Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308270004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEN PARISH PERKINS DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DATELINE: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Pick a subject. Any subject. Toss it out there. Like a skeet shooter, comedian Kim Coles follows its path. Takes aim. Fires.
On "dogging" men in her stage act: "I actually like men more than women. I think they are more logical thinkers. Basically, I draw a line: Dog only men who deserve to be dogged."
On her concerns about being a female comic: "This is a profession that's dominated by men. The act itself is male. It's very presentational. Very aggressive. There's a mike in your hand, which is obviously a phallic symbol."
How a vegetarian can make a Burger King commercial: "I'm really an opportunist vegetarian. Burger King asked me to take a bite out of a burger for money, and I did it. So sue me. A girl's gotta work, ya know?"
That's what Coles is doing. Working. Working a crowd of television executives, critics, publicists, current stars, former stars, star wannabes.
Standing in a Los Angeles sound stage and munching a carrot stick, Coles is busy explaining where she's been and what she's been doing.
The last we saw of her she was leaving "In Living Color" in a huff, denying reports that her firing from the sketch comedy series was the result of a love affair gone bad with the show's creator and executive producer, Keenen Ivory Wayans.
That was two years ago. Up until now, until she landed a co-starring role on "Single Life," the new Fox sitcom about four female buppies, she was stuck in a holding pattern.
Shortly after leaving "In Living Color," she signed on with Lorimar Television to develop a series built around her humor witty, sly, observational to pitch to the networks.
The show, about a sassy, independent woman, sort of a "That Girl" with a '90s sensibility and an urban flair, was presented to ABC, which passed.
Last year she entered into a similar "holding contract" with NBC, but the network, easing out of its failed youth movement, didn't find a show appealing to urban audiences much of a priority. They never made it to script stage. Coles simply waited patiently for the phone to ring.
"It's almost embarrassing when people come up to me and say, `Where have you been?' " Coles says. "I had to explain why I didn't have a show. The public doesn't care. NBC knew I had a holding deal. The industry knew I had a holding deal. It means a network believes in you. It means whether they make a show or not, you still get paid. That's wonderful."
Not so wonderful is that you're not working. The public doesn't see you. And in Hollywood, visibility is everything.
"Waiting around made me fat, lazy, depressed," says Coles. "I couldn't do anything with another network even if they called. I didn't go on the road. For months I sat around watching "Gomer Pyle" reruns.
"NBC finally gave up and let me loose," she says. "By then, I was pretty much shell-shocked and just wanted to wait for a project first. Wait for someone to come to me."
Yvette Denise Lee came. Coles "was our first choice," says the co-producer of "Living Single," Fox TV's new Sunday night entry. "We knew the kind of character we wanted, which was a lot like the person Kim is on stage, someone who could give us innocence and naivete and make it funny."
In "Living Single," Coles is Synclair James, cousin of Khadijah James (Queen Latifah), owner of a black women's magazine. Kim Fields ("Facts of Life") and Erika Alexander ("The Cosby Show") co-star.
"The show is about being young and deciding the next step in your life," says Lee. "It's also about how your friends can help you get there or sometimes keep you from taking the wrong step. Each one helps the other keep their feet on the ground. I'm sure all the women can relate to this." j
by CNB