James earned title of clown prince of pratfalls
Family-safe comedy ‘is the place where I want to live,’ says actor
When Kevin James says let’s get physical in a film, he’s referring to being silly, not having sex.
The playful posturing has been his standard operating procedure since he debuted as a just-folks standup comic at Long Island’s East Side Comedy Club back in 1989.
With a little help from his friends, James has managed to carve out a niche in the past couple of decades as the clown prince of pratfalls.
James even has his own minifranchise with the sequel to 2009’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop arriving in theatres.
Besides starring in the first Mall Cop, James co-wrote and co-produced the picture slammed by critics but embraced by fans, allowing the farce to pull in a respectable $183 million at the box office.
In Mall Cop 2, James returns as Paul Blart, the well-meaning but inept security guard who heads to a Las Vegas Security Guard Expo with his teen daughter (Raini Rodriguez).
At the convention, Blart stumbles into complex plans for a mega-Vegas heist, which is the cue for him to establish a perimeter and lock down the premises.
Trips, slips, crashes, flops and slides are among the many of the techniques James uses to attract laughs. Mall Cop fans will recall some of those slapstick movements from the first movie, which had more modest ambitions and locations.
And, like the previous effort, James co-wrote the script and coproduced the film with assistance from sidekick-as-mentor Adam Sandler, whose Happy Madison Productions got the Mall Cops made.
Familiar or not, Mall Cop 2 is family safe, and that’s where James finds his comedy comfort zone. “It’s the place where I want to live,” he says.
And it’s been like that from almost the beginning with his standup routines, which were more blue collar than blue.
His recurring role on buddy Ray Romano’s Everybody Loves Raymond led to the spinoff The King of Queens, which made James a household name from 1998 to 2007.
Patience paid off as he developed his movie career. He had a scenestealing role as the affable doofus in Will Smith’s 2005 social studies comedy Hitch.
A few years later, he made his first Sandler connection with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. “It was huge for me because it was the first time I was starring,” James says.
It also led to entry into Sandler’s lucrative club of making movies — and money.
James had parts in Sandler smashes Grown Ups and the sequel. Sandler also backed James’ Mall Cops flicks plus offered him creative and financial support for his other personal comedy projects Here Comes the Boom and Zookeeper.
Zookeeper director Franck Coraci, who directed Sandler in The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, describes the strength of James as a comic actor.
“He gives his fans what they want,” Coraci says, comparing him to Sandler. “Kevin completely understands his place in the comedy world and his brand of humour.”
James, like his buddy Sandler, encourages his cast mates to improvise. Best joke wins is his motto, whether it’s Zookeeper or the Mall Cop sequel.
Sandler even cajoled James into voicing Frankenstein by using a certain power of persuasion. “Yeah,” James says, “he has naked pictures of me outside a McDonald’s.”