Black Comedy: Then and Now

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Its just another Saturday night at the Downtown Comedy Club in Los Angeles. The audience at the open mic night is a mixture of races. Thats not like the old days when black comics attracted only black audiences.
2010 is a different world for comedy than 20 years ago. Julian Michael is a black comic who was performing at the comedy club.
"I will have my two year anniversary this year," Michael said. "It's been a fun journey and just coming to places like the Downtown Comedy Club and just being fortunate to meet the right people has really sort of helped moved me on a fast track."
Kevin Garnier owns the Downtown Comedy Club. 20 years ago, he was in the same position as Julian Michael: a newbie to the stage starting his comedy career.

"The first place that I ever performed at was at the comedy store on Sunset and I sucked big time," Garnier said. "It was the worst experience of my life. I got literally booed off the stage. But, I remember two or three people laughing and that kind of what stuck with me, and I just ran with it."
As a black comic, it wasnt easy for Garnier to break in to Hollywood. So he became involved in Leimert Park's thriving black comedy scene.
"I guess you could describe it like a Harlem Renaissance here on the west coast," Garnier said. "Back then in the nineties, that was the golden age of modern black comedy."
The Comedy Act Theater was the hotspot in Leimert Park.
"If you were a black comic or a white comic with balls, pardon me, you went there," Garnier said.
Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac and DL Hughley were just a few of the comics who performed weekly in the clubs. It was a tough room, even for the audience.
"You could not get up to go to the bathroom to the show because the guy on the spotlight would follow you," Garnier said. "I don't know how he could find you. He would follow you to the bathroom. The MCs would sometimes go in the bathroom."
Networks and talent scouts lured the black comics to Hollywood.
"It was so competitive it was like trying out for a professional sports team," Garnier said. "You had to bring your A game. Hollywood knew at that time if you wanted black talent, specifically comics, thats where you went.
And then gradually the scene disappeared. Black comedy became part of the mainstream and club owners couldnt make money. Garnier is disappointed with the scene today. "
"Today it stinks," Garnier said. "It was quality, right now people just want to get five minutes and be seen so they can get a television show. It all went away because the clubs started to let us in and its hard as hell to get people to come out and see comedy."
He says black comics can get their start anywhere, including his comedy clubs open mic night. He thinks this is a post racial era of comedy.
"I think Hollywood and I think the world at large has moved I would hope beyond the sort of ethnic specific talent sort of search," Garnier said. "Funny is just funny."
Young comic Julian Michael agrees to a certain extent.
"I think thats a stretch," Michael said. "I think we are moving in a direction thats towards that but I dont think that we are there yet. The newer generation of black comedians lives in a world where black people have more choice. We are not sort of fighting for civil rights in the same way. So our struggle to get our voice heard is different."
But it still pays to know their audience.
The Downtown Comedy Club holds open mic nights every Friday and Saturday.
Karen Marcus, Annenberg Radio News.