Luenell just celebrated her 63rd birthday and her career couldn’t be hotter. Everything the self-proclaimed bad girl of comedy touches as of late has turned to gold — so much so that she’s become a pop culture personality crossing racial and cultural boundaries with her irreverent brand of comedy. Her birthday celebration was fit for royalty with family and old friends like Eddie Griffith, George Wallace and Al B. Sure! in attendance. While some believe women hit their prime in their younger years, the self-titled bad girl of comedy is proving funny doesn’t have an expiration date. After paying stand-up dues for decades, Luenell is riding high with a prestigious residency in Las Vegas at Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy club right around the corner from Usher’s popular residency at Caesar’s Palace.
“I went by and saw Usher a couple of days ago, and had a great time,” she shares. “I’ve always looked at Vegas as a magical place. It’s a place where people from all backgrounds come and people that may never have had a chance to see you before have a chance to see you perform. It’s a land of stars.”
While some may refer to Luenell’s current reign as a second wind, she believes it’s the culmination of everything she’s always done, it just took Hollywood a while to catch up. From being tapped as an ambassador for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie brand, to starting an OnlyFans account that’s producing major coins, to recently being featured on the Wall of Fame at LA’s famed comedy club, The Comedy Store, Luenell is having the time of her life interacting with fans and watching her star continue to rise. Her OnlyFans page is a constant hot topic on social media, partly because of her comedian friends mentioning it on their platforms and in part from Luenell’s fearlessness in embracing her sexuality.
“Rickey Smiley posted some pics on his website of me from the lingerie shoot for Rihanna, but I didn’t like those pictures, so I decided to post some of the others,” she says. “We had so many pretty pictures left over from that shoot that I decided to start an OnlyFans page with them. Bill Bellamy called me and asked why I was on the internet in my panties. He said, ‘Don’t get me wrong, you look good, but what are you doing?’ “
In true Luenell fashion, she decided to lean into the joke instead of backing away from it. “I have some content on there with my feet because I don’t have any bunions or corns, there’s a little t—- content and a little c—-ie content. It got more graphic than I intended at first, but I have some things I want to accomplish and like Malcolm X said, I’m going to do it ‘by any means necessary,’ ” she jokes.
Luenell resonates in a different way than most, possibly because she is honest about her past and says she shows up wherever she goes as herself. She acknowledges overcoming real-life hurdles — including drug addiction and even a stint in jail.
“Beyoncé has a song that says, you won’t break my soul, but she’s never been in the county jail. It’s not somewhere you can find inner peace. I had to do that after, and it wasn’t easy, but I knew I wanted to set an example for my daughter and so many other people, so I got myself together,” she says.
It’s common knowledge many comedians deal with depression and or social anxiety and Luenell admits the lifestyle can take a toll on celebrities, especially when they are in high demand.
“People will say you shouldn’t take things personally, but that’s not realistic. As artist]s], we are going to take things straight personally. I don’t see how you can’t. This life can be very lonely and very depressing at times. You spend a lot more hours alone in a hotel room than you do at home with friends and family,” she says.
Luenelle remains focused because of her family and the legacy she wants to leave behind.
“The truth is show business is all based around the money. It’s big money business. There are levels to this s—. I’m not a billionaire like my girl Rihanna or Kylie Jenner, but I’m comfortable and I’m not going to be broke again. When it’s all said and done, I want my legacy to be that I was a real one and that I always stood up for my people. My goal is to uplift and bring joy to the world through my comedy.”
Photography by Quincy Nelson
Production by Mike Melendy
