By Evan Watkins
Comedy is a fickle market. What was funny even three years ago (Will Ferrell) can be so popularly bashed that it would seem as if we weren’t all, and still do, quote “Anchorman” endlessly. With every month that passes, the appetite for newer forms of comedy has quickened to such a speed that everywhere you look there’s another imitation of an imitation. Then I looked at some short films by a comedian named Scott Prendergast. I could see instantly his method was not to pander to the masses, but rather stay honest to his own vision. The closest thing I could compare his work to is some of Buster Keaton’s short films, but with more bizarre premises. Recently, Prendergast has branched out into feature filmmaking, and his film “Kabluey” will be playing at the Savannah Film Festival this year. But it was no easy road for this comic wunderkind.
Ten years ago, Prendergast, an alumnus of the Groundlings Improv troupe, was living in New York and writing for Celebrity Deathmatch (wow, flashback). But deep inside of him was a burning desire to do something more; he wanted to become a filmmaker. So, at the age of thirty two, he threw away the comfort of steady writing and acting work to move home with his parents in Oregon and focus on his career shift, a period that he recalls: “Even though it was the worst time in my life, it was also the best time of my life, because I lost everything. I spent every penny I had. I lost my relationship, all my friends in New York. I lost my apartment in New York and I gave up everything. It was like the Phoenix – I had to die and then recreate myself.”
The risk of self-realization was not met with complete acceptance by those close to him.
“Everyone I knew, including my parents, were like ‘you are f****** insane; this is never going to work,” Prendergast exclaimed. Fortunately for him, he ignored the skepticism and worked on his feature screenplay every morning at the local library. Eventually, that elusive flash of light that inspires so few artists in that magic moment of inspiration gave birth to the idea for “Kabluey,” a concept that Prendergast instantly latched onto. “I had been struggling to write a screenplay for three or four years, and I saw that this one was going to work. And I totally re-directed my life, I was like, ‘I’m going to get this movie made.’”
“Kabluey” is about a man named Salman (Scott Prendergast) who visits his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) to help raise her two delinquent children nephews while his brother (Jeffery Dean Morgan) is serving in Iraq. In order to help make ends meet, Salman takes a job as a corporate mascot, for which he has to don a cumbersome blue suit, which is where I suppose the title comes from. The plot line itself doesn’t scream comedy, which can only lead me to believe that this film has more to offer than the run of the mill, youth based comedies of recent years.
Still, a great script doesn’t give a virtual unknown the power to direct and act in a film, but somehow Prendergast achieved this rare status. He reveals, “I think it was because I said I want to make a movie for under a million dollars; they were willing to take a chance on it. I wanted to start small.” But, as luck would have it, the little-screenplay-that-could found its way to the desk of Lisa Kudrow, who saw it as a passion project. Once her name was on board, other well-known actors such as Chris Parnell, Teri Garr and Christine Taylor signed on as well.
“Kabluey” will be premiering this Halloween at the Savannah Film Festival, and it will be the first time I get to see it. If it’s anything like the short films I’ve already viewed online, I expect to revel in Prendergast’s undeniably awkward humor. “A friend of mine told me my movies are the cinema of discomfort,” Prendergast mused during our lengthy conversation. His humor mirrors an underlying social trend that is at once new in the realm of media, yet has always been with us as human beings. Humor is pain, but not in a slapstick sense. Rather, in the way that a nebulous silence can be as funny as a punch line to a joke. Like Woody Allen, Prendergast mines serious issues for comedic results, and the great thing about Woody Allen is that he’s got longevity. Dare I say, so does Scott Prendergast? Only time will tell, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his name becomes very pertinent in the coming years.
Images courtsey of Whitewater Films.
