For Key And Peele, Biracial Roots Bestow Special Comedic 'Power'
This interview was originally broadcast on Nov. 20, 2013.
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are the duo behind the Comedy Central sketch comedy show Key & Peele. Each has a white mother and black father, and a lot of their comedy is about race: Perhaps because they're biracial, they're perfectly comfortable satirizing white people and African-Americans — as well as everybody else. The New Yorker's TV critic Emily Nussbaum describes their biracialism as a "Golden Ticket to themes rarely explored on television."
Peele tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "I think the reason both of us became actors is because we did a fair amount of code switching growing up, and still do."
Key and Peele met in Chicago, where they were part of the improv scene, and later worked together on the sketch comedy series MADtv. Their current show on Comedy Central wraps up its third season on Dec. 18, and has been renewed for a fourth.
Key and Peele tell Gross the stories behind some of their sketches, and their feelings about Saturday Night Live's lack of female African-American cast members.
Interview Highlights
On their Obama anger translator sketches (Editor's note: This link contains language some might find offensive.)
Key: We actually felt like Obama was kind of responsible for us even getting a show in the first place, because there's this biracial person who might have to ride the divide between two different races. ...
We know we're frustrated when a person like [Rep.] Joe Wilson had screamed during that State of the Union address, when he was like, "You lie!" to the president. And we were like, "The president can't react the way millions of Americans right now are going, 'Ugh!' He can't say anything. He can't rail at this man, he can't get upset. What if we had a surrogate who could get upset for him?" And that was the embryonic state of creating Luther [the anger translator].
Peele: The way we've described it before is that he couldn't come off like an angry black man, especially early on, so what Luther says are things that ring true to us, and we felt like we were giving the truth a voice in a lot of ways.
On Comedy Central censoring curse words on their show
Peele: Sometimes it feels like silly guidelines, that [there are] certain words you can't say. It's just a strange thing when you look at what the boundary of acceptable and not acceptable is on television. We shoot people in the head in just about every episode. We can't get away with saying certain words. There definitely seems to be an interesting double standard.
On names in the African-American culture
Key: There is this kind of an urban legend, everybody knows this legend in African-American lore: There's always somebody in your neighborhood named Orangejello or Lemonjello.
Peele: If we really dig deep into it, especially when talking about African-American culture, names have such a deep history, just from having our names taken away in the first place and being renamed. Now it feels like 80 percent of the African-American population has the name Washington or Jefferson, some president or slave owner's name. I almost wonder: Is this part of a way of taking back the principle of naming your kid something of your choice?
On being biracial
Key: I think the reason why I went into theater, ultimately, was because that was one of those multicultural groups. Because you identify with other people that share similar passions to you, so it didn't matter how much melanin was in their skin. It's just: You have a passion for theater, and ... I have a passion for theater. So that clan is born out of love and passion as opposed to some sense of obligation to belong to a certain group. So for me, that's what salvaged my life in high school.
Peele: I really do feel like, growing up, I was lucky enough to be in a great town and great schools that had a certain amount of diversity. All of this goes into our work.
On Peele feeling insecure about how he speaks
Peele: The world has wanted me to speak differently than I speak. I speak like my mom; I speak like the whitest white dude; I speak like a Def Comedy Jam comedian doing an impression of a white guy. ...
I even remember when I was a kid that every now and then you'd come up on somebody who would question how I spoke and whether or not I was trying to be something I wasn't. It cannot be a coincidence that I decided to go into a career where my whole purpose is altering the way I speak and experiencing these different characters and maybe proving in my soul that the way someone speaks has nothing to do with who they are.
On the controversy over Saturday Night Live's lack of African-American women, and cast member Kenan Thompson's comment that "in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready"
Peele: For Keegan and I, we know so many hilarious African-American women. We mostly [came] up through the sketch comedy and improv scene. Sketch and improv is a world that is dominated by white performers, that is true. But to say that there's not African-American women who are "ready" is just wrong.
Key: That question might've snuck up on Kenan [Thompson], and I think Kenan does a job on a show that has a very specific skill set. And so I think if that's the answer coming out of his mouth, I can understand that answer. ... But right now, I can think of three women who would murder on Saturday Night Live, either as writers or performers.
Peele: Keegan and my race has really played to our advantage in the improv/sketch world. It's also a bit of a special power. We can do characters that other people would feel uncomfortable doing. We can play black characters and explore the comedy of black characters. There's a whole world of characters and impressions that black women can do that other people — just on the social level, disregarding the practice and skill that goes into perfecting these things, but just on the social level — people would feel uncomfortable doing. They should hire some black women. Not a black woman — black women.
On the slave auction block sketch
Peele: [We had] the desire to use that powerful visual as a jumping off point, as something that is provocative and something that only Keegan and I could do. There was nobody else out there that could tackle this and create a sketch about an auction block. Now, I'm the kind of guy who, if somebody says, "There's no way to make this funny," I want to prove that wrong. I believe that with the right nuance, with the right touch, you can emphasize the funniness in anything. That's just my comedy ideal. ...
So how do you make this universally funny? How do you prove people wrong that this is not about laughing at slavery, this is not about laughing at the victims of slavery and what our ancestors had to go through? The answer to me was to make it about humanity, to make it about people, to make it about something universal, and also to point out the fact that Keegan and I, with this cushy life that we've grown up with in the late 20th century, we are not equipped for the physical and emotional fortitude to do what our ancestors did. For me, there's a certain amount of respect that I felt like we were observing by putting ourselves in that situation, by not "slaving it up" with our dialect but just using the way we talk. Really, that was the project: If we were in this situation, our vanity would come into play.
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Transcript
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli in for Terry Gross. We're determined to end the year laughing, so we're continuing our holiday week series with some of our most entertaining interviews of the year with a duo behind the "Comedy Central" series "Key & Peele," Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.
A lot of their comedy is about race. Perhaps, because they're biracial, they're perfectly comfortable satirizing white people and African-Americans as well as satirizing everybody else. Both Key and Peele have a white mother and a black father. The New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum describes their biracialism as a "Golden Ticket to themes rarely explored on television."
Key and Peele met when they were part of the improve scene. They worked together on the sketch comedy series "MADtv." Terry spoke with Key and Peele last month and started by playing what maybe their most famous sketch - which went viral on the Internet. It introduced the character of Luther, President Obama angered translator.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KEY & PEELE")
JORDAN PEELE: (As President Barack Obama) Good evening, my fellow Americans. Now, before I begin, I just want to say that I know a lot of people out there seem to think that I don't get angry. That's just not true. I get angry a lot. It's just the way I express passion is different from most. So just so there's no more confusion, we've hired Luther here to be my anger translator. Luther?
KEEGEN-MICHAEL KEY: (As Luther) Hi.
PEELE: (As Obama) First off, concerning the recent developments in the Middle Eastern region, I just want to reiterate our unflinching support for all people and their right to a democratic process.
KEY: (As Luther) Hey, all y'all dictators out there, keep messing around and see what happens, just see what happens, watch.
PEELE: (As Obama) Also, to the governments of Iran and North Korea, we once again urge you to discontinue your uranium enrichment program.
KEY: (As Luther) Hey, Mahmoud, Kim Jong, I think I done told both y'all 86 your (bleep), or I'm going to come over there and do it for y'all. Please test me and see what happens.
PEELE: (As Obama) On the domestic front, I just want to say to my critics, I hear your voices, and I'm aware of your concerns.
KEY: (As Luther) So maybe if you can chill the hell out for like a second, then maybe I can focus on some (bleep), you know.
PEELE: (As Obama) That goes for everybody, including members of the Tea Party.
KEY: (As Luther) Oh, don't even get me started on these (bleep) right here.
PEELE: (As Obama) I want to assure you that we will be looking for new compromises with the GOP in the months ahead.
KEY: (As Luther) And you know these (bleep) gonna say no before I even suggest (bleep).
PEELE: (As Obama) Now, I know a lot of folks say that I haven't done a good job at communicating my accomplishments to the public.
KEY: (As Luther) Because y'all (bleep) don't listen.
PEELE: (As Obama) Since being in office, we've created three million new jobs.
KEY: (As Luther) Three million new jobs.
PEELE: (As Obama) We ended the war in Iraq.
KEY: (As Luther) Ended the war, y'all. We ended a war, remember that?
PEELE: (As Obama) These achievements should serve as a reminder that I am on your side.
KEY: (As Luther) I am not a Muslim.
PEELE: (As Obama) And that my intentions as your president are coming from the right place.
(As Luther) They're coming from Hawaii, which is where I'm from, which is in the United States of America, y'all, OK? This is ridiculous. I have a birth certificate. I have a birth certificate. I have a hot diggity, daggity, mamase mamasa mamakusa birth certificate you dumb-ass crackers, so...
(As Obama) OK, Luther, rope it in.
KEY: (As Luther) Yeah, dial it back, Luther, damn.
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, welcome to FRESH AIR. Thank you so much for being here. So let's start with the sketch that we just heard. How did you come up with the idea for the Obama anger translator?
KEY: Well, we knew we wanted to do something with Obama because we actually felt that Obama was kind of responsible for us even getting a show in the first place because there is this biracial person who might, you know, have to ride the divide between two different races.
And we weren't sure exactly how we wanted to do it, but we kind of went through a bunch of ideas, and then we decided - Jordan has a really amazing Obama impersonation.
PEELE: Oh, thank you for saying that, Keegen.
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: And we know we're frustrated when a person like Joe Wilson had screamed during that State of the Union address, and he was like - you lie - to the president. And we were like, the president can't react the way millions of Americans right now are going - oh God, he can't say anything, he can't rail at this man, he can't get upset.
What if we had a surrogate who could get upset for him? And that was what - that's how we kind of - that was the embryonic stage of creating Luther, so that he'd have somebody who could translate him when he's having like an internal fit of pique, but could do it externally for him.
PEELE: This was also in the peak of the birther movement and things like that. So there were all these little issues that we felt were going unaddressed by Obama because I think, you know, the way we've described it before is that he couldn't come off like an angry black man, especially early on. So you know, what Luther says kind of is - are things that ring true to us, and we feel like, we felt like it was giving the truth a voice in a lot of ways.
KEY: Right. Yeah.
GROSS: So you use some obscenities in your sketches, and you're on Comedy Central, as is "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show." And they bleep those words on their shows. So how come you can say them and they can't?
KEY: Gosh, I feel like we are bleeped.
GROSS: Oh, you know what?
KEY: Yeah.
GROSS: I've heard some of it on the Internet, so maybe you're not bleeped on the Internet.
KEY: That's what it is, Terry, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we definitely get bleeped on the air.
GROSS: Oh, because I've heard some of it on TV and then catch up on the Internet. So I bet that's it.
PEELE: There have been a couple of episodes, I know at least one in the first season, where we got a TV-MA rating. So we could get away with saying some things that, you know, we felt like were essential to get the joke.
KEY: Yeah, like sometimes we talked to the network, we're like guys, in this particular episode, can we get a penis dispensation so that we can say this word?
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: So we can say that word or this word - it's like - so yeah.
PEELE: I think if we had our druthers, we would be unbleeped every episode.
KEY: Yeah, every episode, every sketch, yeah.
PEELE: But, you know, we do find it very interesting. I mean, the network enjoys the edginess of their programming and of our show, but then there's these kind of sometimes feel - you know, what feels like silly guidelines that - of certain words that you can't say. It's such a strange, strange thing when you look at what the boundary of acceptable and not acceptable is on television.
You know, we shoot people in the head in just about every episode...
KEY: Yup. Yup.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: You know, we can't get away with saying certain words.
KEY: Yeah.
GROSS: Jordan, when you met President Obama, which I know you did, did you get some insights into how to perform him?
PEELE: I would say so, yeah. I think I walked out of there a little bit more confident with my impression, and I actually did it for him at one point. He says, you know, I do a pretty good me myself, he said something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: But, you know, the - he's - he is a close talker. He's a touchy guy. Like he will...
KEY: He is a very tactile individual.
PEELE: He will touch you on the shoulder and, you know, kind of, you know, so that big brother or father figure kind of way. And you really do feel sort of shepherded by him. And he's very funny. So I think I - I think after meeting him I was inclined to turn up the - just the humor of him, that he has a sense of humor. And again, I think that is also something he, in the beginning of his presidency, he couldn't really explore and couldn't show.
You know, he had to be almost a one-dimensional, stoic leader during that first election.
GROSS: Are you going to bring out the anger translator to talk about Obama's anger at the Obamacare website?
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: Well yeah, I think we - that may happen, and we may - we're planning - we're cooking something up right now to do about the ACA. But otherwise, I think Luther is - I mean, I think Luther is raring to go. He's like (As Luther) who the hell - man, come on. Who doesn't want health care? Go ahead, break your leg then. You know what? Even better. I'm gonna come over there and break your leg for you.
PEELE: (As Obama) All right, Luther.
KEY: (As Luther) And then we'll see - OK, sorry, sir, I apologize sir.
PEELE: (As Obama) Keep it together.
KEY: (As Luther) People is crazy. People is stupid.
PEELE: (As Obama) People is crazy.
KEY: (As Luther) And I'm gonna say it right now, mostly white people, stupid. Young white men, 26, get your act together.
PEELE: (As Obama) All right, well, let's rope it in. Let's not make it racial. Let's not make anything racial, ever.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: That's fabulous.
PEELE: (AS Obama)
KEY: (As Luther) I apologize, sir. I apologize.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: My guests are Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, and together they're Key and Peele. They have their own sketch comedy show on Comedy Central. Let's take a short break here, then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: My guests are Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, and together they're Key and Peele. They have their own sketch comedy show on "Comedy Central," which is called "Key & Peele." A character you do, Keegan, that I really love is the substitute teacher.
KEY: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: And this is a teacher who's taught in an inner-city school for, like, 20 years, and now he's teaching in like a middle-class school that it's like somewhere at approximately 100 percent white.
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: That's right.
GROSS: And I want to play the first of these sketches that you did with the substitute teacher...
KEY: Sure.
GROSS: ...and then we'll talk about the character some more. But first, just like physically describe how you look in this sketch so we can get an image in our minds.
KEY: Well, I think what you're dealing with is a guy who has a real kind of military persona about him. He's very rigid and a little haggard yet still aggressive. He's got a really - his hairline is really far back. He's been balding probably since his 20s. And he has a very kind of tight - like a - this isn't the - the best way to describe is like a high and tight kind of moustache. So he looks like he might have been in the Army or something or an MP.
And he wears a short-sleeved, drab shirt and like a twill tie and just looks - he just looks all business, like he's ready to rumble.
GROSS: OK, so this is the substitute teacher, performed by my guest Keegan-Michael Key.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SKETCH)
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey(ph)) All right, listen up, y'all. I'm y'all's substitute teacher, Mr. Garvey. I taught school for 20 years in the inner city, so don't even think about messing with me. Y'all feel me? OK, let's take roll here. Jayquellen(ph)? Where's Jayquellen at? No Jayquellen here?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As Jacqueline) Do you mean Jacqueline?
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) OK, so that's how it's gonna be. Y'all wanna play. OK, then. I've got my eye on you, Jayquellen. Bellakay(ph)? Where is Bellakay at? There's no Bellakay here today? Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Blake) My name is Blake.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) Are you out of your damn mind? Blake? What? Do you want to go to war, Bellakay?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Blake) No.
KEY: Because we could go to war.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Blake) No, no.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) I'm for real. I'm for real. So you better check yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: That's really great. And...
KEY: I love it's Bellakey(ph), Bellakay, he's got two different pronunciations.
BIANCULLI: Jordan, do you want to describe how you end the sketch?
PEELE: And then yes, at - I believe Garvey says Jo-Nathan(ph), and then...
KEY: Is it Timothee(ph)?
PEELE: It's Timothee, yes, yes, yes. Maybe at one point it was Jo-Nathan, but...
KEY: It was Jo-Nathan at one point.
PEELE: But yes, he says Timothee, and then, you know, me the first black student we've seen, sort of emerges from behind a white student - Pre-sent. And then it's over.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: It's a pretty absurd little piece of heightening.
KEY: We went back and forth on pre-sent, too. We're like should he say - is that too silly?
PEELE: Is that too silly? Pre-sent.
KEY: Is pre-sent too silly?
PEELE: Nobody says pre-sent.
KEY: Everybody knows - but we just decided to go with it anyway. We had here, heray(ph), heree, pre-sent and just good old-fashioned present.
PEELE: But somehow it works.
KEY: Somehow it works, yeah.
GROSS: So when you were in school, did you have - were there a lot of students in your classes that had names that their parents had obviously creatively made up from scratch?
KEY: Oh yeah.
PEELE: Yeah.
KEY: Oh yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: Keegan's from Detroit, and I'm from New York, and...
KEY: So the answer to that question is yes.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: Yeah. I had...
GROSS: What were some of your real favorites, like of the real names?
KEY: There were literally in my neighborhood, there were two kids - now this is kind of an urban legend. Jordan and I both know this legend. Everybody knows this legend in kind of African-American lore. There's always somebody in your neighborhood named Orangejello or Lemonjello. And that's spelled - O-R-A-N-G-E-J-E-L-L-O.
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: So, you know, that's - and then...
PEELE: Right, which - I mean, if you really, you know, dig deep into it, you know, especially when talking about African-American culture...
KEY: Sure. Sure.
PEELE: ...it's got, you know, names have such a deep history, you know, just from being - having our names taken away in the first place.
KEY: Right, exactly, right.
PEELE: Since we were renamed, and, you know, now it feels like, you know, it feels like 80 percent of African-American population have, you know, has, you know, named Washington or Jefferson or some, you know, some president or slave owner's name. And, you know, I almost wonder is this, like, is this part of a way of taking back the principle of naming your - I might be going too far into this, but naming your kids something of your choice.
GROSS: We were talking about your substitute teacher character, Keegan, and I want to play another sketch with that substitute teacher, the guy who taught in an inner-city school for 20 years and now is in a middle-class, predominately white school teaching as a substitute.
And this sketch is really funny. It's the same group of students as we heard in the one where he's taking attendance and everybody has an - and he's mispronouncing everybody's names because he's used to unusual names. So this sketch starts with one of the students asking a question to the teacher.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SKETCH)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Aaron) Mr. Garvy?
KEEGAN MICHAEL KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) What is it, A-aron?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Aaron) Some of us need to leave a few minutes early today.
KEY: (Mr. Garvey) Oh, oh is that so? And what, pray tell, is the reason for this premature exodus?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Aaron) Yearbook photos. We have to leave 15 minutes early to meet up with our clubs.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) All right, you know what? That might work with other substitute teachers, but I taught in the inner city for over 20 years. Now y'all want to leave my class early so y'all can go meet up at the club. Ain't none of y'all old enough to go to the damn club, ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Aaron) Mr. Garvey?
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) Son of a bitch. Did I stut-t-t-t-ter?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (As Aaron) Just then? Yes.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) I'm gonna throw you out that damn window. What, Jayquellen?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As Jacqueline) Mr. Garvey, we're telling the truth. We have clubs at this school. We have clubs for special interests.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) Oh, OK. What the hell club are you in, Jayquellen?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As Jacqueline) Future Leaders of America.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) OK, OK. How would you know if you gonna be a leader in the future? Is there a stargate in your bedroom? Can you travel through time, Jayquellen?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As Jacqueline) No.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) Then sit the flip down.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: That's Keegan-Michael Key as a substitute teacher, and Jordan Peele, do you want to explain how you end the sketch?
PEELE: I believe Timothee raises his name, and Mr. Garvey says, you know, he calls on Timothee, you know, what club do you have to go. And Timothee says, you know, I've got to go pick up my daughter.
KEY: (As Mr. Garvey) You're excused.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: So I'm wondering, Keegan, did you model that on a teacher that you had?
KEY: Actually, he is modeled on a guidance counselor that I had in grade school. And I went to a predominately black grade school, Catholic grade school in Detroit, and so that kind of aggression came from this particular guidance counselor because, you know, we had really fantastic kids at my school and super-smart kids at my school and a lot of kind of roughhouse kids at my school.
And he was - it's that same energy, and Jordan really honed in on this energy when the sketch was being written, which was the one thing that never leaves him is he's always ever-vigilant. He's hyper-vigilant about the misbehaving. And, you know, there's lots of perhaps social underpinnings as to why he believes every student behaves that way, blah, blah, blah.
But yeah, he was based on this one guy who the attitude of him, the tone of him is based on this one guy.
GROSS: You both have white mothers, African-American fathers. Was it ever an issue of like which group you were going to fit into - if you're going to identify with the white students or the black students? Or were there groups within the schools you went to that were multicultural enough that you didn't have to worry about like choosing a team?
KEY: Yeah. For me the, I think the reason I went into theater, ultimately, was because that was one of those multicultural groups. Because you identify with other people that share similar passions to you, so it didn't matter how much melanin was in their skin. It's just that clan is born out of love and passion as opposed to born out of some sense of obligation to belong to a certain group. So for me, that's what salvaged my life, I think, in high school for the most part.
PEELE: Yeah. It's such a loaded question I think for both of us. But I really do feel like, growing up, you know, I was lucky enough to be in, you know, a great town and great schools that had a certain amount of diversity. And so, you know, this is all, all of this goes into our work.
And I think both, you know, like Keegan was saying, I think the reason both of us became actors is because we did, you know, a little, a fair amount of code switching growing up, and still do.
There is these identity questions and, you know, all I can say is my mother was very good in that she helped me feel like I was a special person, like I, you know, I didn't need to go any farther than, you know, who I was and what I liked in order to find my identity. But yeah, clearly there has been, you know, a huge imprint that it's made on my personality and my art and my craft.
And I think the most trying part it involves how I speak. That's always been the part that I felt most insecure about.
GROSS: What do you mean?
PEELE: Is that the world has wanted me to speak differently than I speak. You know, I speak like my mom; I speak like, you know, like the whitest white dude; I speak like a Def Comedy Jam comedian doing an impression of a white guy.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: That's how I've, you know, sort of grown up. And I even remember, you know, when I was a kid every now and then you'd come upon somebody who would sort of question how I spoke, whether or not I was trying to be something I wasn't. It cannot be a coincidence that I decided to go into this career where my whole purpose is sort of altering the way I speak and experiencing these different characters.
And I think maybe sort of proving in my soul that the way someone speaks has, you know, nothing to do with who they are. People have, you know, everybody has different accents, everyone has different affectations, everyone is still human. So yeah, I've always - I've been very lucky to have a family who, you know, has welcomed me and not been hung up on anything racial, almost, you know, overlooking the fact that there was a racial difference.
But I can honestly say I do feel like I missed out on some lessons from, you know, of what the African-American experience is like growing up. I - my father passed away in 1999. I knew him up until about six years old. I mean, I could've used some advice from my dad of, you know, how to deal with somebody who's accusing you of being shady in a store.
GROSS: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
PEELE: I would've liked to hear those things.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guests are Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and together they're "Key & Peele." Their sketch comedy show is on Comedy Central. Let's take a short break here, then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: My guests are Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele and together they're "Key & Peele." They have their own sketch comedy show on Comedy Central. Did both of you do a lot of, you know, characters or impressions when you first auditioned for "MadTV"?
KEY: I did more characters. I mean I had a lot of characters kind of in my bag from Second City.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
KEY: And so there were some characters that had been incubating at the Second City in Chicago. And so, you know, when you're at Second City, Chicago, kind of the unspoken thing is, is everybody is kind of - you're doing you work and your making your art and you're having a good time and it's really a kind of fertile time in your life.
But there's that thing in the back of your head that saying, boy, you know, "SNL" might come calling, or "MadTV" might come calling. And so you're kind of like, I would just catalog characters that I liked performing and that also that audiences seem to enjoy.
GROSS: Jordan, what's some of the characters you developed early on that you could tell us about?
PEELE: I was much more impression-driven in my audition. And one of my impressions was, I did Ja Rule. I did an impression of Ja Rule showing off his crib in "Cribs."
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: And then on the other, you know, I went all the way to the other side. I did an impression of John Malkovich ordering a pizza, which - in which he does not want any of the extra bells and whistles. I just want a pepperoni pizza, please.
(LAUGHTER)
KEY: Hit her with some Morgan.
PEELE: I did Morgan Freeman, of course. Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: Yeah. Yeah. I'm Morgan Freeman. I don't remember what the context was, you know, but as sure as the black dots all over my face, I did this impression. Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PEELE: I was part of this group called Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, where - and that's where I met Seth Meyers, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Sudeikis, some really amazing comedy performers. And we did sketch and improv there, in just a slightly different format than Keegan would've been doing at the Second City. But we had one short - what's called short-form improv game where the audience would shout out impressions, and then they would shout out locations.
And we would literally, just on the spot, whatever impression - celebrity they gave us and location, we would have to become that celebrity in that location. And so I think, in that process, you know, I demystified the art of the impression for myself. And, you know, I think it's something that a lot of people think is magic, but is, you know, just like anything else. You can learn to do it and get better at it.
GROSS: We are, I regret to say, out of time. It's been so much fun to talk with both of you. Thank you so much.
KEY: Oh, thank you, Terry.
PEELE: You, too. Thank you.
BIANCULLI: Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who star in the Comedy Central TV series "Key & Peele." They'll be back with new episodes in 2014. Their visit with Terry last month was one of our favorite interviews of the year. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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