DSF: Tell us about yourself.
MK: I born in Chicago, and raised for most of my life in Chicago. I lived for 5 years in New Jersey and Maryland of course, where I joined Delta Sig. Most of my life has been here in the Chicago suburbs.
DSF: What made you decide to go to Maryland and what was your degree in?
MK: After high school, my family got relocated out to northern New Jersey right outside of New York City. I started college at a junior college there for a few years, doing radio and television production and interning at NBC in New York for Tom Brokaw, and then got accepted to a bunch of different four year schools, one of which was the University of Maryland. It was 3-4 hours away, which wasn't too far from where my family was, and that's the one I decided to go to. I studied RTVF, Radio, TV, Film.
DSF: Tell us about what made you decide to join Delta Sig.
MK: I was thrown out of the dorms. (Laughs) Just kidding… Right at the very beginning I joined the rugby team, which I thought was a lot of fun. I was a football player in high school and I still had the itch a little bit. One of my teammates was Scott Litrenta, who was a Delta Sig. They always had great parties open to potential pledges, and he tried to get me there to hang out. Eventually I went over to a party or two, got to know him and a couple of the guys, and actually moved into the house as a boarder, and then became a pledge and brother after living there.
DSF: Did you hold any leadership positions within the chapter?
MK: As a matter of fact I did. My last semester there, I was the Sergeant at Arms. It was a lot of fun, and I had a great time and met a lot of people. Our house was really strong then, as I am sure it is today. There were a lot of great people, our intramurals were great, and we were doing well in school. The Greek system was really at its peak in the late 80s when I was there, and it was a great time.
DSF: What did you do when you got out of school?
MK: I did a ton of stuff. I came back to Chicago, and immediately got into Second City's workshop to learn how to do improv, because what I really wanted to do was be a comedic actor. After that, I started auditioning, got cast in a movie, was hired by a radio station, started performing in comedy clubs as a stand up comic, and that was all within a year of graduation. I got out of Maryland, and hit the ground running as far as wanting to get a job. I really wanted to conquer that industry.
DSF: Tell us about your time with Second City.
MK: I started taking classes there, because I had no idea how to improvise and that's what Second City is. They teach you the skill or the art of improvisational acting and improvisational comedy, but you have to learn the basics of theater, which I had no experience with at all. I was a decent writer, but with Second City, they taught me the basics of theater and the basics of improv, and you take it from there what you want to do with it. If you wanted to stay with Second City you could have joined their touring company or tried to get on their main stage. At that point after a year and a half, I started drifting more into the stand up comedy industry. I've got to be honest, I was a little greedy. If you're in a comedy group like Second City, you have to split $150, six ways. If you're a stand up comic, you get to keep the whole $150, so I am a little greedy… (Laughs)
DSF: What got you into starting your own business, Absolute Entertainment?
MK: Again, money… (Laughs) I got to keep all the money. I'm just kidding… I was always an entrepreneur, even in college, we would have these things where you would go and try to get the most amount of people to donate money to a charitable cause for the Fraternity, and I would always kick butt in that. I was always a good salesman, and I had that entrepreneurial spirit and had a really rough time being told what to do. So I started my own business, and it just took off. I had a background in entertainment, in performing and stuff like that, and I had worked for other agencies and other companies and I stole everything I learned from them and started my own business.
DSF: Tell us a little bit about the business.
MK: We started out really small. It was just me and a Barney suit… (Laughs) Just kidding… It was just me and a couple of my wacky characters that I would go out as, and within five years, we had accumulated over 200 – 300 different clients, including corporate companies like McDonald's, AT&T and John Hancock. As of right now, I have been in business for 15 years, in fact next year will be my 15th anniversary, and we have done over 6,000 events, and have done very well. We've been around for a long time. We've turned it into a little more of a corporate thing, and it's also nice because I can book myself out and am doing a gig for the students at University of Notre Dame soon. It really has turned into something, a nice little vehicle for me to book myself out, and act as an agent to book other acts.
DSF: Do you book a lot of other acts?
MK: We do. We are a full service entertainment agency. I have another person who works part-time with me. We book everything. We're kinda like the McDonald's of entertainment. You go to McDonald's and if you just want to order fires, or if you want to order the whole big value meal. We book everything. If someone wants to just order a singing telegram, we'll do it. We've booked events where people have spent over $5,000 through our company on everything from DJ's to psychics to impersonators or things for the kids. We're a full service entertainment company, so we cater to not only corporations but also families. If you only have $175 in your budget, we'll do the gig. If you've got $10,000, same thing. Every customer is important, whether it's a corporate gig or whether it's a Mom and Dad trying to have a birthday party for their kids.
DSF: Talk a little bit about some of those wacky characters that you said you have in your repertoire.
MK: My favorite character that I started out doing was, I got hired by a company out of Chicago, who used to book nothing but nerds at parties. I auditioned at Second City, and this guy who was starting the company hired me on the spot because I was the perfect type for the character. I had it down. I would go out and perform as a nerd at birthday parties, restaurants, and at corporate events – wherever they wanted us. For four or five years, almost every weekend I acted as a nerd. I did my nerd gigs, then I would go to a comedy club and work and get home at 3 in the morning. It was great. My parents couldn't believe it when I bought my first car. Nobody ever believed that I would make it as a comedian or an entertainer. Since then, I have bought my own home and traveled around the world. It's been great.
Currently, I do a great Chris Farley. I had the honor last year of re-creating an entire Saturday Night Live for a live corporate theater presentation with Saturday Night Live alumnus Kevin Nealon. I got to work with Kevin Nealon. It was a dream. He was on SNL for ten years, and there I was on stage working with him. It was amazing. I've also been in about a dozen television commercials, and have done voice overs for McDonald's, so a lot of those things are on my web site at www.mattkissane.com.
DSF: Tell us a little bit about your time interning for Tom Brokaw at NBC.
MK: What a time! I was a 19 year old kid from Lombard, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and I got to meet all of the big stars of the day, including Brokaw, Jane Pauley and Willard Scott. It was a dream. It was a 5 month internship, and I was there 3 days per week. I still look back on it and think "what in God's name were those people thinking hiring me?" I was Brokaw's intern. I worked for him and his assistant every day. I went in there and I did everything including going through his viewer mail, going to the bank for him, going out and getting his lunch. One time, he sent me on a wild goose chase through Manhattan to find a six-pack of Rolling Rock beer to pick up for Tim Russert, who is now the moderator of Meet the Press. Russert was just new there as a Vice President at NBC News. It was incredible. I took everything that I got to do as an honor. There were three anchors in the United States, and I was working for one of them.
DSF: What are your goals for yourself and for the company in the future.
MK: As of right now, we're looking to do bigger and better things. Like I said, I have Notre Dame coming up. I'd like to do some bigger parties and corporate events. I'd like to do some more commercials, some television gigs and perhaps come movie parts. Perhaps branch out into some other states, and around the Midwest. I'm also trying to think about selling franchises in the future. A lot of the stuff is so maybe in 5 or 10 years I can sell the company name and make a fortune, and then go live on an island by myself and have everybody just leave me alone! (Laughs)
DSF: What's some advice you can give to brothers who might want to do something similar to what you're doing?
MK: Coming out of college, if you are serious about going into the entertainment industry or the media, or newspapers, get a job. Whatever you can do, whether it's working at a newspaper or at a radio station, do it. Even if you're just a peon, or if you're just filing papers, even if you can get a small gig at a television station in a small town, do whatever you can do to make it. Don't sit around thinking about doing it. That won't amount to jack squat as Chris Farley used to say. Just get out there and do it.
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