Jamie Kennedy’s Blowin’ Up

Posted by James Schu (jgs210@psu.edu) on December 19, 2006

Jamie Kennedy took the road less traveled to celebrity status. As a struggling actor in Hollywood, he used his talent for creating eclectically interesting personas to pose as his own “agent” to finally get meetings with real agents. So when Kennedy’s childhood passion to become a rapper stalled, he once again pursued an unconventional route to success, this time testing the hip-hop waters–quite a stretch for a 36-year-old white comedian touting a novelty/comedy rap album. His attempts to promote his music resulted in Jamie Kennedy’s Blowin’ Up, the short-lived MTV reality series recently released on a 2-disc DVD, which documents Kennedy’s quest to be taken seriously in hip-hop circles and ultimately land a deal with a record label. Kennedy is clearly a true hip-hop head (he nearly cries when Darryl McDaniels, the latter half of Run-DMC, gives him his trademark hat), but his comedy background unfortunately weakens any credibility he might have. Along for the ride is Stu Stone, Jamie’s friend (and mooch) who plays the sidekick role with likable charm. Constantly nagging Jamie to ditch acting and pursue rap full-time, Stone himself has sufficient talent to earn props from Ice-T, among others.

Blowin’ Up’s 7-episode stint is structured around the various misadventures of the duo, who had already shopped an LP around to several labels before filming began. While the merits of the album it promotes are largely questionable (despite guest spots from E-40 and Paul Wall), Blowin’ Up, taken purely as a comedy/reality series, is very funny. Kennedy hilariously quips, “Federline’s on the red carpet? He should be selling it by square footage.” Rapping with a Houston mattress mogul, auditioning booty girls with Kennedy’s elderly mother, getting fitted for blinged-out grills, and simply the concept of “Rollin’ With Saget” elicit genuine humor: it’s fun to watch these two guys act ridiculous together. The chemistry between bickering best friends Kennedy and Stone is undeniable, and their love-hate relationship is good for some true belly laughs. Jamie, who’s already “made it” in Hollywood, never misses an opportunity to dump on Stone, a part-time cartoon voice-actor who has a history of losing gigs to Jonathan Lipnicki. Stone, in turn, repeatedly brings up Kennedy’s involvement in the criminally bad Son of the Mask (currently a 2.0 rating on Imdb).

Cameos range from hip-hop heavyweights (Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, the RZA, Bow Wow, Russell Simmons, and Mike Jones, to name a few) to Hollywood stars (Jason Biggs, Tara Reid) to the unexpected (George Lucas is in Jamie & Stu’s first video). And, of course, there’s Bob Saget, who steals the show in his recurring appearances, going so far as to flirt with Kennedy’s mother.

What’s unique about Blowin’ Up is that there’s no pretense in the fact that its entire concept revolves around unabashed self-promotion. From the start, the whole point is to create buzz about Jamie & Stu’s music project. The stunts (like an incident involving Jessica Simpson’s lost virginity ring, or a staged paparazzi shoot with an unsuspecting Mena Suvari) are real attempts to gain publicity, not created for the sake of the show. Kennedy’s no stranger to hidden-camera antics (you may recall The Jamie Kennedy Experiment from a few years back), and Blowin’ Up uses the technique less to sustain a tenuous narrative structure and more to get Jamie’s name–and music–in the tabloids. The only thing that feels contrived about Blowin’ Up is reducing entire months’ worth of footage into self-contained half-hour segments. Even so, it’s good for a lot of laughs. Even if the music sucks.

Blowin’ Up’s special features disc is highlighted by a truly candid feature commentary with Jamie & Stu and producer George Verschoor. Aside from the consistently funny bickering between the two stars, the commentary offers unique insight about Hollywood circles from an insider’s perspective. For example, Jamie doesn’t hang out with Saget if he knows the “Pie Crew”–Biggs, Seann William Scott (whom he actually refers to simply as “Stiffler”)–is going to be there. Also included are a slightly forced infomercial-spoof for the duo’s CD and all of the online bonus material offered on MTV Overdrive. And, as expected when you whittle several months’ worth of footage down to less than three hours’ worth of actual show, there’s an epic amount of deleted scenes. Though sometimes not even forty seconds long, each serves as its own extra joke.

The Upside: It’s just funny. Maybe a bit ridiculous, but funny. Hip-hop heads will appreciate the way their favorite artists’ moral support for Jamie & Stu reflect their true love for the genre, even when the odds are against them.

The Downside: It does get a bit hard to take Jamie Kennedy seriously, and the subsequent ambiguity over his intentions is frustrating. Ultimately, he’s for real, but you may have to delve into the commentary to realize that. The music is a little too Weird Al-gimmicky to like.

On the Side: Stone’s voice credits include The Magic School Bus and Babar.

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