Downtown Crowd, May 2021

Page 18

exclusive q&a with

Coming to Pensacon!

kate flannery by Dakota Parks

18 | DOWNTOWNCROWD.COM

or most millennials and Netflix-now-Peacock-bingewatchers, Kate Flannery is easy to ID for her role as Meredith Palmer, the inappropriate, frequently drunk and sexually promiscuous employee for the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch on The Office. In college, Flannery studied acting, and shortly after she joined The Second City’s National Touring Company and became an original member of Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, starring in over 15 shows including The Miss Vagina Pageant and The Real Live Brady Bunch. Outside of her nine-year stint in the paper supply business, Flannery has kept herself busy singing on tour with Jane Lynch, dancing on Dancing with the Stars, performing in shows with her musical comedy improv group The Lampshades and starring in a variety of films and TV shows. She has voiced the character of Barb on Steven Universe, appeared in episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl and films like Helicopter Mom, Cooties and 4th Man Out to name a few. Hi, Kate! Thanks for meeting with me. Have you been to many comic conventions? KF: Of course! I have, actually. About a year and a half before the pandemic started, a few of us from The Office started getting invites to conventions. They’re a lot of fun, and I’m excited to come to Pensacola.

not allowed to comment, but there is clearly so much to comment on. I also think that kids tend to plug into The Office because being in a classroom is not unlike being at a workplace. Everybody’s at a desk, usually next to someone you didn’t pick. Your boss is kind of like a teacher. It’s the subtleties and silences of life that make it so hysterical.

Did anyone on the cast ever anticipate The Office becoming such a big cultural phenomenon? KF: Oh my God, no way! It really gained a whole new following when it started streaming on Netflix. The writing is just amazing though, and there is something so relatable about the documentarystyle office setting. It’s the subtleties of the workplace, where you’re

What was it like auditioning for The Office? KF: Initially, I actually auditioned for the part of Jan and didn’t get that, so I wasn’t in the pilot. But they held auditions later in the year, and I went in and they told me “don’t wear make-up and don’t try to be funny,” which are kind of antithetical to most auditions for comedies. I knew Steve Carell from the Second City comedy


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