
What else are you up to at minute? Do you have anything planned for the future?
I've got a couple of things. I've just finished Gunrush with Timothy Spall, which comes out I think in the autumn and I've just finished Massive as well with Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas in Manchester, which is like a comedy set in a music studio. It's been a good year, lot's of nice little bits and fun jobs.
We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview....and Shaggy want to know; What would you do right now to be a voice of change"?
I'd be Shaggy and I'd come out as being gay!
What would you like to ask the next person I interview?
Where were you last Saturday night, I was waiting for you for an hour!