Top 9 Black Stand-Up Comedians

In the world of comedy, segregation may be a good thing. Black comedy is something like extended time with a member of our family. Instead of the person on stage coming up with ridiculous situations only they went through, black comedians thrive on finding ways to relate to their people via the audience before them. It’s as if they say, “Being a black person in this world is a trip, and I know you know what I’m talking about.” Here are nine black comedians who took us on trips we were all familiar with, and made us laugh throughout the entire journey.

EDDIE MURPHY

Eddie Murphy may still be making at least one movie ever year, some of which are good, but a lot of his die-hard fans miss the Eddie Murphy of old. He was the one wearing the red leather suit in Delirious making jokes about men claiming the house when they’re drunk and memorable impressions of Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and James Brown. Or, for some fans, the Eddie Murphy in the leather purple jump suit from Raw. Whichever one you choose, no one can deny, before Murphy went all “Nutty Professor” on us, he was the biggest black stand-up comedian in the world.

RICHARD PRYOR

Before Murphy, there was Richard Pryor, the larger-than-life stand-up comedian who broke through the mainstream in a way few had before him. Pryor’s act was unapologetic, aggressive, and deeply steeped in black life. The man didn’t just know how to tell a joke, he knew how to tell a joke in areas of life where people hadn’t thought laughter existed. From drug addiction to his public demolishing of the N-word in his off-stage conversations, Pryor knew how to make others laugh at things he could barely smile about.

DICK GREGORY

Dick Gregory made a name for himself as the face of black comedy during the Civil Rights era. At a time when black comedy was and stand up comedy in general was still a somewhat cottage industry, Gregory came of age to an audience that was both black and white. His popularity was undeniable, just ask Hugh Hefner who hired Gregory to perform at the Chicago Playboy Club.

BILL COSBY

Before he became America’s dad in his sitcom series, The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby was one of the biggest stand-up comedians in the 60s and 70s. Unlike his peers like Pryor and Gregory, Cosby gained notoriety for keeping his stand-up acts clean and without curse words.

CHRIS ROCK

Arguably the best comedian performing stand-up today, Rock’s stand-up comedy is so smart, his jokes would not sound out of place in a college classroom. Rock rifts from the heart but most noticeably from his brain, where he comes up with some of his most well-known bits like his long tirade and explanation about the difference between “black people” and “niggers” and rich” and “wealthy”.

DAVE CHAPPELLE

Chapelle will go down in history as the man behind one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all time, “Chappelle’s Show”. But prior to his show, Chappelle was one of the sharpest stand-up comedians working in the 90’s. His aw-shucks style on the microphone gave his routine a childlike innocence, but his jokes were strictly for grown folks who never could stop laughing.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER

Before Cedric became the host of BET’s popular Comic View, and one of four comedians featured on the Kings of Comedy Tour, he was a funny man who sold insurance during the work week and told stand up jokes on the weekend. The grind paid off and now, Cedric The Entertainer has lived up to his stage name in venues around the world.

STEVE HARVEY

Harvey wears a lot of hats, but none of them would be worn without his first one: stand-up comedy. Unlike most comedians who pander to a younger audience, Harvey takes a different approach. Harvey laces his humor with bits of wisdom he learned back in his younger years, like the older uncle you love to hear talk at the family barbecue.

BERNIE MAC

The late great stand-up had a long career before coming into fame as a member of the Kings of Comedy tour back in 2000. After his performance — the raucous, prfoanity-laced finale — Mack went onto find success with his own sitcom on FOX and numerous roles in successful movies like the Ocean’s Eleven franchise.

The Best Comedy Albums of 2011 (So Far)

Even though 2011 isn't over yet, we've already had an impressive number of excellent comedy albums, both from veterans and relative newcomers. Check out the best comedy albums of 2011 so far.

1. Louis C.K. - 'Hilarious'
It almost seems unfair that comedian Louis C.K. releasedd his latest album, Hilarious, within the first two weeks of 2011. It's unfair because the album is so outstanding that it set an impossible standard for every other record that followed it; over and over again, I can hear myself saying "Sure, it's funny...but is it Hilarious?" It's so rare to find a comic with a point of view these days that coming across one as sharply defined as Louis C.K.'s is a kind of miracle. Hilarious finds the best comic of today at the top of his game, and truly earns its title.

2. Natasha Leggero - 'Coke Money'
On her first comedy album, Coke Money, Natasha Leggero does exactly what her contemporary female comics like Kathy Griffin and Chelsea Handler do -- only much better. She's the spoiled-brat-as-comic, the girl who is all too aware of her own shortcomings but who still isn't going to suffer fools lightly. That's how she ends up taking on L.A. club girls, douchebag guys, egotistical rappers, toilet babies and many, many more in routines that only get funnier as the album goes on. Coke Money is so much better than what several of Leggero's more successful or better-known contemporaries are putting out. It's one of the funniest records of the year.

3. Tommy Johnagin - 'Stand Up Comedy 2'
Tommy Johnagin is way too funny to have finished in only second place on Last Comic Standing in 2010, as evidenced by his second album Stand Up Comedy 2. Johnagin is a terrific joke writer and, like a lot of great comics, has a knack for applying logic to situations that may not call for it and pulling the humor out of that juxtaposition. It's the kind of comedy album that will hold up to repeat listens, and it moves quickly; Johnagin knows how and when to get out of a bit and into the next one. Bring on Stand Up Comedy 3.

4. Amy Schumer - 'Cutting'
Overlooking the double meaning in the title of Amy Schumer's debut album, Cutting, it's a great example of the comic's approach to stand-up: take a subject that might otherwise be sensitive or off-limits (in this case, teenage cutting) and turn it into comedy. When she's not destroying political correctness for its own sake, she's comes up with some terrific black comedy one-liners, and her album shows a real intelligence and knack for using language. Oh, and it has maybe the best final joke of any comedy album I've heard in a long, long time.

5. Norm Macdonald - 'Me Doing Standup'
There's something so laid back about Norm Macdonald's approach to comedy -- as evidenced even by the title of his latest album, Me Doing Standup -- that I think some people have a hard time taking him seriously. Macdonald segues from a deconstruction of language into long-form bits about 24 hour news, the woman troubles of Tiger Woods and gives an involved, detailed description of just how he would go about getting away with a murder (not that he's planning on killing anyone, but a river can only go so long before there's a bend). The material is funny enough on its own, but it's made even better by Macdonald's trademark delivery.

Comedian Jimmy Tingle jokes about running for president in new stand-up show -- or is he?

from: DailyNews.com

To the running joke that is the Great American List of Unqualified Presidential Candidates, add one more joker.

This one actually admits he's running as a joke.

"I have absolutely no legislative accomplishments whatsoever," says comedian Jimmy Tingle, through a chowder-thick accent that reminds voters he was born in Cambridge, Mass.

"I want to take the great political principles of the United States and combine them with the great spiritual principles of the world's major religions that focus on love, compassion, peace, mercy and forgiveness."

It is really funny to have his say all these especially now that the games for next year's presidential elections have already started.
Is he going to be the new president???? I guess if you stay tuned you will hear more about this.

In the mean time we just want to stay entertained so let's hit the comedy shows and see the best performances !

Comedians dish about funny business at fest

from: BostonHerald.com

NANTUCKET — Hundreds of Nantucket Film Festival fans felt like flies on the wall yesterday as funny guys Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Stiller, Seth Meyers, Colin Quinn and Aziz Ansari took to the stage to talk amongst themselves about making people laugh.

The high hilarity at the high school, moderated by Meyers, the head writer of “Saturday Night Live,” was an hour-plus inside look into making hit TV sitcoms, sketch comedy shows, funny films and stand-up routines.

And here’s a sample of some of the things we overheard:

•Stiller, who flew in from New York after closing his Broadway show, “The House of Blue Leaves,” on Saturday night, bombed at his first try at stand-up comedy.

“I think it’s the hardest thing you can do in show business,” he said. “At 16, I took a class at The Improv in New York, and I wrote a horrible bit about alternate-side-of-the-street parking.” Whereupon Quinn said, “Hmm. Jerry did a whole episode on that.”

• Seinfeld said his one regret about his uberpopular, long-running sitcom was pulling the plug on doing an entire episode in Claymation.

“I didn’t do it because Tim Allen has already done a Claymation scene in ‘Home Improvement,’ and I didn’t want to imitate Tim Allen,” he said. “I regret that.”

• And speaking of Seinfeld, he missed the griminess of stand-up comedy when he was starring in the hit NBC comedy series. But he still can’t understand why his jokes need to be approved by an audience. Because, really isn’t he the funny one?

“If a joke doesn’t work, how come I have to come and ask you?” Jerry asks a hypothetical audience. “What do you know about comedy? If you were funny, you wouldn’t be here (in the audience).”

• Quinn, who has been touring with his one-man show “Long Story Short,” directed by Seinfeld, said the last time he was in Massachusetts for a stand-up gig, it was in Gloucester and a fight started outside the club.

“There was a giant brawl after the show,” he said. “This little waitress comes back inside and I said, ‘I’m sorry about this’ and she said, ‘It’s awesome.’ Goes to show you the clientele...”

• Ansari, who stars as Tom Haverford on NBC’s “Parks & Recreation,” joked he would much prefer to have others write great material for him — like they do on his sitcom.

“Writing is soooo hard,” said the proprietor of the faux Pawnee uberconglomerate ‘Entertainment 720.’ “But seriously it’s really important to write your own stuff.”

• Meyers, who confessed he thinks Bill Hader’s alter ego Stefon is the “funniest character on “SNL,” said writers only have two hours after two run-throughs to tweak the show and get it down to 90 minutes before it airs at 11:35 p.m. And many weeks, it’s a nail-biter. Also nearly half of the Weekend Update jokes are tossed out before he performs the bit for real.

The audience at the Nantucket Film Festival’s final big event included many aspiring Jerry Seinfelds (although the questions from the audience at the end were rather lame). So we asked Jerry what’s the secret to a blockbuster comedy career?

“You got to fall in love with it,” he said. “I am a big fan of obsessive behavior. I’m a big fan of what people think of as workaholism. I don’t think that this is a real problem in (our) culture that people are working too hard. I’ve seen the antithesis of that. So I am a big fan of go crazy and become obsessed to the exclusion of all other things.

“People say you need to have balance in your life and a broad perspective. I’m against all these things,” Jer told the Track. “I advocate for narrow and unbalanced. And that is the only possible route to becoming a comedian.”

And not that there’s anything wrong with that ...

Jon Stewart Is Definitely a Comedian. Chris Wallace Admits Fox's Bias

from: HuffpostMedia

In the wake of the now-famous televised showdown between Jon Stewart and Chris Wallace Sunday morning there's lots of chatter from pundits on both the left and right that Stewart, as Wallace charged, is dodging his true role as a 'journalist.' To paraphrase Stewart from the interview, anyone who believes this ridiculous assertion is "insane."

I'm not exactly sure where all the confusion lies. Stewart was a stand-up comic for years and now has a comedy show. On "Comedy Central." And like many a legendary humorist before him -- Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Mort Sahl, George Carlin and Lenny Bruce to name a few -- his material consists of politics, politicians and American culture. You will never see anything on The Daily Show, Stewart's nightly program, that is delivered with a serious tone. You will never see Stewart himself analyze and comment on anything unless his set-ups have wickedly funny punchlines. He's a satirist. And probably the best there ever was. But that's all he is. To paraphrase the late Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's famous smackdown of Sen. Dan Quayle in their 1988 vice presidential debate, "Mr. Stewart, I know journalism. I studied journalism for many years. I have a journalism degree. Mr. Stewart, you're no journalist."

It's pretty sad when, as Rogers said, "People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke." A society which considers Stewart and people like Bill O'Reilly "journalists" is a society that's in deep trouble. To label Stewart a journalist is offensive to journalists and non-journalists alike. I don't get my news from Stewart. I save that for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, The Huffington Post and other outlets. I watch Stewart for the same reason I watched/watch Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Carlin and a zillion other comics: to get a biting, funny take on the day's news. Because Stewart makes us laugh about the news doesn't make him a newsman. That he makes us laugh about politics doesn't make him a political activist. He's simply doing his job as a comedian.

Now on the other hand, as Stewart pointed out to Wallace, there are millions of very "misinformed" people who watch Fox News and actually think they're watching an objective news network. They listen to people like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and think they're getting the truth. They're not. In an astounding admission of his network's true bias, Wallace, while discussing other networks with Stewart, said "I think we're the counterweight. I think that they have a liberal agenda, and I think we tell the other side of the story." Wow. So much for "fair and balanced."

Stewart is a true genius. But he's a comic genius. And without even being a true journalist he brilliantly managed to do what no one else has done: get Fox to admit that it's a politically biased television network. I bet Wallace didn't have that outcome in mind when he invited Stewart on his Fox "News" Sunday program.

Just for Laughs Chicago Kicks Off

from: About.com

Though last night's performance by Tim Minchin at Chicago's Lincoln Hall provided the "soft opening" of the 2011 Just for Laughs Chicago Festival, tonight is the night the fest begins proper with performances from Jo Koy, Ron White, Rodney Carrington, Jim Breuer, Dave Attell, Jim Norton and Bill Burr.

This years festival runs through Sunday, when it concludes with an incredible-sounding performance from Steve Martin and Martin Short.

The Just for Laughs Chicago Festival has become one of the premiere comedy festivals in the United States, so if you're anywhere near the Chicago area during the next week, you owe it to yourself to stop in for at least one show. You can check out the schedule here.

For tickets, visit: Here

And, in case you needed any more convincing, you can check out some highlights of the 2010 and 2009 festival.

Comedian Kevin Hart to Host This Year's "BET Awards" Premiering Sunday, June 26 at 8 p.m.

from The Futon Critic

NEW YORK, May 17, 2011 -- BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today announced that actor/comedian Kevin Hart has been tapped to host this year's BET AWARDS, ranked among the Top 5 Cable Award Shows every year among total viewers. The brightest night in music will broadcast LIVE from the historic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.* on BET.

For over a decade the BET AWARDS has reigned as the biggest family event rivaling all top awards shows. Having escalated each year in industry influence with A-list celebrity nominations, star-studded appearances and one-of-a-kind performances, the BET AWARDS has undoubtedly established itself as the hottest ticket on television.

The brightest stars in music, acting and sports will appear and perform at this year's BET AWARDS which recognizes the achievements of artists, entertainers and athletes in 20 categories. Leading the pack this year is Chris Brown with an impressive 6 nominations across multiple categories: Best Male R&B Artist, Best Collaboration (for which he holds two nominations), Video of the Year, Best Actor and Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice. Closely behind him is Lil Wayne with 5 nominations: Best Male Hip Hop Artist, Best Collaboration (with fellow nominee Chris Brown), Video of the Year and Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice for his collaborations with Chris Brown and Cory Gunz. Rounding out the list and tied with 4 nominations each are Kanye West, Rihanna and Drake.

"When we asked folks who should host this year's BET AWARDS online, in the streets, among other celebs and throughout social media, one name came back to us loud and clear: Kevin Hart," said Stephen Hill, BET's president of music programming and specials. "He is blue flame right now and we are looking forward to working with him on the show," stated Hill. "His energy, wit and the always fantastic performances will make for yet another must see event - and the 'Chocolate Droppa' might even get a verse in the show," he added.

Kevin Hart burst onto the scene as one of the most versatile comedy actors in film and television. Hart is currently touring the nation on his "Laugh at My Pain" tour. He is the number one comedian on Ticketmaster and in February 2011, Hart sold out the Nokia Theater two nights in a row to break a record previously set by Eddie Murphy. Hart will spend the summer of 2011 filming lead roles in two new movies. In July, he will start working on Screen Gem's "Think Like A Man," the comedy is based on Steve Harvey's bestselling 2009 book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man. Hart will then start work on the Nick Stoller comedy "Five Year Engagement" with producer Judd Apatow and Universal.

Hart was last seen in "Little Fockers" and "Death at a Funeral," alongside Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and Martin Lawrence. He also co-starred with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in "Fool's Gold," as well as opposite Steve Carell in "The 40 Year Old Virgin." Hart's additional film credits include: "Soul Plane" opposite Tom Arnold, Method Man and Snoop Dogg, "Not Easily Broken," "Extreme Movie," "Drillbit Taylor," "Epic Movie," "The Last Stand," "Scary Movie 4," "In the Mix," "Meet Dave" and "Superhero Movie." In 2009, Hart's one-hour comedy special "I'm a Grown Little Man" on Comedy Central was one of the highest-rated specials for the network. Hart was also the host of BET's classic stand-up comedy series "Comic View: One Mic Stand."

Sponsors for this year's BET AWARDS telecast include Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award, Subway Sportsman of the Year and Subway Sportswoman of the Year.