Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda.
I do, I do, I do-oo!
That's for the fans, for the fans.
This week, I'm sitting down with Kel Mitchell to talk about his life,
his career and everything in between, on Throwback with Nickelodeon.
I'm your host, Anthony Padilla.
I'm a dude, he's a dude, today, Kel Mitchell is here.
- What's up, man? - I'm good brother, good to see you man.
- You ready to throw back? - Let's throw back.
- I am a huge fan of All That. - Thank you, man.
I grew up watching you every weekend,
I'd go over to my cousin's place and we'd sit down with some popcorn,
with our little fort with the couch cushions
and some blankets, and just watch All That, man.
Thank you, brother, thank you, I appreciate that.
- I appreciate that. - Of course, man.
So Kel, I want to know,
what were the reactions from the other kids at school
when you got cast on All That?
Well, I was trying to keep things secret, even when they said it's picked up.
But then I remember one of my teachers, he played it,
I heard myself like I--
- In another room or something? - No, I was walking to class,
and I heard All That playing,
and I walk in and he's like, oh, I saw this new show and Kel's on it!
And I'm like, bro, like, why are you telling everybody?
After that, it just it took off, man.
- Did you like the attention, though? -Yeah, I did.
You know, we did crazy stuff, it was a different type of lifestyle
because when we were filming the show in Florida,
it was like bananas, it was like us and Shaq
that was big at that time in Orlando,
and it was me and Keenan would just go to the mall or whatever,
just to like have girls scream.
It was the best 1995 anyone could ever live.
Yeah man, it got pretty wild,
like we couldn't really go anywhere after a while,
I remember I was at the grocery store in Chicago,
and the girl at the register was like,
"Oh, hey, hey!", and my mom was like,
"Oh yeah, just keep it quiet, don't say nothin'!"
And she got on the PA just like--
Oh, no! She ruined your cover?
She was like yeah, Kel Mitchell's here! And he's on Good Burger!
- Did you run out of there? - No, no, no.
I'm signing autographs and taking pictures,
-it was like, yeah let's do it. -Guess I'm doing a meet and greet today!
We were in Canada, and I remember that was first real weird one.
I was in Canada and I was getting in the limo,
The girl's like, "I just want to touch your butt!"
And I was like what? Like why?
It was just like, I end up getting in the car and she's like, "ahh!"
- And I was like... - So what happened?
Yeah, I was like, okay,
and then we had a girl, she started going, "Kel! Kel!"
- Chanting? - Yeah, but then it was, "Kel! Kel!"
She had an asthma attack right there, and it was like, oh no!
- Did you have to save her life? - Yeah, it turned into that.
And I stayed with her, the paramedics came to save her.
- You're a true hero! - It was crazy, man, so, yeah man.
You get a lot of crazy encounters, it's pretty funny.
What was your motivation to first get into acting?
I was at that age where it was time to do something positive,
know what I mean?
I had some friends that were doing some crazy stuff
and my parents were like, "we need to get you a hobby."
You had a choice.
A positive hobby, yeah, so they put me into acting,
I joined this community theater on the south side of Chicago,
and I just fell in love with it, man, and I just continued to do it.
My first, like, gig when I started acting was--
well, I modeled first, so I was a model for Crunch Berries.
Crunch Berries?
I was on the back of a Crunch Berries box.
I had no idea.
Yeah, that was before All That, with a high top fade,
holding a box of Crunch Berries,
and girls were running around with the box,
like "Kel's on the back of the Crunch Berries box!"
I was like, yeah, I'm the Crunch Berries box boy.
That was fun man, that was cool, then All That came
and just took it to another level.
For All That, what were the auditions like?
Oh, okay, that's a funny story.
I was a sophomore in high school,
and I had finals that day.
My dad took a couple of wrong turns and we got there late.
And they were packing up and I was like, oh no.
So they were like, "oh, come on in, you're the last one."
So I go in there and I went blank.
Because I was thinking monologue, but then finals was just coming in,
numbers and all this, and then I went blank,
and that never happens, and they were like,
"you want to go out, practice it, and come back in?"
So I go back out, I practice it, I'm like, yo Kel, you gotta do this,
talking to myself.
So I went back in and they said, "instead of monologue,
start off with some impersonations."
So I started off with that, and I did a Good Burger in the room
because I did a dude voice.
I also did my coach at my school, which was Coach Kreeton.
That turned into that later.
And I did a whole bunch of other voices and they were cracking up,
falling on the floor, so I was like, yeah!
And then they said do the monologue, I did the monologue, and I killed it.
I killed the monologue, I loosened up, I was super excited, man,
and then days went by, for all you actors out there, you know,
you know if a couple of weeks go by you probably didn't get it,
but then I got a call,
I remember I was praying, like I do a night,
and then I remember the phone rang,
and my mom was like, "oh, oh goodness!"
[screaming]
She's running around the house I'm like, what's happening?
I'm trying to pray mom, give me some space!
I remember when we got to L.A. for the second round,
what was crazy was it was like the Avengers man,
it was like every funny kid from every walk of life,
from different cities all together to battle it out to be on All That,
So that was cool.
When you first got on set, what was that like?
The first day we met all the kids, Keenan was the last one to come in.
And he came in with all his Mighty Ducks garb on.
- What? - It was like, the funniest thing.
-He came in with it on? -Yes, he came in--
Why was he wearing it?
He came in with rollerblades,
- What? - Honest truth.
- He came on the set in rollerblades? - Rollerblades, this is in the lobby,
before we got to the studio.
Was he asked to do that?
No, he had his gear, he just finished filming,
And he came in, did a little "skrrt" with all the stuff,
and he had a bag, I was cracking up.
-This is the coolest guy on earth! -Oh yeah, I was like, that kid,
we're gonna hang out, so we ended up hanging out, it was hilarious.
How involved were you guys with the writing process?
The cool thing about the writers and producers on the show,
they allowed us to improv.
They gave us a lot of go ahead as far as our characters,
like with my characters, I had to really like become them.
So Josh had this character where he had a remote,
and he can touch the button
and forward his sister arguing and stuff like that.
So he had a pizza come quick and I was the pizza guy.
I came in and I needed a voice.
And so I was like, "here's your pizza!"
And that was it, right?
Sorry, that brought me back.
Just you doing that voice right now,
it's 1995 again.
Yeah man, yeah.
So I did that "here's your pizza" and they're like, "oh, we like that."
So they created Good Burger,
and then I was like, it needs something, man.
So I went into the makeup room and I saw these Milli Vanilli braids,
you know, Brandy I Want To Be Down braids,
and then I started doing a walk like, yeah, that's how it came to be man,
you gotta do that in comedy, you gotta be free,
you can't just be super cool like, you know what I mean?
You gotta be goofy, know what I mean?
Yeah, go for it.
All right, a little rapid fire here,
I'm gonna throw out some characters,
and I want to see the first thing you think of.
- All right. - OK, let's get it.
Okrah Winfrey.
[laughing]
Oh, goodness.
It was a lot of time putting that outfit together, let's just say that.
The eyelashes, the high heels,
I had to have this bodysuit, and then it was physical,
because they always wanted to throw something at Okrah
and have her fall over, and I just made it work
because stuff would get in my eye and I'm like, oh, oh no!
I don't know if Oprah liked it though, I don't know.
- Did she ever see it? - I don't know.
I remember me and Keenan, we did a fire safety thing for Oprah
so I was on Oprah, so that was big for me and my family.
Were you like, should I mention that I'm playing her on TV?
Yeah, because it was via satellite, right, so Oprah was like, oh, yeah,
now we're gonna go to Keenan and Kel.
And then we did a whole fire safety thing
and then we tried to say a joke at the end,
you know, like we're wearing purple, we're like,
oh, we were wearing purple, the color purple, Oprah, hey!
And she was just like, "Ah-ha-ha."
And I was like oh, she's probably seen Okrah.
[laughing]
That's probably what it is.
Mavis and Clavis?
-Oh man, legendary moment. -Yeah?
That was the moment we figured out that me and Keenan had
like this partnership, the chemistry was right there.
That was the first one they put us together with,
and we just started joking, riffing off of each other.
And it was like, he would say something, I knew exactly what he was going to say.
And it was kind of crazy, that's when we both saw it.
That was within the first couple of weeks?
Yeah, because we were introducing TLC, yeah.
When I used to watch that,
I assumed you guys were just childhood best friends.
Yeah, everyone thinks that, they think like
we grew up in the same neighborhood.
Seems like you grew up in the same house!
- Yeah. - You guys knew each other so well.
- Coach Kreeton. - Ah!
I love Coach Kreeton man,
that's one of my favorite characters to play,
but Coach Kreeton was based on a coach that I actually had in high school.
Super, super mean, like all the time,
- So you won't say his real name? - No, no, no.
I used to back in interviews, but I'm good now,
I don't want him knocking on my door.
But yeah, he was just super mean, I remember it was Valentine's
and everybody's talking about love, and you come into the gym,
he's like, "there's no love here, nobody's talking about love!
Take this volleyball to the head, pow!"
And it was just like, that was literally him.
Repairman-man-man.
Oh man, Repairman was fun.
How many 'mans' are there at the end of Repairman, the official title?
Repairman man man man man man.
[laughing]
Five? There's five.
There's five, Repairman was crazy, man, that was a crazy character,
He was a mix of everything, a mix of Jim Carrey, Martin Lawrence,
and just the crazy that I was bringing to it.
Now onto some of your costars, Lori Beth Denberg?
- Savage. - Savage?
Savage bro, she speaks her truth and doesn't care who cares.
- Josh Server? - Chi-town.
- Chicago, immediately-- - You got that connection.
Yeah, he was like our Leonardo DiCaprio.
He was kind of my fashion icon for a little while in the 90s.
I can see that.
- Amanda Bynes. - Fearless, man.
- Fearless. - Fearless.
She's not afraid to get physical.
When she got on the show, her dad and her came up to me
and they were like, "yo, she wants to do more physical comedy,
like how you do", and she was like, "what do you do?"
She just really--
- So she asked you for advice? - Yeah, and I was giving it to her,
and that's why I said fearless because she took it,
and ran with it, I loved it.
- Danny Tamberelli? - Uh, insane.
[laughing]
Fearless, insane!
No no, crazy. Danny's like that uncle
that you know is going to tear the party up.
[laughing]
If they ever do Uncle Buck over again, Danny, you got it.
- Danny's in! - Danny, you got it, you're in.
Keenan Thompson.
Keenan Thompson, brother, man, that's brother, that's family,
and I would say consistency.
He's very consistent in his talent, you know what I mean?
Just keep bringing it every time.
How much pressure did you guys feel
when you guys first started Keenan and Kel?
The pressure? Nah man, there was no pressure.
- No pressure? - Nah, bro.
They took us to the side when the hiatus was going on,
they were like, "yo, we want to give you two your own show,
keep it quiet though... when everybody goes back on hiatus,
you guys going to film this pilot."
And we were like, yeah!
And they were like, "it's gonna be a little different,
it's going to be like a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air type show,
you know, like a sitcom. And I was like, OK, cool, let's get it.
It was really us, you know, offset that's how we were.
We were just always hanging out and that's how they got the idea,
it's like, "yo we gotta do something with these guys together."
So for us, it was just like, OK, we're doing we always do
but now in a sitcom.
I remember thinking of the name because we had a big dinner
with our producers and the writers,
and we were all sitting there at the table and they had a list of names.
So it was going to be called something else at first.
Do you remember any other names?
I don't know, Me and My Homie, all this weird stuff.
Would've been a very different show.
There were about 10 or 15 names on there,
and none of them worked, and I remember somebody going,
"He's Keenan, he's Kel, Keenan and Kel." And that's literally how it happened.
Now, I want to talk about the new All That.
- Let's go. - All That is coming back
for the new generation with a brand new cast.
- Yeah, man. - And you are executive producing.
Hello!
What advice have you given that new generation of kids?
I told them just to have fun and give it your all.
You know what I mean? Give it your all in every character,
put that you factor, that creativity you are blessed with,
throw that into each character because as an actor,
you've got to be you, you know what I mean?
And stay you, sometimes it's confusing at times because,
a lot of people will blow smoke and give you whatever
and you start thinking that, you know what I mean?
You just kind of in that world, it's like always on,
and it's like, don't forget who you really are.
You were special before you got on the show,
when you were born you were a special person already.
Don't let the job make you special.
I think part of that is by staying humble,
which it seems like you did a very good job of.
You got to, it takes work, but that's why I like giving advice
to the kids now because we didn't all have that as kids being on the show.
So you've got to give that advice to them.
What advice would you give to these kids?
[laughing]
When I look at it, I see our journey, you know, what everybody's doing now.
Is it strange to look back at a photo like this when you guys had no idea
what was in store for you?
Yeah man, that was the pilot episode,
I think that was right after we shot the Cool Shoes episode.
So you had no idea this was going to be like,
"the rest of my life is happening, I'm going to be known for this."
We didn't know, even the producers,
we didn't know how big this thing was going to be.
To the point where now people are stopping me on the street,
you know, saying, "Hey, welcome to Good Burger",
giving me free burgers at drive-thrus. You know what I mean?
- You get free burgers at drive-thrus? - Oh yeah, all the time.
People give them to you because you're the Good Burger dude.
I'm the real Burger King.
[laughing]
What would you say to these kids in this photo?
When I look at it I see, especially when I look at myself there,
it was certain things that I was going through in my life at that point,
and I would just say, you know, have faith. You know what I mean?
Have that faith and not even that things would get better,
it's just like, look into your heart, get that love, you know what I'm saying?
Because at times you get lost within this business,
I think that I would definitely give some positivity at that point.
You know what I mean? Because I think we all need it.
When people recognize you, what do they usually say?
I get Good Burger probably four or five times out of the day.
Then orange soda would be at the next top. You know what I mean?
- Good Burger, orange soda. - Yeah.
Who loves orange soda?
Kel loves orange soda!
Do you actually like orange soda?
I do, I like orange soda, I mean like,
I work out now, so I drink a lot healthier,
you know, water and things like that, pre-workouts, good nutrition.
- Speaking of orange soda... - Oh, boy.
The most requested thing from our audience.
Oh, boy.
They just want to see you interact with orange soda.
Of course they do!
No!
[screaming]
- You have just right under your table! - Oops, got orange soda right here.
So interact with it as the Internet wants you to interact with it.
Hi!
Orange soda, oh my goodness, oh my--
- That's getting memes right now. - Who loves orange soda?
Kel loves orange soda, I do, I do, I do-oo!
That's for the fans, for the fans.
- It got me right in the feels. - Got you right there, man.
This is crazy, like in the dictionary if you look it up, you know, Wikipedia,
you could go to web, I'm in there.
- Wait, are you for real? - Yeah, if you type up orange soda,
Kel Mitchell is involved.
I'm like the ambassador of orange soda.
You're making so many people happy right now.
This is some people's entire childhood dream.
Are we doing a screenshot?
[music playing]
What happens when you go through a drive-thru
and you don't order orange soda?
- It's a thing. - Do people notice?
Yeah, me and my wife, we go to top restaurants
and it's like, I could get a drink or whatever,
and they're like, "no orange soda?"
And it's a big laugh.
[imitating laugh]
- Like, I've heard that before! - Yeah, it's a big laugh.
- It's super funny. - Are you laughing?
Yeah, of course, and my wife's hilarious,
like we'll go to a drive-thru and we'll order something,
I'll ask what she wants to drink and she'll say orange soda,
I'm like, you're gonna make me say orange soda to these people,
and she thinks it's the funniest thing.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, let me get an orange soda.
And when I drive up the person's like... cracking up.
I would lose my mind.
The funny thing is people bringing me tuna.
[laughing]
People are just like, here's a wet salmon!
No, no, I had a fan bring me a can of tuna,
with a screw that was screwed inside of the tuna,
they thought it was a great idea, they put glue around it,
but the glue came off a little bit, so when they handed to me
tuna juice was just--
[laughing]
You know, I wanted to be nice, I didn't want to hurt their feelings.
- So I'm like, thank you. - Kinda gross.
Yeah like, where am I going to put this in the house?
Who dropped the screw in the tuna?
[laughing]
- Who dropped the screw in the tuna? - That would be me, sir.
I did it!
I did it, Keenan!
I... dropped the screw... in the tuna!
I dropped the screw in the tuna.
- Thank you so much for joining us today. - No doubt.
And thank you so much for watching.
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