African In New York - Almost Famous
Comedy Dynamics · 2019 · 64 min
A Kenyan student stumbles into American racial politics at college.
Njambi McGrath's first special since Breaking Black (2018). Released , on Comedy Dynamics.
Landing in upstate New York from Kenya for college, Njambi McGrath had virtually no concept of American racial codes. When a white classmate invited her home for Thanksgiving, she spent the weekend sleeping in a bedroom adorned with Confederate memorabilia, unaware of the tension that would have terrified almost anyone else in her position.
The set operates as an autobiographical solo show as much as a stand-up performance. She weaves college culture shocks with direct history lessons, comparing nineteenth-century lynching postcards to modern Instagram feeds and noting that Buganda was once ruled by a gay monarch. Another story recalls an officer shining a flashlight on her while she hid in the trunk of a car on the way to a party, entirely unbothered by what he discovered.
Filmed at the Questors Theatre in Ealing in October 2018, the hour was released on streaming platforms in August 2019 by NextUp and Comedy Dynamics. It arrived during a strong run for McGrath, coming shortly after she won the 2019 Hackney Empire New Act of the Year award.
Reviews of the material at the Edinburgh Fringe noted that the formal, scripted nature of the historical segments could stiffen the room and crowd out the stand-up rhythm.
Notable bits & set list
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Sharing lynching postcards and comparing them to Instagram.
Tackles racial prejudice and history by drawing a clever modern analogy.
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Being found in the boot of a car by a police officer while travelling to a party.
Uses ironic gags to illustrate the black woman's role in American society, noting the police officer didn't blink an eyelid.
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Mocking a stereotypical white girl in her late teens who is superficial, rich, and naive.
Satirizes western privilege and the trope of needing 'a detox from privilege.'
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Parodying the scary African matriarch.
Energetically satirizes aspects of her own African culture.
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Arriving at airports.
Light observational, relatable humor.
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Uganda once being ruled by a gay monarch.
Educates the audience with widely-unknown African history.
How it plays
- Tone
- Light observational and relatable comedy combined with serious, weighty topics such as racial prejudice and FGM.
- On stage
- Strong stage presence, taking charge of her audience, appearing somewhat formal with distinctive wordplay that feels proverb-like or vaguely poetic, contrasted with unabashed language.
- Pace
- Energetically performed parodies with repetitive, constructed physical sections embodying the personality and violence of America.
- About
- Moving from Kenya to New York City for university, Race relations and racial prejudice in America, African history and culture contrasted with the West, FGM, Slave history
What the critics said
Praised as a delightful, educational combination of light observational comedy and exploration of serious topics, deemed by Fringe Review as 'a show that deserves to be seen' and noted by Chortle as feeling more like a comedic one-woman show with strong stage presence.
In the room: A packed, mainly white audience responding with consistent though scattered laughter and thoughtful silence.
Backstory
Center on Njambi McGrath's experience of moving from Kenya to New York City to attend university, confronting American race relations and colonial amnesia.
Details
- Released
- Runtime
- 64 min
- Where
- Comedy Dynamics
- Director
- Dave McGrath
- Honors
- Winner of NATYS 2019Voted 1 of 5 top female comedians to watch by Fabulous Magazine 2012
- Topics
- Before
- Breaking Black (2018)
- After
- Accidental Coconut (2020)
More from Njambi McGrath
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One Last Dance With My Father
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Accidental Coconut
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Breaking Black
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