I have been performing stand-up comedy for over eight years. This is the only video that I have of me performing a set. This was at Foxy Loxy Cafe in Savannah. Currently, I host a monthly comedy here in Savannah called the CV show. It is a comedy variety show but mostly comedy.
Tag Archives: comedy
It’s Friday. Does It Matter?
What day is it? What does time mean any more? One of the funniest things I saw on #TikTok is a woman saying that the worst purchase she made this year is 2020 planner. All of our plans have been canceled or delayed.
Bill Withers‘ passing almost broke me. His song, ‘Grandma’s Hands’ reminds me of the wisdom of both my grandmothers.
NEW NORMAL: Ryan Broderick of Buzz Feed has written an almost all-encompassing, macro look at how the pandemic has changed the world forever.
TOO SOON: There’s a great article by Megan Garber about comedy during the pandemic and there’s nothing too soon because the concept of time has totally changed.
The animals have taken over, and we humans are the ones in cages.
Twitter Thread on Black Women Comedians
About two weeks ago, I created a Twitter thread about Black women comedians. I will continue to add the Twitter handles of comedians to keep the thread fresh. In the meantime, I am posting the text of the thread here. Hopefully, someone will use this list as a resource when looking for black women comedians. I did the homework for you, so all you have to do is check out the clips online and hire them.
Amber Ruffin, Dulce Sloan, Robin Thede and Yamaneika Saunders. Do you know who they are?! You should.
Black women comedians finally got a chance to get voices heard on late night tv.
Amber Ruffin does regular recurring segments on @LateNightSeth. She talks about race, gender and pop culture.
Dulce Sloan is a new correspondent to @TheDailyShow. She has been stand up comedy for years.
Yamaneika Saunders (@Yameneika) is a stand-up comedian. I am not sure if she has been on @FallonTonight before this week.
Robin Thede is the host of her show on BET. She was formerly the head writer of the Nightly Show.
So when the hashtag #blackwomen started trending on Wednesday morning, some of the late night shows scrambled to have black women represented. It is a damn shame that it took a special election in Alabama for black women comedians to get some attention.
I am going to all the comedians that I know in the thread who should get some shine. Follow them.
I will continue to add the Twitter handles of black women comedians into the new year and beyond. #comedians
First Video Of My Stand-up Comedy Set
I have been doing open mics around for the past seven or eight months now. I really like doing stand-up comedy and I am happy that I waited until now to do it. I don’t feel competitive, and I love when other comics make me laugh. My goal is to have a tight five-minute set. This video from when I performed a few weeks ago at Foxy Loxy, a coffee shop in my neighborhood. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my sister kept feeding me “jokes” that she thought I could use in my set. She gave me ideas, but it takes a while to formulate a joke. Joke writing is not as easy as it looks. You have to have a set-up and a punchline. Also, a callback is also good. When the audience can see how you called back to a previous joke, they laugh not only because they see how clever you are for making it, but also they feel clever they are for catching it. It’s a win-win!
This Comedy Stuff Is Becoming A Thing
I went up at comedy open mics here in on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday’s open mic was at the Sentient Bean. The crowd was mostly stand-ups and I was the thirteenth comic up. It takes patience to wait out an open mic. I don’t want to be first, but I would love to be about sixth or seventh.
Friday’s open mic was at Foxy Loxy Cafe. It is so much fun to do stand-up outside in a courtyard. The crowd was mostly locals, and I think my jokes got more laughs that they did on Thursday. Anyway, I am performing again this Tuesday at Crash Comedy at the Sentient Bean at 8PM. I will be doing a character in a piece that I am still writing.
I also made a podcast episode, Episode 5.
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Social Media Is Not A Bringer Show!
Lately, more people are doing social media and part of that is a numbers game. Like an amateur comedian just starting out, you have to have a certain amount of people coming to the show to perform. In the comedy world, this is known as a bringer show. If you have a friend who is just starting out doing comedy, then you know about the dreaded bringer show where comedians can only perform if they get enough people to come to the show. Similarly, some people have social media gigs which require a certain amount of engagement on a weekly or daily basis. To reach these numbers, some social media coordinators will reach out to the friends repeatedly for “Likes”, “Retweets”, “Followers”. I don’t mind when someone sends me something and politely asks if I would consider spreading the word to my community. However, I really dislike when people send me a “sample tweet” in the hopes that I will simply copy, paste and tweet out to the world.
First of all, I recommend social media professionals to stop over-promising to clients. Building social media presence is a long term process. If a client wants 1000 new followers a month, then don’t take the job. They can just buy twitter followers if they need the numbers so badly. Secondly, the strain that you may be putting on your friendships is not worth it. It is better to find which subset of friends who may be interested and message them. Stop sending blanket updates to everyone and please don’t beg for RTs. If you treat social media outreach like a bringer show, no one will come and the joke will be on you.
Ten Funny Guys
Listed without commentary and in no particular order, here are eight ten funny Black men that I have seen do stand-up comedy.
1. Baron Vaughn
2. Eric Andre
3. Hannibal Burress
4. Baratunde Thurston
5. Victor Varnado
6. Elon James White
7. Dave Lester
8. Donald Glover
9. Jordan Carlos
10. Wyatt Cenac
Sent from my Android,
Nichelle Stephens