Please welcome a new Arts & Events correspondent, Karen S. This review is from a Paul Mooney show a little over a week ago, but we're sure you'll agree that it's well worth the wait.
Paul Mooney is an Evil Comic Genius.
He's evil, because he can coax out hysterical giggles from people who, outside of his presence, would never even think to laugh about the subjects he discusses with glee, precision and even cruelty -- racism, the "N" word, white privilege, that Mormon girl who was kidnapped and held captive for two years half-a-block from her home and Jennifer Aniston's horse-faced ugliness.
Genius, because of his scary-good timing, Silly-Putty facial expressions, ability to size-up (and chastise and argue with) the audience, and an economy of language that puts any and all pretenders to shame. Dane Cook wishes he could tell a story like Mooney. Lisa Lampanelli probably breaks multiple Commandments coveting his withering put-downs. Any one of the Wayanses Mooney used to work with can only dream of having his relevance.
And damn, Mooney is funny. Wicked smarts are one thing, but they don't necessarily make a good comedian. The world is full of purported comedians spewing tortured one-liners whose truth, they assume, makes them funny. ("Men are nuts because they won't ask for directions." "What is the deal with women and shoes?") But turning truth-telling into laughs is an art. And perched on his stool at Cobb's last weekend, Mooney proved he's gifted.
SFist Karen S. contributing
Though not quite a (white) household name until his inspired turn as the soothsaying "Negrodamus" on Comedy Central's late-great "Chappelle's Show," Mooney has been a Hollywood player for 35 years. As a writer for "Sanford & Son" and "Good Times," he brought "ghetto" humor and "the dozens" to mainstream audiences and helped to define what's funny for those who grew up in the 1970s. His work with Richard Pryor, including the famous "Word Association" skit on "Saturday Night Live," is envelope-pushing even by today's "Borat"-loving standards.
His return run at Cobb's (he was there at the end of April) coincided with the final week of midterm election campaigning. And while only a small percentage of Mooney's material was overtly related to this November's major players, his message, by sheer virtue of the people and topics he discusses -- Condoleezza, Oprah, Wesley, Whitney, Bush, Mel, Katrina -- was unmistakably political.
At the Friday-night late show, Mooney held court for more than two hours, combining seemingly impromptu riffs on attending the Hollywood premier of "The Exorcist" with Pryor and female schoolteachers who sleep with their students ("That's why the schools are overcrowded!") with classic lines, including how he says the "N" word "100 times every morning. It keeps my teeth white."
His tales of being pulled over for "driving while black" in Los Angeles and a hundred other everyday racial humiliations provide the perfect comic flipside to Larry David's white, liberal, wannabe PC character on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." In a famous episode of "Curb," Larry thinks a well-dressed black man in a restaurant parking lot is the valet and tries to give him his car keys. Well, Mooney IS that well-dressed black man. He might be rich, but white people are still afraid he's going to mug them. And he knows it. He can either cry about it or eviscerate it. (The second option is funnier.)
Mooney almost closed his set with his trademark barrage of Richard Pryor jokes but went on a little longer . . . to see if anything funny happened. The remaining audience members were pulling for him and very forgiving when his experiment didn't yield any new gems. But that's the thing about comic legends: they go out on limbs, even when they could easily just rest on their laurels.
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BOOK CRITICAL OF AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO USE THE N-WORD
Los Angeles, CA., Author H. Lewis Smith has written a thought provoking, culturally divided book that will not only spark heated conversation, but can also bring about real change. The N-word is often used in the African American community amongst each other and is generally not a problem when spoken by another African American. However, once the word is used by a Caucasian person, it brings on other effects. The question is "who can use the word and why?" Smith believes it is a word that should be BURIED!!!!
The book is written in a manner that all can understand. The points are well-taken and the wording is easy to follow. There are quotes from great people in our history including Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, James Baldwin and many, many others. Smith has mixed history with honesty, love with life, education with effects. This is a great book for educators, parents, managers, professionals, newsmen, and anyone else wanting an in-depth look at the N-word, the effects and the solutions. A MUST READ!!!!
H. Lewis Smith has studied the idioms, meanings and the psychological impact of words, its energy and vibratory effects on the human mind for more than two decades. He has been a guest on several talk shows, The Power, The Exchange, Andrea Williams’ Jamin 98.3 and many more. To learn more about Bury that Sucka, please visit http://www.burythatsucka.com
only an ignoramis would be cruel enough to call other people ugly because they are jealous of that person it is people like him that would use the n word and tell the world that a beautiful woman has a horse face when his face resembles the back part of a donkey pick on brad and jolie but stop trying to belittle a woman that has grace and is admired by a lot of people. as you offend woman all over the world by saying and printing what u do get some self respect