Kamryn Smith doesn’t wear a lot of dayglo orange clothing in real life. But the 14-year-old singer/actress says she’s otherwise not that different from Kammy Kam, her alter ego as host of the hip kids’ show “Yo Gabba Gabbaland.”
“My favorite color is really yellow, and I don’t really wear my hair in two ponytails,” she said this week. “But I do have the same glasses. And feel that we’re very close personality-wise, we’re both real girly-girls. Kammy Kam is a little sassy and so am I. The whole point of Gabba is to be bright and cheerful, so I get to remind the audience that life can be fun and happy, it can be rainbows all the time.”
One of the first children’s shows to blend playtime with indie-rock and hip-hop culture, the original Yo Gabba Gabba became a cult classic in its first run, which ended in 2015. The original producers rebooted the show last year, with Kammy adding new flavor as the host. The cast of characters played Coachella this year and they’re now on a tour that hits Roadrunner on Monday. It is of course an all-ages show and attendees are expected to act like kids whether they are or not.
“Its not always kids and their parents, sometimes there’s grandmas and grandpas as well. I’d say that between 16 and 20 is the funnest age at the concerts, the younger kids don’t always get it. When we start singing something back and forth, the teenagers will always pick it up and have some fun with it. And they always grab the bubbles that we throw into the audience during the ‘Bubble Song’.”
Kammy grew up in show business, and was first spotted by the Gabba producers when she was 11. “They probably saw me when I did a commercial. But I mainly grew up dancing, I’ve been doing competitive dance my whole life. ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ was my brother’s favorite show and I got obsessed with it through him, we’d watch the TikTok clips and learn all the songs.”
Which didn’t quite prepare her for the experience of getting in front of the camera. “My first thought was about how insane the technology was, you’re standing in front of a drop screen where everything is encoded. And I’m thinking ‘This is crazy but it’s what I always dreamed of, and now it’s my life’. We’re such a family that it’s not like a job, more like coming in and having fun all day.”
She said she felt free to mix her personality into the show. “Gabbaland will always be different, we don’t have (original host) Lance anymore and it’s a new host and a new journey. I’m more like (the audience’s) older sister, guiding them in different ways and helping with their lives and their emotions.”
Like the original show, the new Gabbaland has been edgy with its musical guests, bringing everyone from rap veterans (Big Daddy Kane) to hot young bands like the Linda Lindas. “If we get a second season, I can say that some crazy celebrities are going to be on it,” Kammy promises. “It’s been great to meet people like (funk bassist) Thundercat, because you see them on the Internet and never think you’d meet them in person. My own tastes growing up were more like Taylor Swift and Beyonce— I’m very much a pop girl.”
Yo Gabba Gabbaland performs at Roadrunner Aug. 18
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