A quickie with... Kayvan Novak
How did this show come about?
About three years ago, I was watching Bill O’reilly on Fox News and I thought, “This guy’s a pranker.” He was winding his guests up and then saying, “Get off my show!” So I wanted to play someone like him. I also really wanted to take what I’ve always done with the characterdriven pranks, but do it with a more topical edge.
It is topical, but it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to be satirical…
It was never about wanting to parody Fox News in a slavish way. Chris Morris did that way back with The Day Today , which was brilliant and I’m not gonna f**k with that. But what I thought I could do was have this anchorman who might be f**king with people, and also play new characters who come naturally from inside me to look at certain themes and topics. It’s not about really specific news topics, but broader ones.
You do mention Donald Trump, though…
Yes – everyone’s obsessed with him. We didn’t want to do too much on him and have too many obvious Trump gags, but we did think it would be funny to have him texting in the middle of the show. It’s more of a nod to him to help it feel fresh, and then we can just get on with the pranks.
How do you go about finding real people to prank?
Well, take the bit we do where we get young people to work for the government to decode sex tapes, where I play the older spy kind of character who’s trying to lure them in. So, we got the researchers to call a youth club to set up a room to wind up some young guys, basically, and they were so good. I think they had a good time!