Michael Che To Be The First Person Of Color To Be A Head Writer For ‘Saturday Night Live’
Michael Che just made comedy history- and television history.
The Saturday Night Live comic and writer, most known for hosting the Weekend Update sketch/show, had been tapped as SNL’s new co-head writer, along with his Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost.
Jost was a co-head writer for seasons 38, 39, and 40, while this is Che’s first time in the role.
He is the very first person of color to be a Saturday Night Live head writer.
He first joined the show in 2013.
Source: Shadow & Act
Will Smith To Produce Film About Michael Jordan’s leap Into Baseball
The 2017 Black List was announced this morning, and with it came the news that Will Smith is set to produce a movie about Michael Jordan’s short-lived baseball career.
In The Prospect, written by Ben Epstein, Michael Jordan uses a year as a baseball prospect to find himself after his father’s death. James R. Jordan Sr. was murdered by two men on the side of the highway in July 1993. In February 1994, four months after the first of his three retirements from the NBA, Michael Jordan signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox.
Smith will produce via his Overbrook Entertainment banner along with Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) of Mad Chance Productions. It’s unlikely the 49-year-old Smith would play Jordan, who was 31 years old when he took the field.
Epstein previously wrote You Get Me, a Netflix thriller starring Bella Thorne and Halston Sage. The Prospect received seven votes on the Black List, which chronicles the best-unproduced screenplays each year.
Source: The Tracking Board
Tiffany Haddish Talks About Her Newfound Fame, Old Bullies & More On The Breakfast Club
Recently on an interview with the infamous The Breakfast Club,comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish talked about her newfound fame, old bullies, her new book, and more.
Watch the interview below;
Kenya Barris Lands Another Family Comedy At ABC; To Star Alec Baldwin
In a competitive situation, ABC has landed a multi-camera comedy co-created and executive produced by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, Julie Bean (Grown-ish) and 30 Rock alum Alec Baldwin. The network has given a straight-to-series order to the project, which is being developed as a possible starring vehicle for Baldwin. ABC Studios, where Barris, Baldwin and Bean are under overall deals, is the studio.
Written by Barris and Bean, who will serve as showrunners, the untitled project is described as a classic dysfunctional family comedy series about a stuck-in-his-ways, opinionated, fading TV star who moves in with his progressive daughter, her girlfriend and the child they are raising together.
While ABC didn’t pick up to series any of its multi-camera pilots in May and opted not to renew its existing multi-camera series, the network nabbed a revival of classic 1990s multi-camera sitcom Roseanne, which will air later this season and has put a number of multi-camera projects in development for next season. The Barris/Bean/Baldwin comedy also is eyed for a premiere next season.
Under his ABC Studios overall deal, Baldwin, who hosts ABC’s Match Game revival, is in negotiations to headline a talk show for ABC based on his radio show and podcast Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin won two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and record-setting six SAG Awards for his role as Jack Donaghy on NBC’s 30 Rock. He is coming off a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy for his Donald Trump impersonation on Saturday Night Live. He is repped by CAA.
Barris is creator/executive producer on ABC/ABC Studios’ Black-ish on ABC and its upcoming spinoff series Grown-ish on Freeform. Black-ish this morning landed two more Golden Globe nominations, best comedy series and best lead actor in a comedy series for star Anthony Anderson. The acclaimed single-camera comedy won a Golden Globe last year for female lead Tracee Ellis Ross. Barris, who also co-wrote this year’s feature comedy hit Girls Trip, is repped by CAA, Principato Young, and attorney Gregg Gellman Yorn.
Under her ABC Studios deal, Bean serves as an executive producer on Grown-ish. She previously worked as a co-executive producer on ABC/ABC Studios’ American Housewife. Both she and Barris have multi-camera comedy experience. They worked together on The Game. Bean also has done stints on CBS’ Mike & Molly and NBC’s NewsRadio, Barris on Girlfriends.
ABC Studios and its cable/digital division ABC Signature received 5 Golden Globe nominations this morning, two each for Black-ish and Showtime’s SMILF, and one for ABC drama The Good Doctor, a co-production with Sony Pictures TV Studios.
Source: Deadline
On This Day In Comedy… In 1967 Comedienne And Actress Mo’Nique Was Born!
On this day in comedy on December 11, 1967, Comedienne and Actress, Mo’Nique Angela Imes-Jackson born in Woodlawn, Maryland.
The fourth child of a drug counselor father and engineer mother, Queen Monique Angela Imes became an example of perseverance, strength and the ability to excel. Once her brother, Steve, directed her to her destiny by daring Mo’Nique to get on stage at an open mic comedy night and from there it was no looking back. Mo’nique put a spin on her name and a twist of being a big female comedian. Pride in her size was her mantra and she put out product and a message to have other plus size women join her crusade. After cutting her teeth in a Baltimore comedy spot she ran, Mo’Nique starred in a movie “Phat Girlz”. She put out a cook book entitled, “Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted”. She parodied a Beyonce’s dance number, “Crazy In Love” with other large females at the 2004 BET Awards and she made big women proud of themselves in the process. Be who you are and love you was the theme and it was long overdue.
Many were taken by surprise by her seemingly rapid ascension. Having already taped “Def Comedy Jam”, her second appearance got an unexpected two-fold jolt. The show’s producers felt her choice of material did not serve her well and decided not to air it. That same night she was plucked up by “Moesha” show co-creator, Ralph Farquhar for the role of Nikki Parker, Countess Vaughn’s mother on “Moesha” and the spin-off “The Parkers”.
“The Parkers” made Mo’Nique a household name and lowered the draw bridge to the Queens of Comedy Tour and concert film, radio (“Mo’Nique in the Afternoon”), more television (“Showtime at the Apollo”, “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School”, “The Mo’Nique Show”), a documentary (“I Could’ve Been Your Cellmate”) more films (“3 Strikes”, “Domino”, “Soul Plane”, “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins”) and a gang of awards including SAG, Golden Globe, BAFTA and the coveted Academy Award for her searing performance as an abusive mother in the highly acclaimed motion picture, “Precious”.
Shameik Moore To Voice The New Animated Spider-Man Film As The Voice Of Miles Morales
While there still isn’t a live-action, Miles Morales Spider-Man film in the works now, those who have seen Spider-Man: Homecoming know that the door is open for the Black latino webslinger to be introduced in a future iteration.
Until then, Sony has developed an animated feature with Morales as the center, with The Get Down star Shameik Moore as the voice. It is titled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and will be released Christmas 2018.
A first-look teaser trailer dropped on Saturday at the Comic-Con Experience CCXP17 in São Paulo, Brazil, and it seems to be a visually stunning animated fare to say the least.
It also seems to follow its comic book continuity, showing the grave of Peter Parker (Morales took over the Spidey mantle after Parker’s death).
The film is directed by Bo Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman. The screenplay is from Phil Lord. It is produced by Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Christina Steinberg.
Source: Shadow & Act
Michael Che Pays Homage To Eddie Murphy In A ‘Saturday Night Live’ Sketch
Last night on Saturday Night Live, Michael Che paid homage to a classic Eddie Murphy SNL sketch, “White Like Me” by going undercover to gain the perspective of a different rage. While Murphy famously turned himself into a white man to see how they lived, Che decided he needed to understand those that wrote him mail every time a marginalized group was offended by a joke he made on Weekend Update. But it turns out it was basically the same people writing him the letters. So, he decided to go under as “Gretchen,” a super liberal white woman.
And if you’ve never seen the Eddie Murphy sketch in question.
Source: The Laugh Button
On This Day In Comedy… In 1922 Comedian And Actor Redd Foxx Was Born!
On this day in comedy on December 9, 1922, Comedian, Actor, Redd Foxx was born in St. Louis, Missouri
Redd Foxx stated on many occasions that he wanted to leave the world as he came in – with nothing. And he did. His journey of burning through life leaving a stack of bills and few cares started on December 9, 1922 when Mary Hughes from Ellisville, Mississippi gave birth to little John Sanford in Saint Louis, Missouri. She raised him on Chicago’s Southside along with his brother, Fred G. Sanford Jr. Their father Fred G. Sanford Sr. ran off when little John was four years old. He had to grow up quick.
Show business was a profession even a kid could do. So he joined a wash tub band and in 1939 his group, the Jump Swinging Six, performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour on radio. However, show business was also an inconsistent profession meaning taking odd jobs between gigs was the norm. In the 1940s he worked as a dishwasher, scrubbing alongside the man would later come to be known as Malcolm X. During this period in both of their unheralded lives Malcolm Little was known as St. Louis Red and called John, Chicago Red, “the funniest dishwasher in the world.” He used the Red part for his stage name and got the Foxx from baseball player Jimmie Foxx.
Redd avoided the draft during World War II by eating half a bar of soap. That little trick right before his physical caused him to have heart palpitations. Still performing as a musician, Redd Foxx recorded 5 songs for the Savoy label in 1946. Then he decided to use his laugh making ability and integrated into comedy. Like most black performers, his technique got tight on the chitlin circuit and he made a lot of friends. He worked solo and for a time partnered with Slappy White.
Redd Foxx got his big break when famed singer, Dinah Washington introduced him to Dooto Records owner, Dootsie Williams and Foxx started recording party albums. Foxx wound up recording over 50 and earning the title, “The King of the Party Records”. His style was raw, uncensored and uncut. A lot of it is tame by today’s standards, but totally shocking in the 1950s and 60s.
Redd Foxx was one of the first comedians to perform before white audiences on the Strip in Las Vegas. He did a few films, but it was his cameo in Cotton Comes to Harlem as a junk man that put him on the path for his defining role as Fred G. Sanford on NBC’s Sanford and Son. It was an American version of the hit British sitcom, Steptoe and Son, but there was nothing British about the way Foxx did it. For one thing he hired most of those friends I just mentioned from the chitlin circuit, including LaWanda Page, Bubba Bexley, Slappy White (his former partner) and Leroy & Skillet. The year was 1972 and the show was an instant hit.
Foxx was riding high, but NBC was dragging him down emotionally by not giving him the same things his white counterpart, Carroll O’Connor (Archie Bunker) of All in the Family was getting. Foxx walked out when he found out O’Connor had a window in his dressing room and Redd had none. The walkout was a minor protest, but it bothered the show’s producers that production had to be held up; especially since he did it more than once. Soon they grew tired of it and Redd grew tired of them growing tired so in 1977 the show was canceled.
Never one to be idle too long Redd did a variety show, but in 1980 found himself back at NBC in attempted revival of the original named Sanford. That didn’t last long so he did what all comedians do when they’re on TV hiatus – he worked clubs, mainly in Las Vegas. He went back to the boob tube in 1986 for ABC on The Redd Foxx Show, but it lasted only a dozen episodes. So back to Vegas he went to earn millions. Known to some as the Godfather of Comedy, Foxx got to work with the King and Prince (Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy respectively) along with a slew of other amazing comedians in the Murphy directed vehicle, Harlem Nights. So money was never the problem. It was how quick Redd would blow it to fulfill his prophecy. This got him into tax problems.
In an attempt to hold off the IRs and continue living in the life style in which he was accustomed, Redd hopped over to CBS and starred in The Royal Family along with old friend, Della Reese. Things were going fine until October 11, 1991, the day Foxx’s long standing gag of grabbing his heart when things got stressful looking upward and saying, “This is the big one, I’m coming to join you, Elizabeth” from his Sanford and Son days fooled everybody on the set. His always mock heart attack was real and John Sanford aka Redd Foxx died that evening at Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.
He left one current wife and three former wives, an adopted daughter, a 3.6 million bill for the IRS and a world of fans and admirers. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx used Redd’s last name as a tribute to the man. Yes, a fake name replaced another fake name as flattery. Perhaps Jimmie Foxx should’ve been the one flattered.
Hannibal Buress Arrested In Miami for Disorderly Intoxication
CREDIT: REX SHUTTERSTOCK
Comedian Hannibal Buress was arrested Saturday night in Miami, Fla. The Miami Police Department confirmed the news in a tweet.
The police responded via Twitter after a video was posted to social media that appeared to show Buress getting arrested. In the video, he can heard asking the officers to explain what he was being detained for.
According to Miami Herald, Buress was booked in the Wynwood Arts District, which is hosting numerous Art Basel-related events, on a disorderly intoxication charge at 1:57 a.m. and posted bail around 6 a.m. The Herald reports that the incident began when Buress asked a nearby police officer to call him an Uber. When the officer declined, Buress went into a venue and the officer followed him, feeling he was too intoxicated to remain.
“Once outside, the defendant stood by the front gate and continued yelling profanities,” the officer’s report reads. “I, then again, asked him to leave the area about five times. A crowd began to gather and vehicular traffic slowed as they watched the defendant yelling and being disorderly. Defendant arrested.”
Buress is best known for roles in “Broad City,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and “Baywatch.”
Representatives for Buress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SOurce: Variety
Jamie Foxx To Appear In Season Finale Of Showtime’s ‘White Famous’!
NEW YORK – December 5, 2017 – Academy Award® winner and executive producer Jamie Foxx, who played an over-the-top, satirized version of himself in the pilot episode of WHITE FAMOUS, will reprise his role for the series’ season one finale airing this Sunday, December 10 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME. The episode finds Floyd Mooney (Jay Pharoah) coming full circle as his life is once again turned upside down due to a viral internet video. As the career opportunities start pouring in, Foxx comes calling to offer Floyd a chance of a lifetime.
WHITE FAMOUS is a collaboration between creator and writer Tom Kapinos (CALIFORNICATION), who serves as showrunner and executive producer, along with Jamie Foxx. Tim Story also serves as executive producer and directed multiple episodes, including the season finale. A co-production of Lionsgate Television and SHOWTIME, WHITE FAMOUS stars Jay Pharoah, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lonnie Chavisand Jacob Ming-Trent. Guest stars include Cleopatra Coleman, Stephen Tobolowsky, Meagan Good, Jack Davenport, Michael Rapaport, Kendrick Sampson, Lyndon Smith, Natalie Zea, Steve Jones, Stephanie Simbari and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
