On this day in comedy on October 5, Comedian, actor, Bernie Mac (Bernard McCullough) was born in Chicago, Illinois
Bernie Mac was one of the most beloved comedians of his generation. Born on the South Side of Chicago on October 5, 1957, his journey to inevitable stardom took longer than most. Prior to becoming a comedian, he worked odd jobs: moving furniture and being an agent for UPS. Influenced by The Three Stooges, Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, Mac began his own career at Chicago’s Cotton Club. Following a win of the Miller Lite Comedy Competition and a bold, gutsy performance on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam where he told a hostile audience, “I ain’t scared of you muthaf**kas”, Mac became da man with fans and colleagues alike.
From there the phone rang. He opened for Redd Foxx, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. He was featured in small roles in sometimes equally small films (as well as classics such as Friday), but stole every scene he was in until it was undeniable his talent deserved greater recognition. HBO gave him the show Midnight Mac. He was featured in the star-studded Ocean’s Eleven and starred in Mr. 3000. After the Original Kings of Comedy Tour (he shared the stage with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D. L. Hughley) where he proclaimed that TV was too scared to have a Bernie Mac show he got The Bernie Mac Show on Fox.
It seemed nothing could slow down Mac’s ascent. Enter sarcoidosis. The debilitating disease which attacked his lungs and other vital organs left him in remission in 2005. It was just enough time for him to finish Soul Men (with Samuel L. Jackson), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Old Dogs (with John Travolta and Robin Williams). All were released after his death in 2008.
Mac was #72 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. One year before passing he spoke of retirement from stand up to concentrate on producing and films. Bernie Mac felt he’d missed too much in life and wanted to spend more time with family and friends. We know how he felt. We’re missing much in our lives with the absence of Bernie Mac, who passed away by complications of pneumonia on August 9, 2008.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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After being a recurring character on Power, Brandon Victor Dixon has been promoted to a series regular for Season 5.
Dixon plays Terry Silver, the attorney for the St. Patricks, played by Omari Hardwick and Naturi Naughton.
This comes after another recurring player, Larenz Tate, was also promoted for Season 5.
From Executive Producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and show creator Courtney Kemp, Power is a drama straddling the glamorous lifestyles of Manhattan’s rich and infamous and the dark underworld of the international drug trade.
The cast is led by Omari Hardwick as drug kingpin and nightclub impresario James “Ghost” St. Patrick, Joseph Sikora, as his brother in arms in the drug business, Tommy Egan; Naturi Naughton plays Ghost’ fierce, loyal wife Tasha St. Patrick and Lela Loren as his first love, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Angela Valdes.
Season Four picked up on the heels of James “Ghost” St. Patrick’s highly publicized arrest by his ex-girlfriend, Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Valdes, for the murder of FBI Agent Greg Knox—a crime he did not commit. Ghost can’t outrun his past choices and mounting enemies this season, which threaten his freedom and his family’s safety at every turn. His fight for redemption brings him face-to-face with the Feds, the media, new allies, and old foes. But the biggest obstacle for Ghost remains himself and his internal struggle between the man he wants to be and the one he really is.
Power season 5 premieres in 2018.
Dixon, who has a notable Broadway resume, is coming off of portraying Aaron Burr in Hamilton.
H/T: Deadline/ Shadow & Act
Idris Elba will star in “In the Long Run,” a comedy series for Sky that “The Dark Tower” star created and that is loosely based on his own childhood.
Set in 1980s London, the series will follow the Easmon family, which has settled in England after having arrived from Sierra Leone a decade earlier. Elba will play Walter, the father, who works in the local factory alongside friend and neighbor Bagpipes, played by Bill Bailey.
The Easmons’ son, Akuna, hangs out in the housing project where the family lives, playing soccer and dodging the local thugs. The family’s life is turned upside down when Walter’s brother Valentine arrives in the U.K., bringing chaos in his wake and igniting a passion for music in Akuna.
“I’m really happy to be in comedy, bringing some joy into a world that needs some laughs,” Elba said. “With a great team behind it I look forward to people seeing it. “
Elba’s Green Door Pictures will make the series with Sprout Pictures, the production company of British actor Stephen Fry and producer Gina Carter. It will go out on the Sky1 channel in a 10 p.m. slot.
Jon Mountague, head of comedy at Sky, said: “We’re honored to be working with Idris in what is an authentic, perceptive and deeply funny show. ‘In the Long Run’ will surprise and delight viewers.”
Source: Variety
Hulu has given a pilot presentation order to a comedy co-created by and starring actor-comedian Ramy Youssef (See Dad Run). It hails from The Carmichael Show team of star/co-creator Jerrod Carmichael, co-creator Ari Katcher and production company A24.
The untitled show, which Youssef co-created and co-wrote with Katcher and Ryan Welch, centers on Youssef’s distinct point-of-view as a contemporary Egyptian-American Muslim, caught between multiple worlds and what it means to be Arab, American, and Muslim at a time when each of those identity markers is going through a crisis of definition.
Katcher and Welch executive produce alongside Carmichael. A24 is the studio.
“I’m excited to bring more fully human, complicated, nuanced Muslim characters to television as part of my ongoing attempt to avoid law school,” said Youssef.
He has tackled the topic of being Muslim in America in his standup. You can watch some of it below in Youssef network TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this past summer.
“Ramy has created something remarkably fresh and insightful with his new show, weaving his characteristic sharp and incisive humor with keen observations about identity and culture in our modern-day world,” A24 said in a statement. We are so excited to be collaborating with him and our friends at Hulu on this incredibly unique and dynamic series.”
A24 has been building a comedy TV slate. In addition to The Carmichael Show, it has collaborated on USA’s Playing House, co-produces Amazon’s Comrade Detective and also produced Carmichael’s HBO stand-up special 8. At Hulu, the company recently received a pilot presentation for another comedy, This Is Heaven, written by and starring rising comedians Kate Berlant and John Early.
On the film side, A24 recently financed Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which won 3 Academy Awards® at the 2017 Oscars – Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.
Youssef will be seen in the upcoming season of USA’s Mr. Robot.
Viola Davis and Larry Wilmore are bringing a new comedy to ABC!
The award-winning How to Get Away With Murder actress and the Insecure co-creator for the multi-cam comedy.
It is written and executive produced by co-exec producer of Insecure, Regina Hicks.
The show “centers around three former sorority sisters who lost touch after college reunite during a pivotal point in each of their lives and realize that now that they are of a certain age sometimes it’s okay to crack and no one will be there for you like your sisters.”
Davis and her producing partner/husband Julius Tennon are exec producing through their production company, JuVee Productions. Wilmore is exec producing through Wilmore Films. This falls under both JuVee and Wilmore’s overall deals at ABC.
“Viola and I are inspired by Regina Hicks and to have Larry Wilmore EP is a dream.Seeing these three African American women who appear not to age but, to have challenges that we can all relate to and in a way, we have not seen before, will be a revelation,” said Tennon.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of this exciting project and to collaborate with the crazy talented, Regina Hicks. BDC is hilarious, heartwarming, and shines a light on women who are hiding in plain sight,” said Wilmore.
H/T: Deadline/Shadow & Act
Photo: ABC
In the episode, Dre (Anthony Anderson) isn’t feeling it when Jack (Miles Brown) and Diane (Marsai Martin) have to participate in a play about Christopher Columbus at school.
Dre enlists Aloe Blacc at work to help him create a catchy song sung by The Roots to raise awareness for a holiday worth celebrating, Juneteenth. This results in a Hamilton-like episode featuring musical segments of the Johnsons as slaves waiting for the day they get to be free.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, creator Kenya Barris talks about the making of the episode. “Maybe if the country, together, celebrated the end of something on a yearly basis, that would bring a lot more peace and solidarity between a country that’s so clearly still split. But to celebrate that makes people feel that you have to acknowledge that it was real, and you have to acknowledge it was wrong, bigger than the moral sense of it; you have to acknowledge that it was wrong as a human rights violation — one of the grossest examples of a human rights violation in the history of mankind.”
The musical episode also featured a Schoolhouse Rock-esque skit about slavery, featuring The Roots, called ‘I’m Just a Slave’, which you can watch below:
Juneteenth history lesson brought to you by @TheRoots. #blackish pic.twitter.com/fDaZByNUI3
— black-ish (@black_ishABC) October 4, 2017
Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross as parents Dre and Bow, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Marsai Martin and Miles Brown as their kids Zoey, Junior, Diane and Jack, and Lawrence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis as Dre’s parents, Ruby and Pops.
Source; Shadow & Act
On this day in comedy on October 4, 1957, Def Comedy Jam Co-Creator, & Hip Hop Mogul, Russell Wendell Simmons was born in Queens, New York
While attending City College of New York in Harlem, Simmons met DJ/Bboy Kurt Walker, who would change his life. Walker turned him onto hip-hop. From there Simmons caught the tiger by the tail and refused to let it go. He formed the Def Jam label in 1983 along with partner, Rick Rubin (who sold out to Universal 13 years later for 2 billion dollars) and his empire grew. He created fashion: Phat Farm, American Classics and Argyleculture; published books, produced films (Krush Groove), founded Internet start-ups and like everybody else, had his own reality show.
Simmons is perhaps most noted for the phenomenon known as Def Comedy Jam. Each week he’d bring new comedic talent to a waiting public. It spawned the careers of Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac, Chris Tucker, and many more. Simmons would appear at the end of each show to say, Thanks for coming out, God bless you. Good-night.” He also produced the award-winning Def Poetry Jam.
Russell Simmons is the third richest mogul in hip-hop with an estimated net worth in excess of $340 million.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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On this day in comedy on October 3, 1950, Beulah premiered on ABC, 1950.
Carrying the historical distinction of being the first sitcom to star a black female, Beulah got its roots on radio in 1945. At that time, it was on CBS and the original performer playing the title character, Beulah Brown, was a white man; Marlin Hurt. The guy made a living off of her. It was Hurt who invented Beulah, the housekeeper/cook for radio in 1939 for the Hometown Incorporated radio series. He moved her over to NBC’s Show Radio in 1940. Hurt was Beulah in 1943 for That’s Life and in 1944 he/she was a regular on Fibber McGee and Molly. Then in 1945 Hurt aka Beulah hit the big time; their own show entitled (get this) The Marlin Hurt and Beulah Show.
Hurt died of a heart attack in 1946. He was replaced by another white actor: Bob Corley. Corley lived, but was replaced by Hattie McDaniel in 1947. This made her the first black actress to star on a radio show, where she doubled the show’s ratings and earned $1,000 per week. When McDaniel became ill in 1952 she was replaced on radio by Lillian Randolph, who was replaced the following season by her sister, Amanda Randolph.
The show hit television in 1950 and that’s when it really got confusing. “The Queen of the Kitchen” was still outsmarting her Caucasian employers by knowing how to solve problems that perplexed them, but you never knew which Beulah you were going to get. The same applied to fellow characters, Bill, her boyfriend and Oriole, her friend / maid from next door.
The first television Beulah was Ethel Waters. This also made Waters the first black woman to star in a television show. She quit after one season saying the scripts were degrading to black people. The next Beulah was Hattie McDaniel; familiar with the role from her radio version. After six episodes she got sick and was replaced quickly by Louise Beavers. The reason for the rapidness was because none of McDaniel’s episodes had aired. So audiences saw Ethel Waters, then Louise Beavers, then Hattie McDaniel. When McDaniel learned her situation was more serious than first considered (she was diagnosed with breast cancer), Beavers became the permanent replacement and the new Beulah.
Similar shenanigans went on with the other cast members. Initially, Butterfly McQueen played Oriole under the Ethel Waters regime. When Hattie McDaniel came aboard McQueen was replaced by Ruby Dandridge, who’d played the part on radio. Dooley Wilson (Sam from “Casablanca”) became the new Bill after Percy “Bud” Harris walked citing the refusal to portray Uncle Tom in any form as the reason. Ernest Whitman was the final Bill under the Louise Beavers era.
Of course, the artistic attackers without solutions – the NAACP, jumped on the stereotypes and Beulah’s days were numbered. The show managed to crank out 87 episodes before being shut down for good. Eighty of those episodes have been destroyed. Only seven survive along with only 21 of the radio broadcasts.
Beulah aired its last televised episode on December 23, 1952.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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Jamie Foxx sat down with Elle Degeneres to promote his new semi-autobiographical comedy show “White Famous” — a new comedy about trying to make it without losing your soul.
Foxx was joined by the show’s star Jay Pharoah and as expected, the SNL alum didn’t disappoint with serving up some celebrity impressions.
“White Famous” follows a talented, young African-American comedian whose star is rising as he navigates the treacherous waters of maintaining his credibility as he begins to cross over toward becoming white famous.
Foxx serves as an executive producer, along with Tom Kapinos and Tim Story. “White Famous” is set to debut Oct. 15 on Showtime.
To describe how he first met Mr. Foxx, Pharoah had to dip into his Jamie impression.
“Hey man, I’m a big fan, I think you’re amazing, I think you’re talented…and I want to work with you in some capacity, and way,” said Pharoah as Foxx, to the delight of the audience.
When asked about their friendship, Foxx revealed that he often asks Jay to impersonate various people.
“I know I’m hard to hang out with because he’s so good at doing impressions, so that’s all I do,” said Foxx. “Just all night, like ‘what’s up with JAY-Z man, where JAY-Z at?’”
Pharoah immediately launched into his impression of JAY-Z, complete with the Brooklyn rapper’s trademark laugh.
He also took on Kevin Hart and Chris Rock, check him out via the clip up top.
Source: EURWEB