On the Hunt for Festival Fun
Reginald D. Hunter tells Hot Press about his festival experiences – the good, the bad and the, em, swashbuckling.
The Hot Press Newsdesk, 06 Sep 2010
Having recently played at comedy festivals in Australia, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and our own Carlsberg Comedy Carnival, Reginald D. Hunter is somewhat of a festival expert. But as is the way, it’s the bad festival experiences that have glued themselves to Hunter’s memory.
“I remember every moment of every bad gig, and not just of the gig, but the entire day. I remember what I had for breakfast, what I was wearing – people ask you do you remember what you were doing when Kennedy was shot, well it’s like that. The worst was a gig in Germany about seven years ago. There were a lot of black Americans in the audience and a few groups were late, and got really loud and obnoxious, disrupting everyone. So I said some things I shouldn’t have, you know, things not to be repeated.”
Oh go on.
“Well, okay then. I felt they were intimidating the other people so I said, ‘You can’t complain that white people don’t welcome you and then go off and segregate yourselves like this.’ And they did not like that. One woman turned around and started screaming at me, she was so mad. She was all, ‘Oh you’re standing up for the rights of the white man! What’s your e-mail address, I bet you get a lot of hate mail from a lot of black people!’ So I said, ‘Yeah, I do get a lot of hate mail from black people. And I’ve never seen so many misspelled words in my life.’ I got booed off stage and when I left I had to be escorted back to my hotel in a guarded van, people were yelling things and throwing things. It was like your worst nightmare of what a gig could be, but it was real.”
This isn’t the first time that Hunter has landed himself in hot water over references to race on stage. His determination to reclaim the word “nigga” has led him to use the term in nearly all of the titles of his stand-up shows, including Pride and Prejudice… and Niggas, and this year’s Trophy Nigga.
The poster for the former show was banned on the London Underground, leading Hunter to accuse the corporation of censorship. However, having a black woman accuse him of disrespecting his race must have hit closer to home. I ask Hunter how her comments made him feel, and what he learned from the experience.
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