Event Listing - Theater

Thu Jul 30 - Sat Aug 1

Ending racisim . . . in about an hour

The W Kamau Bell Curve Show

Bring a friend of a different race and your friend gets in for free

Location	Date and Time
La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705 map district: Berkeley	Thu Jul 30 (8pm) Fri Jul 31 (8pm) Sat Aug 1 (8pm)

Description

JUST LIKE SKINNY JEANS, superhero movies, and frozen yogurt, racism continues to make a comeback. In 2007, “The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About An Hour” opened big and came out swinging against big targets. Back in 2007, it was celebrity racism that was all the rage. (Imus, Kramer, Rosie O’Donnell, Dog The Bounty Hunter, etc…) But two short years later, America has amazingly elected the first black president… of the Republican National Committee — Michael Steele. Oh, and also we elected, as president of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama. All this MUST mean racism is over. We’re officially in Post-Racial America… Right?… Right?

WRONG! Because now that a black man — or a half black/half white man if we want to split not so nappy hairs — is leading the free world, the stakes just have gotten higher. Racial injustice has become more insidious (thanks to Rush Limbaugh, the continued broadcast of BET, black and Latino people being blamed for the passage of Prop 8, Teabaggers marching in lock step with white supremacists, and most of the comments on Kamau’s YouTube page). That’s right. Racism has redoubled — no, re-quadrupled — its efforts. Well, W. Kamau Bell is here to make (non)sense of all of it all. And because racism is always attacking in new ways and from new angles, Kamau attacks back by adding new material at every performance. The Curve is a seamless mix of stand- up comedy, video and audio clips, and theatrical solo performance.

Over the past two years, “The W. Kamau Bell Curve” has played to sold-out houses in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. It has been the subject of 20 articles and reviews in newspapers, magazines, radio shows and television programs. On May 13, The SF Weekly dedicated its cover story to Kamau and featured him on the front cover. He is also the co-founder of the Solo Performance Workshop and has directed solo shows written and performed by Bruce Pachtman (“don’t make me look too psychotic”), Enzo Lombard (“Love, Humiliation & Karaoke”) and Jennifer Jajeh (“I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You”). In 2005 he was chosen to perform as a stand-up comic at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. This coming summer, Kamau will appear at The Aspen Comedy Festival (as a stand-up comic) and The New York International Fringe Festival (with “The W. Kamau Bell Curve”).