Just Say "Strip Mall"

Whether she's playing a kooky hair stylist in Earth Girls Are

Easy or imitating Madonna circa Blond Ambition in Medusa:

Dare to Be Truthful, Julie Brown always maintains comic aplomb

and amazingly buoyant cleavage. Her career runs the gamut from

singing to acting to VJing, with assorted comic relief nestled in

between.

The Daily Californian recently got the chance to

interview Brown, who is now the First Lady of the new Comedy Central

show "Strip Mall."

The Daily Californian: Describe "Strip Mall" in your own words.

Julie Brown: A comic soap opera set in the San Fernando

Valley with Hollywood wannabes and other crazy people.

DC: What kind of production schedule is the show on? How

long from pen to screen?

JB: We started in September with the writing and we're

going to finish in the end of March. It's pretty fast because there's

some point in the middle that's insane-there's six or seven shows in

the middle in production. The other part that's hard is we'll shoot

things from two to three different episodes on the same set.

DC: You and writer Charlie Coffey have been working

together for a long time. How do you keep the writing fresh?

JB: That's a really hard one to answer. I think it's just

that a new idea occurs to you and you see what comes out of that. On

this season we added a character who is a cannibal...I didn't have

any specific ideas beyond thinking it might be funny. But we sat down

and thought, well, what could we do with that?

DC: Do you ever think you go too far with "Strip Mall"?

JB: I think sometimes we go too far. When we were

wrapping up the first ten shows and I was working on the editing I

was kind of shocked. I think that because it's Comedy Central and we

had the license to go pretty far, we did.

DC: You've been involved with lots of projects in your

career. How does this show compare?

JB: It compares in that almost every time I've been in

production there's usually somebody in charge that really annoys the

shit out of you. That person isn't here. Suddenly I'm the boss, and I

don't have to deal with that evil person who annoys everybody.

DC: How did you come up with the concept of your

character, Tammi Tyler?

JB: The inspiration for the whole show is the show "Mary

Hartman," which was this sort of outrageous soap opera that was on

late at night in the late '70s or early '80s. I always thought that

doing a soap opera was kind of funny. We were trying to think of

desperate characters, and somebody who had a chance at stardom and

just lost it is so funny. We can have all this intrigue going on in

the most ordinary environment you can imagine.

DC: Are there any similarities between you and Tammi?

JB: I don't think there's that many. The scary thing is,

what if there are and I don't realize it? I think I channel a lot of

craziness into it. I think she's really selfish and narcissistic. I

think I'm kind of driven, and I think she's driven too.

DC: How did you come up with ideas for costumes?

JB: I think it's really funny when women dress too young,

like they're always trying to get men to look at them. When women

dress way too young for themselves-the big cha cha heels and

stuff-they attract all this attention and I guess that's funny to me.

DC: Your character on "Strip Mall" is overtly sexual

without really showing much skin beyond her toes and cleavage. How do

you feel about Tammi as a sexual "hotspot" or center of the show?

JB: I wouldn't want to show more skin because I'm a mom.

What I think is funny is her trying to use sexuality or lure people

with her sexuality. I think it's funny-somebody whose orientation to

life that is.

DC: Do you miss your job at MTV?

JB: MTV was really fun. I had a blast there. I do miss

MTV because they let you do whatever too. But they don't pay anybody

anything so you're always trying to create a show out of, like,

$1.50. They're really fun, really nice people. But they can be

frustrating too.

DC: Do you have fond memories of the show or MTV?

JB: I remember that Gene Simmons from Kiss was really

lecherous and disgusting. He was on one of the early shows. After him

and some other person, I went, well that's enough of that. I did one

episode where we made him explode and I vacuumed him up.

DC: How did you avoid the washed-up-in-the-ditch MTV VJ syndrome?

JB: I never really thought I was a VJ. I was an actress

and a comedian. I only ended up on MTV because I was promoting this

album that I had and they had me come on. I decided that instead of

acting like the videos were really good I'd make fun of them. In my

head I never thought of myself as a VJ, so as soon as I was done with

that show I kept doing what I was already doing.

DC: What's up with your web site? Why is it

"www.Julie-Brown.com" instead of just "www.JulieBrown.com"?

JB: There's this guy in Canada who registered my name,

and he wouldn't give it up. He's a jerky cyber-squatter. I had to sue

him, and I won yesterday. He registered Bruce Springsteen's name too

and Bruce lost!

DC: Do you have any hints as to what's coming up on "Strip Mall?"

JB: Tammi's going to do a screen test because she thinks

she's got an "in" with Ron Howard after she meets his brother. Once

again she's trying to get her career back together. We actually got

Ron Howard's brother to come on the show.

DC: Do people ever mistake you for Downtown Julie Brown?

JB: It's a weird thing. People think I'm Downtown Julie

Brown. People will look at me and say, "you're Downtown Julie Brown!"

My dad tells people I'm Downtown Julie Brown!

DC: Do you ever hang out in strip malls to research for the show?

JB: No. We shoot in a real strip mall. But otherwise no

because they're just these kinds of blights on the landscape.

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