An Interview with ESPN SportsCenter Host Kenny Mayne

Kenny Mayne -- known for his offbeat style, dry humor, and unique home run calls ("I am amused by the simplicity of this game!") -- is a SportCenter anchor.

Mayne joined ESPN2 in May 1994 as a SportSmash anchor, providing five-minute score and news reports every half-hour, and as a feature reporter for SportsNight. From September 1995 to August 1997, he served as the original host of ESPN2's weekend auto racing news and highlights programs, Sunday morning's RPM 2Day and RPM 2Night on Saturday and Sunday. He also occasionally anchored SportsCenter.

Prior to joining ESPN, Mayne had served as a freelance reporter and field producer for the network from 1990-1994. "During that time," Mayne says, "I only pursued one full-time television job. ESPN. I had the ESPN 800-number and called all the time with story ideas. I guess they finally decided it was less expensive to hire me than to keep paying for my phone calls."

NICK: First of all, I want to welcome you as my inaugural nickbakay.com interview.

KENNY: It is a high honor.

   
NICK: Feelings, reactions, emotions?

KENNY: Well, I'm a big fan of yours. We're both gonna just stroke each other through this whole thing.

   
NICK: Absolutely.

KENNY: I'm in soft. That's a horse racing term.

   
NICK: I should start by congratulating on your new gig, hosting the upcoming game show, ESPN's 2 MINUTE DRILL. Are you ready to be a quizmaster?

KENNY: I think so. I watch a lot of Jeopardy. I always bet it all on the Daily Double. Sometimes I bet more than I have. I've watched a lot of $10,000 Pyramid in my day. As a child, I played my share of Twenty Questions on car trips, so that makes me pretty qualified.

NICK: When will it be on?

KENNY: This fall, on Mondays between Sportscenter and the MNF preview. It should be fun -- rapid fire sports questions. The show is created by the guy who created Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- Michael Davies. It's actually based on his interview drill to get into a college in England. He has a thick English accent, so I haven't understood a word he's said to me, but I did get a written note saying I'd be involved.

   
NICK: I think this will be great for you.

KENNY: It's something new and fresh. Panelists from the world of sports fire questions, and we'll take the winners from each night and build to a championship round.

   
NICK: I guess this qualifies as the first scoop for the website. Now, I'm just gonna throw some questions at you, just give me whatever comes off the top of your head...

KENNY: Mary Ann.

   
NICK: Great, you're already cooking. Next question-- How do you sign your 8 by 10 glossies?

KENNY: I usually go with either "Thanks for having cable," "Thanks for having electricity," "Thanks for having a TV," or "You're tall." You know, just, kind of recycling stuff.

   
NICK: But those are good. I've wracked my brain, and sadly, I've settled on "Best Wishes, NICK:." Do you have any pictures on display featuring you and another famous person?

KENNY: At my office I have my wife's solo shot, Mt. Rainier, a couple pictures of Connor, my son who passed away, I had two sons, Creighton and Connor who passed away four years ago, and picture of Riley, our new daughter. No, I have none of me and a famous person.

   
NICK: You've definitely taken the higher ground there. Over my bar, I have shots of me with Wayne Newton and the guy who played Moe Green.

KENNY: And at home, I have some pictures of me, I'm sad to say. You know ESPN Sportscenter promotions?

   
NICK: Yup.

KENNY: They made some billboard-type things. They were just kinda cool to have, so I put them in the walkway up to the little office where I do my writing.

   
NICK: Anything featuring you sliding on carpet?

KENNY:  None of that. In fact, that didn't go over so well at the ESPY'S. I thought I had a captive audience. Do you recall that?

   
NICK: I remember it well.

KENNY: It was two ESPY's ago, because I was dis-invited to the last ESPY performance in Las Vegas. Not that I wouldn't want to go, since it was where I went to college. I wouldn't want to go back there for the ESPY'S, not me.

   
NICK: Nor I, having never been invited to the ESPY'S. But fortunately, I'm hosting the NB's down the road in Pahrump.

KENNY: That's a good time, probably.

   
NICK: Oh, it's a very liberal place, which I like.

KENNY: The premise was, as I'm walking up doing my thing at the ESPY's, that I could run out and slide across the stage and end up in that soccer goal-scoring pose I did in that commercial which they ran over and over and over. And my wife was saying "don't do it, under any circumstances."

   
NICK: The wives know.

KENNY: Kind of a dead crowd. Either they didn't get it, or got it and didn't think it was funny. But then I'd also have people coming up to me, "Oh, man, that was hysterical." Like, well geez, why didn't you laugh then?

   
NICK: For about seven months I was the side-kick on the old Dennis Miller Talkshow. We'd be doing edgy stuff in front of a busload of German tourists they lured off Hollywood Boulevard. One of the things I learned really quickly on that show-- the Studio Audience is one thing and the people watching at home are a whole other animal.

KENNY: It is a strange audience, and I couldn't get a good handle on it.

   
NICK: The problem with the ESPY's is the first fifty rows are filled with nothing but professional athletes. During the opening monologue, especially when they have somebody like Norm McDonald or Dennis -- a comedian with topical, hard-hitting stuff -- the most excruciating moment is the prerequisite reaction cut-away's to a lot of incredibly pampered superstars just shaking their head in disappointment. Even though the joke is fabulous. I think that was the same case when you slid. These guys are not about you.

KENNY:  It kind of went on from there. I kind of disregarded the TelePrompTer for starters, my eyesight's not good, it should've been checked a long time ago. I mean, what it said to me is, I sort of like do my own material every night on the show, why wouldn't I be myself there and go with what I thought was going to work? And, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I guess it depends on whose listening, but I gave a shout out for the ESPN NEWS guys, gave 'em a clenched fist and told them I'd bring them back some shrimp from the post party.

   
NICK: I loved it.

KENNY: Yeah, I thought it was okay. The funniest part was I saw Burt Reynolds backstage. I love a lot of the stuff he's done, Boogie Nights had been out just before that. I went up as a fan and just said, "Hey, I thought that was great." I just wanted to meet you and say hi. And that was it, I didn't try to bug him. And he stopped me and went on and on about how funny he thought my little act was. And I was like, geez, it didn't go over so well with a lot of other people, including my wife. And I got him to write a note to my wife.

   
NICK: Did you really?

KENNY: Yeah, it was just very funny what he wrote. You know, just telling her it's okay, people don't have to laugh for it to be funny. It was good.

   
NICK: During one of the years when the Bills were in the Superbowl, and the Cowboys just wiped the floor with the them, like 52 - 17, they thought it'd be a great idea if they sent an ENG crew to my house to tape me watching the Superbowl, since I'm from Buffalo. And I'm thinking, this is brilliant! Number one, the Bills will win... and my wife was looking at me with that look you get once or twice a year -- 'I know you are already committed, but this is probably the worst idea you've ever had.' And it turned out to be... awful. I remember the boom operator had his girlfriend there with a Cowboys shirt in my own living room. And I've never watched the segment, it was just too painful. Once in a while I still encounter somebody who actually saw the damn thing. And apparently it was like some Last Tango in Paris kind of horrible verite. It scarred a generation.

Off hand, what is the best line you've ever had edited out of a broadcast?

KENNY: Well, the best one that should have been edited out and it wasn't. Mary Pierce, a couple years back at the Australian Open, was in some rather provocative clothing the whole tournament. And she was playing in the title match against Martini Hingis, I believe it was. And the opening shot is her bending over to pick up a ball to serve. And I said, "Mary Pierce, down a set, though it doesn't appear that way."

   
NICK: What is the weirdest thing a producer ever said to you over an IFB ear-piece during a broadcast?

KENNY: Don't get me fired.

   
NICK: I used to sit in on Talk Two, which was a live hour. There are a few times where I had guests who didn't have a great grasp on English. I remember interviewing Teemu Selanne, and he was a great guest, very willing, but every answer was basically "Yeah, for sure." I blew through about ninety questions the first two segments, and it was one of those moments where I remember thanking God I had a producer in my ear. The two most beautiful words I ever heard were "Go to the phones."

KENNY: I did a story on the NBA schedule, you know how the leagues announce their schedules for the next season a month in advance. Kind of a boring story actually, you know "The NBA has announced it's 2000/2001 schedule!" So, I kind of made fun of the fact we were even doing it, saying, "We decided against revealing the entire schedule game by game because we were worried you'd turn over to the erotic channel, where I believe right now their announcing the CBA schedule." And I thought it was pretty funny. The supervising producer didn't.

   
NICK: In your estimation, is there anybody on the sports landscape who embodies pure evil?

KENNY: Well, he's already been typecast enough, and I've always wanted to give him second, and third, and fourth chances, just as a fan. I mean, I'm no judge, which I think people get into too much at the sports desk, by the way, but Mike Tyson's latest comments. Does he have no censor whatsoever? I mean, why would you say, in combination, I'm gonna eat his children, but praise be to Allah, back to back?

   
NICK: That's a great mix, isn't it?

KENNY: I was sickened to hear that. It really bugged me. Maybe he was trying to be funny, I don't know what he was trying to do.

   
NICK: What kind of a strength and conditioning coach do you think Bigfoot would be?

KENNY:  I think he'd be late a lot. I mean, he's never around. You'd never know where to get him. Hopefully he'd write up some sort of program, sort of like independent study.

   
NICK: We have a thing on the web site called the Fear and Loathing index which is basically a run down of the twenty things dotting the sports landscape that are particularly disturbing or strange. Do you have any nominations?

KENNY: Baseball scores. The question was put to me about the home run calls, there are so many now. I used to sit down and actually say, all right let me think of five new ones. More often it just comes up as you're driving on the road, you write it on a napkin or something. And now I've given up. I can't keep up when the score is 16 to 13 and there were 9 homeruns. That bothers me as much as anything in sports right now. I think they should drop four teams, pick the good players from those four, have an open draft.

NICK: At this point, what is your greatest extravagance?

KENNY: A really bad extravagance... I like Coca-Cola. I insist on buying those really cool bottles that you used to get in the pop machine?

   
NICK: Sure.

KENNY: They're like eight ounces, the display kind. I buy those now instead of buying the big, gigantic things. I open this pop, I drink it, I'm done. It is over. And we call it pop where I'm from.

   
NICK: Yeah, we call it pop, too. Some places call it soda, and other places, like down south?

KENNY: It is a coke.

   
NICK: Exactly. Like, can I have a Sprite coke?

KENNY: Yeah, can I have a Dr. Pepper coke?

   
NICK: My favorite is the Dr. Pepper knock-off, Mr. Pibb. Who I always say is Dr. Pepper if he hadn't gotten into medical school.

KENNY: It's like the moth and a butterfly, which is just a moth with better PR.

   
NICK: So true. Closing thoughts?

KENNY: They always talk about players being farm hands, you know that old expression?

   
NICK: Sure.

KENNY: There was the pitcher Eric Milton, I believe of the Twins, who they described as a former Yankee farm hand. That kind of evokes images of him running out and milking George Steinbrenner's cow in the morning, and collecting eggs for fluffy omelets.