Other Voices, Other Geniuses: Reed Kavner

The PowerPoint guy!

I met Reed some odd years ago when our mutual friend Molly brought him to a night of humor readings I did, and Reed thought I was so funny and talented that I should have my own show (really! He did!), and so he produced, and I hosted, After Prom In Lizzie’s Basement, a comedy variety show, in various Brooklyn locales until the pandemic. Then, we switched to a comedy advice show called Fix Your Life which ran on Twitch, and then live at Caveat, and then I moved to LA. Among many other projects, Reed also hosts/produces the long-running PowerPoint comedy show Next Slide Please, which is where my ABBA piece originated.

Did I mention that Reed is a white guy? I only bring it up because one day, I got an email from Reductress about an upcoming stock photo shoot for the site. As always, the editors were looking for more men to appear in their pictures, so I invited Reed to come along, and this resulted in two iconic (to me) images.

The first is a picture of me looking solemnly out the window and wearing a striped shirt. Reductress uses this picture pretty often, though they’ve probably gotten the most mileage out of it when it’s paired with the headline “Woman For Whom Nothing Is Going Right Takes Solace In Having A Huge Ass.” It was very popular during the Shiv Roy heyday.

On more than one occasion, since moving to LA, I have met someone who is sure that they know me, and after we run through all the possible places we could have met — school, camp, New York, the astral plane — I ask, do you read Reductress? And yep, that’s why I look familiar to them. This picture.

The other image is this picture of Reed looking into the camera.

Now, Reed understood what Reductress was all about (if you don’t, it’s a feminist satire site), and was a very good sport, knowing that when a man is mentioned in a headline, it’s probably not for a positive reason.

This picture presumably ran under a few headlines, but most importantly, was attached to “White Guy Excited to Burn Down the System and Also Control the Rebuilding Effort.” Which is how Reed ended up on the front page of results when you Google Image search “white guy.” And then he made a TikTok about it, which boosted the picture up even further, and now he’s the face of white guys everywhere online, second only to Chet Hanks.

Funny how life goes! And now that you’re all caught up on the wacky adventure that is my friendship with Reed, here are his answers to my questionnaire…

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Other Voices, Other Geniuses: Reed Kavner

What song are you especially into currently?

“Big Wheel” by Samia. Spotify has been feeding me sad girl pop and I’m gobbling it up.

What is your greatest pet peeve?

Venmo requests or payments that aren’t rounded to the nearest dollar. $66.12? Makes me feel like we’re not so much friends as we are two CPAs who have a balance sheet to reconcile.

What is the trait within yourself about which you feel the most ambivalent?

I can be so fucking courteous. Which is really nice of me but also maybe I should have the confidence to cut the line real quick since I’ve already ordered and all I want is the bathroom code.

How do you like to waste time?

I’ve developed an insatiable and extremely guy-approaching-40 obsession with watches. And they’ve made a ton of YouTube videos for guys just like me.

What is the most illegal thing you have ever done that you are willing to admit to here?

The guy who built the sets for my high school’s plays got a gig working on some TV ads for an immunity-boosting vitamin supplement that were being filmed in a storage locker next to the airport. He hired me as a production assistant and sent me around town to ask businesses to borrow things to use as props. I borrowed a cool chrome napkin dispenser from a diner. I still have it.

Please put a selfie here:

I was Shrek for Halloween.

When have you been or felt the most FAMOUS in your life?

When I first noticed that there are people who repeatedly come to my shows and I was like, I have… fans?? That felt cool.

How many tattoos do you have, and where on your body are they? If none, what would you get if you had to?

I don’t have any tattoos but I’ve thought about getting a seagull.

What is the coolest object in your apartment/house/domicile?

Jon Stewart’s script from the October 5, 2006 episode of The Daily Show. He drew a hand turkey on it. 

What is the name of your most active group chat and what do you typically message about?

It’s called “Charabin Cou” and it’s a group of friends who went on a cabin trip that I wasn’t able to go on but they were nice enough to add me to the group chat anyway. It’s a high-velocity stream of bits that I can’t keep up with and it gives me a lot of anxiety.

How often do you watch porn? Do you think that is a good frequency?

Not very often. Most porn is weird and bad and not as good as my imagination.

What do you think Taylor Swift is doing AT THIS VERY SECOND?

Scrolling through my Instagram working up the courage to finally DM me.

With an unlimited budget, what elective or cosmetic surgeries would you have done?

I would absolutely go to Elon Musk’s hair transplant guy.

How did you meet your best friend?

My sister Kat is my best friend (awwww!) and we met through our parents, Bob and Allyson.

If you have a pet, put a picture here. If you don’t, a picture of your medicine cabinet. If you have more than one pet, pick the cutest:

Which Sex and the City character do you most identify with?

I’m a romantic like Carrie, a pragmatist like Miranda, and a website creator like Skipper.

Without saying the number, what is an object that weighs as much as you?

Smallish couch?

How is a raven like a writing desk?

If it's at all like my desk, they both collect clutter.