YRB Interview: Carrie Keagan

By Carly Pifer

Carrie Keagan is living the life. Girls want to hang with her: she has a standard crush on George Clooney but can hold her own around Chelsea Handler. Guys want to do her: she has the mouth of a sailor and the body of a goddess. She’s the host of the new VH1 show Big Morning Buzz Live where she gets to hang out with musicians, celebrities and comedians (except at an ungodly hour), which is essentially her (and everyone’s) dream job.

YRB: Tell us about your new show on VH1.
CK: Big Morning Buzz Live is a weekday morning show at 9:30 A.M. on VH1. It’s all things pop culture; we have celebrities in studio, we have all kinds of bloggers and correspondents coming in to talk about all the latest gossip and all the latest celebrity news. Everything that’s happening in entertainment is happening at Big Morning Buzz Live!

YRB: You’ve been on the air for over a week now, who are some of the guests you’ve had?
CK: We had Paul Bettany, Akon, Cuba Gooding Jr., Stephen Colletti from One Tree Hill, Raphael Saadiq, he’s got a new album out, Linda Perry, she’s got a new album out.

YRB: And can you tell us who’s on next?
CK: I would if I could but I honestly don’t know!

YRB: Who is your dream guest for the show?
CK: Oooo we were just talking about George Clooney… I would love to have George Clooney on my show.

YRB: (sarcastically) Why on earth?
CK: (also sarcastically) I don’t know! Seriously, I’ve interviewed George before and everyone has that reaction when they meet George Clooney like ‘oooo melty melty… George Clooney, he’s so dreamy!’ But on top of being all that he’s just a cool guy and so he’s got a really good reputation, but he stands up to it as well.

YRB: Who was your all-time best interview?
CK: I love interviewing, and I have a couple of genres of people that I like interviewing, I like doing comedians because I enjoy laughing a lot so some of my favorite people are like Robin Williams or Russell Brand. I also love interviewing the legends, like Shirley MacLaine, and Michael Douglas. Shirley MacLaine is one of my favorite interviews of all time because she’s cool, she’s been around, she’s smart and she has a potty mouth and I totally appreciate her for that.

YRB: You’ve done a lot of cameos in comedy films; do you consider yourself a comedian?
CK: Um… I think that I can be funny? But like I was saying, I love to laugh so anytime I get that opportunity – which I try to make happen as often as I can, I will do it! The times that I’ve been in films or TV shows I was at the right place at the right time and it has just been wonderful. I did a little bit in Superbad and I was in The Hangover and I just was hanging out on the set and they were like, “Hey, pop into the scene” and that was great! I was interviewing the cast for Reno 911! for their film when it came out and we had so much fun they were like “Do you wanna come on our show?” and I was like “Yeahhhh I’ll totally do that!” So I ended up being on five episodes that season and I was having the time of my life; it was even better than hanging out with improv people, these guys are the best at what they do.

YRB: Do you have plans to do more acting?
CK: Yeah I like it a lot but I love being a host, I’ve had the most practice being a host but the acting part of it is just fun. I never really trained to be a host or a journalist so I come at it from a different perspective than people that have gone to school, where they take it as more about getting information and reporting on news but my interviews are definitely more about just hanging out and having fun so when I do the acting thing it comes from that place as well, it’s not about honing my craft because I’ve never trained to be an actress, I just think it’s a really fun thing to do.

YRB: Is this what you always dreamed you’d be doing?
CK: My whole growing up life I wanted to promote bands. That’s what my dream job was.

YRB: And that’s kind of your job!
CK: The way I wanted to do it was very much behind the scenes and the way that it ended up happening is very much not behind the scenes… with my NGTV stuff it’s very much in your face.

YRB: Your job sounds amazing and awesome, but what’s difficult about hosting?
CK: Well right now I’m doing a morning show and everything I’ve done up until now has been more nighttime centric so I had to move from LA to New York and I had to get used to that time change and on top of that I have to get up at four in the damn morning! That is a nightmare all on its own, so I’m still getting used to that. It’s interesting, I feel like I’m hallucinating half the time. When that alarm goes off at four o’ clock in the morning I don’t know where the hell I am yet.

YRB: Do you act differently on a show where people have barely had their coffee?
CK: No it’s absolutely the same, the only thing I do differently right now is because it’s VH1 I cant really throw an F-bomb here and there so I have to kind of watch what I say, otherwise the attitude is absolutely the same. It’s all about having fun, being in the moment, it’s not necessarily about getting information. It’s just about having a beer with your favorite celebrity.

YRB: Beer at 9 A.M., love it! Tell us about Chelsea Lately.
CK: I love being on Chelsea, I was on there a dozen times and I was always on the panel with a bunch of really great comedians. Chelsea has always been very nice to me and she allowed me back on her show multiple times. She definitely has a biting sense of humor; you have to be on your toes at all times.

YRB: How did you end up in Playboy, besides obviously being playboy worthy material?
CK: We launched the No Good TV website and it got all kinds of press when it launched and Playboy had seen all the press and they called me and that phone call was one of the coolest phone calls ever, who doesn’t want that? What a compliment! And they said “We would love to put you in the magazine.” I said, “I would love to be in your magazine but I really don’t love to be naked,” and they said, “OK we get it, would you want to be babe of the month?” So I was able to get in the magazine without showing all of my naughty bits. And I figure if they still want me when I’m 50 I’ll go full monty for them.