Entertainment :: Celebrities
"Uber-fabulous" Liam Kyle Sullivan by Padraic Maroney
EDGE ContributorMonday Sep 29, 2008
Being able to take something as basic as shoes and turning an ode to them into an internet sensation is tough feat. But that’s what Liam Kyle Sullivan did when he created the character of Kelly. Winning the 2008 People’s Choice Award for the "Shoes" video cemented both his and Kelly’s popularity. To parlay his success, Sullivan is currently on tour with Margaret Cho in support of the "Beautiful" tour.
Creating Kelly
The comic, who credits actor Liam Neeson with helping to bring their collective first name into the national consciousness, has been living in California for over a decade. It was while working on creating characters for his show, aptly titled "The Liam Show," that Sullivan came up with the Kelly character.
"I kind of pictured myself with braces. It was kind of like a female version of Butthead - you know how his lips are curled back and his teeth are exposed - and a little ’Napoleon Dynamite’," Sullivan explained about the character’s origin. "Kind of bored and everything sucks, except for shoes! Shoes - yea, that’s amazing, that’s where it’s really at - and tops and texting and talking to your friends; things that can provide some high drama for this character."
While the character came easily, getting used to the idea of actually dressing in drag to be transformed into the character was a new experience. Initially he was surprised by how feminine he looked in the outfit. But more than just being able to not look like a guy in a dress, it was his ability to pass for a female mentally too.
"The first time I did Kelly live I kind of knew I had something because this girl came up after and gripped my arm - a vice like grip - and was like how’d you know that’s what’s in our heads," Sullivan recalls with a laugh. "It’s silly and doesn’t make fun of women. Really, it just illuminates that high drama going after shoes."
The drama comes, not from a nemesis but rather her family and the situations that come up. In the four minute clip, Kelly must thwart her family’s horrible birthday present and the naysayers who try to keep her from getting the ever important shoes that she wants.
"Shoes" started the nation’s love affair with Kelly, but it the YouTube success happened unexpectedly. It wasn’t Sullivan who posted the clip, but rather an excited fan wanting to share the video with everyone. In fact, when he discovered that the clip was a success on YouTube it caught the actor off guard.
"I’m very pleased with it, but also very surprised. Before YouTube and the Internet, I was struggling; I didn’t have anything going on really. I had some commercials out there, so I was paying bills as an actor which felt really good. But I wasn’t really breaking," Sullivan said, "then YouTube happened and it was like bam! I had distribution. Before I needed someone, a studio, a producer, somebody to come along and say I want you in my thing I’m going to distribute."
With a character so obsessed with getting the best shoes, you’d think that shoe manufacturers would be beating down Sullivan’s door to supply shoes to his fictional muse. Not so, said the actor who believes it’s due to major company’s lack of embracing the Internet.
"If people talk to 10 year olds or 12 year olds, they’ll realize that YouTube or Internet and TV are the same for them. There is no difference. Someone on the Internet who is big, is the same as someone on TV who is big," Sullivan explains about the shift happening in the media.
Photo: Liam Kyle Sullivan as Kelly.
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