Semi-Prominent Negro
Showtime · 2016 · 59 min
A dryly funny hour about race, family, and cable news.
W. Kamau Bell kicks off his first hourlong special by explaining his self-appointed title: he is a “semi-prominent Negro.” By his definition, that means he is the guy cable news producers call to talk about race only when Al Sharpton, Van Jones, and Ta-Nehisi Coates do not answer their phones. It is a sharp, self-deprecating entry point into a set that treats the absurdities of modern American racism with the weary amusement of a guy who has to explain white privilege to his own in-laws.\n\nThe special was filmed at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn and released on Showtime in April 2016, directed by documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. The release capped off a major breakout week for Bell, whose Emmy-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America premiered just five days earlier. After the cancellation of his FXX late-night show Totally Biased a few years prior, this hour marked his transition from a niche alt-comedy favorite into a mainstream sociopolitical commentator.\n\nBell spends much of the hour talking about his family, specifically his experience as a Black man in an interracial marriage raising mixed-race daughters. Other standout bits focus on the gentrification of the Bay Area and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. He also recounts a real-life interview with a white journalist who kicked off their conversation by asking Bell to define exactly when it is acceptable for white people to use the N-word, proving that his “semi-prominent” status comes with some very weird professional hazards.
The set list
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Being the media's go-to Black commentator for cable news
Humorously wonders why he gets called by television news bookers whenever Al Sharpton is unavailable to explain or solve racism in America.
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Searching for the right preschool for his daughter
Jokes about his casual approach to school hunting and rejects an unstructured school, noting that while white boys can eat paste all day and still become president, an African American girl cannot start out behind.
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Doing his Black children's hair with his white wife
Details his wife's intense research into Black hair care, turning their bathroom into what looks like a full Black barbershop with a hot comb heating on the stove.
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Explaining gender fluidity to his four-year-old daughter
Acts out an elaborate, slightly uncomfortable conversation attempting to explain pronouns and gender identity while checking his own liberal anxieties.
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The closer (spoiler). Show it
Sexual-political closing joke
Closes the hour with a routine highlighting energetic physical comedy.
How it plays
- Tone
- Incisive, whip-smart, thoughtful, observational, and warm.
- On stage
- Genial, socio-political satirist combining self-deprecating wit with incisive outrage, characterized by sharp intellectual authority and good-natured confidence.
- Pace
- Loose and conversational flow; moves across the stage freely, using his tall, lanky physical frame to punctuate punchlines.
- About
- gentrification, marriage equality, interracial marriage and mixed-race children, Black hair care, gender fluidity, racism and anti-racism
What the critics said
Praised as uniformly hilarious and unflaggingly excellent by The A.V. Club, which highlighted that Bell achieved the stage confidence and conversational ease to match his sharp socio-political wit.
In the room: Intimate, appreciative, and racially diverse crowd responding with laughter, engagement, and direct connection.
Backstory
Navigating life as a prominent socio-political comedic voice and go-to commentator on race during the 2016 election cycle, while raising mixed-race children with his white wife in a post-Obama America.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Roulette Theater, Brooklyn
- Runtime
- 59 min
- Where
- Showtime
- Director
- Morgan Spurlock
- Topics
- Before
- SXSW Comedy With W. Kamau Bell Part 1 (2015)
- After
- Private School Negro (2018)
More from W. Kamau Bell
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Private School Negro
Netflix
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SXSW Comedy With W. Kamau Bell Part 1
Comedy Dynamics
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