*Vice’s 10-episode docuseries “Black Comedy in America” explores how the art form shaped America for over a century. Hosted by comedians Tiffany Haddish, Chris Spencer, and Ryan Davis, each episode includes in-depth interviews with a who’s who of entertainers including Shaquille O’Neal, Marla Gibbs, Tracy Morgan, Craig Robinson, Coco Jones, George Lopez, Luenell, Rachel Lindsay, Taye Diggs, W. Kamau Bell, B. Simone, and many more.
Comedian Deon Cole guests in the third episode during which he and Spencer discussed how comedy is therapeutic, per THR.
“It’s therapeutic. A lot of us, if we didn’t have that stage, would probably be crazy, in jail or whatever, because we don’t have the money for shrinks,” said Cole. “So, we’ve been taught and we found out that comedy is a form of therapy. And once you use it as such, it can really be a beautiful thing.”
Spencer added, “I always go back to Richard Pryor. He was talking about police brutality in the ‘70s, and how nothing has changed. There are still those things they talked about that we also talk about in our acts that are messages. We’re speaking to our people,” he explained.
“We’re ministers up there at times; we’re counselors, basketball coaches. We’re fathers, mothers, sisters. Especially when we’re talking to us, because we hear and feel things differently,” Spencer continued.
“I started off in the mainstream rooms, I’m not sure if Deon did, but it’s a different feeling when you kill in a Black room. Those things touch us to our core,” he said.
“When we’re talking to a mainstream audience, some things we do are cultural. I like the word “cultural,” and I liked when Denzel [Washington] did the interview. They were talking to him about the film Fences and they were like, “Could a white guy direct this?’ And he was like, “Yeah, but things are cultural.” You know, like that hot comb on the back of somebody’s neck. That ssss, you could smell that; you could hear it. That’s cultural. Not too many hot combs in the white community,” Spencer said.
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