Paging Kenneth

Neel Shah spoke with 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer, aka Kenneth the Page, about Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, and crashing Diddy’s birthday party.

In almost every interview you read with Jack McBrayer, the Georgia native who plays big-hearted country bumpkin Kenneth Parcell on NBC’s much-loved but little-watched 30 Rock, the interviewer invariably mentions what a “good guy” McBrayer really is. Unfortunately, nothing McBrayer did or said during our recent phone conversation did anything to dissuade me of this notion. The man is just nice. Here, he tells The Daily Beast about going to Diddy’s birthday party, Salman Rushdie’s crush on Tina Fey, and why he thinks no one ever watches 30 Rock. The complete Kenneth Q&A, uncensored.

Let’s get right to it. Why the hell does no one watch your show?

Ahhh! I don’t know! Maybe it’s an acquired taste? Only people in big cities like it? The media elite? When I went home to Georgia recently, I can tell you that not a lot of people were watching it.

It’s the Friday Night Lights syndrome: Urban-dwelling heathens and their favorite newspapers can’t stop talking about how great the show is, but everyone else is tuning out.

At least Friday Night Lights is set in Texas, so it has flyover appeal. We don’t even have that! We’re still anemic. But I think this year we’re doing better.

“In an upcoming episode, I end up falling in love with a blind girl. And it’s going great until she feels my face and ‘sees’ what I really look like. Poor Kenneth.”

Probably because of Oprah. Did these guest spots arise organically, or did you guys get a call from Ben Silverman being like, “We need stars!”

It’s such a weird phenomenon. Phenomena? Phenomenononon. People are seeking out 30 Rock! I’ll be at some random event like the Emmys, and someone will come up to me and be like, “I want to be on!” Meanwhile I’m thinking, “This person is a huge star. Are you f--king kidding me?” It blows my mind. As for Oprah, I think Tina [Fey] had been a guest on her show, and half in jest said, “I’d love for you to be on!” And Oprah said, “Have your people touch base!”

You know you’ve arrived when Oprah is telling you to have your people call her people.

And then Jennifer Aniston was just so great. It was very surreal. Jon Hamm, who is going to be on a few episodes coming up, is absolutely hilarious in person.