Laugh Wild Comedy

Our 6th ranked Black comedian is/was the smart, clever, irreverent and funny Bernie Mac. Bernard Jeffrey McCullough was born in Chicago to a single mother who inspired him to become a comedian. He told a television interviewer in 2001 that when he was 5, he saw his mother sitting in front of the television set crying. The Ed Sullivan Show was playing and Bill Cosby was on the show. When Mr. Cosby began telling a story about snakes in a bathroom, she started laughing despite... herself. When I saw her laughing, I told her that I was going to be a comedian so she’d never cry again, Mac said. He caught the attention of Redd Foxx and Slappy White, who invited him to do off-the-cuff material in Las Vegas in 1989. A year later, Mac won the Miller Lite Comedy Search, a national contest, with profanity-laced monologues. In 1990, he was invited to do two shows with Def Comedy Jam, a tour featuring young black comedians, which was filmed for HBO. Small film roles followed in Mo’ Money (1992), Who’s the Man? (1993) and House Party 3 (1994). He also performed on the HBO variety series Midnight Mac and with the Original Kings of Comedy, a tour that showcased some of the most popular contemporary black comedians. The tour, which grossed $59 million, generated several HBO specials and a film of the same name by Spike Lee. Mac made the move to television reluctantly. He appeared in a recurring role as Uncle Bernie on the UPN sitcom Moesha beginning in 1996, and in 2001, he took the plunge with The Bernie Mac Show which became one of Fox’s biggest hits. In the final three years of his life, Mac publicly disclosed that he had suffered from sarcoidosis, a disease of unknown origin that causes inflammation in tissue. Sarcoidosis frequently attacked his lungs. In 2008, Mac was admitted to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in his hometown of Chicago. After a week of unsuccessful medical treatment, Mac went into cardiac arrest and subsequently died during the early morning hours on August 9 from complications of pneumonia. He was two months shy of his 51st birthday. ..... #standup #blackhistorymonth #blackvoices #blackcomedians #legend #kingofcomedy #berniemac

Celebrating Black History Month with the incredibly funny and out lesbian comedian, writer and actor Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964). . Wanda was first recognized for her work as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is also known for her roles on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine (200610), HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm (200111...) and ABC's Black-ish (2015present). . She is also an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. Sykes publicly came out at a 2008 rally where she announced her marriage to Alex Niedbalski. She is also a mother of 2. ..... #standup #blackhistorymonth #blackvoices #blackcomedians #wandasykes See more

Today’s addition to our Black History Monthwall is none other than Richard Pryor. Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973) and five Grammy Awards (1974, 1975, 1976, 1981 and 198...2). In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. ..... #standup #blackhistorymonth #blackvoices #blackcomedians #richardpryor See more