Personalities square off

Kenny Mayne describes himself with one word – unconventional.

But Mayne’s “unconventional” mannerisms have gotten him to where he is today. His offbeat, dry sense of humor has been his trademark at ESPN for the past 13 years.

In 1994, the network hired Mayne, and by 1997, he was a full-time anchor for “SportsCenter,” one of the station’s most prestigious positions. Since then, he has performed several jobs at ESPN including its horse-racing coverage and weekly segments called “The Mayne Event” on “Sunday NFL Countdown.”

Now, the Seattle native has a new project – “Mayne Street.”

It’s a series of Webisodes that Mayne has been promoting for the past month. Last week, Mayne and I sat down for a phone interview to talk about “Mayne Street,” his career and just plain old life. ‘

‘Mayne Street’ – ‘A poor man’s Larry David’

That is the phrase Mayne used to describe “Mayne Street,” and it couldn’t be a better description. “Mayne Street” is comprised of short, three- to five-minute Webisodes on ESPN.com based on Mayne working at ESPN. Mayne plays himself, and a group of hired actors surround him to fill out the other roles.

He doesn’t have any concrete goals for the show, but based on its early success, Mayne said he would be surprised if there was not a second season at least.

Early success is an understatement.

Within the first 48 hours of the airing of the premiere episode, “Mayne Street” had more than 2.5 million viewers. Both ESPN and Mayne promoted the show extensively prior to its release, and it was a successful campaign, as seen by the early results.

With the success of “Mayne Street,” expect to see a trend of more shows going to the Internet like this one. It is a successful plan because of the short attention span of our generation, the lack of airtime on TV and the unlimited space available on the Internet.

Although “Mayne Street” is one of the first of this kind of media, Mayne doesn’t feel like the inventor of the practice.

“I don’t think I started anything. I’m probably behind it. I don’t mean behind it like taking it up the ... back of it,” Mayne said, keeping himself in check. “It went to the Internet by default.”

Despite being on the Internet, the humor of “Mayne Street” is exactly what you would expect from any other product of Mayne.

The show has a setting style similar to “The Office,” but with “Seinfeld”-esque humor, and is based around sports and ESPN.

Although Mayne is the lead character, the show has already had a few guest cameos, with more to come. ESPN personality Scott Van Pelt made an appearance during the first episode and SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett during the third.

Mayne said to expect other celebrity cameos throughout the rest of this first season including a few ex-“Sopranos”: Ray Allen and John Buccigross.

But celebrities aren’t in every episode. Most of the characters are hired actors, and that differs from “The Mayne Event,” where Mayne mostly works with athletes. But Mayne wouldn’t describe the experience as either better or worse.

“It’s just different,” Mayne said. “It was fun being in those funny moments with them.”
Another area in which “Mayne Street” differs from Mayne’s normal work is the writing. On “The Mayne Event,” he would write almost the entire segment. However, on “Mayne Street,” he was handed a script and just had to deliver the lines.

With the first season well underway, Mayne expects to have a second season but has loftier goals for the show.

“I hope it’s a movie and they give me $20 million,” Mayne said. “It would be cool if ABC noticed and said, ‘Let’s try this for six weeks and see if it’s any good.’ But I’m fine with if it stays on the Internet, too.”

Growing up with Kenny

When I first got wind that I might have the opportunity to interview Mayne, I almost wet my pants. I was beyond excited to speak to a celebrity of Mayne’s status.

After the initial thrill subdued and the realization I would have to do real work set in, I got pretty nervous. And as I was preparing to speak to Mayne, I started to wonder – why would someone as busy and as successful as Mayne take the time to do an interview with a column titled “Straight Bidness”?

I couldn’t figure out an answer to that question. So I asked him.

Mayne said although a public relations firm did most of the work in promoting “Mayne Street,” he wanted them to push really hard to college campuses to get the word out.

“All of those who do know who I am from watching ‘SportsCenter’ when they were 10, 12 years old,” Mayne said. “Now they are in college, and I’m known for good or bad. They already know what this guy’s about.”

Mayne couldn’t be more correct. Our generation grew up with him as one of the “SportsCenter” anchors, back when the show was one of the best on TV and not filled with all the glitz and glamour that clutters it today.

Mayne was remembered for his random home run calls when he said things like “I am amused by the simplicity of this game,” or for his even more random farewells when he would end a segment saying, “Thanks for having electricity.”

Whether you loved him or hated him, you always wondered what would come out of his mouth next.

Going Maynestream

Although Mayne became famous as a “SportsCenter” anchor and is most recently recognized for his work on “The Mayne Event,” he has done so many other notable things in his life.

One thing many people don’t know about Mayne is that he played quarterback at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, backing up the famous Randall Cunningham.

“We knew he was going to be a great athlete from day one,” Mayne said of Cunningham. “He walked in as an up-guy, kind of cocky. He had a ton of arm. He could throw the ball 80 yards as a freshman. ... I think he had a Hall of Fame career.”

Mayne has suffered from ankle issues, which could have contributed to the end of his football career. But his bum ankle certainly didn’t help him when he part of the first duo eliminated from season two of “Dancing With The Stars.”

“I wasn’t very good,” he said. “I’m not a good dancer. I have a ruined ankle, and that’s not why I was terrible. I just wasn’t very good. I don’t think we were the worst. I am certain we weren’t the worst. But I know we weren’t very good either.”

A place where Mayne has been very good is in his movie cameos. Mayne said his favorite two movie cameos were in the movies “Like Mike” and “Baseketball.”

I personally loved his appearance in “Baseketball” when he analyzed the “Baseketball” playoff picture with Dan Patrick.

He has also been in a few ESPN commercials, most notably his staring at clouds with Dikembe Mutombo.

Off-camera, Mayne wrote a book titled “An Incomplete & Inaccurate History of Sport,” which he said he doesn’t think is very good.

If you ask him what he likes to do with his free time, Mayne will tell you he likes to spend time with his wife and two little girls. Whether they are playing Yahtzee and watching movies, or just doing nothing, he likes to have time with his family.

But of all the things Mayne has done in his career and life, one thing still stands a head above the rest. This moment in his life pretty much sums up his personality. If you ask him what his greatest sporting moment is, he’ll say:

“I got Stevie Wonder to say ‘I can’t be at the baseball All-Star game because I have a high-ankle sprain.’”