John Kilduff is all about creativity. His cable show, Let's Paint TV has done over 600 episodes and has fans worldwide thanks to Youtube and Myspace. We're hoping for an upcoming version which will feature painting, exercising, and making tacos live on TV while taking calls. Watch the video above, if you haven't already, before reading this interview...
TACO: How did let's paint TV evolve into Let's Pain and Exercise TV and then Let's Paint, Exercise, and Make Blended Drinks TV?
John: In 2005, after doing a few hundred "Let's Paint TV" shows my next guest Saddam Hussain (James Evans) showed up late for the show. There was this exercise bike in the prop room ( left over from an older show I used to do titled "The Jim Berry Show"1995-2001) and I thought ...hey how about trying to paint and bicycle at the same time. So I tried it out and it seemed to work but thought hey I bet running on a treadmill will work better....that seemed to work pretty well and than I realized I had this extra hand doing nothing but taking calls.......let's cook and blend with my extra hand.... and the rest is history.
TACO: How many episodes have you done?
I don't have an official count but my guess is 60 or so of the "Let's Paint, Exercise and Cook" shows and 300 Let's Paint TV shows and 300 Jim Berry shows.
TACO: you stress creativity, what other creative pursuits do you have?
John: Well most of my time I spend painting as this is my only source of income. I do like to cook too. In the end though my whole life is a creative endeavor. I love the search of the unknown, the undiscovered, the underdog-what?
TACO: Has YouTube been a major factor in the show's success?
John: Definitely! Now the whole world can watch the shows. I had a small fan base before but now it's ginormus! It also is a great calling card for getting on tv shows like Tyra, America's Got Talent, and Charactor Road Trip.
TACO: Your callers are certainly unique, do you know any of them off the air?
John: No, except for one show a bunch of the Youtubers/myspacers decided to call in and congratulate me. And every once in a while someone from the station crank calls the show.
TACO: Where can people watch the show live? Which cable systems/times, etc?
John: The show can be seen once or twice a month on Saturday and at various times. My next show is this Saturday ( 7-21) at 11:30 am. It airs on the TimeWarner cable system in the following area: Santa Monica, Eagle Rock, Beverly Hills, West LA, and West Hollywood
John does his thing with Ask a Chola
TACO: What part of town do you live in? What do you like about LA?
John: I live in Van Nuys now after 20 years in Echo Park. It's nice over here. Everything is here in terms of shops except there's no good art store. Lots of parking everywhere too. I love to taking Beverly Glen up and over the hill to Beverly Hills. It makes me fell sort of rich. But avoid rush hour leaving the valley in the morning and returning in the afternoon on any of these canyon roads and the 405 for that matter. What I like about LA is the giganticness of it all. You can scream your heart out and nobody is going to care. Which is a good thing for the most part.
TACO: What's the next evolution of the show?
John: I am looking forward to doing some live on stage performances at the moment. Also, I thinking about getting sponsorship for the show say Nike dress suits, Precor treadmills, Jamba Juice, Oster Blenders, Foreman Grill, Bally's, Windsor & Newton, etc.
TACO: Have you thought about adding some rum or other alcohol to the mixed drinks?
John: Sure! But the cable studio has a rule about no alcohol.
TACO: Are there any dates for the live performances yet? What type of venue do you want to play?
John: I am going to perform at the Electric-Eclectic Festival in Toronto,Canada this Aug 3 and at the Dunedin Art Center in Florida in January 08. The first one is a music-performance arts festival and the second is an art venue. I am tentatively scheduled to perform along with the band Rahdunes at COG (Los Angeles) Aug 10th and also tentatively at the Asylum Theater Aug 15,22,and 29th of Aug. I am open to performing at any venue. One place I would like to perform at is the county fair demonstration tent, right next to the ginzo knife guy and the swiffer sweeper guy.
TACO: Do you like tacos, and if so where's your favorite taco truck or restaurant?
John: I live off them. I been making cheese (extra sharp) tacos with leftovers sprinkled in them for years. Taco's 50cents ( I think that their name) has some good and cheap tacos. They're on Beverly/Vermont and might be called Tacos Mexico, I don't know.
TACO: I have heard your show has a big following among celebrities. Do you ever hear from them?
John: Where did you hear that? Wow! really? If so, no. No one has contacted me yet but I am in the phone book.
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