By Joe Walker
The New Citizens Press
D.L. Hughley has a natural gift for comedy, yet trained himself to better at his profession. He recently performed at the Wharton Center in Lansing, MI and sat down for a heart-to-heart. Family life was part of his workout.
TNCP: Being greatly spontaneous: Is that something you learn or did it come naturally?
DL: That’s either something you have or you don’t. You can learn the technical aspect of telling a joke. But spontaneity is something you have or you don’t. I think it’s only great if you know what to do with it. Early in my career I very rarely wrote. I used to get on stage and just wing it. That’s not going to be good over the long run.
TNCP: So training is necessary even if you do have “it”?
DL: Even though it might look great for the audience, and it might be funny sometimes, you always want something you can go to, to be consistently good at what you do. You have to be disciplined enough to sit and write out what you want to say, and what you want to talk about. You have to have some level of form. If you’re improvising all the time and spontaneous all the time then you’re not really developing your act.
TNCP: Is it development that makes story telling such an intricate part of comedy?
DL: You have to tap into something. Real life is perfect. Like, who would have thought telling a story about Ray Charles would have been as significant as it was? You have to have an idea. When you do, a lot of people respond to it.
TNCP: You talk about family a lot in your comedy. Many comics use family as basis for jokes. Why do you do it?
DL: It’s just human: You talk about the things you see the most. On average most people spend more time with their family than they do with anybody else. It’s just kind of how it is. I think that most people write about the things they see, and the things that inspire them or make them curious – and family is all of that. You have a lot of dynamics.
TNCP: Is that why you, Damon Wayans and Bernie Mac received so much critical acclaim for your sitcoms? Was it the family dynamics?
DL: I would like to believe that. People don’t get to see a lot of those things. People don’t get to see, traditionally, a Black man talking about his family and how they relate to him. I think that’s what sparked the critics. You just have to be honest about what you’ve seen, whatever it is. I’m listening to the new Kanye [West] album. I’ve also got 50 Cent’s album. Kanye’s album, to me, is just where he is. He’s telling you about how he feels. 50 Cent is doing what he believes people think he should say. I think a lot of people, regardless of who they are, write what they think people want to hear. You can’t continue to do that and win. You can be successful doing your best impersonation of you. You could do it a couple of times. But any type of writing where you have to tell how you feel, people are going to look for a level of authenticity.
TNCP: What happened with Studio 60? It was critically acclaimed, a great cast, but it didn’t last long. What are you going to do now?
DL: Ultimately what I’ve always done – stand-up comedy. After the season wrapped I went right back to being who I was. I do stand-up. Everything else just kind of happens as a byproduct of that. You’ll absolutely see me on television again, but I don’t think I’ll ever do what I did on Studio 60 again. I’m back on tour, I’ve got the hosting spot on Def Comedy Jam, and I’ve got a talk show project coming up. And I’m going to try and get all my kids into college, and then take my wife around the world.
Joe Walker is the Entertainment Reporter at The New Citizens Press and writes for many other nationally known publications.
