(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INTRO, IN LIVING COLOR")
HEAVY D & THE BOYZ: (Singing) You can do what you wanna do.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Geoff Bennett was 10 years old and in the wilds of New Jersey on a spring night in 1990, when he saw a show created by Keenen Ivory Wayans called "In Living Color."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "IN LIVING COLOR")
DAMON WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) Hi, kids. I'm Homey D. Clown.
(LAUGHTER)
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) You all ready to have some fun?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Yeah.
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) All right. What y'all want me to do first?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Ooh.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Ah.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Homey, Homey, Homey.
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) What?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Do a silly clown dance for us.
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) Degrade myself, huh?
(LAUGHTER)
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) I don't think so.
(LAUGHTER)
WAYANS: (As Homey D. Clown) Homey don't play that.
GEOFF BENNETT: I couldn't believe they were getting away with this on television, Scott.
SIMON: (Laughter) Geoff Bennett obviously joins us, co-anchor of the "PBS NewsHour," a man of the arts and once an editor on this very program in what we here like to call the golden age.
BENNETT: (Laughter).
SIMON: His new book presents portraits of Black artists who brought, sharpened and shaped American comedy, "Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History Of Black Comedy From Vaudeville To '90s Sitcoms." Geoff, thanks so much for being with us.
BENNETT: It is a joy to speak with you, Scott. Thanks for the invitation.
SIMON: So many great names and talents, but let's begin with Bert Williams, first Black recording artist, highest-paid performer in an otherwise all-white Ziegfeld Follies of 1911. W.C. Fields called him the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest I ever knew. How do we put all that together today?
BENNETT: The funniest man he ever saw and the saddest he ever knew, it really speaks to the contradiction of Black performers at that time, who were so talented and had so much to offer but were forced to perform within the narrow limits of the, you know, racist structures back then. Even Bert Williams found ways to infuse some semblance of dignity and humanity into his performance, when the only thing he was really allowed to do was to poke fun at Blackness. Vaudeville and minstrelsy, that was mass entertainment at the time. And so the DNA of Black comedic performance really begins with that era.
SIMON: Do Black comedians - dare I say, like Jewish comedians - carry the weight of history?
BENNETT: They do. And what's so particular about the '90s and one of the reasons I wanted to focus on this era is that I'd always had this sort of lingering sense of curiosity about how all of these shows - "Martin," "Living Single," "Fresh Prince," "In Living Color," "Family Matters," "A Different World" - how they all existed at the same time. And after doing the research, I realized that that wasn't a coincidence. And you can draw a direct line from that era to the early days, to the Bert Williams, who you mentioned, to the Billy Kersands. But beneath that, to your point, they also had to sort of carry the responsibility of being a Black artist and representing the fullness of that experience.
SIMON: I have to tell you I was surprised to see the names Amos and Andy in here.
BENNETT: Well, long before sitcoms that many of us grew up with, I think, you know, one of the most popular comedy programs in America was "Amos 'n' Andy." And at its height in the 1930s, nearly half of the country was listening to that program every night. And the complication of that show was that it was originally performed by two white actors using exaggerated Black dialect, and it relied on stereotypes that today are obviously deeply uncomfortable to hear.
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "AMOS 'N' ANDY")
CHARLES J CORRELL: Right now, Amos and the Kingfish are in the office discussing Andy's feeling for Madam Queen.
FREEMAN GOSDEN: (As Amos) Oh, I'm telling you, Kingfish, the way Andy looks at Madam Queen, I can tell that he is in love with her again.
(As Kingfish) Yeah. I still don't believe it, Amos. I always say that you can't cook a omelet but once.
BENNETT: But in the early 1950s, with the advent of television, "Amos 'n' Andy" moved to TV, and the roles are played by Black actors. And so for the first time, millions of Americans are seeing a Black cast on television every week.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "AMOS 'N' ANDY")
ALVIN CHILDRESS: (As Amos) Greetings from the president of the United States. You have been chosen by your friends and neighbors to serve - holy smokes, Andy. They going to induction me.
(LAUGHTER)
SPENCER WILLIAMS: (As Andy) Induction you? I guarantee you they don't want you. You ain't got nothing to worry about. All you got to do is call them up and tell them they done made a mistake.
CHILDRESS: (As Amos) Yeah. That's the thing you do.
BENNETT: What fascinated me is that realizing the story of Black comedy, it has always moved through contradictions like that - moments of limitation that eventually open the door for something bigger and something better.
SIMON: I want to get you to talk about Richard Pryor because the word genius still clings to him, doesn't it?
BENNETT: I mean, before Pryor, a lot of comedians performed safe material - I guess you could say - observational jokes, funny stories about everyday life. But Richard Pryor walked straight into the truth. He talked openly about race, addiction, poverty, police violence, his own mistakes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RICHARD PRYOR: When I was drinking, though, it was fine. I had to stop drinking, though, 'cause I got tired of, like, waking up in my car driving 90.
(LAUGHTER)
BENNETT: There was this full complexity of being human, and he did it in a way that was raw, that was vulnerable, that was hilarious. And it really gave permission to comedians to tell the truth on stage. So for this book, I talked to a number of the performers and showrunners and producers who were key to the shows that we saw in the '90s, one of them being "Sinbad." And he told me a story about how he grew up in a religious family, and he got his hands on a Richard Pryor album and was playing it in his room. And what he remembered, he told me, was his parents cracking up and asking, who is that? Who is that? And, of course, it was Richard Pryor. And he said, you know, Richard Pryor was able to catch everybody. And that's certainly the truth.
SIMON: Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock - great talents today. Do you think Black comics have a special calling in today's America?
BENNETT: I would say it this way. I think that - I'm going to think about this 'cause I don't want to put more responsibility on Black comics than is due.
SIMON: Let me put it this way. I really like Dave Chappelle. And he's irritated some people in recent years, I guess even irritated me every now and then, but I find him very much worth listening to.
BENNETT: I think it's true that for a Chris Rock and a Dave Chappelle, or, frankly, any comic that works at that level, Black comics for sure, that the comedy has never just been about the laughter. You see comedy as a survival tactic, as a political language. In the '90s it was an economic engine with these really popular sitcoms. Black performers have used humor to critique power, and I think in doing so, they've shaped American identity itself.
SIMON: It's Saturday. What would you recommend people watch tonight?
BENNETT: (Laughter) I would say queue up "Coming To America." That's a foundational text (laughter) in terms of Black comedy.
SIMON: It is the first time I've heard "Coming To America" called a foundational (laughter) text. Right. Yeah.
BENNETT: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COMING TO AMERICA")
EDDIE MURPHY: (As Prince Akeem) America is great, indeed. Imagine a country so free, one can throw glass on the streets.
(As Clarence) You must be outta your mind.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) You crazy. You're crazy.
MURPHY: (As Clarence) I am not crazy.
(As Prince Akeem) Listen. Real Americans.
BENNETT: And then if you're thinking about sitcoms, the - Whitley and Dwayne's wedding on "A Different World," the second season of "In Living Color," I think was unmatched. There was chaos and genius at the same time. Will's monologue about his father in "Fresh Prince," this really resonant emotional moment that nobody saw coming in the middle of a sitcom. On "Martin," Martin and Gina just talking the way that they talk to each other, like real people.
And that's what I keep coming back to with these sitcoms in particular, is that, yes, they were funny. Yes, they were hilarious. But there was a specificity and authenticity that made them universal. So it was Black audiences and white audiences watching these shows side by side. And that's why they've been so culturally impactful.
SIMON: Yeah. Geoff Bennett - his new book, "Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History Of Black Comedy From Vaudeville To '90s Sitcoms." Thanks so much for being with us.
BENNETT: Scott, thank you. I appreciate it.
(SOUNDBITE OF NHBRZ SONG, "BLESSINGS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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