HeyEverybody! Check out my awesome new poster for my new stand-up comedy tour, called "Oh, Everything!" It was made by Dima Drjuchin. I love it so much! Please share it with THE WORLD!
Bloomington IN, St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, Portland OR, Oakland CA, Miami...
A year ago today on August 9th 2012 a little show named Totally Biased premiered. It was weekly; FX gave us 6 episodes to figure it out. Well now here we are in our new offices in pre-production for our daily show, premiering on September 4th at 11pm on FXX. What a long, strange trip it's being and yes, that was a Grateful Dead reference.
I'm excited for the return of the new Totally Biased. Me and the writers had a great summer on our stand-up tour. And I don't know if you've heard but I did a panel at the Television Critics Association and said some things that the extreme right wing of America wasn't so happy about (and even some on the pretend left wing).
And if you happen to be in the New York area later this month, me and some of the writers from Totally Biased are doing a stand-up comedy show as part of the AFROPUNK FEST in Brooklyn on Saturday, August 24th. It features me, Hari Kondabolu, Aparna Nancherla and Janine Brito. It's a great show and it's only $15 - you can get tickets here.
That's all for now. As always, thank you for your support. I literally couldn't be here without you.
Well, you and my mom...and my dad...and my wife...ok I'm gonna stop :)
Kamau
Don't blink...
So this happened today...
I just figured I would put it into one post because I'm starting to confuse myself so here goes...>
Sept 6 San Francisco, CA Stage Werx Theatre - Me & Boots Riley in Conversation - A Benefit for Laughter Against The Machine
Laughter Against The Machine's Tour & Documentary Sept 10 Phoenix, AZ Space 55 BUY TICKETS Sept 14 Chicago, IL Greenhouse Theater BUY TICKETS Sept 16 Dearborn, MI Henry Ford / Adray Auditorium BUY TICKETS Sept 17 Madison, WI Bartell Theatre BUY TICKETS Nov 9-10 Washington, DC DC Arts Center BUY TICKETS Nov 11-12 New Orleans, LA La Nuit Comedy Theater BUY TICKETS Nov 14-15 Oakland, CA New Parish Theater BUY TICKETS
And we only have days left to raise the money we need to make the documentary about all this nuttiness! Can we borrow 5 bucks to make it happen? Thanks!
While I was in Edinburgh I got my friends Margaret Cho (1st video) & Hal Sparks (2nd video) to make appeals to their peoples and beyond about Laughter Against The Machine's Kickstarter campaign. Watch 'em. Enjoy 'em. Spread 'em around 'em!
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has made me obsessed with stars. Not the famous kind. Although there are famous stars as part of the festival, Margaret Cho, Henry Rollins, Michael "That Dude From The Police Academy Movies Who Makes Crazy Sounds With His Mouth" Winslow, Al Murray The Pub Landlord. (He's super famous here.) I also don't mean the stars in the night time sky. Especially since it doesn't get dark until after 9pm ... which is awesome.
I'm talking the kind of stars reviewers give to shows. One thing I've learned in my first week at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is that it's all about stars! Preferably lots and lots of them, like a hotel in Dubai.
So many posters here -- I've never seen so many posters in all my life -- are littered with stars proving each show is the most awesomest of any show. I came up to the Fringe with no poster stars at all. All I had was a quote from some regional American publication. And my quote withers next to these...
I did an interview with The Scotsman's Chitra Ramaswamy. It is one of the most fun interviews I've had in a long time. And it features one of my favorite quotes I've ever said.
I think I like this interview so much because she took everything I said and then re-calibrated it make it more British-y, which makes me sound more intelligent to me... because I'm a self-hating American.
Comedy: W. Kamau Bell & Friends To Launch 'Laughter Against the Machine' Tour
Do you like your comedy seasoned with spicy social and political commentary? AP friend W. Kamau Bell is a part of the 'Laughter Against the Machine' (LATM) tour and documentary film project. Also on the bill: comedians Nato Green and Janine Brito. The tour starts Sept. 10 in Phoenix (see schedule below) and will be filmed for a documentary (click HERE if you'd like to help fund the production). To give you an idea of the madness they have in store for you, here's the promo trailer. Racism, gay rights, feminism, you name it! Check it. - L C-D
In the back of my mind, I've always thought I could be Jimi Hendrix. I'm not saying I could be as good a guitar player. Nor am I saying that I would make as iconic a rockstar. My Afro could never compare to his. But I always thought I could do the thing where I went overseas to make my name and then come back A STAR! And people would ask me questions like, "How are you enjoying your first time in the States?" And I'd be like, "I'M FROM HERE BUT YOU DIDN'T GET ME SO I WENT TO WHERE I WAS WANTED!" This pretty much already happens whenever I go back to Chicago.
But that is exactly kinda what happened with Jimi Hendrix, and right now I am on a plane hoping it kinda exactly happens to me. I'm headed to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the original, biggest, and greatest fringe festival in the world. There are more than 2,500 shows and 1,300 premieres, more than 500 of which are X-rated. And guess what? Fringe audiences love --- and love to love --- comedy. They think it's as valuable a form of artistic expression as dance, music, or theater. Silly, huh? Many American comics have made their bones in Edinburgh: Rich Hall, Demetri Martin, Doug Stanhope ... others. And I'm hoping -- maybe even desperately and furtively praying -- that it will happen to me. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
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| Zees is Jimi in Sweden. Borgy borgy borgy! |
The following Facebook exchanges --- with the weird period spacing and you're/your violation --- occurred between myself and a fan... an ex-fan. In my knowledge we had never conversed before. Friday Ex-Facebook Fan User: Have to drop you from facebook . Your just not funny . Try just being a full on militant or something . Or there is , of course always welfare . Friday W. Kamau Bell: Well, we had a good run. I'll miss what we had together. Friday EFFU: Parting is such sweet sorrow my nubian prince . Friday W. Kamau Bell: Are you hitting on me? Friday EFFU: LOL Bastard . Now the laughs . Fucking black people . Friday W. Kamau Bell: Hopefully you have learned a valuable lesson. Good luck in everything you do. Friday EFFU: I have not and will never learn anything . Good luck to you as well . WHITEPOWER ! Friday W. Kamau Bell: Fair enough. Then I hope you feel that you have accomplished what you wanted and also that you got what you needed from this. Friday EFFU: I SAID GOOD DAY SIR !
And then all was quiet for 48 hours until...
Sunday EFFU: I miss you so badly . sigh
So you wanted my critically acclaimed CD, Face Full of Flour, for a while now but the current economy has made it such that you couldn't scrape together the ten bucks. Well, I understand so I have partnered with the awesome racial justice organization Colorlines to come up with a way for you to get my CD FOR FREE and do some good.
Just click here (or the image above) and you can be whisked to fill out a short survey. In the process you will be helping them figure out ways make the world a better place. You know you wanna.
It's a win, win! I want you to have my CD. You want to have my CD. And we both want the world to be a mo' better place. Enjoy!
This episode features a looong overdue review of the movie Thor. What? You don't care what Vernon and Kamau think about the movie Thor? Well, don't worry your nappy little head, as always, they veer waaaaay off topic (or on topic depending on your perspective) and tackle the subjects that you know them for. Vernon also finally recommends some music, as he exposes Kamau to some Tyler, The Creator. This is our most EXPLICIT episode ever! Thanks, Tyler.
- Has Samuel L. Jackson had the Super Soldier Serum?
- How come Vernon doesn't want a black Spider-man?
- Is Tyler, The Creator and his crew the NEW Wu-Tang or the anti-Wu-Tang?
- How is it that in killing Osama Bin Laden that the US finds a way to be racist to Native Americans?
- Kamau's big (soon to be bigger) news!
Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com
Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com
Connect with Producer Extraordinaire Alex on Twitter @AGThornton
And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide
GET US ON iTUNES NOW!!! http://ow.ly/22Uia
Vernon is back from his tour in Berlin and therefore the dynamical duo is BACK! For all of you who missed Vernon on the last episode this episode is back to regular. This episode features...
- Vernon's beef with America's radio sweetheart Jesse Thorn.
- President Barack Obama squashing his beef with Osama Bin Laden... literally.
- Vernon pitches his new religion, POI, to Producer Alex's bemusement.
- Vernon has insider knowledge to the reign of NYC drug kingpin Nicky Barnes.
- Vernon makes it clear he's not voting for Newt Gingrich. Surprised?
- Kamau sends Vernon a surprising E-mail. You'll just have to guess what it is.
- And finally Urban Dance Squad gets some much overdue love from FNGTAC!
Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com
Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com
Connect with Producer Extraordinaire Alex on Twitter @AGThornton
And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide
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Pandora is doing comedy now!!! With Pandora doing comedy, we have almost created a Utopia on earth. We've got iPad 2s, electric cars being made by American car companies, and Cee-lo is on TV every week. No wonder the world is coming to an end on May 21. Humanity has got nothing left to do.
Full disclosure: I briefly worked at Pandora on this project, and I can't legally tell you exactly what I did there, but it was somewhere between the areas of "Hey, guys! Pandora should do comedy!" and "Ooooh, shiny!"
But I can tell you that I had very little to do with the space magic that makes this awesome. Comedy on Pandora works just like music on Pandora. You type in the name of your favorite comic or comedy track name, and Pandora creates a station based on the qualities it says define that comedian or track.
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Since I have two CDs out (ONE NIGht ONLY and Face Full of Flour), as an experiment, I am going to enter, HORROR OF HORRORS, my own name. I'm going to listen to five tracks, and we're going to see what happens when I find out who I am like and why I am like them. Can you even create your own Pandora station based on your own name? Will that create a rip in the space-time continuum? Well, I'm doing it anyway. My only rule is no thumbing up or down. I just gotta take what I get.
Okay, apparently W. Kamau Bell is similar comedically to Mr. Paul Mooney, Godfrey, Aries Spears, Eddie Griffin, and Alonzo Bodden. One out of five ain't bad. Oh, wait. Yes it is. Nothing against the dudes on that list, I guess I was just hoping to find I was similar to Mr. Paul Mooney, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, young Malcolm X, and the unreleased Bill Cosby CD that he recorded a couple of years ago when he went on that tour chastising single moms.
1. Artist -- W. Kamau Bell, Track Name -- "Where's Chicago? & Californ-YO!"
This is a track from my first CD which was really just a bootleg that I recorded and released as a CD. These two jokes were a STAPLE of my act. It's a bit like looking at baby pictures of myself, except the pictures talk and for some reason I thought the word "titties" was funny.
When I ask Pandora why it played this track, it says, "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features hostile comedy, subject explorations, a sarcastic delivery, location/situation jokes, and satirical observations." Yeah, that's me. Except recently I've taken out the "location/situation" parts of my jokes so I can focus more on the "hostile comedy" parts.
TO READ THE REST OF MY KKK BLOG POST AT THE SF WEEKLY CLICK HERE.
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OK, look assholes! I have a hot tip for you. This is hotter than a tip on Apple Computer stock in 1990. Hotter than an iPad 2.* Hotter than fresh-out-of-the-oven chicken potpie filling. HOT! Hannibal Buress is headlining for the first time THIS WEEKEND at the Punch Line here in San Francisco!
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Now, I know what you're thinking. "Kamal, you recommend comics every week. I get it. He's a friend of yours and you think he's funny. Enough with the hard sell."
Okay. First of all, my name is Kamau, not Kamal.
And second of all, this is not the usual KKK endorsement, THIS is a warning of things to come. A warning of the inevitability of how stupid you will feel in a year or two** when Hannibal is one of the biggest comics in the country and you missed your chance because you didn't heed this warning to get in on the ground floor of the next big thing.***
Hannibal has already been feted by Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and Variety. He's working on getting his late night talk show card fully punched, and is one of the few comics who each year who manage to crack the inscrutable code of appearing on David Letterman. He has written for SNL and 30 Rock. His 2010 debut comedy CD, My Name Is Hannibal, was lavished with praise, making multiple 10 ten lists, including ones by iTunes and Punchline Magazine.**** He's appeared on the podcasts WTF with Marc Maron and The Field Negro Guide to Arts and Culture with guitarist Vernon Reid from the band Living Colour.
Vernon is away this week and he's sure gonna be mad he missed this one. Kamau is in Portland, OR and sits down with scorching hot comedian, Hannibal Buress. Hannibal has been feted in all the hip-making mags like Rolling Stone, Esquire, Variety, and Entertainment Weekly. And he has been called, "The funniest young comic I've seen in years." by none other than Chris Rock. Kamau and Hannibal have some comedian shoptalk, talk about Hannibal's brief writing career on Saturday Night Live and his hopefully soon to be longer writing career on 30 Rock. And in the grand tradition ofg FNGTAC they of course have a meta discussion about Hannibal's self-esteem and whether or not he's being type cast. Hannibal also breaks a brand new genre or YouTube vdeos. Watch out MMA!
Enjoy it! Even though we don't know if you deserve it!
See Hannibal The Punch Line in San Francisco May 4-7.
Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com
Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com
Connect with Producer Extraordinaire Alex on Twitter @AGThornton
And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide
GET US ON iTUNES NOW!!! http://ow.ly/22Uia
It's a Kamau Mau Uprising at The Marsh - Win tickets! Oakland Local edi... Mon, 25 Apr at 6:42pm
The Marsh is delighted to announce a special performance of COMEDY BRAINS, the new weekly comedy romp at the Cabaret at The Marsh Berkeley, featuring W. Kamau Bell in The Kamau Mau Uprising. And Oakland Local is pleased to announce that we have tickets to giveaway to our faithful readers only. It's time for another fabulous ticket giveaway!! Send your name, phone number and email to wintickets2@gmail.com WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY THURSDAY, APRIL 28.
And if you can't win them then please just use the password wkbfan to get $15 tickets. Get tix HERE!
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
TV & Film
Ben Simone
BSimone@wmeagency.com
212.903.1100
Stand-Up & Speaking
Stacy Mark
SM@wmeagency.com
310.859.4108
Brillstein Entertainment Partners
Tim Sarkes
t.sarkes@bep-la.com
310.205.5123
Alex Murray
a.murray@bep-la.com
310.205.5111
