KEY MICHAEL FULL

He earned an undergraduate degree in acting in 1993 at U-D Mercy, where he appeared in such productions as Talk Radio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich. The cable network liked what they saw and Key & Peele debuted in 2012. In 2011, the man who managed both entertainers asked if they were interested in doing a pilot for Comedy Central. On that show, he portrayed Obama nerdy, high-strung Coach Sandoval “Sandy” Hines and other characters.

KEY MICHAEL FULL

His gig on MADtv, a late-night show full of MAD magazine humor, lasted from 2004 until 2009. Those who aren’t hip to Key & Peele and who never saw Key at Second City may still know who he is: He was on MADtv, co-founded and played at Planet Ant Theatre, and acted at the University of Detroit Mercy Theatre Company. (Left photograph courtesy of Danny Feld Right photograph courtesy of Mike Yarish/Comedy Central.) Bar Talk ABOVE: Scenes from the sketch comedy show’s first two seasons. In fact, friends of the warm, friendly actor say he’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet. “Jordan and I try not to make mean comedy,” Key says. It’s about vanity - male vanity in a world where machismo is esteemed above all else. While Jacokes gets the joke, Key says some people don’t and are offended by it. One of Jacokes’ other favorites has plenty of edge and relevance: a sketch in which Key and Peele play slaves on an auction block and become increasingly incensed when other men - including one scrawny, elderly man - are sold and they aren’t.

Since then, Go Comedy! has featured Key as part of a group called The 313, a Los Angeles improv troupe that includes other Second City Detroit alums, at the theater’s annual improv festival. Jacokes met Key, 41, when he took improvisation classes at Second City Detroit, where the comedian was a cast member from 2001 to 2003.

“It’s edgy and pushes the envelope, but with cause and social relevance.” “The humor on the show is a balance of highbrow and lowbrow that’s done very well,” Jacokes says. It features a roster of college football players with goofy names like Hingle McCringleberry, J’Dinkalage Morgoone, and Javaris Jamar Javarison-Lamar. Jacokes definitely has favorites: He estimates he’s accountable for at least 20 of one skit’s 4 million YouTube hits. That’s because people like PJ Jacokes, producer at Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale, pump up the comedians’ numbers by repeatedly clicking “play” for his favorite bits. Of course, YouTube isn’t a totally accurate gauge. “It was surreal,” says Key, who’s tall enough to stand eye to eye with the president.

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