Two-Bite Interview: Ken Marino, "Reaper"'s (remaining) gay demon

(Photo: Getty Images) 

Hey, know any gay demons? We do. At least, we know the straight actor who plays a gay demon on Reaper. The supernatural comedy has its big wham-bam finale tonight, as a group of angels tossed out of heaven try to overthrow Satan, led by Tony, a gay demon whose husband was killed in a foiled revolt a few weeks back.

Will Tony survive tonight's demonic siege? Well, we have no idea. But we took the opportunity to speak with actor Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, comedy troupe The State) about playing gay, playing a demon, and how straight comedians can do gay comedy right.

AfterElton.com: What was your reaction when you got the script?
Ken Marino: It was really nice because Michael Ian Black who plays Steve, my partner, is an old friend of mine. We were in a sketch comedy group in the 90s together on TV. And we’ve been friends ever since and we’ve worked together on and off, here and there, so he had the part of Steve. I think basically it was he got to choose which part he wanted to play and then I got the other part because I think he got the offer first. And it just turned out that he picked Steve and I got Tony.

AE: Did you know he was up for the other part?
KM: Oh, yeah. We had the same manager so I knew he was doing it and then they were working on me getting to, not go in, but working on an offer for me. So when I had seen what the part was, I was like perfect, awesome, great. And I couldn’t think of a better person to do it with than Mike because I knew we were going to have a good time just kind of playing off of each other.

AE: What made you react so positively to the part?
KM: It’s just a fun part. It was a fun, interesting part. I had played, just finished doing another show on CW, playing a recurring part on that show called Veronica Mars ... I had a fun part to play on that and I know they were going to bring me back and, but I always looked forward to doing it because they always gave me fun lines and fun stuff to do and the same holds true with this character and this part. I read it and I’m like, wow, this is great. I get to do that? Wow, that’ll be fun. So, yeah, I was excited when I read it.

AE: So, I assume you are not a demon in real life?
KM: I am not a demon in real life and I am straight in real life. But I’m a gay demon on TV and that’s something I can be proud of.

AE: Did you talk with any of your demon friends about their experiences growing up as demons or advice as how to play a demon?
KM: I see what you’re getting at. I have a number of demon friends and I asked for their blessing and they said, sure – go ahead. No, I just play the fun parts and I enjoy playing the fun parts.

Ken discusses Wet Hot American Summer, prison rape, and more after the break...

AE: How did you and Michael Ian Black approach the characters? Did you spend much time talking about their relationship, what they’d be like, who’d be which personality, or did you just go with the part?
KM: I think we just went in there and went with the part. I think we just kind of fell into it. Michael played it a certain way and I had my way of playing it and I think we kind of came off as a natural kind of couple. Michael and I have known each other so long that when we do get together, we are kind of like a couple.

AE: You’ve been involved in some projects that had some really interesting takes on gay characters, such as Wet Hot American Summer, which was really gay friendly, and The State addressed gay issues in some fun ways – 
KM: The Jew, the Italian and the Red-headed gay?

AE: Yes, exactly. I’m curious how you think about gay issues, when it comes to writing this stuff. If you think about them differently at all from some other sort of comedy. Are you sort of aware of the way that gay humor has been treated in the past, or do you just write what you think is funny?
KM: I think it’s more that we write what we think is funny, or that I certainly do. As comedy writers, I know the group has always been aware of the clichés of certain things and to, and we like kind of playing with the cliché breaking away from it, going in a different direction to get a comment on the actual cliché, or . . . but I think that basically we write what we think is funny. I don’t feel like we’ve ever had a mean sense of humor. Going back to the State days and up until now, I don’t think our humor comes from being mean about things, so maybe that’s the root of where this stuff comes from. You know, we tend to write what we think is funny.

AE: The Ten [which Marino also co-wrote] included a really unusual scene with yourself and Rob Corddry, the whole prison rape romance. How did that come about and when you wrote that, what was your thinking and what was going on there?
KM: Well, Dave [Wain] and I were writing ten short stories and they were all inspired by a commandment and Covet thy Neighbor’s Wife, we were trying to think up an angle that was maybe a little different than what you would think would be the covet thy neighbor’s wife story. And I think I said what if it were prison inmates and it’s somebody’s bitch and blah, blah, blah, but treat it like it’s a Dawson’s Creek episode or something like that where it’s a little melodramatic and it’s very sincere, it’s very genuine.

Actually the whole movie we tried to shoot as genuine and sincere as possible because the dialogue and the situations were so absurd. So that’s what we tried to do in that and of course we tried to shoot everything real like the “lovemaking” scene at the end which wasn’t necessarily your typical lovemaking scene, but they weren’t typical characters either, so. We just kind of approached it like that.

AE: Last question. If the show comes back for a second season and you get to come back, who would you like to see your character fall in love with next, assuming your partner in fact is dead and gone?
KM: Well, maybe the winner of Project Runway because he’s fierce?

AE: Now that’s a good answer.