April 23, 2010
“I don’t mind the crowd dividing up,” W. Kamau Bell says after a collective should-we-laugh? moment early on his debut album, Face Full of Flour. “That’s when we’re getting to shit.”
Bell gets to a lot of shit in a hurry here, proving himself one of our country’s most adept racial commentators with a blistering wit and a willingness to say what you quickly realize you’ve always thought. He is relentlessly intelligent, fusing references to create a rich expression of incredulity in a post-Obama world.
He bemoans the fact that the first black president isn’t more of a dick; and his title track implores Obama to shield himself from criticism by making it look like he’s working harder than he really is, a la the mother in the old Rice Krispies Treats commercial who throws flour in her face, “even though,” Bell says, “we all know there’s no fucking flour in Rice Krispies Treats.”
Some weighty issues get handled with ease here, and Bell rightly credits himself after one joke for getting a 10 from the Russian judge for technical difficulty. He compares the recent town hall meetings to Casual Friday at a KKK rally, and in a riff on the Henry Louis Gates story (listen below), he suggests that your home exists precisely so that you can flip out there, which is why we get mad at homeless people for flipping out on the street.
Bell is head-shakingly clever when he hopes aloud the economy gets so bad that Native Americans use their casino money to buy the country back. And his vision of apocalyptic America has nothing to do with mushroom clouds, but with a mass liberal exodus to Canada had McCain and Palin won the election, and the cries of the left-behind conservatives: “Hello? I don’t know how to make a latte!”
This is a thinking man’s album for the common man’s problems, an applause-worthy effort from a comedian with plenty of important things to say about the world.
Buy W. Kamau Bell’s Face Full of Flour, click this link. Do it. Seriously. Now.
“W. Kamau Bell is the most important guy doing comedy right now. He’s got the most astute, hilarious and completely righteous material going and he’s going to be a legend in his own lifetime like Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Think Bill Hicks but slightly taller.” — Margaret Cho
It’s praise like that has made W. Kamau Bell’s “Face Full of Flour” one of the most anticipated comedy albums of 2010. Recorded live at the San Francisco Punchline and produced by Rooftop Comedy Productions, the album features comedic meditations on Barack Obama, the wrongness of the Right, interracial mating, and why Black + White = Black.
Kamau was nice enough to take a break from his busy schedule to answer a few questions from fellow comedian Hari Kondabolu.
Hari Kondabolu: Why did you name your CD “Face Full of Flour” and how does it and you differ from your last album “One Night Only?”
W. Kamau Bell: First of all, my first CD wasn’t named “One Night Only” It was named ONE NIGht ONLY,” which is very funny joke if you get it. Most people didn’t. And secondly, how come you didn’t listen to my CD before the interview, Hari? I thought we were supposed to be cool. I’m going to go unfollow you on Twitter… There. It’s done.
This CD is called Face Full of Flour because there is a joke on it that was inspired by a Rice Krispies commercial from way back the 80’s. In the commercial a mom throws flour on her face to convince her family that she’s working harder than she actually is. My joke recommends Barack do the same thing.
Dammit. Now the joke is ruined. Nothing is less funny than a joke explained.
HK: Why make this album now?
WKB: I was very much aware that for like two years I was one of the only comics talking about Barack Obama. My first joke about him was in 2005, and I did it that year on Comedy Central, which according to Comedy Centrla is the very first Barack Obama joke. Don’t believe me? Google it. (I’m talking to the “YOU” who is reading this right now. Go ahead and Google it. Hari knows this already.)
Anyway, now that Barack is President there has been a ridiculous media story going around that it is impossible to make jokes about Barack Obama. I know this is ridiculous because I haven’t stopped telling Barack jokes since 2005. I kind of wanted to be on record again as being ahead of this nonexistent curve. Also the country is in such incredible transition it is great to be able to release a CD that addresses the transition while it is still transitioning… transitorially.
HK: You’ve told me that there are things on the last record that you no longer stand by. Did you have any fear when recording this record about making that particular moment permanent?
WKB: First of all, allow me to go very public with the first part of what you said. I had a joke on the first CD about Condoleeza Rice, which I also did on Comedy Central. It was a very funny joke to me when I wrote it… because I was so angry at Condoleeza at the time and at her stature as a such high ranking Bush cabinet member, but very soon after I had done it, it became clear to me (actually it was made clear by many, MANY women in my life) that the joke was not helpful to the struggle of women as a group… no matter how evil I perceived her to be at the time. And as my friend and main co-conspirator Martha Rynberg said so eloquently to me at the time, “You can’t talk about ending racism and then go out and create more sexism.” (KAMAU’S NOTE: This has now beccome OFFICIALLY the most unfunny interview in the history of Rooftop Comedy.) And unfortunately for me, the joke is forever out there on the Internet so occasionally people discover it and GO OFF on me. Recently when a dude on a website went off on me on his blog, I commented on the blog that I agreed with him, which I’m pretty sure shocked him. People don’t realize that us comics spend about 45% of our days Googling oursleves. Read More…
The inspiration for the title of my NEW CD “Face Full of Flour.” Seriously.
Kamau's fantastic new album, Face Full of Flour, is now available!
Get it.
Dude, you're still using IE6? WTF? Seriously, get with the times. Either upgrade to IE7 (or 8), or switch to something that doesn't suck, like Firefox.
Click anywhere to continue browsing with your current browser, but be aware things may not look or work properly.