Getting to know Justin Kent
By Gwen Leahy
Q&A
Q: Acting, singing, hosting, dancing, improv... You are a man of many talents! Genuinely speaking, is there anything you can't do?
A: Oh, so much. I desperately wish I had the discipline to play a musical instrument well. I get so jealous of musicians. I'm too lazy to put in the work. I'm currently producing a show that needs novelty acts, and I wish so much that I could swallow swords or juggle or something fun like that. I never feel like I'm doing anything as well as I'd like, but I haven't been booed off the stage yet.
Q: You are one of the brave and few actors in the Savannah area that has performed with nearly every major local theatre troupe at one point or another. What is your advice to other local performers who are wanting to branch out past their "home troupe" and pursue performance opportunities around the city?
A: Oh, just audition. And then keep auditioning. Just because someone doesn't cast you doesn't mean they don't like you. Oh, and also, don't be an ass. How you act backstage is often more important. Everyone, in my experience, has been very welcoming.
Q: You are a local tour-group legend, ranging from hosting walking Forrest Gump tours when you first moved to Savannah, to now offering tours within the Savannah Paranormal Museum. How do you think your acting and improv skills help you while you are interacting with tour patrons, and do you have a favorite tour memory?
A: Improv is helpful in every aspect of life. For real. Take some improv classes. You don't have to perform it. But man, there are tools you learn that sincerely help day to day. I can't stress it enough. Acting is very much the same. If you learn both skills, even if you don't perform, you'll learn a lot. When I was Forrest Gump, acting was of course helpful playing that character, and improv came in to play when I had to have public interactions in character. Any tour is the same way. Even if you aren't Forrest Gump or some character from Savannah's past, you still play a version of yourself that is (at least in my case) more extroverted ad has no anxiety while putting on a tour.
Q: If you don't mind my saying so, you look very similar to a local debonair host, burlesque performer, and podcast aficionado by the name of Marty Milquetoast. Have you met him personally, and, if so, what do you think of him?
A: Oh yeah, I know the guy. I do some accounting for him. He's all right. He comes off pretty pervy sometimes, but it's a respectful pervy. A perv, but not a creep. I love everything he does, though. Always well done, always fun. I plan to go to Marty Milquetoast's Halloween Extravaganza on Halloween. It sounds fantastic. I don't see the similarity, personally, but he's a good looking dude, I'll take it.
Q: Your final question is the same as everyone else's: What is one role or production that is on your bucket list that you haven't had the opportunity to perform in before?
A: I still haven't been in a production of “Noises Off,” and it's one of my all time favorite shows. I would be willing to be anyone in that. Anyone. In 2020, I got to play Don Quixote in “Man Of La Mancha,” but our second weekend was shut down by the Pandemic. I'd love to get another shot at that. Also, I should be Beetlejuice, right?
Promo:
Catch Justin… accounting… At “Marty Milquetoast's Halloween Extravaganza!” Taking place Halloween night at Victory North.
