In front of a sold-out crowd at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Peet’s Theatre on April 8, Emmy Award-winning comedian W. Kamau Bell continued a self-confessed lifelong habit: allowing curiosity to overcome common sense. What other motivation explains launching a cross-country “Who’s With Me?” tour during such politically, socially, and artistically divided, and quite perilous, times?
He kicked off the endeavor by bringing his “Black-ass self” to the tour’s official launch at Kennedy Center on February 13—the full force of his stand-up routine representing utter courageousness or complete tomfoolery in the face of continued censorship by the very people who pretend to “protect” free speech.
Bell—director, producer, TV host, filmmaker, podcaster, author—is one busy guy. His Oakland interracial family, including his wife Dr. Melissa Hudson Bell and three daughters, is a main topic of his comedy, and covered in his recent memoir and HBO documentary, “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed.” And thanks to his 10-year-old daughter Juno’s help (and Olivia Rodrigo’s music), he just donated his $1 million Celebrity jeopardy winnings to Oakland schools.
At Berkeley Rep, local audiences enjoyed a special treat. Bell’s 87-year-old mother opened the show and introduced her well-over-six-foot tall, statuesque son. Showing her own comedic flair, she quipped, “Thank you for coming out to see my little boy perform.” Speaking with sincerity, she added, “Kamau was born with compassion and humor.” Her job was simply “trying not to mess him up” while raising him.
Bell entered to sturdy applause and used the next 90-minutes making evident his mother did not “mess him up.” His 10-year-old daughter was seated on a folding chair half onstage and half in the wings. Holding a notebook and a mic, she kept tally of her dad’s use of four-letter words and played straight person to his jokes.
In a phone interview during his weeklong run of shows at Berkeley Rep, Bell told 48 Hills, ‘That curiosity thing, it really came up for me publicly when I met with KKK members (on his CNN United Shades of America” docuseries) thinking yeah… and then, ‘Oh no, why did I do this?’ I guess I’m just a person who throws himself into the deep end then later says, ‘Maybe I should have learned how to swim.’ Even getting my first TV show, I thought would be so great. Then I found out how difficult it would be.”
The same fling-into-it pattern continued when filming the Peabody award-winning Showtime docuseries “We Need To Talk About Cosby.” (Comedian-actor Bill Cosby was convicted in 2018 for sexual assault, sentenced to 10 years of incarceration; he was released in 2021 after the ruling was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.) “How could I have predicted he would get let out of prison on the last day of filming?” Bell said. “If there’s ever a time to shut down, it was then, but we were too deep into it.
“The curiosity thing’s an operating system of mine that causes anxiety, but it also causes me to do things I might not otherwise do. It’s also a part of standup comedy. You hope you’ll connect to people; sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you put yourself through the wringer. I’m trying to produce something that I’ve never seen in the world; something I can stand behind forever. Create things I feel proud about or things people are paying me so much to do there’s no other choice but to do them.”
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From public response to the Kennedy Center appearance, Bell drew lessons. Some people whose news diet is cursory asked if he still plans to perform, despite the show happening more than two months ago. The algorithms and media landscape lump every recent action of President Trump and the administration with articles and columns about Bell’s performance. “We’re so awash in media and news, people don’t check dates and waste time getting fired up about things that happened long ago or never happened at all. Trump took over (the Kennedy Center) in name, but he hadn’t entered the building when I was there.”
Bell recognizes his unique position as a comedian. “If Trump was going to stand in the wings, I would still have done it. As a comedian, I can speak directly to the situation in a way that’s funny and impactful. It’s not like I took the check and went in there and behaved myself. Let’s remember, there were 1500 people who came and after, many of them said, ‘Thank you, thank you, for doing this. This is going to be my last time coming to the Kennedy Center and I’m so glad it was to see you.’ People often think of the Kennedy Center as holy ground, but in actuality, it’s just a well-funded community center.”
Attended by a whole gamut of people representing diverse incomes, races, genders, and generations, he sensed some people were in mourning, others practicing protest. “Saying I’m going in there to be myself and make my positions clear is my way of protesting. I don’t think yelling at other people is doing something. Not everyone does what I do, but everyone can do something.”
When the pandemic hit, Bell accepted a forced hiatus and even thought he might retire from standup comedy. “I gave myself permission, even when it became possible to resume other projects, not to hang out at comedy clubs and socialize late into the night after the shows. Most of those nights were school nights and I wanted to be with my kids. At the Rep, the residency allows me to set when and what I do. I can talk for half an hour or two, I can have my kids onstage. The five years not doing standup also got me fired up. I built up stories about the current state of the world and my family.”
Bell participated during his “retirement” in a recent documentary about George Carlin. From that, he realized his comedy could evolve, as did Carlin’s. He allowed himself to the grace to age into it and says increased skills, more life wisdom, and innate, re-energized humor to his current show.
Bell also better understands verbal interactions after decades of deep listening. “Disagreement doesn’t have to lead to argument unless you want it to. Now, I do more work to explain my thinking to someone who disagrees instead of getting into a shouting match. That approach is only a problem if someone is committed to an argument. If it involves upped volume and talking past each other, that’s like cable news interviews, the illusion of conversation.”
When it comes to what he hears from people he meets on the streets, he refers to a joke in his show about the hardest question for them to answer. “How ya doing?” used to elicit an “I’m fine.” Now, people ask if he means about their life, or the state of the world. “People are upset by the price of groceries, someone they know snatched off the street, or if this country’s headed in directions other than its founders ever intended. They weren’t perfect, but they didn’t want an authoritarian government.”
Bell says everyone needs to do the work of protesting in whatever way they are able in order to “take back the country.” He suggested people are looking for safety, less crime, enough money to pay the rent, more family time, a less hectic-24/7 pace, a bit of hope, and if lucky, a touch of humor. “This show is just asking who’s with me and taking that to big and small spaces all across the country. The idea is comedy: have jokes, will travel.”
For people fortunate to have caught the performance—and especially for those who missed it—holding hope for a return engagement is warranted. With several more years of Trump in the White House, mom keeping her eye on her not-messed-up son, and Oakland as the much-loved family home base, there’s every reason to believe Bell will return to the boxing ring for another round.
W. Kamau Bell’s “Who’s With Me?” Tour continues through July. More details here.
