He scared movie fans in “Scream,” delighted The WB viewers with his disguises and situations on the kooky “The Jamie Kennedy Experience,” and helped Jennifer Love Hewitt with spirit issues as a professor on “Ghost Whisperer,” but Jamie Kennedy’s newest endeavor gets more personal. In his new Showtime stand-up comedy special – “Uncomfortable” — Jamie offers laughs by recounting situations from his life.
“It’s a lot of things,” Jamie explained to AccessHollywod.com of the inspiration for the comedy special’s title. “I say things that are uncomfortable, I make people uncomfortable… and I get uncomfortable.”
In the hour-long show, filmed last year, and premiering on Showtime this Saturday at 9 PM, Jamie peppers his stand-up with amusing stories from his encounters, including some of the more ego-bruising ones that came with dating his then-ladylove Jennifer Love Hewitt.
“I talk about my ex-relationship a little bit… even when I was going out with Love and things were going good, the tabloids could be so mean,” Jamie explained. “Like one tabloid wrote like, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt Scrapes The Bottom of the Barrel,’ and I’m thinking like, ‘Really? I’m the bottom of the barrel?’ Come on! I think, like Jon Gosselin is probably closer to the bottom. Gary Busey is a little bit closer. Screech…”
Jennifer, who actually styled Jamie for the special, makes a guest appearance in the opening sequence, and the actor/comedian said it came about naturally.
“She was on a lot of the dates with me when I did the stand up, and she helped me and was instrumental in telling me what was [funny] and what wasn’t,” he said. “She’s got a good eye and knack for comedy and so I wanted her to be a part of it and it’s only fitting that [she] is.”
Jennifer’s also in the pull quote for the poster — “This special broke us up.”
“I mean there’s definitely some stuff in there, not in the special. But the what-I-am in life definitely helped break us up,” he said when asked how much truth was in the tag line. “I mean part of it, so yeah, I mean, there’s some truth to that.”
While the two split since the special was filmed, Jamie thinks highly of the brunette beauty.
“I’m always gonna have a connection with her,” he said, noting he’s respectful of her relationship.
Beyond his red carpet moments with Jennifer, in “Uncomfortable,” Jamie also makes light of odd moments overseas, strange fashion trends at coffee shops and an awkward race-relations moment he encountered after President Barack Obama’s election.
“It gets so dicey with people, because they get so weird about race and it’s like, it’s so politically correct, I’m so over it,” Jamie said, of tackling race-related topics in his stand-up. “Anderson Cooper — I would love him to have me on and I really want to have a whole discussion about everything. I’m so sick of political correctness.”
Beyond his Showtime special, the “Scream” veteran (he was in 1, 2 and 3) is performing stand-up on the road and currently working on producing a horror film called “Granny.”
“It’s basically a movie about an old woman… who basically, she wants this girl to stay a virgin… and there’s like all these things around [in] society like Facebook, people on their cell phones and skateboards and perverted teachers… and it’s like the grandmother is the protector, and no one knows it, but she kills people,” he explained.
While he’s got his “Granny” picked out Jamie is hoping to woo former “Zoey 1010” star Victoria Justice, 17, to play the role of the innocent granddaughter.
“I love her and I met her and I think she’s gonna be huge and she would be perfect,” he raved of the young woman’s acting chops.
And from one teen to another, Jamie gave his thumbs up to Justin Bieber, who was rumored to be set to help MTV revive “Punk’d.”
“I know Bieber… likes that type of humor, so I think he’ll be good at it. I wish he would host the ‘Justin Bieber Experiment’ instead,’” Jamie laughed. “But, you know, I think that’s cool. He’s good at that.”
“Uncomfortable” airs on Showtime on Saturday at 9 PM.
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