Dallas, TX – October 5, 2016] – We are very excited to announce, award winning stand-up comedian, author and actor, Michael Jr. to be awarded the prestigious Grady Nutt Humor Award in Nashville during the 47th GMA Dove Awards ceremonies. This very special award will be given out during the awards pre-show hosted by Blanca and Travis Greene. The pre-show will stream live 2pm-4pm. Michael will also be bringin’ the funny to the stage as part of the live awards ceremony hosted by KING & COUNTRY and Tye Tribbett. The 47th GMA Dove Awards will take place on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at Lipscomb’s University’s Allen Arena in Nashville at 6:30 p.m. CST. Trinity Broadcasting will exclusively air the awards show on Sunday October 16 at 7:00 P.M. PST/9:00 P.M. CST.
Michael Jr. came into national prominence with his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That appearance launched his career and led to appearances on Comedy Central, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, The Late, Late Show, BET’s Comic View, Comedy TV, Oprah and many others. His ability to perform for both mainstream and faith based audiences, without changing his dialogue, keeps him one of the busiest stand-up comedians today.
Michael has won awards for his documentary, Comedy: The Road Less Traveled, authored a bestselling children’s book, The Parts We Play, his comedy special, Laughing on Purpose, premiered on the ASPiRE Network, his comedy clips from his CD Funny For A Reason are heard on Sirius/XM’s Laugh USA, he is intimately involved in helping those in need and inspiring others to serve. Most recently, Michael guest-starred in the Kendrick brothers’ drama War Room.
Michael is currently on his Bringin’ The Funny Stand Up & Be Encouraged Comedy Tour, coming to a city near you.
For more information: www.MichaelJr.com
Visit Michael at facebook.com/michaeljrcomedy and twitter.com/michaeljrcomedy
On this day in comedy on August 29, 1993 Living Single premiered on Fox!
The popular sitcom ranked among the top five shows in African-American households during its entire 5 season run. It not only beat out competitors on rival networks, but was even viewed more than its stablemates, Martin and New York Undercover.
Produced by Yvette Lee Bowser and Warner Bros. Television, Living Single centered on the relationship of six friends living in a Brooklyn brownstone. Queen Latifah played Khadijah, the workaholic editor and publisher of Flavor magazine. Her roommates are her cousin, Kim Coles, the sweet, but dingy aspiring actress, Synclaire and her childhood buddy Regine, (Kim Fields), a boutique buyer / gold-digger with a heart. If only Regine could find a rich man to marry the world would be perfect. The quartet is rounded out by Maxine, played by Erika Alexander. Max doesn’t live with them. She’s Khadijah’s friend from their days at Howard University and an attorney who stops by constantly to raid their refrigerator, gobble up their food and fill them in on the events of her exciting days in court. In another apartment lives Kyle (T C Carson), a stock broker and Overton (John Henton), the maintenance man for the building, who were friends since their early days in Cleveland, Ohio.
You practically needed a scorecard to keep up with the various involvements. Kyle always talked trash to Maxine and vice versa until they finally hooked up and discovered they liked it; to the point that when Kyle got an assignment in London, England he asked Maxine to go with him. She turned him down to her regret later. However, by series end they got back together. Overton and Synclaire were more obvious with theirs. They ended up married. Regine finally got a man of semi-means in the person of Dexter Knight (Don Franklin). Even Khadijah found love with an old acquaintance; a grown man still going by the name “Scooter”.
Living Single had an impressive list of recurring characters. Kim Fields real life mother, Chip played her TV mom. Heavy D played her friend. J. Anthony Brown played Overton’s uncle and Isaiah Washington was a lover of Khadijah’s.
Their list of guest stars was even more significant. Sports stars made appearances: Jerome Bettis, Grant Hill, Evander Holyfield, Cris Carter, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Alonzo Mourning, Bobby Bonilla, Cedric Ceballos, Desmond Howard and Deion Sanders. Musical artists TLC, Cece Winans, Gladys Knight, Monica, Naughty By Nature, Tone Loc, Brian McKnight and Chaka Khan showed up. Blaxploitation legends like Melvin Van Peebles, Ron O’Neal and Antonio Fargas had roles. Comedians were omnipresent: Flip Wilson, Marsha Warfield, Jack Carter, Bobcat Goldthwait, Gilbert Gottfried, Rosie O’Donnell and John Witherspoon as well as practically the entire cast of NBCs A Different World minus Lisa Bonet and TV’s Superman (Dean Cain) and Robin (Burt Ward).
The series received multiple nominations for acting with a 1998 Image Award win for Erika Alexander for Outstanding Actress and one for the show for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Living Single had its series finale on January 1, 1998.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
On this day in comedy on August 28, 1929 Actress, Roxie Albertha Roker was born in Miami, Florida.
Roker was a conglomerate of influences. She was raised in Brooklyn by a Southern mother and a Bahamian father. So naturally she married and produced an offspring (Lenny Kravitz) with a Jew.
The pioneer who broke cultural ground as half of the first inter-racial couple on network television on the CBS hit sitcom, The Jeffersons, got her start in the Negro Ensemble Company. She won an Obie Award and was nominated for a Tony. But since acting is a wait-for-a-phone-call type of business, Roker supplemented her income as a TV reporter and local television show host.
When The Jeffersons came along it was not only a career changer, but a life shifter as well. In the role of Helen Willis, Roker embodied a proud black woman who never failed to demonstrate that pride even in an inter-racial relationship with one of the whitest white men in media history, Tom Willis (convincingly played by white actor Frank Cover). The Willis’ were neighbors to George and Louise Jefferson, the nouveau riche black couple moving on up as George put others down. Helen Willis was often the brunt of Jefferson’s barbs, but returned as good as she received. The character was no female Clarence Thomas. She kept it black.
After a decade and 253 episodes it was time to move on. For the next two decades Roker was a guest star in demand. She appeared in Punky Brewster, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, Murder, She Wrote, 227, The Love Boat, A Different World and Beat the Clock. She also brought her talents to the films, Stone in the River for NBC and Roots for ABC as well as the theatrical feature film, Claudine.
Roker died of breast cancer on December 2, 1995 at the age of 66.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
On this day in comedy on August 28, 1996, The Jamie Foxx Show premiered on the WB
The semi-autobiographical sitcom showcased Foxx’s talents as a singer, musician, actor and comedian. Foxx plays Jamie King, an aspiring entertainer who moved from Terrell, Texas (Foxx’s real life hometown) to Los Angeles to become a star. To provide an income while he chases his dream he works at his Aunt Helen (Ellia English) and Uncle Junior’s (Garrett Morris) struggling hotel.
Foxx finds a comedic foil in the person of hotel accountant, Braxton P. Hartnabrig (Christopher B. Duncan). He’s an uptight brother who finds Jamie’s style not to his liking. They provide comic relief with each encounter sliding in verbal jabs whenever possible. The love life portion is covered by co-worker Francesca “Fancy” Monroe (Garcelle Beavais). At first it was Jamie liked her and she didn’t care, but eventually they start dating and become engaged.
The Jamie Foxx Show was never a ratings king. Then again the WB was not a big ratings gathering network. It was relatively new when this sitcom hit the air, but the show aired for 5 seasons and helped resurrect the career of Garrett Morris after his 1994 near-fatal shooting.
The sitcom and Foxx received multiple award nominations during its run with Foxx winning the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series in 1998. The last episode of The Jamie Foxx Show was broadcast on January 14, 2001.
By Darryl “D’Militamt” Littleton
Check out this clip:
On this day in comedy on August 27, 1992 Martin premiered on Fox
Created by Martin Lawrence, Topper Carew and John Bowman, the timing was impeccable. As the fledgling Fox network grew, Martin grew right along with it and was a consistent ratings champ for them.
Starring Martin Lawrence as a Detroit radio station DJ and later a public access television host, the sitcom showcased his talent and wide array of characters weekly. Lawrence played Mama Edna, his own mother complete with moustache; his ghetto girl neighbor, Sheneneh with too many weaves and too much back talk for Martin’s liking; the pot-bellied security guard, Ol Otis; gold-tooth sporting, Jerome, the pimp from the bygone era; snotty-nosed, Roscoe, the little boy who Lawrence plays by standing on his knees with shoes at the end; Dragonfly Jones, the martial arts instructor who gets beaten up by his students; Bob, the white surfer, redneck who is Gina’s boss; Elroy, the mechanic who claims he was the Godfather of Black Surf Music and King Beef, Martin’s favorite Blaxploitation superstar with a penchant for dancing under any harrowing circumstance.
Martin was popular with all age groups. It had catchphrases (“Get to Steppin”). It had funny writing. It had a perfectly balanced cast. Tisha Campbell co-starred as Martin’s college educated (and knowing it) girlfriend (and later wife) Gina. Tommy Mikal Ford played Martin’s childhood, job unknown, buddy, Tommy. Tichina Arnold was Gina’s friend and Martin’s non-friend and verbal sparring partner, Pam. Carl Anthony Payne II had the role of Martin’s other diaper buddy Cole, not-too-smart with a thing for the big girls, but a man with a steady job cleaning jets at the airport. The common theme being Martin’s friends love him but he’s an inconsiderate, self-centered, arrogant kind of guy and not too in touch with his feelings. In other words, he talks too much trash and always has to eat it.
The show was on top of Fox’s heap for five seasons. It had a talented supporting cast including Reginald Ballard as Bruh Man from the fifth flo, who’d climb through Martin’s window to fetch whatever he needed. Tracy Morgan as Hustle Man who once tried to sell Martin and his friends fried pigeon on a branch when they were snowed in and starving. Garrett Morris was Martin’s cheap boss, Stan at the radio station. Comedians Charlie Murphy, John Witherspoon, Laura Hayes, Lawanda Page, David Alan Grier, Roxanne Reese, Kim Coles and rapper Yo-Yo had recurring roles.
Martin won a number of awards. It was recognized with a People’s Choice Award for Best Comedy Series and Acting (Lawrence – Best Actor; Marla Gibbs – Best Supporting Actress) and an NAACP Award to Tisha Campbell for Best Actress. The show’s longevity was cut short in 1996 when a lawsuit was brought by Tisha Campbell for sexual harassment against Lawrence and the show’s producers. The studio settled and the final season was completed with neither co-stars making any contact. The show went off the air May 1, 1997.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift) and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.
Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, Sicario) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, Girls), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener, Captain Phillips) and Dean (Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods).
At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary, Get Out is written and directed by Peele (Key and Peele) and produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, as well as Sean McKittrick (Donnie Darko, The Box), Peele and Edward H. Hamm Jr. (The Box, Bad Words). The film also stars Caleb Landry Jones (X-Men series), Milton “Lil Rel” Howery (The Carmichael Show), Betty Gabriel (The Purge: Election Year), Marcus Henderson (Pete’s Dragon) and Keith Stanfield (Straight Outta Compton).
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones and Catherine Keener
Written and Directed by: Jordan Peele
Produced by: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Jordan Peele, Edward H. Hamm Jr.
Executive Producers: Raymond Mansfield, Couper Samuelson, Shaun Redick, Jeanette Volturno
Mahershala Ali, who plays the villain known as Cottonmouth on Marvel’s Netflix series Luke Cage, is in negotiations to join the growing cast of Fox’s Alita: Battle Angel.
Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jackie Earl Haley, Ed Skrein and Keann Johnson are on the call sheet for James Cameron’s long-in-the-works adaptation of the manga graphic novels.
Cameron is producing with his Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau, while Robert Rodriguez, the filmmaker behind theSin City and Spy Kids movies, is in the director’s chair.
Set in the 26th century, Alita tells of a female cyborg (Salazar) that is discovered in a scrapyard by a scientist. With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial-arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals.
Ali will play one of the movie’s villains, a man named Vector who runs and fixes matches in a gladiator-style combat game called Motorball.
Shooting is due to begin this month in Austin, Texas.
Fox had no comment.
Ali, who is one of the co-stars on Netflix’s House of Cards, has a busy fall lined up: He appears in the much-buzzed-about gay drama Moonlight, and also appears in Hidden Figures, Fox’s period drama about black women in the early days of the NASA space program. The latter movie, which stars Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson, will have an awards-qualifying run in December before opening wide on Jan. 17.
Ali is repped by WME and Anonymous Content.
Source; The Hollywood Reporter
It takes a big man to step to Lil Wayne in a rap battle, and on Tuesday night, that was Kevin Hart. Actually, Hart’s hip hop alter-ego Chocolate Droppa.
The two rappers went head-to-head in a special one-on-one cypher at the 2016 BET Hip-Hop Awards.
The hilarious cypher between Weezy and Hart began with DJ Drama introducing the two MCs and comparing their accolades and styles. Understandably, Droppa’s list was much shorter than Wayne’s. The New Orleans icon took the mic first, bringing his A-game as Chocolate Droppa patiently waited for his turn.
After an effortless few bars, Wayne passed the mic to CD, who more than held his own and even managed to sneak in a few jokes. “I eat my bread, I’m talking rye,” Droppa rapped.
Check out the hilarious clip below:
http://www.rap-up.com/2016/10/05/lil-wayne-chocolate-droppa-bet-hip-hop-awards-cypher/
If you like what you see, you’re in luck: Droppa is signed to Motown Records and is set to release a full-fledged rap album in the not-too-distant future.
The last time Jamie Foxx got into action mode it was as an electric Smurf in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now it looks like he’s made a potentially better choice to get back into tough guy mode with a new action thriller called Sleepless. This one appears to be full of double crossing since it features Foxx playing an undercover detective named Vincent Downs, posing as a corrupt cop, who gets the raw end of a bad deal when his son is kidnapped by one of the gangsters (Scoot McNairy) Downs has been working with.
Watch the Sleepless trailer:
It’s a shame there’s no way to hide the fact that Foxx isn’t actually a corrupt cop so that the audience might be conflicted about rooting for him as the protagonist until it’s revealed in the trailer that he’s actually one of the good guys. I feel like the trailer gives just a little too much away. But at the very least, it looks intense and gritty like Law Abiding Citizen, one of Foxx’s superior forays into action thriller territory.
Based on this first trailer, this could be a solid action thriller, albeit one that’s extremely derivative. But the supporting cast makes up for that with Scoot McNairy as the opposing gangster who is trying to get Vincent taken down by his own brothers and sisters in blue, including Mission: Impossible III star Michelle Monaghan andStranger Things co-star David Harbour from internal affairs. Going down with him could be his partner T.I. (who may be a real corrupt cop) while Gabrielle Union just wants Downs to get their son back. And apparently Derbal McDillet Dermot Mulroney has a role in this movie too.
Swiss filmmaker Baran Bo Odar makes his American directorial debut with Sleepless, written by Straight Outta Compton scribeAndrea Berloff, and it’s actually a remake of the French film Nuit Blanche written/directed by Frédéric Jardin. Why are so many action thrillers always being lifted from overseas?
Sleepless stars Foxx as undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs, who is caught in a high stakes web of corrupt cops and the mob-controlled casino underground. When a heist goes wrong, a crew of homicidal gangsters kidnaps Downs’ teenage son. In one sleepless night he will have to rescue his son, evade an internal affairs investigation and bring the kidnappers to justice.
Sleepless hits theaters early next year on February 24, 2017.
Source: SlashFilm