CRITIC'S CHOICE
The W. Kamau Bell Curve
Is overt racism the new black? Well, standup comic W. Kamau Bell has noticed it's become fashionable again for celebrities to say outrageously racist things, whether it's perky Sarah Silverman, disheveled Michael Richards, or boorish Don Imus, and Bell isn't taking it lying down. That would make him a lie-down comic, and we all know what they're like: lazy! In his solo show The W. Kamau Bell Curve, Bell aims to have this whole racism thing sorted out in about an hour. After running monthly last fall and weekly for the last few months at San Francisco's Shelton Theater, he crosses the bay for Oakland and Berkeley runs as part of the JCC East Bay's Prism Stage performance series, August 2 to 10 at Pro Arts (550 Second St., Oakland) and August 16 to 24 at JCCEastBay (1414 Walnut St., Berkeley). The $20 tickets are only $10 if you're with a friend of a different ethnicity. JCCEastBay.org or 800-838-3006.
-- By Sam Hurwitt
CRITIC'S CHOICE
The W. Kamau Bell Curve
Is overt racism the new black? Well, standup comic W. Kamau Bell has noticed it's become fashionable again for celebrities to say outrageously racist things, whether it's perky Sarah Silverman, disheveled Michael Richards, or boorish Don Imus, and Bell isn't taking it lying down. That would make him a lie-down comic, and we all know what they're like: lazy! In his solo show The W. Kamau Bell Curve, Bell aims to have this whole racism thing sorted out in about an hour. After running monthly last fall and weekly for the last few months at San Francisco's Shelton Theater, he crosses the bay for Oakland and Berkeley runs as part of the JCC East Bay's Prism Stage performance series, August 2 to 10 at Pro Arts (550 Second St., Oakland) and August 16 to 24 at JCCEastBay (1414 Walnut St., Berkeley). The $20 tickets are only $10 if you're with a friend of a different ethnicity. JCCEastBay.org or 800-838-3006.
-- By Sam Hurwitt
Price: $20 tickets are only $10 if you’re with a friend of a different ethnicity
Time & Date: Saturdays, Sundays, 8 p.m. Continues through Aug. 10
Pro Arts
550 2nd St.
Oakland CA 94607
Oakland: Jack London Square
510-763-4361
ProArtsGallery.org
Thursday, July 31, 2008
My friend Joe Klocek ruins a heckler
Joe is one of the best comics in the history of all-time at riffing and working the crowd and handling situations like this...
Simply brilliant.
Find out more about Joe @ www.standupjoe.com
Simply brilliant.
Find out more about Joe @ www.standupjoe.com
A popular question around these parts...
Lemme answer a question that I’m sure is in the minds of many of you out there.
No, I have not watched CNN’s Black in America… for a couple of reasons.
1)I’m kind of busy BEING black in America. In fact wrote a whole show about it. You should come out and see it sometime. The Guardian actually named me the best comedian in San Francisco. Anyway…
2)The second reason is that I have it Tivoed, but I have other things I need to watch first. Last night’s Project Runway. Tonight’s my life on the D List. About twenty episodes of Cash in The Attic on BBC America. I’ll get to it. I promise.
Actually I need to watch it because I am pitching a follow up show, called “CNN’s White in America.” The best part is it will be really cheap to produce. Black in America was like four hours long spread out over two nights. YIKES! White in America will just be fifteen seconds long. It just consists of my white friend, Jeremy Townsend, saying, “Uhhhh… things are pretty good.” OK, actually it’s like fie seconds. I just cut the budget by two thirds. Hollywood will love that.
No, I have not watched CNN’s Black in America… for a couple of reasons.
1)I’m kind of busy BEING black in America. In fact wrote a whole show about it. You should come out and see it sometime. The Guardian actually named me the best comedian in San Francisco. Anyway…
2)The second reason is that I have it Tivoed, but I have other things I need to watch first. Last night’s Project Runway. Tonight’s my life on the D List. About twenty episodes of Cash in The Attic on BBC America. I’ll get to it. I promise.
Actually I need to watch it because I am pitching a follow up show, called “CNN’s White in America.” The best part is it will be really cheap to produce. Black in America was like four hours long spread out over two nights. YIKES! White in America will just be fifteen seconds long. It just consists of my white friend, Jeremy Townsend, saying, “Uhhhh… things are pretty good.” OK, actually it’s like fie seconds. I just cut the budget by two thirds. Hollywood will love that.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
My friend Alicia Dattner wrote a piece about me over at Examiner.com
W. Kamau Bell Curve: standup comedy turns solo show
POSTED July 28, 1:00 AM
The W. Kamau Bell Curve plays in Oakland and Berkeley.
W. Kamau Bell's solo comedy show, The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in about an Hour*, now in its third or so run at The Shelton Theatre in San Franisco is pioneering work. Bell, a standup comedian who got his start in Chicago, the improv capital of the States, developed his conversational, yet sharp, poignant style at Cobb's Comedy Club and The Punch Line. But rather than tell you a bit about the show, which you can see in SF, Oakland, or Berkeley, I'm going to tell you a bit about Kamau, who you might also see in SF, Oakland, or Berkeley.
I met Kamau in 1998 around the time that he moved to San Francisco. There used to be something like an "internship" at Cobb's, back when Cobb's was located in The Cannery in the Fisherman's Wharf district. Every six months or so, an up and coming comic was chosen to host one of the three weekday showcases as well as host the weekend show once a month, which added up to a lot of stage time one of the two best clubs in the city. Kamau had gotten the prized "internship" just as Cobb's was getting ready to move to Columbus and Lombard.
On of my favorite bits of his back then was about the omnipresence of African Americans in popular culture. It went like this:
"What's happened to black people in the media? In the 60's we had Martin Luther King, Jr. we had Sammy Davis, Jr., We used to be everywhere! You couldn't swing a nightstick without hitting a black person upside the head. In the 70's..."
Some time around 2005, Kamau became a sort of mentor in my standup work. We'd meet every week and work on bits, listen to great comics and talk about different realms of skill and how the greats did what they did. What we had in common was that we both approached standup with a desire to speak a more complex truth than is sometimes found in standup, which is hard, because funny is usually simple and short.
With Kamau climbing the ranks of San Francisco standup along with fellow comedians like Dan Rothenberg, Joe Klocek, and Dan Gabriel (and many others), he moved from opening, to featuring, to the honored position of headlining at The Punch Line about two years ago. His first headlining shows were especially packed and full of heat--Kamau, like Robert Mac before him, had gotten a really short hair cut, and almost immediately started headlining. Coincidence? You be the judge. When Dave Chapelle came back from his trip in Africa, he was doing a lot of sets at The Punch Line, and Kamau performed with him frequently. Kamau also appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and recorded his first standup album One Night Only around that time.
So, along the way, Kamau and Kevin Avery had been doing the movie reviews on the Live 105 Morning Show, putting out a podcast ("Siskel & Negro"), working on a screenplay (Kevin) and an internet cartoon (Kamau) and Kamau directed by Bruce Pachtman's show "Don't Make Me Look Too Psychotic." One thing led to another, and Kamau started teaching The Solo Performance Workshop for people who want to develop a one-person-show or monologue. Kamau just won Best Comedian 2008 in the SF Weekly, and I'm hoping he takes his show on the road especially because he's got a plethora of opinions and insights about Obama that make it a perfect time to showcase this work.
What I have always admired about Kamau's work is that he articulates the questions of race in a genuine way that's not clichéd. Especially in The Bell Curve, Kamau thinks he expresses more anger about race than he actually does; on stage he is affable, engaging, and charming. Kamau's move from standup into the solo show is a courageous step. Not only does he re-write his show each week according to what's in the news, he also continues to develop both the standup and the theatrical elements of the show. I look forward to seeing future iterations as they unfold.
Click here for the original post.
TICKETS HERE for San Francisco!
TICKETS HERE for Oakland!
AND HERE for Berkeley!
POSTED July 28, 1:00 AM
The W. Kamau Bell Curve plays in Oakland and Berkeley.
W. Kamau Bell's solo comedy show, The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in about an Hour*, now in its third or so run at The Shelton Theatre in San Franisco is pioneering work. Bell, a standup comedian who got his start in Chicago, the improv capital of the States, developed his conversational, yet sharp, poignant style at Cobb's Comedy Club and The Punch Line. But rather than tell you a bit about the show, which you can see in SF, Oakland, or Berkeley, I'm going to tell you a bit about Kamau, who you might also see in SF, Oakland, or Berkeley.
I met Kamau in 1998 around the time that he moved to San Francisco. There used to be something like an "internship" at Cobb's, back when Cobb's was located in The Cannery in the Fisherman's Wharf district. Every six months or so, an up and coming comic was chosen to host one of the three weekday showcases as well as host the weekend show once a month, which added up to a lot of stage time one of the two best clubs in the city. Kamau had gotten the prized "internship" just as Cobb's was getting ready to move to Columbus and Lombard.
On of my favorite bits of his back then was about the omnipresence of African Americans in popular culture. It went like this:
"What's happened to black people in the media? In the 60's we had Martin Luther King, Jr. we had Sammy Davis, Jr., We used to be everywhere! You couldn't swing a nightstick without hitting a black person upside the head. In the 70's..."
Some time around 2005, Kamau became a sort of mentor in my standup work. We'd meet every week and work on bits, listen to great comics and talk about different realms of skill and how the greats did what they did. What we had in common was that we both approached standup with a desire to speak a more complex truth than is sometimes found in standup, which is hard, because funny is usually simple and short.
With Kamau climbing the ranks of San Francisco standup along with fellow comedians like Dan Rothenberg, Joe Klocek, and Dan Gabriel (and many others), he moved from opening, to featuring, to the honored position of headlining at The Punch Line about two years ago. His first headlining shows were especially packed and full of heat--Kamau, like Robert Mac before him, had gotten a really short hair cut, and almost immediately started headlining. Coincidence? You be the judge. When Dave Chapelle came back from his trip in Africa, he was doing a lot of sets at The Punch Line, and Kamau performed with him frequently. Kamau also appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and recorded his first standup album One Night Only around that time.
So, along the way, Kamau and Kevin Avery had been doing the movie reviews on the Live 105 Morning Show, putting out a podcast ("Siskel & Negro"), working on a screenplay (Kevin) and an internet cartoon (Kamau) and Kamau directed by Bruce Pachtman's show "Don't Make Me Look Too Psychotic." One thing led to another, and Kamau started teaching The Solo Performance Workshop for people who want to develop a one-person-show or monologue. Kamau just won Best Comedian 2008 in the SF Weekly, and I'm hoping he takes his show on the road especially because he's got a plethora of opinions and insights about Obama that make it a perfect time to showcase this work.
What I have always admired about Kamau's work is that he articulates the questions of race in a genuine way that's not clichéd. Especially in The Bell Curve, Kamau thinks he expresses more anger about race than he actually does; on stage he is affable, engaging, and charming. Kamau's move from standup into the solo show is a courageous step. Not only does he re-write his show each week according to what's in the news, he also continues to develop both the standup and the theatrical elements of the show. I look forward to seeing future iterations as they unfold.
Click here for the original post.
TICKETS HERE for San Francisco!
TICKETS HERE for Oakland!
AND HERE for Berkeley!
Ruining the myth of White Supremacy
Thank you, Mickey Avalon. Thank you!
And yes, that is ex-MTV VJ/star of solo masturbation videos Simon Rex sitting to Mickey Avalon's right.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Ways to End Racism #1
Fishbone is without a doubt the hardest working band in show business. Fishbone was begun by a bunch of high school friends in 1979 in Los Angeles and rose from the same punk/ska/funk/metal/alternative rock/kitchen sink scene as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and later No (bleh) Doubt.They have had many different incarnations over the years with the only two constants being the barely dressed, lead singer/saxophonist/theremin player (THAT'S RIGHT! THEREMIN PLAYER) Angelo Moore
And the even less barely dressed, singularly dreadlocked, dizzying slap funk 5 string bass of Norwood Fisher.
They do everything Red Hot Chili Peppers do (or did when they were GOOD) and more. They easily go from hardcore punk, to shake your ass 70's funk, to 80's ska, to songs that sound like all of that at once. They have hooks that would STILL make James Brown proud and crunchy guitars that should embarrass all current rock b(L)ands. Why aren't they famous?...
For more on this check out my new blog site LET'S END RACISM!
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