"You want me to do some kung fu?" Jack Black teased an excited audience member, who had stepped up to the mic looking for some real moves. "OK, just a taste."
The crowd came for a taste but wound up getting the full-course meal, complete with a kicking (and punching and twirling and jumping) dessert, as MTV's Sneak Peek Week continued with a screening of Black's "Kung Fu Panda" on Friday night at the Paramount Studios Lot.
The animated story of a panda waiter who winds up a master fighter was followed immediately after by a Q&A with Black himself.
"Important note," he added, sitting down after his demonstration and picking up his personal items from the table. "If someone's gonna fight you, remember to take out your wallet!"
Black's hands may be "fast as lightning," (when the heck did he take out his wallet?) but they were no match for his mouth, as audience members wanted to know everything from how much he was like Po the panda ("He's just a dreamer, a funny cuddly dreamer," Black said. "Like me!") to whether the actor would ever play a superhero (" 'Kung Fu Panda' is a superhero of sorts," he replied in mock indignation) to who would win in a fight between his characters from "Kung Fu Panda" and "Nacho Libre."
"My mind is bending around the concept of that one," Black laughed. "Because one is animated!"
One excited audience member, mildly flummoxed perhaps by that very concept, wanted to know if Black had used method acting to play a panda.
"I don't know if I did any panda preparations," Black answered, grinning. "I did not live with the pandas. I still have never seen a panda at a zoo. I just grew out my beard."
With his moves on such prominent display, however, talk inevitably turned to more pressing matters. And those matters were kicking butt and taking names (though not necessarily the second).
Since Black now was the lead voice in a kung fu movie, which martial-arts superstar does he like most?
"Stephen Chow. His movies are incredible," Black said. "I also really like Yang Chow. Unrelated. It's a restaurant."
The last questioner asked about his feelings on now being in the martial-arts fraternity.
"Am I part of it, do you think I will be? Makes me think I've really got to learn kung fu now," Black giggled, pausing briefly, perhaps thinking about his earlier demonstration. "For real!"
"Kung Fu Panda," which co-stars the voice talents of Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Dustin Hoffman, opens nationwide June 6.
Check out everything we've got on "Kung Fu Panda."
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