Hey guys! Vance here with a very special treat. I had the opportunity of interviewing Mr. Sean Keller this past week. He’s a man who does a one man show of Star Wars I-VIII and he’s both incredibly kind and incredibly funny. He’s also performing this coming Saturday(11/16) at 6:00 at the Daviess County Public Library so you can actually come see the show for yourself!
Below is a quick compilation of scenes from his take on Episode IV. Feel free to check it out and then check out the interview below that.
(Quick Heads up, there is a pretty good amount of language so this is definitely a more adult event.)
Vance McCarty : Alright, so first and foremost thank you so much for having this interview with me and thank you for letting me watch the first part of the show. What I’ve seen is absolutely terrific and I personally can’t wait to see the rest of it.
Sean Keller : Thank you very much! I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the show.
VM : So let’s go ahead and get the basic questions out of the way : When did you first become a Star Wars fan? Cause this is very clearly a passion project. Despite the satire and funny comments we can tell that you’re a massive fan otherwise you wouldn’t have them down like you do.
SK : My grandpa had the Original Trilogy VHS box set in either ’92 or ’93, so I was either 6 or 7 years old, and I remember watching it basically on a loop. I was just hooked from that point forward. As I grew up and met other SW fans, we’d talk about the EU, play all of the LucasArts games… My dad took me and my brother to see the Special Edition re-releases, then the Prequel Trilogy came out when I was in high school and we had 3 brand new Star Wars movies to dissect and love and hate and make jokes about. What’s crazy is, now I’ve got a 9-year old who I can watch all these movies with, and we go to the theaters to see the new Sequel Trilogy, and it’s just come full circle to when I was a kid. Star Wars has just always been a huge part of my life.
VM : Where did the idea come from? Just hanging out with friends and just ran with it or was it something that you’d been planning for a while?
SK : So, my best friends and I have been geeking out about Star Wars since high school. We’d imagine what happened right before or after key scenes, play out awkward moments, add jokes. We just know the movies so well that it was fun to kinda of color outside the lines and make each other laugh. Some things are obvious, like Vader inviting Han & company to what looks like brunch on Cloud City. Other things are so tiny, only the biggest Star Wars fans would pick them apart, like how long a pause Threepio takes when I tells Leia that Artoo has been known to make mistakes……………..from time to time. Anyway, I was acting and doing comedy, and I wanted to challenge myself with some kind of big project. I saw that a guy was doing a one-man Star Wars trilogy and touring it around, and while I never saw it, I did read up on it to see what exactly he was doing. What he was doing was a line-for-line retelling of the Original Trilogy, and while that definitely seemed impressive to me, I had no interest in watching it because I’ve seen the actual films a million times. So then I thought, what if I did my own retelling, but took huge liberties with the scripts. And instead of only doing the OT, what if I added the Prequels, too… So the first iteration of my show was I-VI. Once The Force Awakens came out, I added that, and then last year I added The Last Jedi.
VM : How long did it take for you to nail the accents like you do? Your Liam Neeson and Peter Cushing are highlights of the show in my opinion.
SK : Some are characters I’d been doing since high school that just came naturally. The weirder ones are usually easier for me – Watto, JarJar, Palpatine. Then you look at someone like Mace Windu, or Padme, and you’re like…okay, how the hell am I gonna do THIS one? So it was challenging at times, definitely.
VM : Also, was it difficult to record the songs and was that you looped over or did you have any help?
SK : Honestly, recording the music was so much fun. It was difficult in that I didn’t want to completely butcher John Williams’ score, but I have a musical background, so that made it easier. I didn’t have any help with it, but that was by design. There are no costumes or props in this show. Even the backgrounds I use to help set each scene are sort of minimalist and DIY-looking at times, and that’s really the feel I had in mind for the whole show. I think it would have been weird for me to be up there, popping in and out of character, talking to myself, and yet there’s this beautiful, perfectly performed orchestral music playing the whole time.
VM : Have you actually met anyone from the films since you started doing this?
SK : Not yet! The closest I’ve come is meeting a full-sized, fully functional, remote controlled R2-D2. That was honestly one of the few times in my life I’ve ever been legitimately star-struck. It was actually emotional. I just felt like I was 6 years old again.
VM : With the multiple comments and opinions about the sequel trilogy, I have to ask : Thoughts on Rise Of Skywalker? Are you someone who’s excited for it and have you actually enjoyed the new films as I have?
SK : I liked Rogue One. I loved The Force Awakens when I first saw it. Then, the more I thought about it, I became a little sad that so many of the plot points echoed A New Hope. I still think it’s a really fun movie, I’m just not as high on it as I was initially. Now for the tricky part…at the risk of dividing the audience here, I’ll say I was really disappointed with The Last Jedi. I was not happy at ALL when I left the theater that night. Having said that, as soon as I saw the first trailer for TRoS, I was 100% back on board and ready to watch more Star Wars – goosebumps, tears, all of it. And I actually really liked Solo!
VM : Is there anything you’d want to say to anyone who is starting out in comedy or acting?
SK : Yes! You have to just go do it. It’s that easy. Seriously. Don’t wait for the perfect time, don’t wait for X, Y, & Z to fall into place. Just go and do it! That’s honestly the biggest obstacle I’ve seen in this industry. People second guess themselves and lack confidence, because yes, it’s scary to fail. So they just never go out and do it. But if you’re going into acting or comedy, you’re going to fail – a lot. Your jokes won’t always work at first, you’re not always going to get the part you auditioned for. But those rare moments when you do get the part, or weeks and months later after you’ve workshopped a joke hundreds of times and you get that big laugh, that’s when you remember why you allowed yourself to fail. Do or do not! 🙂
VM : Awesome! Thank you again so much for your time. Once again, that show is on Saturday(11/16) at 6:00 PM at the Daviess County Public Library. Anything else you’d like to add, Sean?
SK : Yeah, I guess just…come see the show! lol. Oh, and if they think it’s funny, or like funny podcasts, give me and my friends a listen at podcast.littlenonsense.com. The podcast is called A Little Nonsense and we talk lots of nerd stuff in between hilarious fake commercials. Thanks again!
VM : Sounds great man, plus now I have a new podcast to listen to!
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out Sean’s Show!
