Today I made my CNN debut!
For my people from the Bay Area, CNN is like the Current TV of New York. Ashley Banfield was incredibly hospitable in the literally four minutes we shared space.
Also, I met Soledad O'Brien. I'm pretty sure the next Black in America is gonna all be about me.
Teaser image for my upcoming FX show...
So this happened today...
A Little Bit of Big News
As you read this, it is being announced to the press that I will have a six episode run of a late night comedy show on The FX Network. I will write it, produce it, and host it. And it will be executive produced by none other than Chris Rock.
Yes, THAT Chris Rock.
You can read about it here in Laughspin Magazine.
I head to New York City today to go to the upfronts where the networks announce their upcoming schedules. No, I’ve never been to anything like this before. Yes, this is a huuuuuuge deal. I’m guessing it will be like the talk show from The Hunger Games, “Hello, my name is Kamau. I come from District 14, San Francisco. We make progressive politics, gay people, burritos the size of your head, and medical marijuana.”
Anyway, things are pretty surreal right now and sure to get more so. I’m gonna work hard to make a good show. And I’ll need your help to do it.
Thank you for all you interest and support.
Kamau
Latest KKK Blog - Mad Men Keeps Up With the Kardashians, Thanks to Jon Hamm
The new season of the runaway hit Mad Men premieres Sunday on AMC. One of the major reasons -- if not the reason--- for the show's success is the dreamy Jon Hamm. He is full of charisma, a great actor, funny, and "worst of all," he doesn't take himself too seriously.
He's like a young Alec Baldwin without all that other brothers baggage. And he even has something else in his back pocket. He is beloved by the alternative comedy community. He's been on WTF with Marc Maron, Between Two Ferns with Zach Galfianakis, and in the movie Bridesmaids. All of this basically means he has been certified cool.
The War Room - On Trayvon Martin and Being a Black Male in America
Here's a clip of my segment on The War Room with Jennifer Granholm on Current TV, about what it is to be a black male in America. A conversation nobody was interested in until the tragedy of Trayvon Martin. I have certainly been funnier on TV than I was during this segment, but maybe it is good just the same.
New KKK Blog - Standards of Truth Apply to Performers -- Ask Mike Daisey and Ira Glass
Mike Daisey got busted. BBBBUSTED! He was called on the --- I'm assuming --- lush carpets of This American Life on Friday by Ira Glass himself. Mr. Daisey, who is to solo performance what Louis CK is to stand-up comedy (that is, The Gold Standard), had been on an episode of TAL in January where he told an exceptionally compelling story (an excerpt from his solo play, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs) about going to China and inspecting Apple computer factories and uncovering corruption beyond anything any one journalist had ever discovered. But unfortunately it wasn't exactly ... ummm ... errrr ... true.
Daisey says he stands by his story. And he certainly has gotten people talking about important issues. But that's not the point of This American Life. The show wants truth. I take no pleasure in Daisey's bust. The retraction episode on TAL was brutal. BBBBRUTAL. I do think Mr. Glass did a remarkable job of walking the fine line between, "Just tell me the truth and everything will be okay." and "NEGRO IS YA CRAZY?" (No, Ira Glass would never say that. No, Mike Daisey is not black. That's just what a Defcon 1 level of interrogation sounds like in my head.)
New KKK Blog - The Academy Awards Program Loves Comedy But Hates Comedians
At some point during Sunday's Oscars, the announcer mentioned that Saturday Night Live comedians have been nominated for nine Academy Awards and have won a grand total of zero. That's right. Zero. When my wife heard that she was shocked. "Not even Bill Murray?" Nope, not even Bill Murray. It is truly a testament to his talent that my wife was so offended for him. I had no idea she thought about him one way or another. Don't get me wrong. Mr. Murray is a genius. He should be allowed to come pick up any Oscar any time he sees one to his liking. I, however, wasn't shocked that he didn't have one, because I know that The Academy doesn't respect comedians.
Members of the Motion Picture Academy like comedians. They enjoy having us around. And if you think they don't need us then just try to rewatch last years ceremony hosted by Anne Hathaway and ... I can't remember ... Was it Joaquin Phoenix? Comedy is the lifeblood of the Academy Awards. And without comedians the blood can run dry. (I felt so sorry for every documentary filmmaker who had to wait through Robert Downey Jr.'s low-jinks so they could see whether their whole life had changed or not.)
Laughter Against The Machine Tour: Day 1... Sorta.
Here's what I'm up to the next little bit.
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!
Margaret Cho & Hal Sparks make appeals for Laughter Against The Machine!
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!
Latest KKK Blog - Stars Over Edinburgh
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...
Interview with The Scotsman
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.
Posted by my friends at Afro-Punk.com
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
Is I am or Is I Ain't Jimi Hendrix? - KKK Blog
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! |
Ebony and Ivory Live Together... But Off-Key
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
Laughter Against The Machine Wants to Make the World Better with Your Help.
For a couple years now we Laughter Against The Machinists (W. Kamau Bell, Nato Green, and Janine Brito) have been doing shows in Northern California with a few toe dips into the Pacific Northwest. Warm, familiar, liberal places (except Sacramento) where we were pretty sure most of the audience would welcome us with open arms (except Marin). But the time has come for us to leave our creature comforts and to put our money where our mouth is and wade into the most polarized quagmires in the US, the flashpoints of American ignorance and upheaval. To roam the country bringing humor to the people who need it the most, and trying to answer the age-old question: can they take a joke?
We’ve got Mike Paunovich and Evan Donn, some amazing filmmakers, to follow our journey, but we can’t do it alone and absolutely need your help. Filming this documentary won’t be easy or cheap. There are multiple plane tickets, hotel accommodations, safe houses, camera crews, best boys, riot gear, and bail bonds to be bought! The tour is planned, but we can’t afford to set foot out the door without your support up front. As we said in the video we’re hitting six hot spots (with potentially more to be added):
Madison, Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker’s attempts to eliminate union rights for public workers have galvanized a student-labor movement to save the state. Governor Walker’s hubris may turn Wisconsin into the Waterloo of the Tea Party. But first the Tea Party will have to look up the word “Waterloo”.
Phoenix, Arizona From Sheriff Joe Arpaio, to banning ethnic studies, to the fact that it’s now so illegal to be Mexican that people are putting ketchup on their tacos, Arizona is now the heavyweight champion of crazy. Arizona has gotten too weird for people from Florida. Even Alabama is keeping its distance.
New Orleans, Louisiana Remember how New Orleans was destroyed by a hurricane and everybody said it would be rebuilt so college kids could keep getting drunk for Mardi Gras? And then remember how Kanye West called George W. out on TV? And then we got a black president? Everything must be back to normal down there now right? Hey, what’s that black spot in the ocean?
Dearborn/Detroit twofer, Michigan Dearborn is home to America’s largest Muslim community. LATM will prove once and for all that Islam is no scarier than Christianity...OK, good point. It’s probably way less scary. Meanwhile, is Detroit a decaying carcass of a rusty metropolis, or is something being born here more exciting than Eminem’s kids?
Washington, DC We’ll visit the people who live in the seat of our democracy, the denizens of the capital of the world’s last superpower...ok most recent superpower, until China decides to collect. DC is where even baristas have lobbyists. PS – Let’s see if we can get that President guy to show up. He’s supposed to have such a good sense of humor...
And finally...
Oakland, CA Here we’ll perform for people who have a nice view of the most liberal city in the country, while experiencing crushing poverty, crime, and that rapid displacement of black people known as gentrification. LATM comes home to Oakland, bringing back the wisdom of our travels and lessons from the American heartland.
Like Doctors Without Borders, but with jokes instead of penicillin, LATM roams the country bringing humor to the people who need it the most.
Welcome to Laughter Against The Machine: Guerrilla Stand-up Comedy.
Get a FREE Download of my CD AND do some good!
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!
My BIG new thingy! June 20 & 22 in SF! COME OUT!
Welcome to The Bell Curve Project! Much like nobody saw his solo show coming, nobody will see this coming (unless you're reading this). And this time instead of just taking on Race, Kamau is taking on everything... one show at a time. "When I initially began doing The Bell Curve, I immediately realized that I enjoyed the idea behind it of taking one subject and attacking it from different angles and trying to find unique approaches to something that we all as a society had spend lots of time thinking about. I knew it didn't always have to be about race. I even did a few shows at Stage Werx where I focused on things like Black History Month and frustration. That is where I really feel like my comedic itch gets scratched."
The major difference with The Bell Curve Project is that this time Kamau is not doing it alone. He has recruited a gang of his favorite comedians, writers, producers, and even a rockstar rapper to help him out. It's like a murders' row of talent from The Bay Area and yes, even from LA and New York. They include Alex Koll (Just For Laughs Festival, Bay Area Air Guitar Champion), Kevin Camia (iTunes Top Ten Comedy CD of 2010), Kevin Kataoka (Lopez Tonight, MadTV), Chuck Sklar (Lopez Tonight & HBO's Chris Rock Show) and regular Kamau cohorts, Janine Brito (laughter Against The Machine), Nato Green (Laughter Against The Machine), and Kevin Avery (Siskel & Negro), and the original director of The W. Kamau Bell Curve, Martha Rynberg. And the rockstar rapper / activist / Bay Area legend himself, founder of The Coup and co-founder of Street Sweeper Social Club, Boots Riley. The Bell Curve Project will be a hybrid of a diatribe, video clips and segments, talk show elements, sketch comedy, and a good old-fashioned Kamau show. Special guests TBA.
So Kamau is going back to Stage Werx, the theater where he performed The Bell Curve for the first time, and this time he and his LA, New York, and Bay Area friends are taking on the subject of... Apologies. Why do we make so many of them? Do they mean anything anymore? What makes a good one? What makes a bad one? What are the most famous ones? Who still owes us one? How can we all get better at them?
"I know nobody is expecting me to take on apologies after four years of taking on racism, but apologies are as embedded and loaded in society as racism is. Literally everyday they are in the news, either because somebody makes one or somebody needs to make one: politicians, actors, actors who are politicians."
“The other reason I’m doing this show is because over the last few years, one thing I have learned is that the entertainment industry is run the exact same way as a high school geometry class. Neither one of them care if you have the answer. They both want you to show your work. So I’m going to do these shows, film them to show my work, and then sell it back to them. The same way I did in high school.”
FNGTAC Episode 14 - An Afro in Asgard- Thor, Tyler the Creator...
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
