Monday, July 31, 2006

Snark-tastic

Sometimes I get to do shows in Midtown for Tourist McTouristy. A whole audience of people that come to New York. Most of them expect it to just be a bigger version of where they are from. Wrong! New York is in no way nice or simple. Sorry. It's true.

I did a show the other day in Midtown. I've been doing a lot of shows at the Improv Cafe which is run by my friend Aaron Haber. I had 3 shows there recently. 2 were great and the one sandwiched in the middle was strange. They clammed up if I said or implied anything about race. When I walked off stage a woman in the back on the room said, "You've got a lot of potential. You should drop the racial stuff." I pulled back my sleeve, showed her my skin color, pointed at it and said, "It Happens."

Indeed. Contrary to popular belief, Stand Up comics love getting notes and criticism from people who have done stand up never. This woman doesn't realize that its because of people like her that I do racial material. Her statements to me mean that what I did wasn't white friendly and thus needs to be cut from my act. Which of course means I'm gonna do the opposite. That's like telling a swimmer to not get wet. That's like telling a skydiver to not fall. When you are black in America, race is an issue cuz you're always seen as the other. White is normal and you are the other. The problem people. Its an issue in my life, so I talk about it onstage. So Shut it lady and go watch Robin Williams.

And Now....
for my all time favorite Viral Video "Afro Ninja"



That is comedy.
I showed this to a friend and he said he doesn't find it funny when people get hurt. He has something called empathy which makes him feel for human beings. Hey man, I have it too. Like if this happened on a sidwalk outside Central Park. I wouldn't find it funny. But this guy is auditioning for a movie and he fucks it up!!! And he gets up and still tries to finish. Man, that is funny! Maybe its because I go on auditions a lot and if I do badly, I can always say "well I least i didn't try to do a backflip and land on my face!"

That always brightens my day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

love it

Percussion Lab said...

Oh! You're a comedian! No wonder your blog is so fucking funny. I'll have to catch your show sometime. I'm a fan of the race jokes. I'm puerto rican/indian so I can get down with the down with whitey - tho its a bit played out these days. Aren't us "others" supposed to be the majority now or some shit?

Baron said...

Well praveen, I don't say down with whitey. I do talk about race and what not, but some people are gonna hear down with whitey no matter what I say.

Carolyn said...

I'm sorry? Did you just say down with whitey?

I do love Afro-Ninja. There are more of those online, too.

Kyria said...

This woman should have said, "You should do more jokes about my not having met any black people before today."

I performed in Canada once, and a guy said to me, "You weren't awful, eh? But you should do more jokes about hockey."

Let's see some more jokes about hockey, Baron!! Get "on the stick"! Hockey and the Union Jack. Good stuff.

claudia said...

You would've been completely justified responding, "Miss, you've got a lot of potential. You should drop the talking stuff."

Anonymous said...

Afro Ninja: there is just not enough their to be funny. So he stumbles while thinking he's still coherent enough to finish--ohhh well. This is viral? people are ______.

that lady: I guess she came to hear some good old American humor and was put off by your mention of those blacks.