Punchline Magazine Blog » 50 Cent…
Guest blogger W. Kamau Bell
50 Cent has his own comedy tour? Oops. I mean… 50 CENT HAS HIS OWN COMEDY TOUR!!!
I was surprised to hear that 50 Cent was starting his own comedy tour, because it seems to me that 50 Cent is pretty convinced of the fact that he is hilarious.
He’s so convinced of his hilariousness that he has already had to issue the now-standard Twitter apology for something he tweeted that he thought was hilarious. Well with this announcement, 50 has apparently decided to leave the jokes to the professionals.
Actually it mostly seems like he has left it to comedian Jack Thriller. When I looked at the website, ThisIs50Comedy.com, I saw a graphic of a bunch of comics standing together. later I realized that it was just a bunch of images of Jack Thriller. He is Hip Hop through and through, and his hook is that he’s got a glass eye. He’s got a show on YouTube, and it mostly comes off like the Hip Hop Chelsea Lately… I mean that in a good way. The best review I can give it is this: for people who like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing they will like. It’s definitely funny. it is definitely not PC. but Jack is also self-deprecating and likable. (Check out the video below).
So I went to ThisIs50Comedy.com and I paid the $2.99 that was asked of me so that I could be a premium customer. And I got a comedy show. a stand-up comedy show. Which is fine I guess but after all the build up and banners and splash pages I was a little taken aback– mostly by the production values. The comics were all totally doing what they do. (Where else are you going to see Damon B, an African-American paraplegic who closes by doing a lap dance on an audience member?) but it was a two camera shoot in a very basic-looking comedy club.
Come on, 50! you got money! And I don’t mean music industry money. I don’t even mean money from your clothing line… or film career… or business books… or… OR… I’m talking Vitamin Water. You’ve got Vitamin Water money! get up off of a couple of those millions and give these Negroes an actual shot at making things happen. And 50, where are you? I know you’re busy but you could at least show up for the taping?
Back in the day, Russell Simmons would climb down off of the mountain where he was busy matching the perfect Yoga pose with the perfect sweater, and he would give an awkward hug to whoever was the host of Def Comedy Jam in order to prove his love of the game. then a few years later when Diddy was presenting The Bad Boys of Comedy, he would sit in a box seat and get his Queen-of-England wave on to let the serfs know he was down with their struggle.
But 50 is not even in the building. one wonders if he’s even aware that his name is on the thing. I hope he is. And I hope he invests in this. The world needs more Jack Thriller, just to make things interesting.
Guest blogger W. Kamau Bell is a nationally touring comedian who also regularly performs his one-man show The W. Kamau Bell Curve: ending Racism in About An Hour. His debut album Face full of Flour landed on Punchline Magazine’s list of the 10 best Albums of 2010. for more info on Kamau, including upcoming tour dates, check out wkamaubell.com.