By Anthony D'Alessandro
Tue., Aug. 16 2011 at 9:00 AM
Comics
telling the truth, Ruth: (l. to r.) Kenji, Martin Rizo, Flaco Martinez, Reggie
Brown and Jimmy Ouyang
As the wholesome racial equality message emanated from the new movie The Help over the weekend, a group of stand-ups acutely debunked such propaganda Saturday at Pasadena's Ice House for the charity show Incarcerate This: Young Men of Comedy.
Comedians Reggie Brown, Kenji, Jimmy Ouyang, Flaco
Martinez and Martin Rizo took hysterical jabs at those elephants in the room
that continue to pervade society: De facto segregation, misrepresentation,
infringement of speech and economic inequality.
The evening was, appropriately, hosted by Brown, one of the reigning President Obama impersonators who, though heavily booked for GOP soirees, was ejected two months ago from the Republican Leadership Conference for his jokes about the Pachyderm party's presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. (In the aftermath, Brown landed the opportunity to finish his set on Real Time With Bill Maher)
Nothing is funnier than having a run-in with "The
Man." For Rizo this entails taking the wiper blades off his cars, making
it difficult for parking enforcement to leave tickets. Martinez's beef with white folk: "Their
fucking neighborhood watch! Why are they getting excited? It's not even their
car! At least with the Mexican neighborhood watch, we warn the criminals: 'Hey
someone is comin'!'" Meanwhile, Ouyang's bane is that he's
always mistaken for a hot Asian chick with his long black hair, not to mention
he easily offends his black friends with his passionate rap indulgences seen
above
There was a great tempo to the night
with each comedian's set easily building into the next. But stand-up Kenji
stole the show with his insight on the judicial system's bias toward whites
over blacks (Read: Casey Anthony and Robert Blake getting away with murder). Reminiscent of Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby in his storytelling alacrity, Kenji, who was a victim of a drug ring sting, expressed after his gig that there wasn't an opportunity during his brief jail sentence to keep the inmates laughing. Rather it was about "staying alive." His passion for comedy has kept him from the wrong crowd, and his hard times are fodder for funny: check out his video about how Ramen noodle soup might be the currency in jail, but it's a useless monetary system once you're outside trying to pay your cable bill.
The night's proceeds went to Young Angels of America, a
non-profit which supports and funds after-school enrichment programs at
lower-income schools. Many of the comedians who appeared Saturday lend their
time to Young Angels as role models and teacher assistants at Watts, South Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades schools. Kenji,
for example, instructs students how to produce their own weekly variety shows.
Saturday's stand-up show was the first of several which Young Angels is taking
to cities around the country.
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