If you ever want to know what people really think about politics, religion, relationships, and other hot topics all you have to do is visit the nearest comedy club, sit in the back and watch as the audience laughs and nods their heads emphatically in response to comic routines. Rolling out was privy to an optimum vantage point for the New York Comedy Festival as we sat in on shows by Patrice O’Neal and the legendary Dick Gregory.
O’Neal, who was taping his “Comedy Central” stand-up special set to air on Feb, 19, turned the tables on his audience when it came to discussing sex. To drive home his point that men are careless about safe sex, he asked male audience members how many of them use a dental dam for oral sex on a woman. And when not one hand went up, the audience laughed and the dirty truth was out.
Punch lines continued to hit close to home at Dick Gregory’s show at New York’s famed Caroline’s. The comedian didn’t hold back as he unleashed a torrent of critiques about the state of America from race to politics. When Gregory opened by hoping everyone made a safe return home and could avoid passing through Oakland, heads nodded in staunch agreement; a sure sign that people were angry at the two-year sentencing for former Oakland, Calif., transit cop, Johannes Mesherle, who killed Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man.
Gregory also tapped into the fears of the audience when he noted that the only reason party crashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi were able to sneak into the White House state dinner earlier this year is because they were part of a warning to Obama that, “… we could take you out whenever we get ready.”
While some may consider remarks like these as nothing more than conspiracy theories, the fact that most audience members appeared to find validity in the statement, is evidence enough that the truth about how people feel is often found behind the laughter. –souleo
