Blacks and Comedy - a review of an NYC Comedy Show

Kareem Green and Hadiyah Robinson

Luigi

“What attempts to pass itself off as self-deprecation is really self-degradation. The two practices are not the same.”

Dear friends, 

 This past Friday (May 31, 2013), I arrived in New York City to see a friend who was visiting from outside the country for a week. On the agenda for that evening first was to catch one of NYC’s veteran comics, Hadiyah Robinson.

While I’d seen videos of her, this would be the first live performance I’d seen. My friend and I were both more than pleased that we’d gone to the show, which was at a very nice, Yuppie-ish place called the One & One Pub, in Lower Manhattan. (btw, being held every first and ever last Friday of the month) 

 In any case, the very pretty and witty Hadiyah, who was also the host/emcee of the show, was joined by two equally funny and thoughtful comedians, Kareem Green and a brother who simply goes by the name Luigi. All three were hilarious! And all three were well-seasoned vets, with Luigi doing a skit where he impersonated Mike Tyson incredibly well and in a way that would have had the legendary prizefighter both smiling and laughing with approval.  By the way, any cultural group will enjoy the three aforementioned comics' presentations.

 Yet, there was also a little downside to the show, unfortunately, because three novices were generously given the microphone, even though not a single one of the trio deserved, much less earned, it - a heavyset fellow named Jamal, a young woman (Kali ?) who spent too much time claiming to be Dominican, and a buffoon named Jay “the singing comic” who, apparently, forgot that he was on stage and not on a street corner amusing his wino buddies. In their amateurish effort to use the comedic technique of self-deprecation, the thoughtless drivel of each of  these three was laced with the pejorative term "Niggaz" throughout their insulting sets. And this was in front of an audience that was equally mixed with both African- and European-Americans.

 The three who I just mentioned above remind me of some words from a piece that was written by an old and dear friend of mine, legendary Philadelphia journalist Elmer Smith, when he paid homage to the great Richard Pryor, after the latter’s passing, back in late 2006. It goes, in part, “…he may have been the funniest man who ever told the truth for comic effect…Problem is that his success has spawned a legion of foul-mouthed imitators whose mindless musings haven't evolved since they were class cut-ups in junior high school…You can turn on the television any day of the week and hear the uncouth utterances of some street-corner comic whose idea of comedy is to see how many "mf's" he or she can sprinkle on a half-baked monologue that tries to raise low-life to high art…It has become the staple of a crew of stand-ups who got some of the style and none of the substance that distinguished Pryor's comedy… Pryor offered insights. The other blue comics offer only stereotypes…But I can't understand how someone who hopes to make a living at something doesn't care enough about his (or her) craft to even examine it closely… His comedy came from his struggle to understand a society where he saw himself as an alien in his native land… the crude comics who have followed him can decipher all of the words but none of the meaning of what they heard.” (Elmer Smith | Pryor's message was more than the profanity, Philadelphia Daily News, Dec. 16, 2006) 

Of course, on a side note, when he was just starting to really get big, back in the early-Seventies, I went to catch Pryor at a small nightclub called Paul's Mall on Boylston St, in Boston (today, almost exactly where the Boston Marathon Bombing occurred). I still remember, as he got out of the limo and walked towards the front door, folks standing in a line that was a block or so long were asking him for his autograph. Then suddenly a guy yelled out "Hey Richard!...Will you autograph this blank check?". At that, Pryor and everyone else cracked up, as he entered the venue.

 Finally, to me, one of the most damning criticisms that I have of wannabe comics like Jamal, (Kari ?), and Jay mentioned above  is: Like so many of today’s Black “comics” of whom my brother Elm spoke above is: What attempts to pass itself off as self-deprecation, in order to get a cheap laugh, is really self-degradation. Obviously, the two concepts are not the same. 

Still, I look forward to seeing Hadiyah, Kareem, and Luigi again. Cheers!

 G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/opinion/15iht-edjackson.html?_r=1