Karn, Richard - of Family Feud, and Al of Home Improvement
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
Everyone knows him as Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor's trusty sidekick and punchline punching bag from TV's 'Home Improvement' but actor Richard Karn has a few other notables after his name in the credits, including 'Family Feud' and walking down the street with 'Norm.'
DM) I was watching "True Hollywood Stories" when they were doing the expose on Family Feud.
RK) Of course. Well you know why they did it...when they advertised it, the big hook was "the curse." Everybody loves that idea -- that there's a curse involved, like with Macbeth. And when I watched it, there was nothing about that in the actual show. But I don't think about any negatives. Like if you get the role in Hamlet, are you going to think of all of the great people who had the role and recently did it? No, you can't be scared of that. You take the role, do what you do and give it your personality, your spin and have a good time. You've got to have a good time because that's what it is there for. It's entertainment. Game Shows are there because of the fun.
DM) You said "give it your personality." What's going to be your take on the position? What are you bringing to the role?
RK) I'm bringing, I guess, me. My own particular way of talking to people, or the questions that pop into my head that I want to ask them. Sometimes I find talking to the people is more interesting than the game itself, but that's just me because I'm finding out new stuff. Ultimately it's not something you can plan to be. I'm not planning to be a certain thing. It's just going to happen. Kind of like how my character, Al, on Home Improvement started. I didn't set out to be that character.
DM) What did you set out to be?
RK) I set out to just be in the pilot. I was cast as a replacement for another actor. He got a movie and couldn't do the pilot, so they rewrote the role and had me fill in a little bit, so I just played it as Tim's "straight man" and just set him up. It just kind of happened. I feel "Family Feud" is the same way, but only a little more improvisational. We don't have a script; it just happens with the questions or what people say, and I just kind of respond to that.
DM) You mentioned Al, which leads to another question that I also need to ask. Al is such a memorable character, will that be "the curse?" Will people associate you with Al so much, they won't get to know the real you?
RK) It depends on what you want out of life. If you set your mind to say you won't want to be known as that, you're going to be unhappy because so many people know you as that. You can't fight that because it's like swimming upstream. So what you do is float on downstream and watch the series.
I never thought I would be a game show host. This is not what I thought about while I was auditioning off-Broadway in New York; this just kind of happened. At first it sort of caught me off-guard; it was like a left turn, but the more I thought about it, I said, "Why Not?" This could be a lot of fun. While I'm still doing movies, or plays or television shows, I can still do this.
I didn't really set out to be known in the world, so it doesn't bother me that people don't know my real name. They know my face maybe, or they know my voice, but they know me as "Al from Tool Time." It doesn't annoy me that they don't know me, but oddly enough they get to know my name, and then in an airport, they go "Richard" instead of "Al."
DM) Do you have that happen very frequently where somebody says, "Al," to you?
RK)Yeah, and I do that myself sometimes, too. I was doing a movie in Toronto, working with George Wendt ["Norm"]. We became friends, and I couldn't think of his name once and said, "Norm." He turned to me and said, "Not you, too!"
DM) It must have been funny walking down the street, both "Norm" and "Al."
RK) I was walking down the street, and it was hysterical. They couldn't believe that both "Norm" and "Al" were walking down the street.
DM) You're doing the game show now, and you studied acting and Shakespeare. Did you feel that this was an odd step for you?
RK) Good question. I think some of it has to do with having a 10-year-old. I have a little guy going into the fifth grade. I don't want to take him away from all of his friends and go off and do Broadway. You worry that one night you're off doing a play, and you're not home to help with math or a book report or something. This is a great job for somebody who has a growing family. I'll go back and do Broadway in eight years, when he's in college, and I'll be at an age where I can play those interesting characters.
DM) Does this job also fit personalities of you, or is it just a job?
RK) If I took it as just a job, I wouldn't have as much fun, I think. I truly am enjoying this whole thing. I'm giving people money; I'm back in front of a camera and showing a different side of you people might not have seen in Al. Life gives you a lot of opportunities, and you've just got to go for it.
DM) Are there parts of you people will see that might surprise them because they only know you as Al?
RK) I don't know, we'll have to see. I don't know how people see me. Al was a character; Al's heart was in the right place. He was a guy who was put upon, but he means to be and is a good guy. He wanted to make things good; he wanted to help people. I think that's why so many people identify with him in a way. For "Family Feud," I'm just hanging out with people I haven't met before; I'm laughing with them and I'm giving money away.
DM) It sounds like a part of you was Al. You wrote the book on home repair, and your father was a builder, too.
RK) Oh, it was in the family. My grandfather said to me, "If you become a contractor, I'll wrap you in cement and throw you in a lake." I think contractors have a great life.
DM) Were they alive to see you in "Home Improvement?"
RK) My dad was. He said, "You know what. I know see just how good of an actor you are." He remembers me being 10-years-old and bending nails. I couldn't even hammer a nail straight. Now, I'm acting like I know what I'm doing, and he believed it. My mom passed away in 1983, and she's the one who really would have gotten a kick out of it.
DM) What would she have said?
RK) She was an artist, a painter. I think "Home Improvement" would have been great -- all of her friends would have seen me on television. But the game show, she loved game shows.
DM) So she'd be more into the game show?
RK) Oh yeah, most definitely.
DM) You're doing five shows in a day I understand?
RK) Actually six.
DM) Six in a day, isn't that tough?
RK) That's where the acting comes in. You have to know how to use your throat, your voice, or otherwise you go hoarse. I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I'm home all week being a father to my son. I am not an unhappy guy. I'll have friends who are having a tough time finding work in theater or television, and they think this is a horrible job for me. Then I have friends who are in television, and they think this is the greatest gig.
I approach life thinking, "You're going to have a good time or be worried about it, so why not have a good time?"
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