“I see you looking at them conspiring,” Paul Mooney said, pointing to the club promoters who seemed to be concerned about him running over time, “They always wanna shut a nigga down. I bet if this was friends they would be like…” Paul drops the mic and looks ahead in a star-stuck mocking gaze. You might’ve seen his work on In Living Color or maybe you even know him as Negrodumus from “The Chappelle Show.” Last Friday night, Paul Mooney brought these roles and his scathing brand of racial commentary to a packed crowd at the 9:30 Club.
Mooney used his insight, pain and frustration with the issue of race as his comedic fuel, leaving the members of the audience laughing or squirming in their seats. He is an unapologetic straight talker, and for this reason his standup act has pretty much stayed underground.
His sets are infused with witty criticisms of white America and liberal use of the N-word. When asked about his response to critics who disapprove of his use of the word: “Well, white folks, you shouldn’t have ever made up the word… I say nigga 100 times every morning; it makes my teeth white.”
If you’ve only heard or read about him, then you might picture a militant black nationalist, kind of like Farrakhan but with better comedic timing. But Mooney’s act isn’t a preachy anti-white sermon. It’s less “Kill whitey!” and more “Ain’t white folks funny?” Whether it makes you laugh or cringe, it’s how he sees it.
Mooney touched on a whole range of topics in his act, such as the possibility of the election of a black pope last April, which would have been perfect, according to Mooney. “Who else could rock all those jewels and cape?” he asked. He strayed from his racial material from time to time, talking about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, then comparing Jennifer Aniston to star Sarah Jessica Parker. He even talked about the District of Columbia’s “psychic cab drivers” who are somehow able to charge without a meter.
Mooney’s greatest talent is his ability to play off the crowd. The crowd meant well, shouting support, suggesting topics and comments in the middle of his act, but he didn’t let them break his flow. The hecklers became part of the act. When a man got up in the middle of the act, walked to the front of the stage and sized up Mooney with his camera phone lens, Mooney couldn’t ignore him. Instead he went silent and glared at him, saying, “Sit your dumbass down before you get killed,” which got a huge laugh from the crowd. He then went into a spiel on camera phones. Toward the end of the show another fan interrupted Mooney to boast about his wife’s singing. Mooney invited her to come to the stage and let her sing “You Are Beautiful” to the audience. In the end Mooney ended up improvising an extra 40 or so minutes, stretching the show past 12:55 without any complaint from the crowd.
Mooney’s act is a result of decades spent behind the scene. He has written for Richard Pryor, Sanford and Son and Eddie Murphy. He and Pryor kicked down doors for black acts in entertainment. As Mooney sees it, most black entertainers choose to remain safe in order to please the mainstream. He rejects this attitude. Paul Mooney pulls no punches. It’s this ruthless humor that makes him so outrageously funny.
