Tracy Morgan

Tracy Morgan’s father severed four tours in Vietnam after which he returned home addicted to heroin. He would have PTSD nightmare’s and wake up screaming. Tracy was six years old.

Later in life Tracy would sell crack to make ends meet. His best friend was murdered by someone they went to junior high with. His father died of AIDS. Here’s Tracy Morgan talking about his father on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’:

And he was sitting outside, and I don’t know how he found the strength to climb down four flights of stairs. He had lost all his teeth. He was just about on his way out, and I looked at him, I said, dad, why are you sitting out here? And he couldn’t talk. He had lost that ability, and he just looked at me, and he mumbled: I needed air. Take me upstairs. And I picked him up in my arms, and I carried my father upstairs, and then as we was going through the door, he cried. He looked at me, and I said, what’s wrong, dad? He said: I remember when I carried you through the door when you was a baby.

When someone has lived a life like that they don’t understand why people take everything else seriously. That is some real shit to live through. All before he graduated high school, by the way. Someone that lives that life doesn’t understand why people would get upset about saying Sarah Palin is “masturbation material” on a live broadcast on  TNT’s NBA Pre-Game show. Lucky for us he has a sense or humor about these things.

Barack Obama

A very special President’s Day edition of Black History Month Stand Up. If you are unaware Barack Obama is our nation’s first president of color. He also happens to be very funny. Easily the most intentionally funny president in my life time. And there’s just too much material out there to not make this a good idea. So, below is him as the White House correspondents dinner. Givin’ it to Donald Trump.

And below is Barack Obama on Letterman when he was running for president delivering his Top Ten campaign promises.

Bill Cosby

Dave Chapelle says that after he read the article from the ‘Time’ magazine above he announced to his family he wanted to be a comedian. At the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld said he inspired their careers. Bill Cosby turned down the honor twice because he was offended by the profanity used at the first Mark Twain Humor Award in 1998. Bill Cosby is decidedly not blue. How not blue is he? When I texted my brother-in-law if there was a term for a not blue comic he, not knowing what I was working on, replied: Bill Cosby.

His show in the 80’s is one of only three shows to be a number one show for five consecutive years. But, I would dare say the most important thing about Bill Cosby’s show is it wasn’t a show about a black family. It was a show about a family. Not that ‘The Jeffersons’ or ‘Different Strokes’ weren’t about family. But, they were regularly addressing the fact that they were black. The Cosby’s happened to be a family that was black. Cosby decided not to address race issues on the show. His belief being that having a successful show and getting more white audiences was better than alienating them. That white people relating to a black family and seeing that they have the same problems and difficulties as a white family was a better message to send. He appears to have been right. In 1990 apartheid South Africa ‘The Cosby Show’ was the number one show among whites.

Dave Chappelle

The first time I heard a Dave Chappelle bit it was from my dad. It was before ‘Chapelle’s Show’ and it was the bit from the video below from ‘Killin’ Them Softly’

Now that bit was so funny, even with my dad missing all the nuances and cadence and general master storytelling ability of Dave Chappelle, it still made me think: “I need to watch that guy. Cause that is funny.” For the next couple of years anytime ‘Killin’ Them Softly’ came on HBO all arguments of what to watch on TV were over. A batcall would go out to the rest of the house for those that weren’t in the living room, “That Dave Chapalley (sic) guy is on again.” The person making the batcall of course not getting up from their seat.

Black History Month Stand up: Three for Friday!

To make up for missed days you get three comedians today! How about that?

Redd Foxx

Of course Redd Foxx is famous from Sanford and Son which was a top ten rated show in the early ’70’s. Which again paved the way for show like The Cosby Show. His clip may be my favorite of all of the clips I will show during this edition. There are more, but I think this 44 second clip tells you all you need to know about Foxx.

Donald Glover

Donald Glover is my most recent  massive man crush. You may recognize him from the NBC show Community. But, he is so, so much more than that. He is a stand up comedian, he won an Emmy for his writing on 30 Rock, he is also a rapper that goes by the name Childish Gambino. This is him rapping. 



He’s come up during the time of Obama and the rise of “the Black Nerds” (his words not mine). Which has become so popular of an idea that Key and Peele stole it on an interview on NPR. 

Tim and Tom

Tim and Tom were America’s first interracial comedy-duo. Tim is Tim Reid (black) and Tom is Tom Dressen (white). 

They met in 1968 the year Martin Luther King was assassinated. They were attacked on stage once. A man put a cigarette out in Tim’s face and proceeded to beat Tom. Hear them tell that story and more in an interview with David Letterman below. 

Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes is famously a lesbian. She is also famously hilarious.  She was the first black woman and openly gay person to be the feature entertainer at the White House Correspondents dinner.

She came out publicly at a rally against prop 8. She said “Now, I gotta get in their face, I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”

She has always said about the differences between the civil right movement and the gay rights movement, “discrimination is discrimination, and of all people, black people should know about discrimination.”

Here’s her at the White House correspondents dinner. 

Flip Wilson

  
As you can see Flip Wilson was a big deal. The cover is from 1973, the clip at the bottom is from 1965. Flip Wilson was, more than likely, the only black person in the television studio. Also in 1965 was a  march in Selma, Alabama that was broken up by police clubbing brutally-beating-merciless-on-the-ground marchers. Governor George Wallace denied that beatings had taken place. Even though it was captured on film. A federal injunction forced Gov. Wallace to allow the marchers and force the police to protect them of you know beating them. 

And here is Flip Wilson getting into millions of white homes by being hilarious. 

 I first saw this clip when I was probably eight. It killed me. I remember doing the bit for other people. I’m glad to watch it again and it is still great. 

The best thing: He kills Johnny. Which is always awesome. If this performance would have happened in the ’80’s he would have made Eddie Murphy’s career look like David Spade’s. 

Also how sharp is his suit? And, have you ever seen a person look cooler smoking a cigarette? Really? It almost makes cancer look worth it. (He did die of cancer in 1965). 

Flip Wilson would go on to win Emmy’s and a Golden Globe for The Flip Wilson Show. Here’s him being hilarious some more.

Chris Rock

Here at the Laser Crab Revue we have decided to celebrate black history month by spotlighting black stand up comedians. I’m going to go all across the spectrum and history. And I’ll start with someone recent.

Check back every weekday until the end of the month. When again I’ll shift the focus back to lower-middle-class-college-educated-angsty-hipster-20-something-themes. Like Toms.