| The last of a dying breed: an interview with legendary comedian Paul Mooney Part 2 |
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| by Minister of Information JR | |
| Tuesday, 15 January 2008 | |
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![]() Recently I caught up with him at the Black Repertory Theatre in Berkeley as he was doing his annual series of shows leading up to Roman New Year's. In Part 2 of this interview, we talk about some of the issues of the day including the tiger biting the people at the San Francisco Zoo, the case of the Jena 6, police terrorism, the embargo on Cuba, as well as his thoughts on issues with Black entertainers like Bill Cosby's tirade on the Black community and Black actors playing roles as women to get famous. Let's get to the Q & A ... MOI JR: Paul, let's switch gears a little bit, and I'm going to ask you about some of the topics of the day. What do you think about the tiger biting those people at the San Francisco Zoo? What did you think about that? Paul Mooney: I thought that it was outrageous because I mean they are supposed to be in a controlled environment and they're talking about how did it get out. I mean it is a tiger. "How did it get out?" It has four legs and it can jump. White folks are always trying to figure things out. It's like when they taught some monkey to do sign language, and the monkey gave someone the finger and they are trying to figure out whether the monkey meant it, or was he imitating. So they're weird with the wild stuff, they think that they could stop that stuff and keep that stuff under control. And they say a year before that the tiger mauled some lady trying to feed it. And those things don't like being locked up any way. The tiger probably has some issues. MOI JR: Right. He been in maximum security his whole life. Paul Mooney: Yeah, but I'm just saying it is too bad that somebody had to perish. I mean what are the odds that someone will tell you that you will be eaten up by a tiger and you live in the city? It's kind of wild, isn't it? MOI JR: What are your thoughts about what has been going on with the Jena 6? Paul Mooney: Well, I'm not too happy about that. I mean it's just this racism that pops up in Amerikkka, because we're at war, and we got our young Black men and women over there dying so these people can act a fool, OK? And these people that dislike us, they read and write and see what is going on, so you're giving them verbal power OK. Amerikkka's gotta wake up, because if it doesn't stop seriously its racism, it is going to perish internally. Nobody is going to attack us. We're going to fall. Just read history; it happens. You cannot treat your people like that. They are going to have to come out of that bag. Even if they have to fake it, they're going to have to come out of it. It's real sad. They're some sad things throughout the country. MOI JR: What do you think about the United States holding this embargo against Cuba? Paul Mooney: They're going to keep that because Cuba threw all of those white folks out of there. Those white folks were over there with prostitution and gambling and all of that negativity, and that Castro got them up out of there. And he's 10 minutes older than water, and they are very concerned with him because we haven't heard from him, and they worry about him. So that's why they're upset about Cuba, because they were running it. And, you know, the Cubans should run their own government. MOI JR: That's right. What do you think about the police terrorism that has been going down coast to coast, with the police killing Black folks? Paul Mooney: Well, they have been doing this for a long time in Amerikkka. They have been negative especially against the Black male. I mean we are an endangered species. It's just like this movie, "I Am Legend," which is an old book and an old film that Vincent Price did, and now they have Will Smith as the last Black man on earth. I don't know if you seen the film; it is almost a comedy. I mean if it was going to be a Black man in the environment that we live in, he would be locked up in a jail somewhere. I don't care what kind of disease or rash that these white folks got, they'd see to that. Then they got him running around with some dog and putting the dog in the bathtub. If my grandmother was alive, she would have killed Will and that dog, because we have to get in the tub. Black people don't put no dogs in the bathtub; somebody white wrote that crap. And the dog kissing him all on the mouth, it was a scary movie. But I'm going to write my sequel to it, "The Last White Woman on Earth: I am Hilton." I'm going to have Paris driving around drunk, hitting cars. I'll see if they will produce that film. MOI JR: What can you tell us about what happens behind the curtain of comedy where they have a whole host of Black comedians that have to dress up like women to get famous? There was Martin, Jamie Foxx, the Wayans brothers - they have played more roles in drag than they have as men. What is this phenomenon about? Paul Mooney: Well, they have always wanted to de-sexualize Black men. Black men have always been threatening sexually to white Amerikkka. You see, when Wesley first came out on the screen, he made his big debut, the Asian women, Black women, white women were "sex, sex," "Black, Black," "Bucks" - that's all that they talked about. And when that white man heard "sex," the next time I saw Wesley he was a drag queen. You know they fixed that. And after that, he wasn't even human; he was "Blade," a vampire. They fixed all of that. And they made Eddie Murphy a donkey. White people are too much. MOI JR: Tell us what happened to Eddie Murphy. He had a lot of cutting edge comedy; now he has been kind of like reduced. Paul Mooney: Oh no, Eddie Murphy is a genius. He is very talented. People love him all over the world. He is actually under-rated. The boy is brilliant; he really is. And the last movie he was in, he was too funny. He outdoes himself. Eddie can do all of the personalities. And when Eddie plays characters - men, women, whatever - he is believable. You actually believe the characters. He brings life to the character. It's almost demonic if you feel me. His characters are almost demonic. It's like he's being possessed by the person.
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