HIS GUARD IS UP
Kevin James returns in ‘Mall Cop 2’
THE FORMER King of Queens is a man of the people. Kevin James — who stars in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” out Friday — can’t walk into a shopping center without being hailed as a hero by real-life security guards.
“I’m like their Rocky,” James, 49, tells the Daily News about the shout-outs he gets since starring in the hit comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” in 2009.
“For me, it’s all about connecting with the everyday guy.”
And at a time when movie theaters are dominated by raunchy, R-rated Will Ferrell and Seth Rogen movies, the comic actor’s quite happy to serve up family-friendly comfort food.
“I have four kids, I just had a fourth (daughter Sistine Sibella, born in January), so it’s very important to me to give them a movie to go see, where I can feel comfortable sitting next to this child, not cringing,” says James, who’s been vocal about his Christian values over the years.
“I’m quickly reaching for the remote to change channels,” he adds. “I want to give families something to have fun with.”
His latest PG-rated entry, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” finds the titular security guard headed to Las Vegas with his daughter (Raini Rodriguez) for a convention and a well-deserved vacation.
It’s not a spoiler to reveal that things don’t go as planned when he stumbles on a criminal (Neal McDonough), who’s set to strike the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.
Paul Blart isn’t a conventional looking hero. “You can go out and cheer for a Daniel Craig and I get it, I do,” James says of the actor with a license to be James Bond. “But he’s afraid of carbs and my guy isn’t. My guy is more of the everyman.”
The formula sells tickets: the first “Mall Cop” grossed $183 million at the box office.
Don’t expect the type of seedy Vegas escapades seen in “The Hangover” — like marrying a stripper or doing cocaine with Carrot Top.
But the accessibility of James’ work has some advantages: hotel magnate Steve Wynn offered up his Wynn Las Vegas resort for the movie, the first allowed to film there, because he was a fan of the first “Mall Cop.”
“He was like, ‘I want to kind of show a different side of Vegas,’” James recalls.
“He said, ‘And I love that you’re doing a family movie. I would love to host the second one here.’”
James is the first to admit that his material is not as edgy as that of other comics like Trevor Noah, the upcoming host of “The Daily Show,” whose tweets sparked criticism that his jokes were offensive to Jews.
Long Island-born James sticks to picking on one target guaranteed not to be offended — himself.
“I come from a more self-deprecating school of humor,” he says. “Not to say I don’t laugh at cynical comedians, but for me, I get tired of that and it gets a little too much for me.”
James — who plays the President in the animated romp “Pixels,” out in July — even avoids giving a polarizing answer when asked what he’d do as President. His answer: fund the spread of New York pizza across the country, an initiative that would surely gar ner bipartisan suppor t.
“When I started in standup, I was always clean, and it was easy for me,” James says of his humble beginnings following in his older brother Gary Valentine’s footsteps. “Because all standup comics always said, ‘You always had to have a crappy childhood’ ... I had a really good upbringing, so I had to draw my comedy from Little League and things like that.”
He still remembers his first joke in front of a live crowd, back when he was living with his parents on Long Island and his humor was as close to raunchy as he’ll ever get:
“I said, ‘My parents went away for the weekend, they went to Florida,’” he recalls, slipping into a standup delivery. “‘I know what you’re thinking: I’m going to have big parties, women over and beer.’
“‘But you know what I did? I took a crap with the door open.
That was the big thing for me. I’ve never seen the hallway from that angle before.’”
It was a shrewd career move for James to come up with clean material that could be aired on television. His blue-collar sensibilities took him from “Star Search” to visits to “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” to a nineyear run on his own sitcom, “The King of Queens” (1998 to 2007).
And now — after spending eight years off the small screen building a movie career — he just inked a major new deal with Sony Television to produce TV projects, including headlining a new sitcom.
James says the premise hasn’t been decided just yet.
“I know this much: I know we’re shooting it in New York, which I’m thrilled about,” he says. “If it’s not happening in New York, it’s not happening. I’m coming back there (from Los Angeles).”
The West Coast has been good for James — it’s where “King of Queens” was actually shot and it’s where he met his wife, Steffiana de la Cruz — but he can’t eat another one of those cardboard slivers they call New York pizza.
James also knows he’ll be playing some variation of the blue-collar bumbler he gravitates towards. “I’m never going to play a billionaire who runs a major company,” says James. “Most of my goofier characters — they’re all degrees of the characters that I play.”
Even his plans to celebrate his milestone 50th birthday on April 26 are PG-rated. He sighs that he won’t be returning to Vegas to party. “Celebrating Vegas-style?” he ponders.
“Let me try to put it in perspective. Yeah, maybe I won’t have my shirt on, but I’ll have four kids climbing all over me.
“There will be throwing up just like Vegas ... but at least when you wake up, you’re not as hung-over.”