Growing Up Zen with Chris Kattan

 
Over the course of his ten-season run on Saturday Night Live, Chris Kattan created more than a few memorable characters—Mango, for example, the exotic dancer with a maddening allure, and those world-class cheeseballs, the Roxbury Guys. But in real life, Kattan plays another role. Call him Mr. Just-Unplug-It. Here, the comedian, who made his return to the small screen this past fall in the ABC sitcom The Middle, tells us what Buddhist monks have to do with his fetish for electrical efficiency.

I read somewhere that your stepfather studied to become a Zen Buddhist monk alongside Leonard Cohen. Is that true?

True. When I was a kid, I moved with my mom to Mount Baldy in Southern California, because my stepdad found the Zen Center there and he wanted to be close to his Roshi. He and Leonard Cohen actually got ordained together, meaning, my stepdad was in fact a monk.

Sounds like a hijinks-filled childhood, you and the monks….

It wasn’t the most fun place to be a kid. You get antsy. I mean, everyone was really into meditating. But there was a lot I got out of the experience. I mean, we were up in the mountains, probably half an hour from the nearest store, so my mom made soap, she made our clothes, and she started her own garden with these amazing vegetables. I ate really, really well. And it’s funny, because a lot of the stuff people talk about now as "green," we were doing back then as a matter of survival. We had a…well, we mulched, we ate leftovers. And I don’t mean we re-heated the previous night’s dinner—I mean, we’d save bacon grease and find a way to use it.

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Are you making your own soap when you’re not performing?

Ha. Right. I live in L.A., so I go to Trader Joe’s for my cleaning products. But that general approach, in terms of conserving your resources, that’s definitely stayed with me. Anytime I leave a room, I turn off the lights—it’s like my mom’s in my head, reminding me. And the same goes for unplugging whatever you’re not actually using. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing that for other people.

I bet those other people really love it when you unplug things for them.

Oh man, I’d get in so many fights with my ex-girlfriend, because I’d turn off her computer when she wasn’t using it. Only, in her mind, she was always about to use it, so she’d come back and be like, "Hey! I was using that!" And I’d always say, "But you weren’t using it when I unplugged it…." And so on.

I’m trying to think if there would be some kind of proportional eco-revenge for that. Like, installing a timer on the shower….

Except I’m already pretty conscious about that stuff. I’ve got all my sprinklers on timers, for example. I know that kind of thing is good for the planet in the long run, but to be honest, that’s just how I was raised. Me and the monks.

Comments

[Demetrios]

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