I dont know how many people in the SG community has had to deal with rappers on a professional level. But I used to work on hip-hop television show and I cant remember any time where the rap artists showed up on time and the movie junket for The Cookout was no different. The funny thing is that the only person who showed up on time wasnt a rapper but in fact was comedian/actor Tim Meadows.
Meadows has a small role in the film as a wannabe lawyer giving out legal advice at a family cookout. Meadows is best known for his nine years on Saturday Night Live [the longest of any cast member] where he created such memorable characters as The Ladies Man and OJ Simpson.
Since his first lead in the movie The Ladies Man, bombed work from Meadows has been sporadic. He has had a number of sitcom roles in Leap of Faith and The Michael Richards Show. But if The Cookout and Mean Girls is any indication then Meadows is bouncing back.
Check out the website for The Cookout
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why are rappers always late?
Tim Meadows: Because they deserve to be.
DRE: Why is that?
TM: Its CPT. Colored people time.
DRE: [laughs] Why did you want to work on The Cookout?
TM: It was the chance to work with Queen Latifah, Danny Glover, Farrah Fawcett and the fact that I knew the check would clear. Also being able to spend a month in New Jersey, I cant pass that up.
DRE: You were the only Second City type guy on set. Did you improvise much?
TM: I did not improvise too much because most of the scenes I was in I was with a lot of other people. The only improvisation I did was the one where I was explaining about golf and hockey. Otherwise it was all scripted.
DRE: You play a wannabe lawyer in film. Are you familiar with the legal system?
TM: Personally? Ive never been arrested. Ive been stopped, searched and had a gun put to my head by the Chicago cops. It was 1989, I had moved to Chicago to do improv and my roommate was on a date so I was home watching TV. They came home and he asked me to step out so he could be with his girl. I told him I would give him an hour and I was just hanging out in front of the building leaning on his car which was a Mustang. I was just minding my own business and I just feel this thing press against my head. I immediately put my hands up and this guy goes Chicago police! It was the classic Richard Pryor joke There was this nigger that looked just like you! He said there was a guy that snatched this womans purse and that I looked just like him. I told him my whole life story, I was born in 1961, I just moved to Chicago and I was living in this apartment building. He got on his radio and all these cops came. The whole time this was happening he never took the gun away from my head. One of the cops who had chased the purse snatcher got really close to me, then he presses his hand to my chest and says Your heart is beating really fast, why is that? I said it was because the guy had a gun to my head. If I was running I would be sweating and Im not sweating. So the guy said that I wasnt the guy. Then this other detective swings open his passenger door and says Get him in my car. Let me take him down. To the cop who said to let me go I said Please dont put me in this guys car. I didnt do anything. He said Alright, you get your ass in your apartment and I dont want to see you out here again tonight. I said You dont need to worry about that.
DRE: Just to talk about another aspect of Chicago, you studied with Del Close. What was that like?
TM: Del was great. He was one of the first people to say that I had some talent and coming from him that gave me a lot of respect in the improv community. He was also responsible for giving me my first job at Second City. I was supposed to do this play he was going to direct. I was told to show up for rehearsals so I showed up. He looked at me and said What are you doing here? Youre not in this show. I said I was told to be there so I left to go to a nearby bar. He came out to the bar and said that even though he didnt need me in that show the next show he directs I would get to be in it. The next show he directed was at Second City. He fired the whole cast on the main stage, hired his own actors and I was one of them. I am forever indebted to him for that.
DRE: Were you surprised by the success of Mean Girls?
TM: Not surprised as much as happy [laughs]. When I saw it in previews I knew it was good. I knew what Tina [Fey] had written had made it to the screen. So the laughs from the audience made me feel more confident people would like it but I didnt know it would do as well as it did. To be number one that open week and make that much money.
DRE: I think it made about $85 million.
TM: Yes its done well for everyone except Tim Meadows.
DRE: You were on Saturday Night Live for nine years. Do you ever miss it?
TM: I miss the Thursday night rewrite sessions. They were always fun because you sit around with people, go over the sketches and come up with better jokes. For me it was really cool new aspect of my life to sit around with comedy writers and throw out ideas. For someone like Jim Downey [longtime SNL writer] to say that I had a good idea would feel good. When you first get there and you say stuff people just humor you but once you get the respect of other writers, you can start throwing out stuff.
DRE: What were you favorite characters?
TM: I loved doing Ladies Man and for a while after the ugliness of the OJ Trial I liked doing him. That became fun to do because instead of OJ being smart and disappearing he wouldnt leave. So he put himself up to be ridiculed.
DRE: I read that entire book about Second City [Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater]. There were not a lot of African-Americans involved with the theater. Why arent there many African-Americans in improv?
TM: Out of 30 years of Second City I was probably the third African-American with the main stage cast. I was surprised when I first heard that. I think part of the reason that improvisation has never been popular with African-Americans is that it isnt popular in the inner cities. Chicago sort of benefited from Second City because what they do is such a part of that town so its easy for people to find it. Where I grew up in Detroit nobody did improv or even thought about it. When we started doing it in Detroit people would come because they had never seen it before. The fact that Second Citys audience was predominantly white probably affected the fact that not a lot of African-Americans sought it out. African-American performers that went into comedy went more into stand-up.
DRE: Do you feel more comfortable being in television or movies?
TM: I like doing films and I wish that I could do more but I still have to audition. I dont get offered starring roles in movies even though Ive written and starred in a movie.
DRE: Did you have to audition for Mean Girls?
TM: No that was basically Tina telling Lorne [Michaels] that she wrote a part for me. That was an easy job to get. But even that job was difficult in that I had to negotiate my contract with Paramount and when we started doing that they made me feel like they didnt want me in the movie. But thats just the way the business is. They want to make you feel like they could get someone else.
DRE: Do you have projects you want to do?
TM: Im working on a script right now. But its a matter of pitching it because I dont have a development deal. What Im writing right now is kind of an anti-Woody Allen movie. Its about a guy who hates New York City but falls in love with a girl who lives there. Whenever he goes there bad things happen to him.
DRE: What do you think of the state of black comedies now?
TM: Thats a good question but the thing about that is in any month the answer could be different. After I read the script for Soul Plane I was very discouraged and bummed out because I thought there wasnt one role in the movie I would want to do.
I would like to see movies be more equal. Its not that I hate a movie like Soul Plane but give us a Soul Plane then give us a Collateral or a Spider-Man. You can make movies for African-Americans that can crossover to the white audience. The message from Soul Plane was so convoluted. I was excited because its about a guy who gets his own airline but then he paints it purple. He hires some strippers as stewardesses then there is gambling. Also if I was white and I saw that movie I would be even more pissed than black people. The white people in the movie only wanted to get laid.
DRE: Some people are saying the same things about The Cookout. Like the woman who has many kids and doesnt even know who the father is.
TM: I can accept that criticism for this movie because there are other characters that arent like that. I dont want to keep bringing up Soul Plane but a movie like that has nothing to balance it out. In The Cookout there are some caricatures and it might not make everyone happy but there is some truth to it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Meadows has a small role in the film as a wannabe lawyer giving out legal advice at a family cookout. Meadows is best known for his nine years on Saturday Night Live [the longest of any cast member] where he created such memorable characters as The Ladies Man and OJ Simpson.
Since his first lead in the movie The Ladies Man, bombed work from Meadows has been sporadic. He has had a number of sitcom roles in Leap of Faith and The Michael Richards Show. But if The Cookout and Mean Girls is any indication then Meadows is bouncing back.
Check out the website for The Cookout
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why are rappers always late?
Tim Meadows: Because they deserve to be.
DRE: Why is that?
TM: Its CPT. Colored people time.
DRE: [laughs] Why did you want to work on The Cookout?
TM: It was the chance to work with Queen Latifah, Danny Glover, Farrah Fawcett and the fact that I knew the check would clear. Also being able to spend a month in New Jersey, I cant pass that up.
DRE: You were the only Second City type guy on set. Did you improvise much?
TM: I did not improvise too much because most of the scenes I was in I was with a lot of other people. The only improvisation I did was the one where I was explaining about golf and hockey. Otherwise it was all scripted.
DRE: You play a wannabe lawyer in film. Are you familiar with the legal system?
TM: Personally? Ive never been arrested. Ive been stopped, searched and had a gun put to my head by the Chicago cops. It was 1989, I had moved to Chicago to do improv and my roommate was on a date so I was home watching TV. They came home and he asked me to step out so he could be with his girl. I told him I would give him an hour and I was just hanging out in front of the building leaning on his car which was a Mustang. I was just minding my own business and I just feel this thing press against my head. I immediately put my hands up and this guy goes Chicago police! It was the classic Richard Pryor joke There was this nigger that looked just like you! He said there was a guy that snatched this womans purse and that I looked just like him. I told him my whole life story, I was born in 1961, I just moved to Chicago and I was living in this apartment building. He got on his radio and all these cops came. The whole time this was happening he never took the gun away from my head. One of the cops who had chased the purse snatcher got really close to me, then he presses his hand to my chest and says Your heart is beating really fast, why is that? I said it was because the guy had a gun to my head. If I was running I would be sweating and Im not sweating. So the guy said that I wasnt the guy. Then this other detective swings open his passenger door and says Get him in my car. Let me take him down. To the cop who said to let me go I said Please dont put me in this guys car. I didnt do anything. He said Alright, you get your ass in your apartment and I dont want to see you out here again tonight. I said You dont need to worry about that.
DRE: Just to talk about another aspect of Chicago, you studied with Del Close. What was that like?
TM: Del was great. He was one of the first people to say that I had some talent and coming from him that gave me a lot of respect in the improv community. He was also responsible for giving me my first job at Second City. I was supposed to do this play he was going to direct. I was told to show up for rehearsals so I showed up. He looked at me and said What are you doing here? Youre not in this show. I said I was told to be there so I left to go to a nearby bar. He came out to the bar and said that even though he didnt need me in that show the next show he directs I would get to be in it. The next show he directed was at Second City. He fired the whole cast on the main stage, hired his own actors and I was one of them. I am forever indebted to him for that.
DRE: Were you surprised by the success of Mean Girls?
TM: Not surprised as much as happy [laughs]. When I saw it in previews I knew it was good. I knew what Tina [Fey] had written had made it to the screen. So the laughs from the audience made me feel more confident people would like it but I didnt know it would do as well as it did. To be number one that open week and make that much money.
DRE: I think it made about $85 million.
TM: Yes its done well for everyone except Tim Meadows.
DRE: You were on Saturday Night Live for nine years. Do you ever miss it?
TM: I miss the Thursday night rewrite sessions. They were always fun because you sit around with people, go over the sketches and come up with better jokes. For me it was really cool new aspect of my life to sit around with comedy writers and throw out ideas. For someone like Jim Downey [longtime SNL writer] to say that I had a good idea would feel good. When you first get there and you say stuff people just humor you but once you get the respect of other writers, you can start throwing out stuff.
DRE: What were you favorite characters?
TM: I loved doing Ladies Man and for a while after the ugliness of the OJ Trial I liked doing him. That became fun to do because instead of OJ being smart and disappearing he wouldnt leave. So he put himself up to be ridiculed.
DRE: I read that entire book about Second City [Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater]. There were not a lot of African-Americans involved with the theater. Why arent there many African-Americans in improv?
TM: Out of 30 years of Second City I was probably the third African-American with the main stage cast. I was surprised when I first heard that. I think part of the reason that improvisation has never been popular with African-Americans is that it isnt popular in the inner cities. Chicago sort of benefited from Second City because what they do is such a part of that town so its easy for people to find it. Where I grew up in Detroit nobody did improv or even thought about it. When we started doing it in Detroit people would come because they had never seen it before. The fact that Second Citys audience was predominantly white probably affected the fact that not a lot of African-Americans sought it out. African-American performers that went into comedy went more into stand-up.
DRE: Do you feel more comfortable being in television or movies?
TM: I like doing films and I wish that I could do more but I still have to audition. I dont get offered starring roles in movies even though Ive written and starred in a movie.
DRE: Did you have to audition for Mean Girls?
TM: No that was basically Tina telling Lorne [Michaels] that she wrote a part for me. That was an easy job to get. But even that job was difficult in that I had to negotiate my contract with Paramount and when we started doing that they made me feel like they didnt want me in the movie. But thats just the way the business is. They want to make you feel like they could get someone else.
DRE: Do you have projects you want to do?
TM: Im working on a script right now. But its a matter of pitching it because I dont have a development deal. What Im writing right now is kind of an anti-Woody Allen movie. Its about a guy who hates New York City but falls in love with a girl who lives there. Whenever he goes there bad things happen to him.
DRE: What do you think of the state of black comedies now?
TM: Thats a good question but the thing about that is in any month the answer could be different. After I read the script for Soul Plane I was very discouraged and bummed out because I thought there wasnt one role in the movie I would want to do.
I would like to see movies be more equal. Its not that I hate a movie like Soul Plane but give us a Soul Plane then give us a Collateral or a Spider-Man. You can make movies for African-Americans that can crossover to the white audience. The message from Soul Plane was so convoluted. I was excited because its about a guy who gets his own airline but then he paints it purple. He hires some strippers as stewardesses then there is gambling. Also if I was white and I saw that movie I would be even more pissed than black people. The white people in the movie only wanted to get laid.
DRE: Some people are saying the same things about The Cookout. Like the woman who has many kids and doesnt even know who the father is.
TM: I can accept that criticism for this movie because there are other characters that arent like that. I dont want to keep bringing up Soul Plane but a movie like that has nothing to balance it out. In The Cookout there are some caricatures and it might not make everyone happy but there is some truth to it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
anderswolleck:
i wasnt a big fan of Tim's until the last three years or so of his tenure on SNL. i really think he came into his own with the Ladies' Man and once he was a respected cast member. What happened to his popularity is fairly typical when one has a bomb movie like The Ladies Man. i think that movie is hysterical but who knows maybe the success of Mean Girls will rub off on him
gigantor138:
Well I think Tim's problem was that he bombed in two mediums at the same time. The Ladies Man flopped at the same time the incredibly unfunny Micheal Richards show rightfully bombed. I mean I feel so bad for Tim getting wrapped up in that Michael Richards mess, I mean it must have seemed sure fire at the time, "Everyone loves Kramer." Also, it's just hard to imagine a show as bad as the Micheal Richards show. So anyway, i think that's what really hurt Tim.