Excrement, dude... Shane Jacobson in Kenny.
Kenny is the creation of actor Shane Jacobson, who won an AFI for his embodiment of a comic character both noble and hilarious.
Kenny is a cleaner and installer of portaloos at rock festivals and outdoor events. He works diligently and happily for Splash Down, an actual company who allowed the makers of this mockumentary access to all their events and excrement.
Kenny's stoic philosophies have won the hearts of Australian cinema goers and I thought it would be great to interview Jacobson about his success. But when I went to meet him, only Kenny arrived, in his overalls and blue company polo shirt. So in the end, I spoke to Kenny about fame and faeces in an interview full of toilet humour.
Iain Glenn is an actor I've long admired without him hitting the heights. I suppose he's best known for appearing on stage with Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room but he's much in evidence in cinemas now, in the gentle Irish comedy Small Engine Repair, in Resident Evil 3: Extinction, and in Mrs Radcliffe's Revolution, with Catherine Tate. It's a poor film but Iain's very good in it, as a committed 1960s socialist bent on teaching in East Germany. He's a lovely bloke, too.
My last interview is Jeffrey Blitz, director of that great spelling bee doc Spellbound. For his first fiction film, he turns on ferocious high school debating competitions and the story of Hal, a boy with a stammer confronting his demons through public speaking. It's a lovely indie film, maybe too quirky for some, but I think it's very funny and sweet. It's heavily autobiographical too, if you listen to Blitz.
Happy listening and viewing - and when you go to the loo in the cinema, think of people like Kenny.
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