MOBO Comedy Review: Real Deal Comedy Jam

A couple of weeks ago I headed down to Jesters Comedy Club in Bristol to watch the Real Deal Comedy Jam. This was the first time I’ve been to a Real Deal Comedy Jam night and I didn’t know what to expect. The line up consisted of some of the U.K’s most respected comdians / entertainers including the host Kat ( Mtv Base, Choice Fm), rising star Little Man, Award winning female comdienne Glenda Jackson, Richard Blackwood (Comdian, Radio Presenter) & headlining the event was New York Comdian, Actor, Radio presenter Talent.

Kat was a great host for the night with his carasmatic introductions & killer one liners which had the audience in stitches. Little Man (pictured above) opened the show which is tough job for any comdian and he was outstanding! From his energetic & hilarious impressions of girls / guys dancing to their favorite tunes in clubs to his experiences on the street and relationships.
Glenda Jackson  was up next & you can see why she has won best black female awards several times. Her material was easy to relate to & all based on personal experiences from embrassing her son by talking street slang, to fat girls strecting out clothes in shops, to sex. There was a short interval and then it was over to Twist & Pulse who did a incredible dance routine! Good luck with Britians Got Talent guys! Check them out on youtube:

Richard Blackwood (above) was brillant and I really enjoyed his set. He has a great stage presence & is comfortable performing visual jokes, interacting with the audience with his own unique views on cultural differences & tv shows.

Talent  was the perfect headliner for the night. He opened his set by entering the stage to a Biggie track and did an incredible Biggie freestyle / impression. His set was edgy, fun, original, entertaining & engaging. It was great to see such a U.S comedy legend in Bristol. He was fantastic at visual jokes, story telling and touched upon everything from interracial relationships, sex, pets to his authentic recreation of a movie trailer / sound fx & the classic movie trailer voice that blew the audience away! Check him out on youtube & in countless movies!

It was a great night I can’t remember the last time i’ve laughed that hard...my face was aching by the end of the show! Next time the real deal comedy jam or any of these comdians are in your city book yourself a ticket you won’t be disappointed!

I caught up with Richard Blackwood, Talent, Glenda Jackson & Littleman for an exclusive interview for MOBO after the final date of their nationwide Real Deal Comedy Jam Tour:

MOBO: So the last date of the tour, how did it go?

Littleman: Ya dun kno I thought it was amazing.

MOBO: First time in bristol?

Littleman: yeah it was my first time coming to Bristol, dig deep n come threw at the endNICELY ya dun know!

Richard: I’m just enjoying the after party for the show that we did here in bristol good vibes.

Glenda: Loved it, let me just tell you the real deal team are brillant!

Talent:It was Awesome!I was here last minute, I wasn’t supposed to be here,you know it’s an act of god i’m here. I looked at the flyerand seen littlemans picture and said this guy’s going to be f##king horrible! (Myself, Richard and Littleman burst out laughing!)

Talent: But..I wanna repent right now and i wanna say I STAND CORRECTED this young boy..

MOBO:You think he’s alright..?

Talent: No he’s more than alright he’s blazing!

Talent & Richard explain to me how hard it is for a new comdian to open a show & that Littleman is one the best new comdians in the business...
Talent: You can not sleep on that first slot alot of people don’t understand that when you do these type of tours the 1st leg is the difference of how the nights gonna go, if that 1st leg is not good..you know.

Talent: It’s like you ever drive a stick shift?

MOBO: Yeah

Talent: You can’t get to 2nd gear without 1st gear you can’t get to 5th gear with out 1st gear . that guy(Littleman) was the best first gear that i’ve seen on a tour in a long time no bull s@*t &i did 3 years with def comedy jam.

Richard: The thing with little man going on first is that any comdian going on first its the hardest slot as that the crowd are cold not cold in terms of temperature but cold in terms of... they need to warm up to laughing. Who ever has to go out their first has to bring their game so hard, it makes you a great comdian. In my first two years of doing stand up they used to bring me on first & it usedto get on my nerves but they said to me if you can go on first when the crowds not listening, when the crowds cold

Talent: When they still coming in..?

Richard: Yeah when they still coming in & get them... imagine how good you’ll be when we put on 2nd or 3rd. It was the best 2 years of my stand up.
Talent: We say all that to say Hats off to littleman because 5 dates in a row, no sleep, city to city to city this man still held it down much props.
King: How long did it take you guys (Talent & Richard) to find your voice/style/opinons in comedy?

Richard: This is my 18th year in stand up & I found my true voice..I’ve had my own show on Mtv& own show on Channel 4 all of this was late 90’s early 2000. So think about this I’ve had my own show on tv 1997-2001 &I found my voice when i got bankrupt there after wards and went threw the pain and came back in 2004. I had tv success and didnt know what my voice was yet.

MOBO : Was that because you were thrusted into it?

Richard: No because I was hungry I just wanted to be successful. When i got bankrupt 2002-2003 and went threw losing everything and moving back to mums house and coming back from that blah blah blah so 2010 now is 8 years since i was bankrupt. Since 2003-2004 was when i found what my voice was, it took a situation to make me know who i am. So it took me 10 years to find my voice.

Talent: It probably took me 12. About 8 years ago I get a phone call from the top radio guy in new york city,I got a a morning show&I need a comdian &you the guy. ..The number 1 market in the states in new york everybody wants to be on the morning show. I go in their the first day and the chemistry lights up.When i got on radio that first year thats when i felt i found my voice.
The first 2-3 years we knocked every morning show out of the box to the point where our rivalries i’m on Kiss Fm in new york BLS no bull s##t went threw 6 morning shows. The last person who’s still on air now is Steve Harvey &even when Steve came we where still kicking steves ass! Thats when I said you know what i’ve found my voice.

MOBO: Who influences you?

Richard: Richard pyor was the first comdian that made me think there’s a place for me in comedy.

Talent: When you ask who do I look up too I’ve got to look at different stages of my life as kid, as younster, I was very naive I didnt know people made a living off this. I was looking at the tv & thinking this is like a hobby &wathing Richard Pyor & Eddie Murphy like oh i’d like to do that one day. I was rapperfirst I was signed to B Boy records the same label as Krs 1 whenCriminal Minded came out. Money Earning Crew was my group . We came out of Mount Vernon right after Heavy D.We were about to come out. Then the president of B Boy Records left the country with all the money and B Boy records went bankrupt. Thats when Krs switched to Jive. My group they wouldn’t release us, we had uptown mc that heavy was on ready to take us but wouldn’t release us so rap died for us, legally we couldn’t do nothing else. So i said lets try my hobby not knowing that people made a living from it but the first time i hit the stage boom that was it. So as ayounster as a kid yeah Richard Pyor, Red Fox, Lenny Bruce etc all the greats. Now as a grown man a couple of years in the game of doing comedy my idols are really guys that people don’t know like that like j b smoove is what we call in the states a comdians comdian when he hits the stage no matter what we are doing we’ll be there to watch his show.

Littleman: I’m influenced by alot of comdians,like Jamie fox i’m from the new breed .I’m not old like these guys..haha i’m young and sexy yeah know what I mean. I watched comedy from back in the day I watched people like Richard from young and i could even imagine being on stage with him.

Written By King P

King P is an A&R (Urban Division) at Touchtone Records as well as a Record Producer, Radio Dj / Presenter & Official MOBO Blogger. For more on King P go to: 

www.myspace.com/kingpbeatz