Dear TAN: Martin Lawrence & The Circle of Def Comedy

I once started a neverending interview, but now we're switching to a "Dear TAN" feature. Send your questions/letters to theassimilatednegro [at] gmail [dot] com.

In this edition: Martin Lawrence has a new comedy show!

Dear TAN3,

Yo, I got some sort of pub pre-release note on Martin Lawrence's new show. Not sure if I'm gonna be able to peep it and write something before the show airs (July 9th), but since you're the Prime Minister of Everthing Related To Martin I thought I'd pass it along and see if you had any thoughts. holla back.

-TAN

~

Dear TAN,

Good looks with the link. I checked it out and a couple of clips. My thoughts:

Ever since the debut of the ORIGINAL Def Comedy Jam (hosted by our boy Martin...pre-Gina), everyone has been trying to emulate the success of that program. This had spawned the horrendous P. Diddy's Bad Boyz of Comedy and the lackluster reincarnated Def Comedy Jam - hosted by DL Hughley.

This difference in these shows and the original classic Def Comedy Jam is that the original show featured talent that was already developed. It just provided a venue to bring them all together and showcased their talent. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing Martin, Chris Tucker, Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Dave Chappelle, Bernie Mac - and that's just who came to mind!

Key points - 1) These guys were already good and somewhat known 2) With that kind of talent - you HAVE to bring your A game - or else you'll be exposed. The attempted recreations of that show are all missing that key element. While it's great to give new guys a chance - the fact of the matter is that all the talent have been nobodies - and they just aren't funny. You have to have at least one anchor to hold things down - and get TAN3 to tune in!

As for Martin Lawrence's show - it appears that he is purely behind the scenes - understandable. The clips show that he is at least showcasing some talent that we already know - Ricky Smiley, DC Curry, Guy Torry - which is a good start. I don't know who the host is - but he can't be worse than the new Def Jam host - DL Hughley (I've never been a fan).

I didn't have the patience to sit through the full show - so I only watched the clips. Decent. Again - I think it's good that he seems to be starting with better talent, so this show at least has a chance to be good. It's somewhat disappointing that he only makes an appearance in the audience and never on stage though...Yeah, I know it's just like Kobe not wanting to do the dunk contest anymore - but give the people what they want!! Word!

~

Word up.

I'm actually feeling a little harsher in terms of him not participating. Even if the show is great, since his name is on the marquee I think it's dropping the ball for him not to participate. We know DCJ, and so they're following the formula that worked, but with the examples you point out obviously it's not a no-brainer equation that couldn't use some sprucing up and creative thinking in terms of approach. And with us assimilated negroes in particular, I think this formula-following laziness kills us. Some of it is just american capitalism; i.e. everyone's copycatting, and it's just the cycle of life for artists, performers etc to work hard on breaking through, then wash-and-repeat until they get old and fall off. Whichever comes first. But for our modern-day negro icons, these dudes had to be so different and special to get their platform that it feels ridiculous when they so easily fall back on the okey-doke whatever-whatever just-put-my-name-on-the-thing-and-get-my-checks flowing.

Easier said than done -- I've even fallen victim on my small blog-level ish -- but legends like Martin are supposed to show a better example for us young bucks coming up in the system. Plus he was so abundant with the characters and creativity when he broke in. Shoot, he could have Otis host the show or something.

That said, he was another one who fell victim to White-People-Drive-You-Crazy disease, like Chappelle. It's kind of ridiculous how much that happens, especially with the comedians. Maybe because they're speaking the truth? Hmmmm ... I guess that's fodder for another post.

Anymartin, as for the clips, as you say they have some established talent, so they might be closer to the winning formula than some of the recent also-ran efforts that have come out recently. This clip below is pretty damn funny UPDATE: some rigamarole happened with the original clip, so I'm inserting an alternate, but unfortunately it doesn't have the jokes I found so funny.



oh, and PS: the host, Doug Williams, has been featured on TAN before. I guess he's come along since the Jamie Foxx fiasco.