New York, NY (October 15, 2024) – In a historic collaboration, Shaquille O’Neal’s legendary Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam returns to NBA All-Star weekend and is being brought to life by three Black-owned entertainment powerhouses: The Black Promoters Collective, Shaq’s Jersey Legends Productions, and Hartbeat, Kevin Hart’s global entertainment company. This unique partnership, a testament to the power and influence of Black-owned businesses, sets the stage at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA on Friday, February 14, 2025.
Hosted by the iconic Bill Bellamy, the event will feature a star-studded lineup of comedy heavyweights, including Gary Owen, DC Young Fly, Michael Blackson, Cocoa Brown, Oakland’s own Lewis Belt, and the legendary DJ Spinderella, who will be spinning live to keep the energy high throughout the night. This star-studded lineup promises a night of laughter and entertainment like no other.
Tickets are available for purchase via Ticketmaster and blackpromoterscollective.com.
The Black Promoters Collective, Jersey Legends Productions, and Hartbeat share a history of furthering Black excellence in entertainment, making this event a landmark in showcasing the power of Black companies collaborating to deliver culturally relevant live experiences. As industry leaders, all companies are committed to amplifying Black voices and ensuring representation in all areas of entertainment.
Shaquille O’Neal states, “The Shaq’s All-Star Comedy Jam brand has established itself as a must-attend event for both All-Star weekend and Super Bowl weekend over the past 16 years. I’m excited to have The Black Promoters Collective and Hart Beat Entertainment joining me to carry on this tradition!”
“Combining forces with Jersey Legends Productions and Hartbeat makes for a powerful partnership to elevate Shaq’s All-Star Comedy Jam to new heights.” BPC President Shelby Joyner exclaims, “We aim to expand the brand’s reach by bringing it into Black Promoters Collective’s dynamic portfolio of festivals and live music events, creating fresh opportunities to showcase the comedy jam across multiple platforms and connect with even broader audiences.”
“The Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam franchise has been a cornerstone of the comedy scene since its inception, delivering numerous sold-out shows and giving a national platform to diverse up-and-coming comedians who are now considered to be legends,” said Hartbeat’s President Jeff Clanagan. “Hartbeat is beyond thrilled to continue and expand this iconic franchise alongside Shaq and Jersey Legends, and have Black Promoters Collective on board to bring this next rendition to life.”
Initially launched in 2009 as a collaboration between Shaquille and Hartbeat President Jeff Clanagan, Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam is known for being the national stage to comedy’s heaviest hitters and up-and-coming comedians. Delivering unforgettable, high-energy comedy shows nationwide, the event has become a go-to experience for comedy lovers. Audiences can expect a night full of raw, unfiltered laughs as these seasoned comedians light up the stage with their unique styles of humor.
Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam Host and performers include:
Bill Bellamy, a comedy legend and fan favorite, will host the night and ensure the crowd is entertained between sets. His quick wit and ability to connect with audiences have made him one of the most respected voices in stand-up and kept him in the spotlight for years.
Gary Owen’s down-to-earth and relatable humor has made him a staple on the comedy circuit. With multiple comedy specials and film appearances under his belt, Gary’s sharp comedic timing and infectious energy are sure to leave the audience in stitches.
DC Young Fly joins the lineup with his signature brand of high-energy comedy. A breakout star of Wild’ N Out and co-host of the hit podcast 85 South, DC’s lively and unpredictable performances make him one of the most exciting comedians to watch today.
Michael Blackson, affectionately known as the “African King of Comedy,” brings his internationally renowned comedic flair to the stage. His larger-than-life personality and unforgettable punchlines have made him a fan favorite in films, television, and stand-up. Blackson’s set will surely deliver a fresh and hilarious perspective that will have the audience laughing out loud.
With her bold and unapologetic style, Cocoa Brown is set to bring her “grown and evolved” humor to the All Star Comedy Jam stage. Known for her work on Tyler Perry’s The Single Mom’s Club and 9-1-1, Cocoa’s comedy seamlessly blends real-life experiences with sharp observations, making her an undeniable crowd-pleaser.
The comedian was accused of violence toward Angelina Triplett-Hill back in 2014.
On Tuesday (Oct. 15), VIBE revealed that Katt Williams won a huge legal victory in a 2016 lawsuit. Judge Christina Snyder threw out a $1.7 million judgment filed against the comedian by former assistant Angelina Triplett-Hill. According to the publication, there were no documented hospital records or police reports to support the case.
According to Triplett-Hill’s accusation, Williams assaulted the plaintiff on a California film set in 2014. In documents shared by Daily Mail, Triplett-Hill claimed she ended up on the receiving end of verbal abuse from Williams after taking a phone call. Things allegedly turned physical when the Friday After Next star struck Triplett-Hill multiple times, which she said resulted in her hitting the ground and becoming unconscious. While the exact date isn’t clear, VIBE added that the former assistant accused Williams of failing to respond and was eventually awarded $1.7 million after a motion for default was filed.
“Katt said he did nothing wrong and would never pay the woman a cent. He accepted the risks and understood that the plaintiff would try to play on sympathy at trial to ask for even more money,” said Williams’ attorney, Jeremiah Reynolds, in a statement. “At trial, we argued that the plaintiff had created a false narrative of working for Katt as his assistant and faked the incident. The plaintiff tried to play on the jurors’ emotions, supposed ‘power imbalances,’ and did everything she could to try to bring in irrelevant and prejudicial evidence about Katt. Judge Snyder excluded it all.”
At the top of the year, Williams made headlines thanks to an explosive interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast. During the conversation, he called out several of his comedic peers, including Kevin Hart, Michael Blackson, Cedric the Entertainer, and Tiffany Haddish. Others, including Mo’Nique and Bernie Mac’s daughter, Je’Niece McCullough, expressed support for Williams following the episode.
Source: Revolt, VIBE
Beloved Atlanta radio personality Wanda Smith has passed away on Saturday (Oct. 12), a day after her 58th birthday.
Rick Caffey, Senior Vice President and Market Manager for V-103, confirmed her death with condolences on the station’s Instagram account.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of our cherished Wanda Smith, who brought so much joy to V-103 and the Atlanta community. Our deepest prayers and condolences go out to her family,” he captioned a photo of her smiling.
In addition to her radio career, Smith also added acting to her resume with Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail and Madea’s Witness Protection films. She also was widely known as a comedian with contributions to shows like HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and BET’s Comicview.
Staying true to her ATL hometown, she was also a regular performer at the Atlanta Comedy Theater.
Wanda Smith is survived by her husband, LaMorris Sellers, and their three children. Her cause of her death has not been disclosed.
The Humor Mill sends condolences to Wanda Smith’s loved ones.
Source: VIBE
Pack your bags, because we’re headed to the Sunshine State. HBO’s new late-night comedy series It’s Florida, Man premieres October 18.
Drawing inspiration from those wild “Florida Man” news stories we’ve all read, the premium cable channel’s new series will see a rotating cast of actors and comedians playfully reenact a series of true stories, as told by real-life Florida residents. Among the more than two dozen stars set to appear are Saturday Night Live’s Ego Nwodim, Anna Faris, Randall Park, Jake Johnson, Jon Gries, Sam Richardson, Juliette Lewis, and Simon Rex.
Per HBO, the show’s six-episode first season will cover a number of diverse topics, from mermaids to witches and extreme fantasies to feral bunnies.
In addition to its long-running late-night shows hosted by Bill Maher and John Oliver, HBO has long legacy of quirky late-night comedy fare that includes shows like The Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show With Bob and David. More recent years have seen entries like Los Espookys, High Maintenance, Fantasmas, and A Black Lady Sketch Show air in the channel’s Friday night 11 p.m. time slot.
It’s Florida, Man is created and executive produced by Mark Herwick for Range Studios, along with Jeff Tomsic (who also directs). Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones) and Brandon James co-executive produce for Rough House Pictures; Bryan Storkel serves as showrunner and co-executive producer.
The show premieres Friday, October 18 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. New episodes will air weekly and will be available to stream on Max.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
A New Series Produced by HBO in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios
The series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Aaron currently stars as the lead in Jeremy Saulnier’s “Rebel Ridge” which debuted on Netflix on September 6th and was the #1 title worldwide on Netflix for three weeks in a row. In December, Aaron will take on the titular role of Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ animated “Lion King” prequel for Disney.
Aaron was most recently seen leading the NatGeo series “Genius: MLK/X,” as civil rights leader Malcolm X, Garth Davis’ “Foe” alongside Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, Clement Virgo’s “Brother” and Barry Jenkins’ award-winning limited series “The Underground Railroad.” Aaron is currently filming “The Morning Show.”
He is represented by WME, Anonymous Content, Hamilton Hodell, Sloane Offer Weber Dern, and Narrative.
Director Michael Bay is in talks to direct Will Smith in the Netflix action film titled Fast and Loose.
Fast and Loose focuses on a crime boss who loses his memory after an attack and gradually learns that he was leading a double life as a CIA agent. Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Chris Bremner, and Eric Pearson worked on the screenplay.
The movie has been in the works since before Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars ceremony. THR previously reported that David Leitch had exited the project the week before the fated Academy Awards telecast to start work on The Fall Guy, the Ryan Gosling-Emily Blunt action-comedy feature that Universal released in May.
Producers for Fast and Loose include Leitch and Kelly McCormick for 87North, along with Smith. Robert Simonds and Noah Fogelson serve as executive producers for STXfilms.
Bay previously directed Smith in the 1995 action-comedy Bad Boys and its 2003 sequel. Smith and Martin Lawrence most recently played their characters from the franchise in its latest sequel, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which Sony released in theaters in June. That movie helped revive Smith’s standing as an in-demand film star following the Oscars fallout.
Shortly after the release of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which surpassed $400 million at the global box office, THR reported that Smith was in talks to star in Sony’s sci-fi feature Resistor. At the time, a director was not yet attached to the project that was set to adapt author Daniel Suarez’s 2014 novel Influx.
Other recent titles for Smith include 2022’s Emancipation and 2021’s King Richard, with the latter landing the star his first Oscar.
Bay’s most recent project as director was the 2022 Universal movie Ambulance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Also known for his work on the Transformers franchise, Bay previously helmed Netflix’s Ryan Reynolds-led action flick 6 Underground that hit the streamer in 2019.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Jamie Foxx is back at the mic after his recent health scare.
“It was an excruciating time to be able to open those wounds every single day for three nights,” Foxx told CBS Mornings’ Gayle King in a backstage video posted by King and the Oprah Daily account to Instagram on Monday. Foxx and his team were celebrating the final night in a three-date run of his new comedy special, “What Had Happened Was,” which was taped in Atlanta for Netflix.
“It was excruciating because the worry is what gets you,” Foxx continued. “We’ve got a great show in the room, but we don’t know what they may laugh or what they may not laugh at. Any comedian will tell you that’s the thing, the worry is the thing. Usually, when you do a stand-up special, you go out for a year and a half and work every nook and cranny, then you tape it. You don’t just show up in Atlanta and turn the camera on.”
Foxx was admitted to the hospital in April 2023 after experiencing what his daughter Corinne described as a “medical complication.” He remained out of the public eye for a month, finally breaking his silence in May with an Instagram post in which he simply stated he was “feeling blessed” by “all the love” from fans.
Various celebrity friends of Foxx like Martin Lawrence (“I hear he’s doing better”) and Kevin Hart (“a lot of progression”) shared updates on his condition over the ensuing months, but Foxx himself remained elusive. He described this special in Sept. 2024 as a way to “share his journey through a serious health scare, and after attending, King told Foxx that she’d “never seen a show where were laughing and crying at the same time.”
Reps for Foxx did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.
“It’s a personal journey,” Foxx told King, vowing, “I am never going to go through this again. My next jokes will start out, ‘knock, knock. I’ll do an hour and a half of ‘knock, knock’ jokes.” He closed out the video with a toast to this message: “Let’s sit back, watch it, and build toward a newer, brighter and healthier future.”
Foxx began opening up about his health scare in July 2023, saying he “went to hell and back,” and chose to remain private during the experience because he “didn’t want [fans] to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through.”
In Dec., Foxx shared that “six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk,” joking that he “saw the tunnel; I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘S—, am I going to the right place?'” Finally, in June he shared that just before the incident, he “had a bad headache” and “asked my boy for an Advil.” Next thing Foxx knew, “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”
Foxx will return to the big screen on Jan. 17, 2024, with Netflix’s Back in Action. He will share that return with Cameron Diaz, who retired from acting in 2018. Details about Foxx’s Netflix comedy special have not yet been released.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans, Jr. will get a chance to pay tribute to their old gigs on In Living Color and New Girl by featuring special appearances by Tommy Davidson and Lamorne Morris on their new CBS comedy Poppa’s House.
In an episode planned for February, Morris — who starred opposite Wayans, Jr. on New Girl — will play Todd, a buddy from film school who tries to cajole Wayans, Jr’s character into coming back to the magical world of filmmaking.
In the same episode, Davidson — who worked with the senior Wayans on In Living Color — will play Jarnold, Poppa’s (Wayans) work acquaintance who he’s ridden within the elevator for years. They don’t know much about each other, except that they have a great rapport in the elevator, teasing other office workers.
Poppa’s House, which premieres Oct 21, features Wayans as a legendary talk radio host and happily divorced “poppa” who finds himself still parenting his adult son (Wayans Jr.), a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.
Morris, who recently won an Emmy for starring in Fargo, plays Garrett Morris in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night. He’s also set to star in Amazon’s Marvel series Spider-Noir opposite Nicolas Cage and Brendan Gleeson as the iconic Robbie Robertson. He’s represented by CAA, Entertainment 360, and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.
Davidson, who’s also appeared in The Ms. Pat Show, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and The Neighborhood, is repped by Innovative Artists.
CBS Studios produces Poppa’s House. Dean Lorey is exec producer alongside Wayans and Wayans Jr. Andy Ackerman directed and exec produced the pilot, while Kameron Tarlow is the producer at Wayans Jr.’s Two Shakes Entertainment overseeing the project. Michael Petok also serves as EP. Kevin Hench exec produced and co-wrote the pilot.
Source: Deadline
It’s official: “Abbott Elementary” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” are indeed plotting a crossover episode, as has been hinted at in recent, cryptic social media posts by “Abbott” star/creator Quinta Brunson and “Sunny” star/co-creator Rob McElhenney.
McElhenney revealed the news in a social media post, including a photo of him, “Sunny’s” Charlie Day and Brunson outside the Warner Bros. lot studio for “Abbott”:
On socials, McElhenney had teased that a “Abbott”/”Sunny” crossover would make sense, given that both shows are set in Philadelphia. And although “Abbott” is produced by Warner Bros. TV, the show airs on Disney’s ABC, while “Sunny” airs on Disney’s FX network, so such a crossover seemed in the realm of possibility.
Brunson had been coy about it at first, but earlier this summer, Brunson hinted to Variety’s “Awards Circuit Podcast that something was indeed in the works. Without specifying it, she had said a big crossover was happening — and when Variety suggested “Sunny,” she didn’t say no. “Deals are made. I want you guys to know that. I’ll say I’m really excited for it,” she said. “You want to find fun ways to shake things up without abandoning what you what you built. And I’m excited for this crossover of which I will not name with the other project.
“I’m excited to just shake things up in this way,” she added. “I love TV, everyone knows that, but I love TV moments, and I miss those big TV moments. I remember how exciting they were. Anything I can do with ‘Abbott’ to help keep that culture alive of fun TV, I will do. So I think this is going to be fun TV.”
The idea first hatched in February, when McElhenney referenced the famed “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” disaster of an event in Glasgow. “A lot of you are saying this feels like an episode of Sunny, but to me it feels more like an @alwayssunnt @AbbotElemABC crossover episode,” he wrote on X. Later, on Instagram, Brunson took a screenshot of McElhenney’s post and added, “Just say the word @robmcelhenney. I love you guys.”
Source: Variety
The TV network ALLBLK has announced its original feature film Operation: Aunties, starring Tisha Campbell, Melissa De Sousa, and Amayah Scott.
Directed by Wendy Raquel Robinson, the dramedy tells the story of a “longtime friendship that is tested when a risk-averse cryptocurrency expert and her retired detective best friend become vigilantes after discovering a cyber-crime syndicate in their city.”
The official synopsis reads: “After an attempted trafficking incident impacts her family, professor and blockchain expert Dr. Carol Cleavers (De Sousa) stumbles upon a dark web operation using new-age technology to assault and traffic women through a rideshare app. Knowing the feds won’t act fast enough, Carol teams up with her best friend, retired detective Sharon O’Hara (Campbell), and her niece Aminah James (Scott), computer hacker extraordinaire.”
Together, the three women embark on a mission that brings them face-to-face with danger.
Brett Dismuke, Head of Content ALLBLK & We TV, spoke about bringing the three seasoned actresses together for the “edgy action and laugh-out-loud comedy,” that tackles “real issues affecting our society today.”
“Melissa, Tisha, and Amiyah expertly bring these strong, Black female characters to life, showcasing resilience, empowerment, and tremendous heroism – keeping the laughs coming along the way, all of which resonate deeply with ALLBLK subscribers,” he said.
TJ Ali, writer and executive producer, added, “Black women are always saving the day. Our culture thrives because of the everyday change agent — those who consistently rise up and uplift our society. For me, those agents of change have always been women from across the diaspora.”
Dubbed Ali’s debut film on the network, she continued, “I’m incredibly proud to partner with ALLBLK, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Big Little Sis Media, and our incredible cast to bring this vision to life — a story for us, by us. The culture deserves to see our aunties as the vigilantes they already are — our heroes.”
Operation: Aunties has yet to receive a premiere date but will be available sometime in 2025 exclusively on ALLBLK.
Source: By Amber Corrine/VIBE