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Promotional art for Cole-Blooded Seminar
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Cole-Blooded Seminar

Deon Cole

Comedy Central · 2016 · 61 min

A lesson in race, romance, and cold peanut butter.

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Deon Cole wants to teach you how to survive, or at least how to get by with some dignity. His debut hour-long special is framed as an instructional course on “Coleology,” delivered to a crowd at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. Recording in the nation’s capital was a deliberate choice; Cole wanted to capture the energy of the city while a Black president was still in office, and the resulting set is thick with cultural observations, relationship advice, and dry social commentary.

At the time of the taping, Cole was already a veteran of the late-night circuit, having earned Emmy nominations writing for Conan O’Brien, and was finding mainstream success as the eccentric Charlie on ABC’s Black-ish. This hour allowed him to stretch out and play the self-assured, slightly weary instructor. He spends a significant chunk of time outlining the daily exhaustions of “managing your Blackness” in predominantly white spaces, alongside lighter lessons on how to recognize when there are better-looking men in the room.

His most famous bit here compares his preference in women to cold peanut butter, but the special also holds a strange piece of pop-culture history. During a routine about the rapid loss of musical legends, Cole pleads with the universe to protect Prince so we can see him grow old in a cardigan and flats. Because the special was taped before Prince’s death in April 2016 but aired afterward, the joke carries a bittersweet resonance.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Explaining what is thicker than cold peanut butter when discussing thick women.

    Cole uses outsized charm to compare thick women to cold peanut butter and pokes fun at personal appearance.

  2. Having to 'manage your blackness' depending on social circumstances.

    Relates dressing in sunglasses, loud headphones, and a sideways cap to deter white airplane passengers from sitting next to him so he can quietly do Sudoku.

  3. Pleading for the safety of Prince following the deaths of David Bowie, Maurice White, and Natalie Cole in 2016.

    Expresses a desire to see Prince grow old in a cardigan and flats so he can eventually see him perform live.

  4. Why police need dumb citizens.

    Questions what police officers would do if everybody were smart.

  5. Guilting a suspicious white woman at a supermarket.

    Turns racial suspicion on its head by guilt-tripping her into buying him an ungodly amount of groceries.

How it plays

Tone
Boisterous, playful, observational, and uncensored.
On stage
Effortlessly charismatic, loose yet confrontational, defiantly silly, animated, and possessing an outsized, likable comic authority.
Pace
Loose momentum characterized by prolonged staring down of audience members and a deliberate willingness to let punchlines 'marinate'.
About
managing blackness in various social settings, male-female relationships and dating, body image and 'thick' women, police-citizen dynamics, smartphone and texting frustrations, aging and loss of musical icons

What the critics said

Critics praised Cole's undeniable charisma, magnetic stage presence, and timing, noting he is exceptionally fun to watch even when the material leans into broader or more generic relationship tropes. Vish Khanna of Exclaim! praised it as masterful, poignant, and tear-inducing.

In the room: An appreciative, racially diverse Washington D.C. audience swept along with Cole's gleeful and confrontational delivery.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, peteconlon.com, avclub.com, exclaim.ca, vulture.com, seattletimes.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Taped prior to the death of Prince (whom Cole pleads to protect after listing 2016 musical losses like David Bowie and Maurice White) and against the backdrop of police shootings of unarmed African-American men.

Details

Released
Taped
Lincoln Theatre, Washington
Runtime
61 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Marcus Raboy
Topics
After
Deon Cole (2017)

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