Richard Kind Is Glad He’s Not Super Famous
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Happy New Year's Eve. Today we continue our retrospective featuring some of our favorite interviews from 2025. Though he's not often cast in leading roles, you'd likely recognize Richard Kind and his distinctive voice from his appearances in hundreds of movies and TV shows. Last month he was celebrated at the New York Comedy Festival benefit, appropriately titled Richard Kind Everywhere All at Once. In the series Only Murders in the Building, he was the neighbor Vince Fish, a.k.a. Stink-Eyed Joe, with the highly contagious case of pink eye. He played Larry David's cousin in Curb Your Enthusiasm, co-starred in Mad About You, was in the Michael J. Fox show Spin City, and earlier in his career was a cast member of the Carol Burnett show, Carol and Company.
In the Coen Brothers film A Serious Man, he was the deeply troubled brother. His youthful ambition was to be in a Stephen Sondheim musical. He's been in two. He starred in a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts, and in the musical Bounce, he originated the role of Addison Meisner and got to work with Sondheim. I interviewed Richard Kind in April. We began our conversation talking about his current role at the time on the Netflix series Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. Kind was the announcer on the show and also Mulaney's sidekick. Let's start with a clip from an episode of Everybody's Live. John Mulaney explains that Kind got hit on the head with a Kiss album, which left him with a traumatic brain injury, and now Kind thinks he is Gene Simmons.
He's dressed like Simmons, has hair like Simmons, and talks like him too.
Who is Richard Kind and what is his role in Everybody's Live?
After he says something vulgar to Mulaney, Mulaney starts to apologize to the audience.
Okay, so normally I'd apologize for such a crass comment.
Gentlemen, I crave ideas. And when an idea hits me, it grips me. And it tortures me. Until I master it.
Listen, Gene... I know you think you're Gene Simmons, man, but Richard, if you're in there somewhere, please, just give me a sign.
I didn't expect you to greet me with open arms, but I did expect open legs. All right.
Richard Kind, welcome to Fresh Air. I have to ask you, because this question is as much about me as it is about you. So when I interviewed Gene Simmons many years ago, he said to me, if you want to welcome me with open arms, you'll also have to welcome me with open legs.
I don't know anything about Gene Simmons. My reference about Gene Simmons is Kiss, seeing him with makeup, and then John sent me the very contentious interview you had with him. So I said, oh, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be that contentious, very, very, I don't want to say stoic, but he was not even somber, but he was still. And he just talks these awful things. He was awful to you. He was terrible.
I got a lot of mileage out of that, though.
Did you? Okay, well, a lot of time.
Yeah, I got a lot of attention.
Oh, good, good.
Yeah. Insulting me was actually doing me a favor.
Evidently. Don't expect it from me. I'm not that kind.
Okay, okay. Yeah. You're an actor, and you've been in so many things, but you're not a big celebrity. Everybody's seen you in at least one thing. So many people know who you are, but you're not famous in the way that your good friend George Clooney is famous. That is correct. And you've said you like it that way.
I didn't know I would like it that way because my brain, much less my career, has gone through different permutations over the years. When I was a kid, you know, a kid lies in bed and dreams of being center fielder for the Yankees or, you know, being an astronaut, being a rock star. I wanted to be a movie star. I wanted to be up on the big screen. The funny thing is, when I was angry at my parents, I wasn't going to write them a note that I'm running away. I was going to make a film and show it in the theater.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:52
2
Who is Richard Kind and what is his role in Everybody's Live?
1:52–4:46
3
What was Richard Kind's experience working with Stephen Sondheim?
4:46–11:59
4
How does Richard Kind feel about his level of fame?
11:59–12:57
5
What was Richard Kind's journey to becoming an actor?
12:57–16:33
6
How did Richard Kind's childhood influence his career?
16:33–20:53
7
What challenges does Richard Kind associate with celebrity life?
20:53–34:02
8
What insights does Richard Kind share about his acting philosophy?
34:02–46:17
Speakers
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