SEATTLE! I'm coming for YOU! Feb. 6th, 8pm!

From The Seattle Weekly...

Sun., Feb. 6, 8 p.m., 2011 Get your tickets HERE! Bring a Friend of a Different Race & Get in 2for1.

Back in 2005, a little-known San Francisco comic made a crack about a little-known Illinois senator, also black. Said W. Kamau Bell, “There will never be a black president named Barack Obama. Because that is too black.” Then the unthinkable happened: Obama actually became president, and Bell focused his comedy into a stand-alone show, The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour. He's been performing and refining the act for years, adapting topics of his ire from George Bush to Michele Bachmann. And while he comes as the subject of race from a Bay Area liberal's perspective, his jokes also range from Star Trek to kung fu movies to Macbeth. (“As a society,” says this Chicago-raised utopian, “let's be the The Matrix part one, not The Matrix II and III.”) And, like the president, Bell has stripped the anger from his smart, genial demeanor—he's like the funniest dude in your Ph.D. program. Though he's a young guy, fluent in blogging, twitter, and Facebook, he's also a bit of a throwback—skipping over the incendiary taunts of Pryor and Murphy back to the early humor of Cosby (before sweaters and sitcoms). Also note the ticket price: two-for-one if “you bring a friend from a different race.” It's a great chance to save some money and meet someone not in your usual online dating profile. BRIAN MILLER

...

"Chicago-raised utopoian"

"the funniest dude in your Ph.D. program"

"the early humor of Cosby (before sweaters & sitcoms)"

Yup, that's pretty much how I've always described myself.

Seattle, I'll see you February 6th at 8pm.

MY review of WTF Live w/ Marc Maron @ SF Sketchfest - I hope it doesn't start new "beef."

Marc Maron is one of my comedy heroes. I sincerely hope when reads it --- and he will --- that he experiences the love.

Whereas if you're not Marc Maron, I just hope you regular, old enjoy it.

See below...

Photo Seth Olenick

Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron

This marks the first of an occasional series called Expert Opinion, where The Bay Citizen seeks an informed judgment on a cultural event or place. Comedian W. Kamau Bell attended something of a contradiction in terms — a live podcast — to opine for us.

* * *

“Why don’t you come by cobbs tnite. Come on for a few minutes.”

This was the text I got from Marc Maron at 3 p.m. Friday, just a few hours before I had planned to head to Cobb’s Comedy Club to review Marc’s show, a live edition of his podcast, “WTF with Marc Maron.” Marc’s podcast is currently the number one way for cool people to express their coolness. It began a little over a year ago, and in that time Marc has gone from hustling to fill the Punch Line Comedy Club, with its 175-person capacity, to easily selling out the 500-seat Cobb’s.

And on this night at Cobb’s, as part of SF Sketchfest’s podcast-heavy schedule, WTF promised to do the thing on which it has built its empire — Marc talking, riffing, trading barbs and road stories with comedians. The main difference between the live WTF and the studio version is that in studio, the podcast can frequently get into painful or uncomfortable — and therefore revealing —territory. Live, neither Marc nor his guests dwell on these moments as much, as everyone is aware of the audience... including the audience. And when comedians see an audience, it’s hard not to set our phasers to KILL!

So I fooled myself into believing that I was doing some old-school, Hunter S. Thompson-style gonzo journalism, and I set my phasers to KILL!...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF MY REVIEW!

Happy Birthday to me?

It's my birthday this week and once again the universe wants to let me know EXACTLY what I am worth.

$2.27??? COME ON! It was named one of 2010 top ten CD's on BOTH iTunes and Punchline Magazine!!!

So if you bid on it and win it, I'll flood* you with some sort of currently undecided WKB Prize Package.

Last time one of my CD's ended up on eBay, it was won by Marco Lamas, and now we are the best of friends.**

So give me an early b-day present, click the pic above, and rescue my CD from the Internetic cut out bin.

1 Cent CD INDEED!

* The concept of "flood" is subjective.

** The term "best of friends" is in the eye of the beholder, but we did recently hang out in NYC at a Vernon Reid gig.

Some Tweets hit too close to home.

Marc Maron was looking for suggestions for guests on his awesome podcast, WTF. So I piped in suggesting myself. As many of you know, I was on last February with my good friend and comedian, Dwayne Kennedy --- who was only on the episode because he (nicely) drove me there... And because Marc knew him. We spent most of the time talking about "the black thing" --- Marc's words. And we never got to do that whole now classic WTF my life story that includes Marc apologizing to me and/or me telling him that I used to think that he was a jerk thing. It was a lot of fun, but looking back I miss not getting to do my whole Inside The Actor's Studio thingy. So I sent him a (slightly) snarky tweet suggesting myself. And here is how he responded...

Touche... and ouch!

Some tweets backfire. Some tweets hit too close to home.

For the record, I never did think Marc was a jerk, nor did he need to apologize... UNTIL NOW!

Just kidding.

If you wanna hear my episode of WTF, you can get the WTF Pod app for your iPad or iPhone. Or you can go to WTFpod.com an dget it there. I think it costs money now... Because it was THAT good... also it was one of the first 50... before Marc went all Ira Glass/Carlos Mencia/Ray Ramano/Louis CK/Blaine Capatch on us.

Kamau & Laughter Against The Machine in Oakland & Sacramento! FEBRUARY

If you can't get to one of my San Francisco New Year's Eve (and Eve Eve and New Year's Day) Shows, puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeease check me and my band of comedians, Laughter Against The Machine in OAKLAND(!!!) at The New Parish on February 8 & 9. Get YOUR tickets HERE Or maybe in Sacramento on February 11th at The Sacramento Comedy Spot. (not on the 12th despite what the super cool poster says). Get YOUR tickets HERE

You can have my Kwanzaa when you pry it out of my cold dead fingers.

So Christmas is over, you know what that means... IT’S TIME TO GET YO’ KWANZAA ON!

Oh man! I can’t wait! All the Kwanzaa parties. Attending the Kwanzaa Festival. Getting stuffed on all that Kwanzaa loaf. The Kwanzaa parades. (I’m sure your city has one.) Seeing all the local businesses decked out in Kwanzaa decorations. Waiting for the second night of Kwanzaa when Kwanzie, the Kwanzaa Sprite, comes in through your kitchen window and Kujichagulias all over your living room!!!

Nope. None of that happens. It doesn’t even happen in the most Kwanzaa-y of places.

Damn you, Kwanzaa! I love you and I hate what you have --- and haven’t --- become. For those of you not in the know, Kwanzaa is an African-American Winter Holiday that was invented by a black dude in 1966... and that’s pretty much where the story ends. It’s seven days long, starts the day after Christmas, and for each day you light different candle on a candelabra --- Which is probably where the problems between the blacks and the Jews began. Think about it.

Black Dude (Maybe Dr. Ron Karenga who invented Kwanzaa): "...Yeah so that’s the story of Kwanzaa.

Jewish Guy: "Really? It’s several days long. You light a candle everyday and it happens in December. WOW! Wherever did you get that idea?"

Black Guy: "What do you mean?"

Jewish Guy: "After all the hard work that us Jewish people did with black people during the Civil Rights Movement, you scoop our holiday?? THIS is how you treat us??"

Black Guy: "I don’t understand what you’re getting at."

Jewish Guy: "Nothing. Don’t worry about it... In a completely unrelated note, your bank loan has been denied." Despite how it appears, I grew up celebrating Kwanzaa... and Christmas. Every year on the day after December 25th, the Christmas Tree was instantly transformed into the Kwanzaa Bush.

See, I had one of THOSE black moms. One of those black moms where you do all this black stuff in the house like studying black history ---- even in months that aren’t February, looking at her slides from Africa every time a stranger comes over for any reason, constantly importing new African art into the house that is already stuffed with African art... And she does this because she knows when you go outside, you won’t be seeing hardly any black/African NOTHING so she tries to overload you before you leave. My mom felt like learning about black stuff in America was like taking Vitamin C during the winter; you quite literally can’t have too much.

But now Kwanzaa has gotten weird because somewhere along the way mass media discovered it. And they are using Kwanzaa And now you hear about Kwanzaa in commercials. You know the ones I’m talking about... Where they combine all the holidays names into one big holiday as a way to promote some kind of broken Multiculturalism. “Happy ChrismaKwanakkah!” YUCK!

Or at the end of the local news in December they do that thing sometimes where the anchor says...

Older Male Local News Anchor with Sandblasted Face & Occasionally Frosted Tips (If you’re from The Bay Area Dan Ashley is perfect.)...

“Before we leave tonight, we’d like to acknowledge that it is the holiday season. So to our Christian viewers, we’d like to say Merry Christmas! To our Jewish watchers, we’d like to say Happy (over pronounced faux Yiddish) Chhhhhhanukkah. To our --- I mean “the” --- Muslims viewers out there we’d like to say Happy Ramadan... whenever the hell that is. And finally to the blacks, we’d like to say Happy Kwanzaa! Hope that makes up for slavery!”

HARRUMPH!

First of all, no it doesn’t. And second of all, there’s a problem with lumping Kwanzaa in with all those other holidays. It simply can’t stand up to any of them. For one simple reason...

Not that many black people celebrate Kwanzaa. I’d guess maybe 1 percent. So lumping Kwanzaa in with those other holidays is disingenuous at best and down right dishonest at most.

(Side note: Jewish people will regularly tell you that Chanukkah is not really a big Jewish holiday. And due to the fact it’s based on the lunar cycle, Ramadan is only occasionally in December, so it’s really ridiculous to put it in with our attempt at diversity. This year it was actually in August. Which works pretty well since August has no major holidays at all. Hey Muslims, wanna keep it in August? You could dominate that month.)

But do you wanna know how you KNOW FOR SURE that as a whole black people don’t celebrate Kwanzaa?

NO KWANZAA SONGS!

You can’t think of one Kwanzaa song. (You probably can’t do it even if you are a part of that one percent.)

Think about it. When black people like something, we tend to write songs about it. LOTS AND LOTS OF SONGS IN FACT! And many of those songs tend to be hit songs. (Cuz we’re pretty good at writing songs.) And when black people have hit songs, the world tends to like those songs. So if we liked Kwanzaa in any kind of huge numbers, at some point you would have been in “da club”, or a boomin’ sound system woulda passed you on the street, or you woulda been watching a Super Bowl commercial and you woulda heard Will.i.am scream (or Jay-Z... or Wyclef... or --- back in the day --- Flavor Flav), “Drop that crazy Kwanzaa beat!”

Again think about it.

Guns, Cars, & shiny stuff... We, black people, like those things, so we have many hit songs about them.

Sickle Cell, High Blood Pressure, and Kwanzaa... We don’t like to think about those things too much, so we don’t have any hit songs about them.

Again, I like Kwanzaa. I’m part of one of the one percent who grew up celebrating it, and when I have kids THEY will celebrate Kwanzaa. It’s a fun time. Each day is named after a different principle.

Umoja(Unity):  To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Kujichagulia(Self Determination):  To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Ujima(Collective Work and Responsibility):  To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and our sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together. Ujamaa(Cooperative Economics):  To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together. Nia(Purpose):  To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Kuumba(Creativity):  To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Imani(Faith):  To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

And I’ll tell my children just like my mom told me...

“You’re gonna celebrate Kwanzaa. And you’re gonna like it... whether you like it or not. And it’s gonna make you feel weird when it comes up outside of the house. People will make fun of you when you talk about it, white people AND black people. And if a white person ever says Happy Kwanzaa to you, they’re basically calling you a nigger. Now get out there and have a happy, Umoja!”

Christine Taylor's Top 5 Last Minute Gifts for Comedy Lovers

Here are my Top 5 picks for pretending like you planned ahead while still giving a thoughtful gift that comedy fans will completely love. Also, these downloads are a therapeutic way to get through holiday travel and long family gatherings.

FACE FULL OF FLOUR, W. KAMAU BELL

Kamau's gem of an album mixes race, politics, and pop culture into 44 minutes of straight-up funny. Face Full of Flour is also in iTunes' and Punchline Magazine's Top 10 for 2010. I think he's 5 better, but still ... those lists are pretty damn impressive. DOWNLOAD

Go to Christine's Blog to see the rest of the Top 5! It includes Marc Maron, Paul F. Tompkins, Comedy Death Ray, & Jimmy Pardo.

Episode 7 - N Bombs, Kamau Bombs & Vernon's Smart Bombs

In the tradition of epic filmmaking & epic story telling, Kamau has one doozy of story to tell about his last three weeks. And in classic FNGTAC fashion, Vernon takes the conversation waaaaaaaaay off road in a beautiful way. This episode features several epic battles of Good vs. Evil: Kamau vs. Sacramento, Kevin Avery vs. Hollywood, Vernon vs. Hip Hop, Vernon vs. Quentin Tarantino, and even Vernon vs. Apollo Creed(?). And during this epic tale Vernon & Kamau finally have the N Word conversation, and we're not talking about Zen meditation. It took seven episodes for these two black guys to have that conversation. WOW! Maybe instead, they are actually "Far Afield Negroes". This one also features a surprise ending which portends good things to come, and also we finally get to find out exactly what percentage of Vernon that Kamau is. May the force be with them!

Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com

Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com

And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide

GET US ON iTUNES NOW!!!

Lil Wayne's Big... Uh... Band?

This is NOT a critique of the song. I have no opinion of the song. If this song is your type of thing, then have at it. I only have one thing to say about this clip. I've never seen so many instruments onstage & heard so little actual instrumenting. Watch it again if you missed it. I'll wait....

Did you see? Most of the people onstage holding instruments aren't even pretending to play them. There are two different dudes just HOLDING guitars. (DUDE, at least put the strap on!) Another dude just standing --- Well actually gyrating --- in front of his stack --- I SAID STACK! --- of keyboards. There's also a percussionist not really doing that much percussioning. And lastly, there is even a back up singer NOT back up singer-ing. And waaaaaaay in the back is a lone DJ who I'm guessing is getting way too little credit. Again this is NOT a critique of the song. I'm just one of those weird Negroes who gets excited when they see black people with instruments.

The big thing that confuses me is the two dudes just holding their guitars. Is this part of some make work program to help stimulate the economy? Is this a part of Lil Wayne early release for good behavior? Are they cleverly disguised probation officers?

I don't know the answer to any of these questions. And maybe the the answer is simpler than all that. Maybe Lil Wayne just absolutely hates the guitar. And maybe he hates it so much that he wants to humiliate it and embarrass it live, on national television. He tried to ruin the guitar's reputation on his "rock" (Yes, those quotes are on purpose.) album. And if y0u don't remember way back to earlier this year when he launched his full on assault to take down the guitar just watch this...

I'm #35!!!

I just checked over at iTunes to see... Well, I pretty much look over there several times a day to see if anybody has rated my CD's or podcast or to see if anything like this has happened. It's a fool's errand 99.9% of the time, but today, YAHTZEE!

Thank you to YOU for helping my CD rocket UP the charts. I'm top 40 now. Time to get some leather pants... and one of those JLO hats... and Lil Wayne will of course have to guest on my next CD. So much to do.

Listen my FULL interview on Forum! #GreatestInterviewEver

This was the best radio interview I've ever done. Mostly because it was an hour focused all on ME! Dave Iverson, the host, asked probing and intelligent and thoughtful questions... which is certainly not always the case for radio. Afterward, I met all the black people at KQED... three. (Just kidding... I met three but I saw five.) It was a lot of fun... the second half many people called in and they were all cool. Enjoy. And I understand if you don't have enough interest to take the whole hour of KAMAU! It was like Frost/Nixon... but less jowl-ly and confrontational.

W. Kamau Bell

Fri, Dec 17, 2010 -- 10:00

Download audio (MP3)

San Francisco-based comic W. Kamau Bell is known for telling the very first joke about President Obama on Comedy Central, when he memorably predicted in 2005 that Obama was not going to win the election. Bell joins us in the studio for a conversation on humor, and race.

Bell has been named best San Francisco comedian by 7x7 Magazine, The San Francisco Bay Guardian and SF Weekly. His new comedy album "Face Full of Flour" made the iTunes list of best comedy albums of 2010 -- and he's performing at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco on New Year's Eve.

Host: Dave Iverson

Guests:

• W. Kamau Bell, San Francisco-based comic

I'll be on KQED's Forum w/ Michael Krasny 10am, 12/17/10

I'll be on KQED radio on 12/17/10 from 10am-11am. I'd better take my smart pills or it'll be like, "What's this? Wikipedia is leaking?"

KQED's live call-in program presents wide-ranging discussions of local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.

Airs on KQED Public Radio weekdays at 9am & 10am

Coming up on Forum:

Fri, Dec 17, 2010 -- 10:00 AM

W. Kamau Bell

San Francisco-based comic W. Kamau Bell is known for telling the very first joke about President Obama on Comedy Central, when he memorably predicted in 2005 that Obama was not going to win the election. Bell is performing at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco on New Year's Eve, and he joins us in the studio.

Bell has been named best San Francisco comedian by 7x7 Magazine, The San Francisco Bay Guardian and SF Weekly. His new comedy album "Face Full of Flour" made the iTunes list of best comedy albums of 2010.

My CD Face Full of Flour in iTunes 2010 Top Ten Comedy CD!

Don't believe me? Look below...

WOW! That's all I can say is, "WOW!" Two Top Ten Lists in one week! And to think I woulda been happy with zero. Weird.

Thanks to Jordan Davidoff at iTunes. And also thank you to Annie O'Rourke and the gang at RooftopComedy.com.

I might just make it to SF Comedy Eagle Scout after all.

So there are 13 things that need to happen in order to be fully vetted/made as a San Francisco comic... as opposed to a comic who does and/or did comedy in San Francisco.

I am proud to say I think I have just been blessed with one of the most key elements.

First, here’s the list of things that you need to accomplish if you want to be considered a San Francisco comic. (And yes, I made this list up, but I stand by it, although feel free to suggest other things.)

In NO particular order...

1. Open for Will Durst. (check)

2. Drive yourself --- or get driven... thanks to Jim Short. --- all over the hinterlands of California (and/or Nevada and/or Oregon) doing the San Francisco International (but not Intentional) Comedy Competition. (Sadly check. Cotati?)

3. See your name on the back of the Punch Line t-shirt several times. (check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, check...)

4. Get bumped from a show that you were booked in advance to be on at Cobb’s. (check, check, check, and yes check! I even got bumped from a show on fucking New Year’s Eve. My wife is still mad at you, Joe Rogan.) When Cobb’s was a smaller club, number 4 used to be “Be House MC at Cobb’s but those days are goooooooooone.

5. Bomb at The Brainwash. / Have Tony Sparks tell you that he loves you. (check on both counts more times than I could ever remember.)

6. Perform at a benefit at The Punch Line. Bonus points if it is Troy’s YMCA benefit. You lose points if it is the REDACTED benefit or the REDACTED benefit. Both of them suck. They suck and the people who come out to support them suck. And that sucks, because you think I’d like to perform in front of REDACTED people.

7. Hear about how great the old days were from a comic who came before you. (At this point the old days could be the Holy City Zoo, Cobb’s in The Marina, The Walnut Creek Punch Line, The One World Cafe, or even (YIKES!) The Comedy College. (check. Doug Ferrari is good for this one if you need to get this one done soon. Actually, I’m getting pretty good at this one, too.)

8. Hear YOURSELF talk about how Comedy Day in The Park used to be a much bigger deal. (check)

9. Play whatever is the current hell gig of the time while you are still on your way up in the local scene. During my time it was Modesto. It probably still is. Let’s just say that you know a gig is bad when Vanilla Ice is playing the same place as you the week AFTER you are there.

10. Open for Dave Chappelle at The Punch Line. It sounds like an honor, until you see the rabid audience look at you like the parsley on top of the steak. (You can also get credit for this if you open for him at The New Parish in Oakland.)

11. Miss your opening set at The Sacramento Punch Line because TRAFFIC IS SO FREAKING BAD THAT WHAT SHOULD TAKE AN HOUR AND A HALF TAKES THREE HOURS SOMETIMES!!! WHY? WHY? WHY?

12A. Be in a city other than SF, and have a comic in that city give you some measure of respect when they find out that you are from San Francisco.

12B. Also, know that our audiences aren’t as smart as people outside of SF, think they are.

13. And finally, lucky 13, I just got it recently. One of the most important pieces of the San Francisco comic puzzle was found last week. See, last week, I performed on an AWESOME benefit for Glide Memorial Church (not that...) and I was on a show with Johnny Steele (not that... although he is apt to tell you about the old days.) and Selene Luna (not that...) and also on the show was Robin Williams (not even that... at least not quite...) The "IT" is that Robin watched my set ANNNNNND thought I was funny. And he shared some thoughts about me that he is allowing me to share with YOU!

"W. Kamau Bell is ferociously funny.” - Robin Williams

Yup, he said that about me. Pretty cool. Actually VERY cool. I have definitely seen him give the nod to other SF comedians: Jim Short, Colin Mahan... And certainly non SF comedians who have spent time in SF: Eddie Izzard and recently Jamie Kilstein.

But I feel like I have finally completed my fair share of the SF comedy scene Merit Badges. I’ve been bona fide funny by Mr. San Francisco Comedy, himself: Robin Williams. And yes, there are certainly more SF Comedy Scene Merit Badges than these out there. Hell, fifteen alone deal with weed, and 11 of those involve N’Gaio Bealum --- who people still confuse me with, but nothing is perfect. But this feels like a pretty good place to be at. Now, I got to nail down some LA and NYC Comedy Scene Merit Badges.

I'm #7!!! WOOOOHOOOO!

According to Punchline Magazine, my latest CD, Face Full of Flour is #7 of 2010's 10 Best Comedy Albums!!!! Woooohoooooooooo!

Which begs the question... WHY DON'T YOU HAVE IT YET???

You can get it if you click right next to this blog. Look to the right of where you're reading now.

Don't believe I'm #7? See below OR click here to read the entire list. Many of my friends are on it, like Glenn Wool & Hannibal Buress, and Kyle Kinane.

Enjoy...

#7 – W. KAMAU BELL – FACE FULL OF FLOUR Though not everyone knows it quite yet, San Francisco-based W. Kamau Bell is one of our country’s most adept racial and political commentators; he’s got a blistering wit and a willingness to say what you quickly realize you’ve always thought. He’s relentlessly intelligent, fusing references to create a rich expression of incredulity in a post-Obama world. Note to working comedians: despite what’s been said time and again, it’s possible make fun of our current president and mean it. Kamau is an Obama supporter but deftly takes the piss out of him when necessary. And all of that is there for us to play – and re-play – on Face Full of Flour, a masterful, thinking man’s album. Buy Face Full of Flour

Some new stand-up!

Enjoy! & Let me know what you think...

And if you like it then pick up a copy of my CD Face Full of Flour for the holidays. They make great Secret Santa presents for that racist at work! Or a great present from Hanukkah Harry. Or for Kujichagulia (That's Kwanzaa!) Or for (next) Ramadan! It's also a prefect to wrap up you early Lohri (Hindu) shopping because it's BLAZING HOT! We got my album in digital OR real-ical.

Field Negro Guide Episode 6 - FISHBONE!!!

This episode is a SUPA-SIZED episode all about FIIIIIIISHBONE!!! (That's how you have to say it. You'll hear me demonstrate it several times over the course of this podcast.) This is an EPIC episode for FNGTAC. I don't know when we'll do another one like this. It took weeeeeeeeeeeeeks and without our new producer Alex Thornton, it wouldn't have happened at ALLLLLLLLLLL.

We probably put too much in here, but I had no idea when - if ever - I would get a chance to be a part of something like this again. So if it overwhelms you, listen to it in parts. It's overstuffed, eager, at times repetitive, but I believe it's worth it. It was definitely made with love.

It features some thoughts on the band from us, from their fans, from Chris Metzler - co-director of the new documentary on the band called Everyday Sunshine, excerpts of the film itself, and finally you'll hear the band themsleves, founding members, Norwood Fisher and Angelo Moore.

If you are a fan of Fishbone, I know you'll dig this episode. If you do know them, but aren't a fan, I have a feeling you may change your mind. And finally if you aren't familiar with them, sit down, press play, and enjoy.

Also check out Fishbone's website and the website for Everyday Sunshine. They both may be coming to your town soon, and the film is definitely coming to your DVD player.

In conclusion, FIIIIIIIIIIIIIISHBONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I love you, Fishbone.

Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com

Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com

And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide

GET US ON iTUNES NOW!!! http://ow.ly/22Uia

This is the clip of the documentary that is in the episode.

The Feministing Five: W. Kamau Bell

OK. Being interviewed by Feministing doesn't make me a feminist, but it doesn't make me NOT a feminist. Does it? / Doesn't it? Read it below and let me know... By Chloe | Published: November 21, 2010

W. Kamau Bell is a stand-up comic and stand-up guy (yes, that is the best joke I can manage). Bell is best known for his one-man shows, the most recent of which is The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour. Bell aptly describes the show, which is constantly updated to reflect the news of the day, as “one part manifesto, one part diatribe, and several parts funny.”

Bell’s comedy focuses on race and particularly on the national conversation about race, something that it can be hard to get people laughing about.

As you can see, Bell’s is smart, incisive comedy. As you can imagine, it was an absolute pleasure to sit down with Bell and talk about The Matrix, the future of feminism, and just how cool his mom is. And now, without further ado, the Feministing Five, with W. Kamau Bell.

Chloe Angyal: What got you into comedy, and specifically into the kind of comedy that you do?

W. Kamau Bell: That’s kind of two different stories. Comedy was something I wanted to do since I was a little kid watching TV, watching Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live and thinking “that looks cool.” Bill Cosby was a big influence. His big stand up thing was called “Bill Cosby Himself” and it was the thing that landed him The Cosby Show, and I remember seeing that and thinking it was like magic.

I was an only child, so I was left alone with my own brain a lot, and I thought I was fascinating. It was just me and my mom and she told me I was hilarious. As a kid comedy was always something I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do it. How do you start that? I was never the class clown – me and my best friends were all clowns. So I didn’t think of myself as the funny one, because we were all funny. When I was twenty-one, my best friend Jason knew that I wanted to go into comedy because I talked about it enough, and he found an open mic night near his house. So we went and we watched, and I got the courage to go up. Without Jason I never would have done it, because he went with me the first two years, every show I performed at. I wouldn’t have done it without him because I just didn’t have that kind of intestinal fortitude.

I would always talk about race, but whenever I’d talk about race, especially in Chicago where everything with race is so screwed up, I’d notice this tension in the room. Admittedly, I wasn’t very funny, but there was this tension, so I thought, “well, I’m not going to talk about race at all for a while,” and then I would talk about race exclusively. My mom is really a race warrior, so it was always in my DNA. Black History Month was all year long in our household. We were always talking about it. I felt like it was the family business and thought that I didn’t want to do that. And then about five years after I started in comedy I decided that I really wanted to focus on the stuff that I cared about. The comics I liked were the ones who had agendas, comics who want the audience to think differently when they leave, like Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce. So that became a totem for me, to make the audience think differently. Later I started to like comics who weren’t doing what they thought the audience wanted them to do, and were just following their own paths. Margaret Cho is an example of that. She’s just following her own direction, and I’ve always liked that. READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE...

Field Negro Podcast Episode 5 - Interview w/ Ernie Isley

On this episode, a legend sits down with a legend to talk about a legend. Vernon is on tour with Living Colour on The Experience Hendrix Tour, a tour which features musical legends of guitar and other instruments coming together to pay tribute to James Marshall Hendrix. And Vernon had a chance to sit down and chat with one of those legends, guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers. Ernie knew Jimi well before the rest of the world did, so Vernon and Ernie talk about the Jimi that Ernie knew. They talk about Hendrix's days in the Isley Brothers, Jimi's love of Pez candy and Super Chicken cartoons, and also how Jimi was always the baddest guitarist around. This is truly great stuff and a new perspective on Jimi Hendrix. Kamau sits this one out because it was apparently for legends only!

Connect with Vernon on Facebook, Twitter @vurnt22, and www.livingcolour.com

Connect with Kamau on Facebook, Twitter @wkamaubell, and www.wkamaubell.com

And you can connect with the Podcast on Twitter @ThatFNGuide

Listen below OR get us on iTunes here.

Me & Kevin Avery Together are "As rare & magical as a sparkle-unicorn..."

Check out what the SF Weekly has to say about our upcoming shows on November 23 (Tues) & 24 (Wed) at The SF Punch Line...

Kevin Avery and W. Kamau Bell

Punch Line

Twice the Awesomeness

By Hiya Swanhuyser

Just on the off chance you're looking for something to do tonight, something like, kind of, maybe, as rare and magical as a sparkle-unicorn doing West Side Story choreography under a liquid light show, consider Kevin Avery and W. Kamau Bell. They're not unicorns, not yet. As former co-pilots of radio's "Siskel & Negro," the duo have killed hard on many Bay Area stages and airwaves. Currently, Bell is "spending a lot of time in New York," aka not likely to be performing small venues around here much longer, and Avery already lives in Los Angeles and is writing a film called Thugs: The Musical. Unicorn status imminent.

---

What more do I have to do to get you to come? Half price tickets? BAM!