Cat's Meow
Nick Bakay '81 thought he was well prepared. He studied under Tom Turgeon and Harlene Marley, Kenyon's professorial dynamic duo of drama. He earned a master of fine arts degree in drama at Southern Methodist University. Next stop--stardom. "In your twenties, you've got to roll the dice and head for New York," he says.
"If you don't think you're the exception then you should wonder why you're even trying."
Then a funny thing happened. Nothing. "The first five or six years were brutal," he remembers.
Things are different now. Bakay may not get stopped for autographs, but he's a busy man in Hollywood, with a successful career that defies easy categorization. He is the well-paid voice of Salem, the talking black cat on the WB's Sabrina the Teenage Witch; a consulting producer and writer with CBS's The King of Queens; a regular contributor on various ESPN sports shows; and the voice of Norbert, a talking beaver, on Nickelodeon's animated show The Angry Beavers. He is also at work with his wife, Robin, on a movie script that has already been sold to Columbia/Sony.
His resumé includes an early stint as a writer for National Lampoon magazine, where he invented the comic-book character The Evil Clown. He served as Dennis Miller's sidekick on the ill-fated Dennis Miller Show. ("I thought we'd have a good run with that one," he says.) He worked on Comedy Central's Night After Night and Sportsmonster. He was a writer and actor during the final season of In Living Color and shared an office with Jim Carrey.
Bakay even landed a memorable role in a legendary episode of Seinfeld. He appeared in the show known as "The Smelly Car" wherein a terrible odor infests Jerry's sedan and anyone who rides in it. "The job even included making out with Elaine," says Bakay, who played her boyfriend.
Through it all, Bakay continued to write. "I hated waiting for auditions," he says. "Writing is so much more proactive."
He credits Kenyon's professors for giving him what he needed to succeed in various areas of "the business." "I came out of Kenyon knowing a lot of things my fellow actors didn't know." He explains. "I'd learned how to read a play and direct. I was fluent in writing and understood so much about what I was doing as an actor. And that can be applied to Hamlet or a talking cat. Really, what I learned from Tom and Harlene was how to be a professional. I think of them as the ultimate professionals."
One of the things he wrote about was sports. A native of Buffalo, New York, and a huge Bills football fan, Bakay submitted work to ESPN and soon became an on-screen personality doing funny segments on Sportscenter and other shows. "It's great because I'm always the guy who gets to goof off," he says.
He also gets to hang out with athletes, which is a mixed blessing. "Hockey players are terrific--nicest guys in the world," he says. "Baseball players, as a group, are awful."
But it was Salem who made his life complete. Playing a cat was not his dream job, but he needed the work. "In truth, nothing has been better for my life than Salem. I'm so grateful to be working on something that's lasted," he says of the show, which is in its seventh season. "The people I work with make it a great job."
To check out some of Bakay's work, including editions of "The Evil Clown," visit his web site at www.nickbakay.com.
--Phil Brooks
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