Growing up in Bucks County, Penn., Richard Kind always knew he wanted to be an actor. While other kids dreamed of playing center field for the Yankees or traveling to outer space as an astronaut, Kind was focused on the stage and screen.
"I wanted to be a movie star," he says. "My grandparents used to take me to Broadway, because they lived in New York. … And I wanted to be Zero Mostel and Robert Preston. That's who I wanted to be."
Kind moved to Chicago in the 1970s to study pre-law at Northwestern University, but along the way he became involved with Chicago's Second City improv troupe. The group, he says, offered him a chance to develop his craft while performing for 400 people a night.
"I got lucky. I really did," he says. "All I did was say yes to whatever was presented and my path was created by that."
Kind would go on to appear in hundreds of movies and TV shows, including Mad About You, Spin City, Carol & Company, Curb Your Enthusiasm and, more recently, season 4 of Only Murders in the Building. In his current role on the Netflix show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, Kind serves as the announcer and Mulaney's sidekick.
The experiment began in May of 2024 as a six-episode live engagement called John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in L.A. This year, it returned with its current title for 12 additional episodes. The show begins with an opening monologue by Mulaney and then becomes a free-flowing panel discussion with both guests and callers. Topics so far have included squatters, funerals and getting fired. Part of the charm is nobody knows what's going to happen.
Kind says broadcasting live to the world is by far the largest audience he's ever played to. He worries about saying things in the moment on the show that he might regret later. Still, he says, the spontaneity is what makes each episode special.
"I don't know what the hell I'm doing. You must understand — it's anarchy," he says. "And while people watch it are going, 'What am I watching?' I'm doing it and saying, 'What I am doing?'"
Interview highlights
On why he's glad he's not really famous
I went to Vegas with Matt [Matthew Perry] two or three weeks after Friends premiered [in the fall]… we started at one side of the casino and went through and looking both ways to see if he was recognized and he just walked through the casino. … The following January, we did the same thing, he walked two steps into the casino and that's as far as he went. And that was one of the saddest things.
It's what everybody dreams of, and they don't realize that they're dreaming of prison. And it's prison. ... I get to walk down the streets of New York and get to where I'm going. And maybe after somebody passes me, after three steps, four steps, goes, "Oh, that was Richard Kind!" But I keep going. … My joke is I will walk down the street and somebody will say, "Mr. Kind, you've changed my life, you're wonderful, you're a treasure. Oh my gosh, you are the best. We love you and my whole family loves you." And that's one person. And I pass 250 people who don't know who I am. So it's wonderful to get the accolades and it's humbling to just keep walking. I like to keep walking now. When I was a kid I wanted to be stopped by everybody. Now I have a life.
On feeling like a fraud
Oh, every day I feel like a fraud! Every single day. I'm waiting for the world to say I'm not that talented. I'm not that good. Every day I wake up like that. Every day! But a flip side of that, a friend of mine said, "I may not always be great anymore, but I think I'm good enough to never stink." You know what I mean? I'm not going to be bad. I'll be fine. There are parts that I hope I'm great in. And I always yearn not just to be great, but to be better than everybody else in a scene. I want to be great. But if you're playing tennis with a better tennis player, it's just not gonna happen. So there were some times when I say, you know what, you're not gonna win an Academy Award for this role, just do it correctly. Don't try and stand out. Don't try and steal [the scene]. Just do the part. And that's a very different way to come to set.
On originating a role in Sondheim's Bounce and working with him
If I put a "the" instead of "an" in the lyric, he would correct me. Hanging on my wall in my house, one of my most treasured things is just typed out lyrics, maybe three, four lines in the song, and he would then cross it out and put it in pencil, because he famously wrote in pencil the changes, and he was … diligent on every comma, every word. He really worked hard. … I was very scared. I was nervous the whole time. I was a smoker at the time. That's when I quit smoking. … I had to do it well. I know what smoking can do. You have to have that breath control. You have to go to the end of the line. You can't take a pause in the middle of one of his words or one of the sentences.
On working at his father's jewelry store growing up
My dad didn't trust me with the beautiful jewels or the expensive stuff. I sold lighters and sterling silver key chains, pens and stuff like that, maybe candelabras, but I didn't sell the expensive stuff. … Now there's a very funny story. ... I'm showing this woman various Dunhill lighters, which are beautiful lighters. And I pull one out and she says, "I'll take this one." And I write down $25. And she says no, excuse me, I think that's $250. I go, "'No, no, it's $25" and I show her. And she goes, "No that says $250." And I look, I go, "Oh my God, $250 for a lighter?!" ...
That's the kind of salesman I was. Yeah, I was not great. I would be behind the repair desk, and a woman brought in two dome-shaped earrings, like gold earrings. They were large. And one of them was all dense and everything. And she goes, "My dog got a hold of this, and I'm wondering if we can match it." And I go, no, but if you bring the dog in, I can feed him the other one." That's how I approached my work.
On how he believes he has "a huge ego with no confidence"
Being an actor, it's abnormal. It's an anomaly. … It's unnatural for a man to get up on a stage in front of people. It's unnatural to be in front of a camera while 50 to 100 people are behind the camera and pretend that you're somebody else and just lay bare your emotions. You know how people are scared of getting attention? I'm waving my arms going, "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" and yet with that … comes a fear of … 'I'm a fraud. Am I good enough?' … And I think any actor worth his salt would like to be better and give a better performance than what they gave. ...
I need affirmation all the time. It's why I like live theater. Even if it's a drama, I can feel the audience listening to me, liking me. There's no bottom to the urn of love that I need. That is a lack of confidence — and yet my ego says, "Go out and do it, and do it louder than everybody else." It's who I am.
Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Clare Lombardo adapted it for the web.
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