Arts & Entertainment
Paul ‘Negrodamus’ Mooney Hits the Portland Stage
By Rob Ingram
Of The Skanner News
N
egrodamus, known to the entertain-
ment, comedy and present world as
comedian, actor, writer and ringmas-
ter (whose ever heard of a Black ringmas-
ter?) Paul Mooney is coming to Portland for
6 shows in four nights. And trust me, you
are going to want to get to at least two of
those shows. My advice is: make sure you
are ready for a show full of fastballs and off-
the-wall humor (with intellect) AND don’t
sit too close to the front if you are sensitive.
For any that don’t know who Paul Mooney
is, you probably know a lot more about him
than you think. After a stint as a ringmaster
for the Gatti-Charles circus, he went to work
as a writer for Richard Pryor, helping to
build and create some of the most influential
comedy to date. In fact, you might argue
that Mooney is one of the first, and definite-
ly one of the best to use humor to highlight
politics. He even had a show stopped in
mid-stride because of jokes about former
President Bush’s mother looking like the
Quaker oatmeal guy. With Live on Sunset
Strip, Jojo Dancer Your Life Is Calling and
the Richard Pryor Show to his credits, he
helped to launch the careers of Robin
Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Marsha
Warfield, John Witherspoon, and Tim Reid.
The work of Paul Mooney stretched and
manipulated the comedy world with his raw
edge, mixed with smarts, rationale and most
of all- controversy. He worked on such
shows as Sanford and Son, Good Times, In
Living Color and the Chappelle Show, intro-
ducing us to characters like Homey D.
Paul Mooney
Clown (Homey don’t play dat!), and of
course the ever-popular Negrodamus- the
Black Nostradamus. And don’t forget clas-
sic movies like Bamboozled, Bustin’ Loose
and Hollywood Shuffle.
With a track record like that, it’s not hard
to grasp the impact Paul Mooney has had on
comedy, but it’s pretty simple to miss his
impact on society. More often than not, we
look to certain people to make us laugh, and
that’s it. We don’t want to hear what they
have to say about things that matter, nor do
we think that they actually know or even
care what is going on. But following the
work and career of Paul Mooney, it is clear
that he transcended humor and funny busi-
ness a long time ago. Negrodamus, like
Nostradamus, was (and is) more than what
people saw, thought and accepted him to be.
Sure he offered some prophesies, but his
real work was much deeper than that. It was
his sense of predictive and in depth thought
that set him apart; the ability to have
thoughts, approach them, challenge them,
kick them around, take them apart and put
them back together. And then to have the
courage to stand behind them right or wrong
and defend your thoughts. And that is what
Mooney has done, except he’s added to abil-
ity to have a gut-wrenching laugh at the end
of all that deep thinking. As Mooney once
See MOONEY on page 8
Portland Black Pride Events
P
ortland Black Pride
(PBP) strives to show-
case and celebrate the
cultural and social contribu-
tions of Black gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgender, and
queer (LGBTQ) people in
Portland and across the
country.
Portland Black Pride will
be sponsored by and pre-
sented by PFLAG Portland
Black Chapter, promoting
the health and well-being of
gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-
gender, and queer persons,
their families and friends
through: support, education,
and advocacy, to secure
Page 6 The Portland and Seattle Skanner June 15, 2011
equal human rights.
“There are Black Pride
celebrations all over the
country and one thing they
all have in common. They
are all united in celebrating
the cultural and social con-
tributions of Black gay, les-
bian, bisexual and transgen-
der people across the coun-
try,” said Khalil Edwards,
PFLAG Portland Black
Chapter Coordinator.
Black Pride has a series of
events to take place during
the dates of 6/15-6/19. The
list of scheduled events
includes:
6/16: Karaoke Party @
Local Lounge (9pm-2am),
Youth Karaoke Party @
SMYRC (5pm-9pm)
6/17: Skate Party @ Skate
World
(630pm-10pm),
Movie Night @ Pivot (9pm-
1am)
6/18: Pride Booth @
Waterfront (12pm-6pm),
Chocolate City @ Crush
(9pm-2am), Youth Party @
PSU (8pm-Midnight)
6/19: Pride Booth @
Waterfront (12pm-6pm),
Families of Color Day Out
@ Kenton Park (4pm-9pm),
Hot Chocolate @ Darcelle’s
(5pm-7pm)