TV - Movies
How The King Of
Queens Live
Audience Impacted
Kevin James'
Performance
By CHRISTIAN SCHOON
Before his nine-season stint as the hard-working, blue-collar Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," Kevin James cut his comedy teeth as a stand-up performer. Before that he paid his dues in plays and improv troupes. So, with his long history of live performances, how did James feel about having live audiences when making "King of Queens"?
In a 2020 YouTube clip, James explained that live audiences were crucial to the tapings, stating, "If you do one joke and get a big laugh on it, you're more confident for your next joke." He added that the downside would be if the audience failed to respond, it could cause an actor to lose faith in the next joke and "Pull back on it a little bit because you don't believe in it."
He also described the benefit of a live audience reacting to a bit with a lot of enthusiasm and laughter, saying, "You know, a studio audience like that is just amazing." But, in a self-deprecating aside, he admitted that if the audience didn't laugh, "We would just sweeten it," referring to the process of adding in a laugh track to beef up a lackluster audience response.