TV INTERVIEW: LEE CAMP
Get Up, Stand-Up: (Don’t Be) Quiet in the Cheap Seats
"Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power that can transform the world." Those words (by historian and social activist Howard Zinn) are tattooed on Lee Camp’s left forearm, and are clearly not just rhetoric for a man who leapt into the national spotlight after declaring Fox News to be a ‘parade of propaganda’ while appearing on…Fox News. Beyond that flashpoint, Lee has spent the past couple of years establishing himself as an exciting new face in the stand-up scene, while also writing for The Onion, The Huffington Post and BIGfib.com. Most recently, Camp launched his own web series/podcast, Moment of Clarity, and has already created more than 60 episodes since March of this year. Lee sat down at The Vanguard in Hollywood, California for a quick chat with Buzzine’s Nicole Rayburn during the tapings of the second season of The Green Room with Paul Provenza…
Nicole Rayburn: How are you - Have you done many interviews yet?
Lee Camp: In my life, yes. Today, no. You’re my first. So today I’m a virgin. [Chuckles]
NR: Woo-hoo - I’m first!
LC: That’s what you like to hear from a girl: “Today, you’re my first.”
NR: Well then, first, tell me about being in Paul Provenza's book: ¡Satiristas!
LC: I’m really excited to be in it. It’s really cool just to be along that list of people – the other comics in the book are my heroes. And what I tell people when they ask what the book is, I’m like, ignoring the fact that I’m in it, it’s the book I wish I had when I was starting comedy: interviews with all the most amazing comics in the country, and I’m lucky enough to tag along.
NR: Pretty impressive, especially as…well, you’re, you know, baby-faced… Exactly how old are you?
LC: I just turned 30.
NR: Do you feel that is still pretty young in this industry?
LC: It’s tough to say. People take different paths. I think, for what I do, it’s kind of young because I do a lot of cultural commentary and that kind of thing, and I think to be going down that path it’s kind of young. But Eddie Murphy blew up at age 19, so I guess I’m no infant anymore.
NR: How long have you known Paul [Provenza]?
LC: Since I was on New Faces at Montreal. Paul was filming a documentary about the New Faces or about Montreal that, I think, never came out, but that’s how I met him, and we stayed friends, and he’s kind of a mentor, and he’s been like that ever since. I think our friendship solidified after I went on Fox News and called them a bunch of ugly names, and then he was like, “You are the kid I want to hang out with.”
NR: Okay! [Laughs] If that’s what it takes to win over Paul’s heart…
LC: You do what you gotta…
NR: You made quite the cameo on the first season of The Green Room, based on that moment on Fox News, so with this new season, what’s your involvement here with the show?
LC: It was a combination of a happy accident that I was gonna be in LA this week, but also since I was on it last year and I just came to hang out, he was like, “We might want some crowd participation, so if you can yell things out from the audience…” So we’ll see. It’s kind of nice to be on something this cool and have no responsibility. So I don’t have to even be funny - I can just enjoy it…
The second season of ‘The Green Room with Paul Provenza’ premieres new episodes on Showtime every Thursday night at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT beginning July 14, 2011.
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