Profile

Email this article

For Kathy Najimy, a fire started a hot career

By David Moye

August 28, 2006

San Diego, CA--Bad things sometimes have ultimately good results. At least, they did for actress Kathy Najimy.

The San Diego-born actress is best known for her appearances in “Sister Act” and as the voice of Peggy Hill in the long-running series, “King Of The Hill,” and she owes her career, in part, to a fire that burned down the apartment of her longtime creative partner, Mo Gaffney.

Najimy, who attended Crawford High in the late ‘70s, admits she’s always had a weird sense of humor but didn’t know too many people she could relate to “on that level.”

It was the start of a hot friendship and a career path as well. Najimy had never thought about being an actress but she and Gaffney spent all their time creating different characters and playing them off each other.

Eventually, they decided to put together a show featuring their characters, and while neither Najimy nor Gaffney were experienced actors, they had enough faith in themselves to stick with what they knew best.

“Our one rule is that we’d have to think it was funny, regardless of what others thought. And we didn’t think anyone else would find our stuff funny,” Najimy said.

Despite that lack of faith in their audiences, Najimy and Gaffney put together a revue called “The Kathy And Mo Show” in San Diego and figured they’d perform one night for family and friends.

Instead, the show last nine weeks and eventually had a New York run. Some people would have found that daunting, but Najimy didn’t.

“I always felt I was from New York, so when they welcomed us with open arms, I kind of expected it,” Najimy said.

From there, Najimy and Gaffney managed to take their show to TV in the form of two well-received HBO specials: “The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives,” and “The Kathy & Mo Show: The Dark Side,” that still airs on the network.

Now the specials are coming out on DVD Sept. 12, along with other unseen material and special features. And like Najimy’s rule for comedy, she admits the DVD is more for her than for the audience.

“I did it for my nine-year-old daughter. I want to be able to show her this is what I’ve been doing for twenty-five years,” Najimy said.

Although Najimy makes her home in Los Angeles, she does have good memories about her hometown. However, she’s not sure how much of San Diego has seeped into her humor.

“It’s always hard to say how much effect environment has on humor,” Najimy said. “Would I be this particular type of funny in Paris? Who can say. But you cull and mine the most out of it you can.

“Both Mo and I grew up in working class families that didn’t go to Europe. We didn’t go many places, so we had to use our imaginations.

“However, San Diego IS the third character in my life and Mo’s work. It’s a little bit conservative and recreational. I always used to see these bleached blondes at the beach and felt we were on the outside looking in,” Najimy said.

There is another place that’s had a more recent effect on Najimy: Beirut, Lebanon.

Najimy is of Lebanese descent and had been planning a trip to Lebanon for months, but had to cancel it because of the current problems going on there. She regrets that the political problems prevent her from visiting it, but also that the whole Mid East turmoil gives Americans the wrong impression of her mother country.

“Lebanon is a beautiful place. Beirut has been called the ‘Paris of the Middle East.’ The place is just in a bad location. The Lebanese are very tolerant and really don’t get into the problems. They really just want to eat good food, belly dance and stay up late.”

--------------------