By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — What does the phrase “Kings County” mean to you?
To some people, it means frenzied residential and commercial development, especially Downtown. To others, it means sports — the Cyclones, college teams, and soon the Nets.
But to Carroll Gardens resident Kurt Andersen, host of the public radio program “Studio 360,” and Steve Bodow, co-executive producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Brooklyn is nothing less than the creative center of New York.
The two of them felt, in Andersen’s words, that “public radio needed a program that expressed and embodied everything all that is cool and happening in Brooklyn today — its creative renaissance.”
To this end, they have developed a series of hour-long variety shows called “Kings County” that will be performed live at Galapagos Art Space (Sunday, June 10, and Friday, June 29) and the Bell House (Sunday, June 24), then broadcast on WNYC-FM sometime in late June.
Andersen will be the host, presenting interviews, standup comedy and music performances.
“Kings County” will feature quite a few high-profile guests, such as comedian Wyatt Cenac of “The Daily Show,” who lives in Brooklyn; comedian-actress Kristen Schaal (“Flight of the Conchords,” “30 Rock”), who co-hosts a weekly variety show at Littlefield in Gowanus; and Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon, whose band, Ghost of a Saber-Tooth Tiger, has often played Brooklyn venues.
Bodow points to Franchesca Ramsey, the co-host of the June 10 show at Galapagos, as “the embodiment of the sort of thing we talk about. She does about eight different things.
“Most recently, she’s become well-known through a viral video (“S—t White Girls Say to Black Girls”), she’s also a graphic designer, a singer and a blogger. She’s kind of a young renaissance woman.”
Although most of the types of people Andersen and Bodow are celebrating are on the youthful side, they make it clear that “Kings County” is not only for the young.
“The audience can range from my daughters, who are 22 and 23 years old, to people who are even as old as me, age 57, from both inside and outside the borough,” said Andersen.
“There’s a youthfulness about what were trying to capture, but there won’t be any age tests,” he added.
Andersen has lived in Carroll Gardens for 22 years. Bodow admits that he lives in Queens — “but I once lived on Joralemon Street for about three months,” he said.
All live shows start at 7 p.m., and more may be on the way in the future. For more information, and to buy tickets, visit http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news-2/2012/may/16/kings-county-hosted-kurt-andersen/.
