This presentation features a screening of Why We Laugh, followed by a performance and Q&A with author, comedian, and executive producer Darryl Littleton. Littleton is the author of Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy (2008), a sweeping account of the evolution of Black comedy in America. He began his comedy career writing sketches for “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” on CBS Radio, became a regular at the “Comedy Store,” and adopted the stage name, “D’Militant” for his incisive social and political commentary. In 2009, producer and writer Quincy Newell and director Robert Townsend crafted a documentary based on Littleton’s book that included interviews with prominent scholars, politicians, cultural critics, and a host of notable comics, including Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Katt Williams, D.L. Hughley, and Steve Harvey. Why We Laugh tracks the way black comedy has evolved from Stepin Fetchit and minstrels in blackface to the politically tinged humor of Dick Georgory; and from the television success of Good Times and The Jeffersons to the big-screen accomplishments of stars like Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg.
Date/time: February 5, 2015 at 6:00pm
Location: The Avery Center, 125 Bull Street, Charleston
*For more information please visit avery.cofc.edu/programs/
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