Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2009-07-29

Interview:
We had a chance to chat with Jay Karnes and Ben Shenkman (who play Brennan and Tom Strickler respectively) from USA's Burn Notice at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con!

Is this the first Comic Con for you guys?

Jay Karnes: It is for me.

Ben Shenkman: It is, yeah.

What's your experience like so far?

Jay Karnes: Watching Bruce Campbell. I'm just in awe.

Ben Shenkman: The energy in that room was astonishing, I've done Q and A's before, and stuff like, you know when the TV show gets launched, and you go out and do the junkets with a room full of TV writers and stuff like that. That's sort of what I was imagining.

Jay Karnes: Yeah, the TCA's. That kind of feel. And this was just like wow.

Ben Shenkman:There's a lot of enthusiasm.

Jay Karnes: It was that energy, and then the way Bruce played it off was just amazing.

Was there a different vibe because the show is shot in Miami whereas most shows are filmed in L.A.?

Jay Karnes: Uh, Yeah. I mean in a sense. I mean television sets are within a basic frame of pretty much all the same. And I often find that you either have a healthy set, or an unhealthy set. And there is isn't a lot of grey area. Burn Notice is a very healthy set in my opinion. Rational behavior is rewarded. There aren't a lot of tantrums and people storming off. There weren't any tantrums that I saw.

Ben Shenkman: And people are happy working on it. And it's nice because the show is its first flush of like really, real success. It's exciting to be around a set when that's happening. You feel everyone there. You feel their pride in the show, and their pride in its popularity, and it's great. It hasn't gotten tired. And the show itself is fun, there's a spirit of fun in the show. It's not a heavy show. It's about the audience having fun and the actors having fun, and it's a fun place.

Jay Karnes: And what's so great about it, and we've talked about this before, but that there is a very serious undercurrent to the show and I don't think it works without that. Without that spy stuff that they deal with. It's the spy who came in from the cold, with noel coward rippling across the top of it. And you take away either one of those elements and I don't think it works nearly as well as it does.