Black Comedy Experiment Family Reunion Homecoming Revival Festival

Sorry I’m just now getting around to writing about this… I’ve had a pretty busy week. Last Saturday I went up to NYC to take part in the Black Comedy Experiment Festival.

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3 days, 40 great comics, 16 amazing shows showcasing the diversity of the Black comedy diaspora (not sure if it’s proper to use diaspora in this context, but I just did, so deal.)

I only went up for the last nite of shows. I was on a show called Chicks and Giggles with Abbi Crutchfield, Robin Cloud and Hadiyah Robinson. It was so much fun and played to a packed room. After that I went to the upstairs showroom for Laughing Liberally, hosted by comic and vigilante pundit, Baratunde Thurston. If you don’t know Baratunde, please check him out. He’s awesome. He has an amazing blog, he’s written a few books, speaks all over the country, and is an editor for The Onion. That show featured Leighann Lord, Elon James White (the festival producer) and Charles Star — the festival’s only White act — who was awesome. The last show I caught on Saturday nite was the Shades of Black show featuring Michelle Buteau, Baron Vaughn, Victor Varnado, Elon James White and Jason Weems of DC fame, who came up for the show as well.

I had a great time at all of the shows. And I had a bunch of friends from Howard that came out to see my shows and stayed for the rest of the nite and had a blast too! Finally got a chance to actually meet a lot of the comics I’ve exchanged e-mails with or just heard of. It was like an awesome young Black comedians homecoming or family reunion. There were so many shows I didn’t see that I wish I’d gotten the chance to check out… but there’s always next year. Big up to Elon and Baron for putting the festival together. Looking forward to next year. If they’ll have me, I’ll be there.

The ‘A’ word

I am opening for comedy legend, icon, GIANT Robert Klein this week at the Improv in DC. A huge fan of the process of writing, I love to see the greats at work. He’s working on material for his 9th HBO special. Man… can you imagine… A couple years ago, when he was working out for his last special, I went to the club and saw the show 2, maybe 3 times–I can’t remember… So when Allyson, the manager at the Improv asked me if I was available to do the show this time, I was super excited and of course jumped at it!!! I’ve pretty much been counting the days until the show. The first one was last nite.

As a few of us comics were chatting in the back of the room after the show, this woman comes up to me and starts gushing about how much she enjoyed the show–which would make any comic blush. And then she follows it up with “And you… You are so articulate.”

(Insert Screeching tires)

As my boy Dawan would say, I gave her the ‘big eyes’… but then I reeled myself in because really she was trying to be complimentary and I knew that and I could tell she’d just really enjoyed the show, plus she was an older woman. But it got me to thinking what is it about that word that pisses me off so much? Would I have even been bothered by it if I’d never heard Chris Rock’s bit about Colin Powell being so “well-spoken?” Would I have just smiled and taken it as a compliment?

What is it about someone calling me articulate that makes me want to respond with “NO, I AIN’T!” Or something worse…

Back in September, I opened for Mark (Mr. Cooper) Curry at the very same club. And after the show, this young-ish, really drunk white woman came up to me and said, “I really enjoyed you, but you were so white. It’s like you’re a white girl trapped inside a black girl’s body. Then she said the “A” word.

And it took everything I had for me and my diction not to go upside her head. Continue reading →