The Hilarious Mo Gaffney

MG: I am.

AM: How did that happen?

MG: My great grandfather was Socorro Diaz and he married Esther Doyle and they had my grandmother who was Madeleine Diaz and she married my grandfather and they had my mother.

AM: That’s great to know your family tree that far back. Do you feel that Cuban blood?

MG: No...maybe...I don’t know if I feel any blood. I guess I do. I like that there’s a dollop of Latina in me!

AM: You are from San Diego right?

MG: Originally my family is from New York.

AM: Where did you start your career in show business?

MG: When I got out of high school I started working in the office at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Then I started doing improv down there. I was in an Improv Group called ‘The International Blend Players.’ Then I met Kathy Najimy.

AM: What was she doing then?

MG: She was running this women’s coffee shop and performing at night. She told me to put together an improv group of women and come perform there. So I did...we called ourselves ‘The Hot Flashes’ and we did a lot of performing up and down the coast of California! Then Kathy and I became friends and we wrote ‘The Kathy and Mo Show’ and moved to New York and got off-Broadway.

AM: How long did it take you and Kathy to write your first show?

MG: The first time we worked together it didn’t take too terribly long...a couple of months.

AM: Did you know it was funny?

MG: Yes...absolutely. We thought it was funny. I thought Kathy was the funniest person I’d ever met in my life! There were a couple of skits we did that we hoped the audience would think was funny. We did a skit called ‘Sister Woman Sister’ about powerful radical feminist women. We didn’t know if we were quite there yet, but we were obviously. We also did some with gay themes and we thought it was funny. We thought if the audience can’t take it them screw them, but they thought it was funny.

 

AM: Was this early 90‘s?

MG: This is earlier than that, more like middle 80‘s. It was a long time ago.

AM: Your work really stands the test of time. People are still performing it all over!

MG: I know! Not bad!

AM: How many shows did you write with Kathy?

MG: We just write material. It’s always ‘The Kathy and Mo Show’ with different material. We did three different shows basically with different pieces we plug in and out. The first show as called ‘Parallel Lives’ and we performed that off Broadway and an HBO Special. A lot of material didn’t make it into 'Parallel Lives’ and that along with a couple new pieces, became the next HBO Special called 'The Dark Side.’ Then we had kids so we did another incarnation of the show we called ‘Afterbirth.’ We did some of the same stuff but we wrote new things as well.

AM: Do you still perform with Kathy?

MG: The last time we did it was almost a year ago. Kathy lives in New York now so it’s harder to write anything new. We wrote a couple of new things for the DVD. One was about a support group for Disney Moms because they are always dead or die in the first ten minutes...always! Really? Do they always have to kill off all the Moms? (much laughter) Look at ‘Nemo’ and 'Beauty and the Beast.’ It’s just not right.

AM: Were you just a natural when you started improv?

MG: Yes.

AM: I think you’re a genius with improv.

MG: Let’s not say genius. I REALLY love it! I love it, love it, love it! I can do it at the drop of a hat. I could do it always!

AM: How did you get on ‘Absolutely Fabulous’?

MG: After ‘The Kathy and Mo Show’ I did a show called 'The Full Wax’ with Ruby Wax. She saw me in 'The Kathy and Mo Show’ and she called me and asked me to do something for her show which was produced by the BBC. She wanted me to be an American reporter called Taffy Turner.

AM: I have seen them and you are hysterical!!!

MG: Thank you, that’s how I met Jennifer Saunders. She and Ruby are good friends. I also saw 'French and Saunders’ while I was in England and I thought it as the funniest show I’d ever seen. So when Jennifer did 'Ab Fab’ she called and asked me to be a part of it. I said, “Of course, I’ll do anything.” Of course they didn’t want to have to fly an American actress over there. They told her there were plenty of good actresses in England. You can’t blame them, but do we employ every single actress from England over here? Anyway, thinking fast she told the producers she wrote the character based on me, which isn’t at all true. They gave in and told her they would fly me over but she would have to put me up so I stayed at her home.

AM: Was that comfortable for you?

MG: It was lovely. I didn’t know her very well. We had only met a couple of times. I stayed there with her and her three kids. This is before it was on TV here or there. I saw the pilot and thought it was the funniest TV show I have ever seen.

AM: So it was no surprise to you it was a massive hit world wide?

MG: Not at all! It’s hilarious.

AM: Is that your most high profile gig?

MG: I don’t know, is it? Maybe world wide because I’ve been recognized for it in France and Germany.

AM: Is it a fun atmosphere to work in?

MG: It’s spectacular! That’s the first sitcom I ever did.

AM: British people are a lot more down to earth aren’t they?

MG: Absolutely, Joanna would serve everybody tea.

AM: So they are lovely women, just as I imagine them.

MG: Yes, all of them are.

AM: Just the fact that they’ve stayed on the show for so long.

MG: Anybody would go back to do that show. I guarantee it.

AM: Are there any new shows coming up?

MG: We got one more show coming up this summer that I am in. We already filmed them. Jennifer has to write the Spice Girls Musical by December so maybe after that she will write some more ‘Ab Fabs.’ I hope so. I would love to do it until I die.

AM: It is such a joy to see you on that show! I’ve seen you in so many things. Like I said earlier you are hysterical as Taffy Turner.

MG: Thanks, I loved doing that!

AM; Did you do all the writing for that character?

MG: Yes I totally wrote it, but often I would write it in the morning before we taped the segment.

AM: You have so many wonderful characters you can play. Where do they come from?

MG: I don’t know...I’m just whatever is needed in the moment, really.

AM: Were you like this as a child?

MG: I always knew I wanted to be an actor since I was little. To this day I like to pretend. It’s just so much fun!

AM: Are you now pursuing more writing jobs?

MG: I’ve always written obviously. I’ve written a pilot or two and a movie, and extra material for movies. I had a radio show and I wrote something every week for that. I just wrote a one act play for ‘Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.’ So I have always written but I never counted on writing to be my living. I’ve never paid that much attention to how much I’ve written.

AM: Would you like to write something that you could star in on television?

MG: Sure...

AM: That wouldn’t be too much work?

MG: No, My friend Lisa and I wrote a pilot, but it didn’t get picked up.

AM: I saw what you wrote on your blog about having a channel that would show all the pilots that never got picked up. That’s a great idea!

MG: I think it would be spectacular! Why doesn’t somebody do that? I myself have done about six or seven pilots that did not get picked up. Nobody will ever see them.

AM: I do love you in ‘Happy Texas’!

MG: That film was made for under a dollar. I’m not kidding. I did that for a dollar. They gave us some money after it got sold at Sundance.

AM: What advice do you give to young people who want to be an actress?

MG: Oh, I say don’t get in it.

AM: I agree, it’s a rough life.

MG: You have to be a certain personality type to really be able to stick with it. Even if you are talented you may not make it so you better have something to back it up. You have to have a ‘stick to it’ quality and a laser beam vision. Also you kind of have to be an asshole to really make it.

AM: Do you notice the closer people are to the top the more asshole qualities they have?

MG: Yes I do! Some of them are lovely people and were just at the right place at the right time. They are very talented and have a certain spark. It was lucky for them. That’s all it was. They are not more talented or better people. I was even lucky, and I’m not even a big star. I’ve had a certain amount of luck and a certain amount of work...and a certain amount of talent, but I’m not more talented than anybody else. I always say you have to really have something to fall back on. I also say do theater as much as possible because that’s where you learn to be a person. Other than that I don’t know anything about it.  I don't have any advice!! It doesn't help! People never take advice anyway. I didn't!! (laughter)