On The Line with Keegan-Michael Key

It's a fact of life that Keegan-Michael Key knows all too well:  Things don't always go according to plan.

"I was going to be a truck-driving veterinarian. That was my dream," says Key. "There was a very popular TV show on the air at the time called BJ and the Bear about a guy who was a truck driver and he had a monkey. I thought that was the coolest thing that ever happened in the history of the world. He drove a Coca-Cola truck, and I thought, 'I'm going to put animals in the back of the car and I'm going to drive all over the country and deliver animals to people.'"

His mom encouraged the young Key, but knew her son would likely be met with disappointment.  The market for truck-driving veterinarians is...well...rather non-existent.

Lucky for Key, he found a back up.  And fortunately, he's pretty darn good at it.

Fans of Mad TV know Key for the outrageous characters he created and performed during his five-and-a-half-year run on the sketch show, notably the too-tight-shorts-wearing Coach Hines and delivery-man Eugene, whose chats with celebrities about taking things to the HNL - "A Ho Nubah Levah"- often had the stars in stitches by the scene's end.

But the Michigan native who knows how to bring the funny, never planned on a career in television.  After receiving his MFA in theater from Penn State, Key's goal was to craft a home on the stage.  "I was initially going to move to Seattle and try to work in as much legitimate regional theater as I could."

However, Key, who describes himself as "kind of a homebody," was intimidated by the thought of making the move.  "When the rubber met the road, Seattle couldn't be further from home."  So, in the summer of 1996, he happily put off the trip to work on a friend's independent film project back in Detroit.

Although not "the plan," his decision to stay in the midwest proved to be a good one - to say the least.

While working on the movie, Key met the woman who would become his beloved wife, actress and dialect coach Cynthia Blaise.  At the same time, he became pals with several actors who regularly performed improv at The Second City, Detroit.

By the fall of the following year, Key was granted an audition to replace a departing member of the improvisation troupe and booked the job.  "It was scary for the first month or so," says Key, who had learned short-form improv as an undergrad, but was new to the long-form that was Second City's signature.

A novice no more after performing 6 shows a week for three years and eleven months "to the day," Key was courted by the main company, based in Chicago.  They first offered Key a spot in their touring troupe, but at 31, Key no longer possessed the childhood wanderlust that made him once yearn to cart animals by truck.

So, when a spot opened up in the Second City's Experimental Theater Company - "no where near as avant garde as it sounds," says Key - he and Cynthia left Motown for the Windy City in 2001.

As a member of the not-so-experimental Experimental Theater Company, Key and his fellow castmates were thrust onto the radar of television sketch show execs.  According to Key, talent scouts were regular audience attendees, and it wasn't long before Key was flying out to be seen for Mad TV.

Key - who'd twice before been put on tape for the show - was surprised.  Mad TV made it known they were on the hunt for female cast members.  "They saw 50 women...and me," says Key.  Nevertheless, Executive Producer Dick Blasucci, himself a Second City alum, saw that Key was flown to Los Angeles and considered for a spot on the show.

The audition?  "It wasn't long," says Key.  He read a scene.  "Then I sat down in the hallway...for about two-and-a-half hours."

When Blasucci came back, apologizing for the wait, he had paperwork in his hand.  Key signed the contract on the spot, taking his career to the "HNL."

In 2008, word rolled in that the season would be the last for Mad TV, so Key and his talent reps were on the lookout for "the next thing."  But, again, it was a series of unplanned events that shaped the last two years of Key's career.

"I was asked by the Second City brass in Chicago to host a showcase at the Second City Los Angeles Training Center," says Key.  After the showcase, an executive from NBC stopped by to chat with Key.

The following day, Key's manager called:  "The guy you met with last night wants a meeting."

And that meeting gave Key a development deal with NBC/Universal.  Key pitched a story, they liked it, and he worked with a writer for six months, crafting the script.  Then, NBC bought it...and put it on a shelf.

Not quite the outcome Key hoped for.

But meanwhile, unbeknownst to Key, an advertising executive's son was telling his dad about his favorite character on Mad TV - Coach Hines.



So, when time came for the ad man to cast a GMC commercial to air during the NBA playoffs, he found Key.

The spot received a good deal of airplay, capturing the attention of executives at ABC, who signed Key to a holding deal in short order. "It's like putting an actor on retainer.  You can make commercials, you can make movies, but you can't do a television show for any other network, because we gave you this money."

It sounds like a sweet deal.  And for Key it was, until it almost wasn't.  Nothing was clicking and he was getting restless.  At the suggestion of his manager, Key began studying with Lesly Kahn, known around Tinseltown for her astute eye with scripted comedy.  Whether it was Kahn pushing Key out of his comfort zone for the three weeks of intense classes or the stars just coming into alignment at the right time, Key finally got his shot for a series regular role on the Jay Mohr-led Gary Unmarried and booked it.

In August, Key began playing Gary's best friend Curtis, working under the direction of legendary television comedy director James Burrows.  Now, the show has wrapped for the season...and they are hoping the network will pick up the show again for the fall.

"It literally leaves me in limbo land," says Key. "Nobody who is shooting a pilot will touch me.  The only thing I can do now is try to book guest star roles and be the best, most competent, kindest completely sane actor I can be in guest star roles.  So the people who hire me go, 'I want to work with that guy again.'"

If it doesn't go?  "What I'll have to do is run right back to the drawing board as soon as I can."

Right now, however, there's no "plan."

But if there is one thing that Key has experienced, it's that life doesn't work out according to a plan...and that's worked out pretty well for him so far.