kemp2Comtra Theatre

Young Frankenstein

directed by Robert Hockenberry

January 18 through February 2, 2013

Role - Inspector Kemp

Mel Brook's hilarious movie came to the Comtra stage for the first show of the 2013 season. I had the pleasure to play Transylvania's Chief Inspector, Kemp. The role required a ridiculous German accent (despite the fact that he's obviously a native Transylvanian) and some very odd physical comedy. Kemp had lost his right leg and left hand to the previous Frankenstein's monster and was all the more suspicious for it.

I hobbled about the stage spouting mostly unintelligible nonsense. My favorite line - "Ve must make damned sure ve are certain before acting. Ve must make sure he is following in his Grandfodder's footschteps."

kempI had a lot of fun with this role. Kemp has a solo ("He's Loose!") and is the fifth in the Babershop Quartet ("Welcome to Transylvania") and is Frederick's main antagonist.

The hardest part about this role wasn't the accent or losing my hand a couple of times but the eye patch. It really killed my night vision and getting off the stage between scenes was challenging. I walked into quite a few things.