Superboy - 12-year-old actor Kenny Blank

Ebony, April, 1992

SOMETIMES it's hard to believe that Kenny Blank is only 12 years old.

Maybe it's the business cards, or the 24-track recording equipment he bought with the money from his TV commercials. Maybe it's the theme song he composed and sang for the film. The Super, or his recent "night job" as an apprentice director for Boonwrang, an upcoming movie starring Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens and Eartha Kitt.

Pretty heady stuff for someone who is still months away from becoming a bonafide teenager. But, when it comes to achievement, Kenny Blank is a "super" in his own right.

He is already a proven film talent, a veteran television pitchman, and musical prodigy. Now he wants to become a filmmaker, and he's very upfront and well, adult, about it.

Filmmaking is already a big part o Kenny's young life. He has made several short films, including videotaped presentations for his school projects. He often calls on his classmates to act in hi films and he's now training his best friend to become a cameraman. To hear him tell it, film allows him to flesh out the things that are on a 12-yearold's mind, like bike riding, skating and ideas about the opposite sex. "I just finished a short [film], and all my feelings about girls and stuff are in the script," he says. It's great because I can camouflage it. Nobody will know because it's a script."

He pauses, suddenly remembering that he is being interviewed. "Well, I guess now everybody does know."

More and more people are beginning to know Kenny Blank.

He is already an old pro on TV, having done more than 30 commericals since his first Pampers spot in 1983. He has assisted "McGruff the Crime Dog," danced for Lego Toys, appeared as a math whiz for Bubble Yum, an emotional science fair contestant for New York Telephone Co., and the fly guy who gets the girl for Pepsi.

More recently, he co-starred with joe Pesci in the film, The Super and played opposite Lou Gossett Jr. in an NBC-TV movie, Carolina Skeletons. He has also had bit parts in the movies, Funny Fann and Presumed Innocent.

And that's not all. He has worked on ABC'S Guiding Light, narrated several PBS children's shows and acted in a Connecticut Grand Opera production of Tosca.

Kenny is also a musical prodigy, playing the piano, saxophone, drums and synthesizers. He first learned to play by ear shortly after his third birthday, and now his musical credits include the theme songs for the film, The Super, and for two cable television programs, Inside Video and Runway Club.

He is quite comfortable around gadgets. His room in the family's Stamford, Conn., home looks like a recording studio, thanks to the 24-track Direct-toDisk Digital Recorder, a state-of-the-art recording system that sits across from his bed.

But it took a visit to the set of Mo'better Blues, before he made up his mind about his career. "Spike Lee called for a "playback, " and it all clicked, " he recalls. "I like making shows, acting and composing. So, I put it all together in one big project-filmmaking."

Now he is the youngest member of the Black Filmmakers Foundation, and he is set to direct a short film for the Foundation's Observer Program that will be featured in several children's Mm festivals.

Kenny Blank isn't exactly the typical kid next door, and his message to other youngsters is that age has nothing to do with it [accomplishments]. The thing I say is this," he says. "So what if you're a kid? You can do it an

A native New Yorker, Kenny straddles the adolescent and entertainment worlds with relative ease. He may rub shoulders with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, but he is also an honor student and a popular pupil in his ninth-grade class.

But sometimes he can be a bit difficult for some grownups to take. He's so confident, personable and mature, and his determination and grasp on most subjects are very adult.

And at times being a kid can be a nuisance. Although he has bought over $100,000 worth of video and recording equipment, he is barred from many audio and video equipment trade shows in New York because of his age. Bob Blank, a recording engineer and Kenny's stepfather, usually has to intervene before the youngster is admitted.

Kenny has also met a number of adults who automatically want to give his parents the credit for his work.

"People who aren't in the [film and music] business really don't understand what happens, " he says. "They think my parents do it for me, or that I go into some room with all these machines, push a button and everything comes out. it's the people in the business who believe because I talk to them in their language. So they say, Hey, this kid knows what he's talking about.' Sometimes, when I know a little more than they [adults] do, they just stay quiet. "

Lola Blank looks on and just shakes her head in amusement. Nothing her son does seems to surprise her anymore!. A trained speech pathologist who once performed with james Brown, she and her ex-husband, drummer Warren Benbow, knew early on that their son was a special child.

Now she spends her time as Kenny's, manager, making sure he balances his schoolwork with his hectic schedule of auditions, casting calls, speaking engagements and filmmaking.