Think you’re a confident kid? Would you have the guts to, say, scratch your hairy armpit with a fork on national TV?
Amanda Bynes has pulled that and other outlandish stunts as the star of Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show.”
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“I made a vow to my dad and mom when I got the show. I said I don’t want to be afraid to look stupid,” she told KidNews.
Amanda is awesome in her show, which features her and four other cast members in sketches and short films. She plays lots of characters, including enormous Mother Caboose, who tells awful nursery rhymes; and Judge Trudy, a mean, gavel-slamming kid judge. Amanda, 13, has had lots of practice for her big show. She has been hamming it up since she was a little girl.
“My dad is a really funny guy; I think I got it from him,” she said. “I was always the class clown. I was always trying to make people laugh.”
She hit the stage after going to a comedy camp at age 7. “My dad and I made up an act, and I would do stand-up,” she said. She got tips from the best in the biz, including Richard Pryor and Jim Carrey. At age 10, while doing stand-up at the L.A. comedy club The Laugh Factory, she was discovered by an “All That” big-wig. She became that Nick show’s youngest cast member. And now, just a few years later, she has her own show.
Still, she has her sights on bigger things. Like, she wouldn’t mind working with Carrey on the big screen someday. When we mentioned that Carrey is set to play the Grinch in an upcoming movie, she piped up, “I could play a Grinchette!”
Back to that armpit-fork thing. Amanda scratched that itch while playing Miss Elegant, an obnoxious girl on a date at a fancy restaurant (that’s her at left). She also burped and stuck her face in spaghetti sauce. (And we loved the part where she asked her grossed-out date, “Mind if I go to the bathroom?” He said, “No, go, go!” We expected her to get up, but she just sat there as a contented smile spread across her face…) Isn’t it hard not to crack up doing such silly scenes?
“Ohmigosh, it is so hard,” Amanda said. “But it’s so much fun. You look over and see the camera guy’s face crack up.”
Any tips for performing before an audience? “Just go up there and be yourself. If you get really scared, think of everybody doing something really stupid” (like scratching their hairy pits…).