Transcript of Interview with Keith Cole for The Cable Project, November 22 2004

Conducted by Louis Marrone for The Cable Project

So, if you want, you can hold it. You want me to hold it?

Is that okay? Hello.

Just kind of keep maybe like that far away. Just going to give you pops and stuff. And then you just tell me who you are and a bit of your background in the arts realm.

Okay. I'm Keith Cole and I'm an artist, drag queen and performer. And I guess, I don't know, I've been doing this for many, many, many years, 20 years now.

How does an old media fit into your...

Pretty much everything. Like my background is in dance and theater and then also and then maybe later in my like mid-twenties film became sort of a big part of my world but really I was like trained as a dancer as a kid then I went to theater at York University and then to graduate there was only one way I can graduate and that was to do a huge project of theater dance and film and so I did that and then I sort of fell in love with all three and trying to put all three together as like a performance.

So can you give me an example of sort of a later, or maybe your latest piece that would involve some multimedia aspects?

I guess the latest piece I did was this piece called Sunflower, and it's a dance piece that is now a film called Sunflower. So it was me dancing around this huge sunflower outfit, and it was shot on Super 8, and we blew it up to 16, and now it's this little beautiful seven minute film that's like going around the world.

Would you say that modern television and commercial television, popular television, on media has a larger influence on your work?

I think so. Now with the cable. Because before I just had rabbit ears and so I would get maybe seven, eight channels and not that clear. And then as soon as the cable, it's like a whole other world. It's just like, I've just like before, I'm a tap dancer as well. And so before I would go to my tap classes and I would get, I would watch Newlyweds and then I would watch, what was it right after it? Oh, that Paris Hilton and Nikki in Simple Life. So I watched Newlyweds, then Simple Life, and then I would have 10 minutes to get to my tap class. And that sort of was my way through. I loved those shows, and I would go and tap the night away at my tap class.

So you watch ...

I sort of have a rule with myself that I don't allow myself to watch TV during the day. Rarely, rarely, rarely. When I didn't have cable, I think maybe once or twice. I rarely watch TV in the day because I would just take my whole, like I watch like all those kind of shows and now that I have cable I have to really like make sure I don't watch TV because I'll just like waste my day.

So you keep the same rules?

I do keep the same rules, yeah. So would you say you end up watching about the same amount of TV or more now? Well more now, like especially late at night. The thing I have to do now, excuse me, is I have to finish everything I have to do before I turn the TV on because if I don't, I'm doomed. Like I won't move. I'll just sit there and flick and flick and flick and watch and watch. And then before I know it, it'll just be like, oh man. So I do have to do everything that I'm supposed to do in a day and then when I'm done, I can turn the TV on because if I don't, I won't get up. And I'll just be like four o'clock in the morning staring at it still.

And do you have your favorite shows?

Yeah. now that I have this cable. All the court shows, like Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, People's Court, Divorce Court, Friend Court, Singles Court, Texas Justice, Celebrity Justice, like any court show I'm like totally hooked on. Judge Maybelline, whatever she is. And E! True Hollywood Stories, I love. And then also just to keep up in like the, you know, pop music world, like videos. So it's like much music, much more music. What's the other one? VH1 stuff, like all that kind of stuff. Like just trying to keep up on like, you know, Britney Spears' new movie or new video and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, like all those kind of shows. Before it was just like, you know, TVO and WNED, like all the public broadcasters, you know, it was like all educational stuff. Now it's junk.

How is it, or if it has yet, or ever will, how has it influenced you in your daily life or your interaction with friends?

Certainly like I don't need to go out as much. Ha ha ha. And I'm more than happy just to watch TV. Like I am, it's, it's, I just sit there and I have like 71 channels now. Like all of a sudden I'm just so happy. And it comes in, everything comes in clear. And it's just, and also these home and garden, like all those renovation shows and all that kind of stuff. I'm finding just mesmerizing. I'm just like, wow, look at all those things. Like I would never, I'm not a handy person at all. And like there's all that kind of stuff that gay people were supposed to get, like good fashion and, you know, home design and, you know, I never got any of those genes. So, but I just watched these shows and I'm like, wow. Like, you know, look what they did with that couch. and I'm blown away by all those renovation shows and not so much a big reality TV person. I'm not like, you know, like survivor and all that kind of stuff. I never really got into that, but certainly like those home and garden shows and I'm just like whoa, reno shows and all that stuff.

So if you step back and see yourself are you a little afraid of what's happening here with the TV or do you?

Totally. Because I'm just, I cannot believe that how easy it is for me to get hooked on it. Like I'm just watching and I just like flick And before I know it, it's like four in the morning. Kind of like the other night I was watching all these TV shows and then just like, my eyes were killing me. I was like, what the fuck time is it? And I was like, it's like four AM. I must have been on the couch for four hours just watching absolutely nothing and yet everything.

And what about your performance art? Do you think that it has potential to or that it might be already influencing what you might do?

Like and certainly like with like fashion and like just seeing like what people are wearing and stuff like that. And then it's also like watching these home rental shows. is like the joy of a glue gun and stuff like just like what they can do with a glue gun. I'm like, I'm going to get a glue gun. Like it's amazing. But the only thing is like I rehearse a lot on my own and I have, like I can rehearse here in my apartment a little bit and I have rehearsal space somewhere in the building and I have to like rehearse on my own before. If I don't, if I, oh, just watch an hour of TV, then I'll go rehearse. It won't happen. So because I rehearse alone, like there's nobody with me. I have to force myself not to watch TV because I have a VCR and a DVD player But I rarely rarely ever watch anything on that. It's just now that I have the the cable I Find it for me is like detrimental But I mean I'm loving it now for whatever six eight months, but I won't miss it I don't think I don't know because I'm just I just it is getting in the way of me getting shit done

You'll milk it for as long as you want.

Oh, yes. Every ounce of excitement. And then if only I want to leave, sadly it leaves, but I'm not like addicted to it yet. And I'm sort of catching up on everything. And then what I'll do is like maybe in two years catch up again. But right now I'm sort of like just trying to catch up on what everybody's doing.

Can you describe to me the process by which you came to the involved in the project?

Basically, I got a call from Timothy Comeau and he just said he wanted to offer. Actually, Andrew Harwood called me first and he said, oh, this guy named Timothy Comeau is going to be calling you about free cable. And I thought, oh, what the hell's that? Andrew Harwood, because you're crazy. And then Timothy called me shortly thereafter and he sort of told me a little bit about the free cable thing And I thought, that's fine, as long as I don't really have to do anything or pay anything or whatever. And then it sort of, I think it was months ago that he asked me about it. And then it took like four or five months for it to actually get connected and stuff like that. By the time Timothy said, okay, I'll be here tomorrow and just be home between noon and two.

Excellent. And... Yeah, I think, you know, I can be covered back down and all that.

I love it, I'm happy with it, but I'm also just, it is like, It can just, it could just like take, I mean it's not even, it's so nice out right now too, so it's not like, even if it was like crappy, crappy weather it'd be just like watching it even more, but.

What were your thoughts on the actual project itself in terms of its significant service value other than the fact that you were getting pre-cable?

I think it's a great idea and just, I mean, I, and what you're doing too is like sort of documenting it, but I, you know, hopefully he will somehow put put something together with all like I don't know what his Timothy's long-term goal is but I mean if part of the thing is like does TV affect your life it certainly does and the biggest way it affects me and I don't know about the other people is just like sucking away my time I really feel it just like and if I don't shut the thing off I'll just be like trapped just trapped but you know It's just and I yeah, so hopefully I don't know if other people you know gotten from it like he certainly there's ideas and inspirations and stuff like that but but And like you know certainly fashion and you know stuff like that But there's not really any nothing really like you know in the world realm of filmmaking or anything like that Is it like I like that shot or isn't that interesting or I'm gonna copy that like there's nothing like that There's a lot of bad TV like Unbelievable. The other thing I noticed too, I'll say this, is that if you have a hit show, like say for example like Friends, like it has to be, like now I kind of get that concept, like it has to be that incredibly massive because there is so much TV. And so if your show, whatever show it is, can be at the top of the list for five or six years, whatever. Like that's amazing because there is so much TV and I'm never one of those people that's like, oh Thursday night I watched this, this, this, this. I mean, I don't know when certain shows are on. If I stumble across Sex in the City or something like that, it's like, oh great, Sex in the City is on. But I never know when it's actually on. If somebody said, oh what time is it on, I was like, I'm not really sure. Or what channel it's on either, I have no idea. I just sort of find things by clicking through it fast. So that's the other thing I learned too, is if you have a hit TV show, because there's so much TV, it's unbelievable. So it must be pretty fucking massive for those like real hit shows to get your way to the very, very top. So that's another, that's a little thing I learned too. And I think, yeah, that's fine, but I'm loving it, but I won't be sad to see it go. And I'm glad Timothy's paying for it, and I don't even have to see a bill, because I don't know how much it's costing. Like I have no, I don't know if it's 70 bucks a month or 20 bucks a month, I have no idea how much it is. So, but yeah, I'm happy with it.