Junior film, video and interactive media major Joe Kohle’s acting career began at age 11, when he played Teyve in a summer production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
But next semester, Kohle will take on a new project, when he becomes the host of Q30 Television’s “Late Night” show.
Although Kohle is involved in Fourth Wall, he focused most of his time at Quinnipiac on Student Government Association as junior class vice president. Kohle originally planned to run for SGA’s executive board, but then decided to run for senior class vice president so he could join organizations related to his major.
“I had no intentions of doing the [“Late Night”] show when I made that decision,” he said. “I wanted to join Q[uinnipiac] F[ilm] S[ociety] and Q30 cause even though I love SGA and everything I’m involved with, I felt like I was not paying attention to another side of being involved.”
Kohle heard about auditions for the “Late Night” show through this year’s host, senior Kevin Carroll. While Kohle wrote a One Act comedy his senior year of high school, he had no prior experience as a stand-up comedian.
“When I auditioned for the hosting job [it was] the first time I actually told jokes in front of everyone,” he said.
But Kohle does have a love for late-night shows. In high school, he always searched YouTube for interviews with actors until he stumbled upon David Letterman’s “Late Show” on YouTube.
“I was like, these [late-night show hosts] are more interesting than the actors,” Kohle said. “I never watched late-night talk shows as a kid and then I started really liking it to the point where I’m obsessed with it now. I watch it all the time, so when this opportunity came I always wanted to try to do something like that so I had to audition.”
Co-Executive Producer of “Late Night” Rebecca Castagna said she was impressed with Kohle’s ideas for the show when he auditioned.
“Joe surprised us because we had never really seen him do comedy before,” she said. “He shared a vision for the show and that was something that we felt was really important.”
Kohle’s sidekick on the show will be his friend and fraternity brother junior Charlie Doe.
“Thank God, because he’s so funny, funnier than I am to be honest,” Kohle said. “He’s done stand up before and he’s–besides being incredibly funny–his humor derives from his intelligence and how smart he is.”
Castagna said when Doe auditioned he reminded her of Carroll.
“We saw [Kohle and Doe] together and we saw Joe being the charismatic one and then Charlie having that personality where he can inject that sharp humor,” she said. “That we figured would be a really good combination for the show.”
Doe said he is excited to work with Kohle.
“I think Joe’s hysterical,” Doe said. “He’s going to be really easy to work with because he thinks I’m funny so he laughs at everything I say. And since we’re such good friends it’ll be really fun, just to kind of show that natural sort of chemistry you have in front of everyone else.”
Kohle said he does not have any specific sketches planned yet, but he wants to do more musical-based comedy.
“Obviously you want to make sure that you don’t do anything too similar to [Carroll] because you don’t want to be compared to anyone,” Kohle said. “But you want to go off what they did well in certain aspects.”
Carroll said he hopes the “Late Night” show is not a fad.
“I want everyone to be progressively worse than me, but I would like for it to go on,” Carroll joked.
Doe said he and Kohle want to find a way to make the show their own.
“Kevin has a style that like I don’t think anybody could really copy just cause he’s so unique and fun,” Doe said. “But I think me and Joe are definitely going to try and make our own mark on it. Really work together, figure out what makes the most people laugh and then sort of adjust if it’s not working.”
