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  • - I did enjoy the fact that

  • Charlottesville and these white lives matter rallies

  • they show an alternate image of angry protestors.

  • Because they like to put this whole rioting narrative

  • on the black community.

  • Like that's our thing.

  • And like, rioting is not a black thing.

  • Resilience is a black thing.

  • Overcoming the odds is black thing.

  • Frying chicken, barbecuing, durags, that's black shit.

  • (audience laughing)

  • But riots, that's not our thing, okay?

  • That's not, it's... and it's not like we wanna do it.

  • 'Cause I don't like in the news

  • when they're talking about these cases

  • and these verdicts that are about to come out,

  • they're always like, "The verdict will be read at 04:00 PM.

  • We'd advise you to stay inside,

  • board up your windows, evacuate the city if you can."

  • Like it's some kind of hurricane warning.

  • It's like, rioting is not plan A,

  • it's plan C.

  • Plan A is telling America,

  • "Ay, there's some messed up stuff going on."

  • And we hope they hear it.

  • Plan B is showing footage of the messed up stuff

  • we have been talking about and we hope that's digested.

  • But if plan A don't work, and plan B don't work,

  • (grunts) (audience laughing)

  • We gonna have to burn something.

  • (audience laughing)

  • I'm not a rioter, or one who riots.

  • Too much smoke, I got asthma, you know?

  • It gets in between me and my message,

  • I can't even get the full slogan out, you know?

  • So what I like to do is let the rioters do their thing,

  • and then when they go to sleep, then I hit the streets,

  • go to racist people's cars

  • and take off their current registration sticker.

  • Yeah, yeah. (audience laughing)

  • I'm not gonna fuck up your property,

  • I'ma gonna fuck up your day.

  • I'ma send you to the DMV

  • 'cause black lives matter.

  • And then I'ma key your shit.

  • 'Cause I be mad but I don't wanna like,

  • be a riot person, but I do wanna strike back.

  • Like I don't know. I just wanna be like, a petty rioter.

  • Like, next time somebody does some messed up stuff,

  • shoot some unarmed black dude,

  • I'ma be mad but I'm not gonna burn the city down,

  • I'ma just find the house of that cop

  • and break in, and take they best wine

  • (audience laughing)

  • and throw it in the freezer, you know?

  • (audience laughing)

  • I'ma just mess up their next celebration.

  • "Grab the wine, honey."

  • (James screaming) (audience laughing)

  • - To me, the only difference between a good comedian

  • and a good reporter is a neck tie.

  • You see a issue, gather the facts of the issue,

  • you deliver an opinion and perspective on the issue

  • that you hope will educate people.

  • And some cases with some comedians that (indistinct) change.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - I know black people are tired though,

  • we really fucking tired.

  • So we just voting for black people right now.

  • And I know white people try to make us feel guilty.

  • Like, "Oh, you only voted for Obama because he's black."

  • Fuck yeah!

  • We voting for everything.

  • Jamal, Trey, Ray Ray, Little Rell,

  • all them n****s, we voting for them, yeah.

  • If there was a candidate named Niggi Niggerson,

  • I would vote for him, do you understand? Like,

  • (audience laughing)

  • white people vote for white people too,

  • that's why the fuck y'all still in power,

  • ain't enough n****s voting,

  • so we gotta get out and vote.

  • Where the camera at? (audience laughing)

  • You know it's like Kevin Hart talked about it, right?

  • He says he don't wanna do anything too political.

  • He's experiences these things,

  • but he wants to just, you know, have fun,

  • and people come out to see him and have a good time,

  • and I understand that.

  • I just don't wanna be that

  • because you're saying things out of your mouth

  • that people are picking up with their ears and digesting.

  • - I like watching Trump rallies, yeah.

  • 'Cause for the first time in my black life

  • I get to see white people be embarrassed

  • by other white people.

  • Now you know how we feel when we watching news

  • and they always pick the worst eye witness.

  • They're like, "Live from the fire,

  • sir with the missing teeth, and the cornrows on the side

  • with a bald spot, would you like to tell us

  • what happened tonight?" (audience laughing)

  • He be like, "Yo news lady, bitches shit was crazy, yo.

  • I was pushing my cart across the street,

  • I saw a fire. (audience laughing)

  • They'll be like, "Do you know how the fire started?"

  • "It was me, it was me."

  • Over the course of the past four years of traveling

  • I've definitely seen a change.

  • Like, I knew Trump was going to win

  • before everybody else that I knew knew.

  • Because I would be out there for the past two years

  • driving, cornfields miles, hours,

  • huge Trump signs.

  • I'm not talking about like,

  • a little thing in the front yard,

  • I'm talking about like, 10 by 10 erected in the cornfield.

  • It was kinda like white people just woke up and was like,

  • "Oh, we don't have to hide the way we feel anymore.

  • We have somebody that's gonna back us up."

  • - There's a turn back the clock agenda going on

  • in Washington DC.

  • N****s have gotten a little too far, you know?

  • Eight years of a black man coming out of the White House

  • drove certain people to madness, all right?

  • 'Cause when you vote for a orange motherfucker,

  • you know, that's madness.

  • When you vote for a motherfucker

  • who has the IQ of plant life, that's madness.

  • - You know, I was working at the "Tonight Show" at the time

  • and everyone was crying and everything.

  • And then some of my friends were like,

  • "Well, I'm not even going home for Thanksgiving.

  • This is crazy."

  • And I was like, "Why aren't you

  • going home for Thanksgiving?"

  • And they were like, "'Cause Trump is a racist,

  • and they're racist, and they voted for a racist."

  • And I was like, "Oh, cool, cool cool.

  • Your uncle was racist last year.

  • Like, nothing has changed."

  • Like, I don't know why we give this dude all this credit.

  • Maybe 'cause he puts his name on everything,

  • we're letting him put his name on history.

  • - We are living in a weird political time right now.

  • I know 'cause I'm on Facebook.

  • A lot of people get in political arguments

  • on Facebook called Facebook drama.

  • If Facebook is drama for people

  • who've never been in a fist fight.

  • (audience laughing)

  • I don't think Facebook is drama

  • 'cause I been in a fist fight.

  • Like, I'm from the projects,

  • the only time I've seen words hurt someone

  • is when I saw a girl get hit with a belt buckle

  • that said Denise. (audience laughing)

  • In the era of Trump I kind of already act on

  • my impulse to turn my anger

  • and make it productive for me.

  • So a lot of people who are like,

  • the age of Trump or talk about that in a way,

  • I feel like just started getting angry in November.

  • And I've been angry the whole time.

  • Like, going to five high schools,

  • seeing my grandfather die when I was 10 years old,

  • not growing up with my dad in the house,

  • growing up in the projects,

  • knowing friends getting killed when I was a teenager.

  • Everything that, you know, could have like,

  • broken me down, has made me like,

  • someone who overlooks all the political stuff,

  • and is just like, you don't understand like,

  • what I escaped.

  • I'm a lot stronger than

  • whatever this four years, age of Trump whatever bullshit.

  • Niggers don't got time for that.

  • - Yeah, I mentioned it, you have to

  • because this is the world we're living in now,

  • but I'm not spending my time talking about that man.

  • I'ma let you guys get used to the voice,

  • 'cause I can see some confusion.

  • (audience laughing)

  • He's looking at me like, "Is that Idris Elba?

  • What's happening? (audience laughing)

  • You didn't know before Idris,

  • that there was black people in England.

  • You didn't know, you didn't know.

  • I've been living in America 10 years,

  • and for nine and a half of those years,

  • people thought I was an Australian Aborigine.

  • (audience laughing)

  • I get into a lot of twitter fights

  • with people going, "You immigrants, you guys come

  • into our country and taking our jobs."

  • I'm like, "The only reason I'm born in England

  • is 'cause you guys came to Nigeria and fucked it up."

  • When you come to someone's house and mess it up

  • don't be surprised if they turn up at yours,

  • we're family now.

  • - People are taking obvious sides.

  • They either incorporating politics into their humor,

  • or they're not.

  • - I'm not a political comic at all.

  • I have opinions, but it's not like

  • I consume politics on a daily basis.

  • I wish we could have a break, just a break.

  • - The way that cops describe black men

  • after they shoot us is insane.

  • It's like, "He looked like a beast from hell."

  • "He charged at me like a linebacker."

  • "I feared for my life."

  • - Let us not forget the classic,

  • "I thought he had a gun."

  • vintage law enforcement. - Oh yeah.

  • That's their catchphrase.

  • That's their version of, "Did I do that?"

  • And you're like, "Yeah, I saw the video."

  • (audience cheering and applauding)

  • - Our experiences in England as black people

  • are very similar.

  • You forget the Brits were the best racists.

  • They were the most prolific slavers.

  • The Americans did the equivalent of like,

  • if you rob someone's house, or you steal something,

  • and you take it back to your own house.

  • Whereas the Brits rob someone's house

  • and hid it somewhere else.

  • The experiences in England as black people, it's the same.

  • The only reason black people don't die at the same rate

  • in England at the hands of police,

  • is 'cause our police don't carry guns.

  • - But one time... this is actually how

  • I was stopped by the cops in a cab.

  • I was pulled over by the cops in a cab

  • on the way to another comedy show.

  • And I was in Brooklyn, and I felt like

  • they were working with this cab driver I should say,

  • to just like, stop brothers who were surprised

  • that they got a cab in the first place.

  • I had to go to another show and still process that.

  • Of course, I have to joke it off,

  • but it still like, that pain,

  • it doesn't really fully leave me,

  • or I'm not over it 'till I can like, you know,

  • write a joke about that.

  • This actually happened to me recently.

  • I was pulled over by the cops in a cab.

  • Yeah. I didn't know they could do that either.

  • And they put on the lights, boop.

  • And the cab driver was like, "I don't know.

  • I think I'm good." (laughs)

  • They came to shine the lights in the back seat

  • and like, "I'm sorry, I just wanna make sure

  • this guy's all right,

  • we had some robberies at gunpoint tonight.

  • And it made me nervous, 'cause like as a kid like,

  • cops would come to my school and read books to us.

  • But like in that moment I felt like

  • I was in the Dr. Seuss book

  • that was trying to demonstrate racism to children.

  • Just like cop I am, I am cop, I am. (laughs)

  • I do not like black men or women. (laughs)

  • I would not like them on a boat.

  • I would not like them on the go.

  • I would not like them eating cookies.

  • I would not like them wearing hoodies.

  • I would not like them anywhere to be honest.

  • Except maybe my fantasy basketball team.

  • They came over like, "Where you coming from?"

  • I was like, "A comedy show."

  • They're like, "Where you going to?"

  • I was like, "A comedy show." (laughs)

  • They're like, "Oh really? You're a comedian?

  • Tell me a joke."

  • And I was like, "You just pulled over my cab."

  • (audience laughing)

  • N**** that's the joke.

  • That's all you get you goofy bitch.

  • You know? So, and it gets darker than that, but yeah.

  • I mean, it's real life too. Pretty dark, I'm pretty black.

  • - There's a few jokes I do about being black in America.

  • So I do one joke where I say

  • my accent gets me out of a lot of trouble.

  • I have no fear of your American police officers.

  • In fact, I pull them over.

  • I do a routine where I was driving down the street

  • and I saw some police officer, I pulled them over.

  • I was like, "Excuse me, officer,

  • I can't help but notice that you've been following me

  • for 12 miles.

  • And the accent confused him.

  • And he was like, "Oh, I'm sorry Ma'am,

  • I thought you were black."

  • So I do a whole routine about the whole accent

  • and being discriminated against,

  • and then I open mouth, and that has really happened.

  • I do another routine where I say

  • where I was followed around a jewelry store.

  • I don't know if you can see I liked jewelry.

  • And I was in the jewelry store, and I was walking around,

  • and this woman was following me around the store

  • assuming that I'm gonna steal something.

  • And I stopped her and I was like,

  • "Why are you following me?"

  • And then as soon as I started speaking,

  • she was like, "Oh my God."

  • Her whole attitude changed towards me.

  • She's like, "Oh my God, you're not one of our blacks.

  • You're a special black, you're a different black."

  • There's a presumed intelligence with this accent.

  • Since I start speaking people just assumed

  • I'm super educated.

  • And I am, but it doesn't matter, you don't know. (laughs)

  • I could be an idiot, you'd no idea

  • because I sound like this.

  • Yeah. I call myself a superhero.

  • That I am now the undercover African-American

  • sent out to find all racists.

  • - Comedians, especially like, your Seth Meyers,

  • your Samantha Bees, Trevor Noah,

  • like, they can do satire to make fun of the president

  • in a way that the news can't.

  • - But you see, you still haven't told us

  • the right way for black people to protest.

  • I mean, we know it's wrong to do it in the streets,

  • it's wrong to do it in the tweets,

  • you cannot do it on the field,

  • you cannot do it if you've kneeled.

  • And don't do it if you're rich,

  • you ungrateful son of a bitch,

  • because there's one thing that's a fact,

  • you cannot protest if you're black.

  • - So the TV show I write for is basically

  • a Trump impersonator doing a late night show

  • hosted from the Oval Office.

  • - I'm just one sad old man

  • in way over his head.

  • - I think because our host is in a suit

  • and looks like Trump, no one takes us seriously.

  • Or people are reluctant to engage

  • with how seriously we write the politics of that show.

  • One time, you know, people were talking about

  • neo-Nazis and how neo-Nazis are racist.

  • And I had to push the idea

  • that when you focus on neo-Nazis

  • you're taking it and exporting the racism

  • as if Nazi-ism is the beginnings of it.

  • So if we stop focusing on neo-Nazis

  • and focus more on white supremacy,

  • then we can get to the root of American racism

  • and talk about it more authentically.

  • And I think at the very least

  • my presence in the room is opening them up

  • to other places where we can tap into

  • real commentary, but also find humor in places

  • they would never have thought to go.

  • - If I really was a true showman,

  • what I would do is fire everyone in my cabinet,

  • and like a wrestling heel, flip, and become a good guy.

  • Join with the democratic party,

  • actually advocate for Black Lives Matter

  • and other organizations,

  • and basically flip the script on everybody.

  • And then everyone would finally love me,

  • which all I really want.

  • - I've lost my rhythm in this Trump era

  • because I'm intimately engaging with

  • what we think the psyche of Donald Trump is for our show.

  • And I don't get to disengage the way I need to

  • to write my own stuff.

  • And I'm so lost in the rhythm of the TV show

  • that when I wanna talk about Trump as myself,

  • I don't remember how.

  • - I'd say the biggest difference now in comedy

  • in the age of Trump, is that people are quick to get angry

  • and don't know why they angry.

  • We live in an outrage culture

  • where everyone has a right to be offended.

  • There wasn't that recoil before.

  • So I feel like as comedians with edgier topics

  • you're kind of juggling dynamite,

  • because you don't know which way

  • the audience is gonna fall,

  • but you have to be prepared for them

  • to not agree with you,

  • and still go forward and spit your truth.

  • But if we get rid of the Confederate flag,

  • (audience laughing)

  • how am I gonna know who the dangerous white people are?

  • (audience laughing)

  • I'm just saying the flag had a couple upsides,

  • let's just be real about it.

  • I ain't saying keep it around,

  • but I grew up in the South,

  • I can't tell you how many times

  • the Confederate flag came in handy.

  • We stopping for gas at a strange place at 02:00 AM,

  • you see that flag hanging from the window,

  • you know this is not the place to get gas.

  • (audience laughing and applauding)

  • And you keep it moving.

  • (audience laughing and applauding)

  • what's the rush to get rid of the flag?

  • Especially if you're white.

  • If you're white you should want to keep the flag

  • for a little while longer,

  • so at least black folks will know you cool.

  • 'Cause if you white and you not an asshole

  • that's the one thing that helps us identify you.

  • You get rid of that flag, well we... (mumbles)

  • We got to figure out a way to know

  • who the cool white people.

  • Cool white people, we just got to start giving y'all

  • wristbands or hand stamps.

  • Just something you can show in a dark alley.

  • Let us know you down with the struggle.

  • That'd be cool.

  • Give me your money white dude.

  • Like whoa, ah ah ah.

  • I've always tried to put my comedy in a place

  • of where I hope we could be as a people.

  • I'm using now and things that happen now as an example

  • for where I hope we could be.

  • - I'ma be honest with y'all, I don't march,

  • I don't go out there and march.

  • I'm too tall to march, 6'1.

  • I'm head and shoulders above most people,

  • that's just two rubber bullets to the dome,

  • I don't want that.

  • That's what kinda like, keeps me going,

  • because I realized that through every traumatic experience,

  • from war, slavery, nuclear threat,

  • there was always entertainment.

  • And so that's the only thing that like,

  • gives me motivation to keep going.

  • 'Cause I'm like, yeah, shit is fucked up,

  • but I can give somebody like,

  • a little bit of hope

  • while they throwing that Molotov cocktail.

  • (upbeat music)

- I did enjoy the fact that

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