Somebody to Love

If Patrice O’Neal never heard of a comedian like Anthony Jeselnik at the Charlie Sheen Roast, you were just another open miker and a “fucking nothing” to him. Now, Anthony Jeselnik is a headliner in real life but Patrice never heard of him so when he called him a nothing open miker, I lost it entirely because I still haven’t graduated from the open mike stage  and could relate to the idea of feeling like an ineffectual non-entity in the comedy game when you perform in front of the same eight comics every week. The Elephant in the room made Anthony Jesnelnik feel like some expendable extra that got crushed in that African charged Elephant stampede in Alexander. 

I got a tad misty when I found about how fast Bernie Mac died and how lost and betrayed he looked in front of his wife on his death bed as if the Comedy Gods betrayed him at the last minute.  But my heart sank even deeper when I found out about Patrice O’Neil being taken from us because his comedy was even more accesbile to me. Plus, he transcended race and wasn’t your typical black comic similar to Bernie Mac which is why Bernie stopped doing Def Comedy Jam after his career making performance on that show for all those comedy historians taking notes at home. 

 
I felt closer to Patrice caused he was real open about his sexually deviant behavior but never came across as excessively sleazy about it, just honest and funny. Patrice once said that he wanted to be likeable enough where white people would be willing to fight for him and claim him as a member of their team the way he would want to fight for Carlin and not just let white people claim him as their own.  I love that concept so much. Great comedy is great laughs with major league attitude, intelligence and balls behind it and Patrice embodied that ideal and made comedy gods like Carlin proud.  

Of course Patrice would do the stupid white girl voice and love to make white couples squirm the way only a big ass, gap toothed black comic can do.  I’m sad that Patrice is gone because he also spoke with real moral authority without being preachy unlike Paul Mooney. Paul Moony is a good joke writer and is black pride incarnate but how much can you enjoy Blair Underwood’s dad in a Doo-Rag on a bar stool talking down to the audience for hour plus sets?  It wasn’t just his physical size, Patrice really filled out that stage with his big booming spirit regardless if he was sitting hunched on a stool or looming large over another sold out crowd at Carolines on Broadway.  

For a while I considered moving to London with my wife who has English citizenship so I could do stand-up comedy there and find my voice the way Patrice O’Neal did and Bill Hicks before him. You have to give Patrice props for hitting his stride in London. Prior to him, the last major league black entertainer to find their mojo in Europe was Josephine Baker.  Chris Rock did his international comedy tour with stops in Australia, South Africa and England  but at that point, he was already set up for life like Heather Mills. 

Patrice got some bit TV and film parts but nothing that showcased the full flavor of his comedic persona the way Eddie and Martin Lawrence have been able to do. Even the Fat Boys were able to do Disorderlies which was HBO heaven back in the day. But in Hollywood, you don’t have any major black comedic directors besides Keenen Ivory Wayans so that’s a tough hurdle to clear unless you're Jim Brown and was given the shot to punch out Aliens in Mars Attacks.  

For all of his race mining material that made strong comedic points like his last bit about how pretty white girls are searched for longer by the police than any other ethnic types, he was really best at breaking down sexual roles and describing his own sexual obsessions and real life experiences with such punch line hidden panache. They say the real trick in comedy is to manipulate your audience into thinking that what you're saying is just spontaneously flowing off the top of your creatively jacked dome and nobody did that better than Patrice. In one of his comedy specials he’s talking about an asian girl’s skinny ass and described it as being as skinny as a CD Case. Funny joke but nothing was obvious about the delivery. He tossed off the one liner without it sounding like a one liner. The line was tossed off easier than Eddy Curry’s towel after he called in his Limo Driver into the bathroom to see if he wanted to be ridden around in for a change. 

I discovered Patrice on Tough Crowd with Collin Quinn along with Greg Giraldo who is another fallen great one as I’m sure you know if you're still reading this tribute. Giraldo always got more laughs from me yet Patrice carried himself with such nonchalance, gravitas. Patrice was one of the last towering stand-up comics that I really wanted to see live at Carolines on Broadway.  I know he’s from Boston but to me I think of him as the king of underground New York Comics that’s was a monster comedic creation that only the city can create when you consider the 24/7 stimulus, perpetual hostility and endless amount of clubs to perform in.

I saw Patrice as part elephant, part clown, part lion tamer, part muscle man and part tight rope artist, all wrapped into one on stage.  He was a one man circus that held court in royal underground comedic caves like the famed Comedy Cellar on MacDougal street in New York that’s now made even more famous by another comedy great, Louie CK. I’ll miss Patrice’s heart rendering honesty the most. I just saw clip on Youtube from Jimmy Fallon when he admits to being scared the first time he heard NWA going:” Straight from where. I’m out of here.”  He then addressed the afro drummer from the Roots and commended him for admitting that he was scared of them as well which takes courage when: “You’re  a black man that doesn’t act it”, classic Patrice. What better way to show the white world that he wanted them to love him by showing what a pussy he can be.

41 is so young. I’m 35 and don’t even have a proven ten minute set yet I wouldn’t even know that because I’m an unemployed first time daddy that can’t chase down open mikes with reckless abandon until I move out of my parents house. The NY Times was right, most comics would envy his comedy career. Patrice got all the HBO and Comedy Central specials that every comedian dreams of.  More importantly, he earned the title of being a comic’s, comic which is having the respect of all the other comedic heavyweights that he used to crack up at open mikes when everyone was a nobody together. That's s what makes his legacy so impressive and inspirational to me.

My favorite memory of  Patrice is the hero’s welcome he got when he appeared on Jim Norton’s Down and Dirty.  Sure it was an Opie and Anthony crowd which he was a regular guest on yet it was obvious that the audience knew that they were in the presence of a black comedy hero that they’d be willing to fight for. Patrice made the stand-up comedic proffesion a much deeper, holier, pursuit than any of his draping silver chains and trench coat mafia coats would indicate. I would’ve loved to make Patrice laugh at the Comedy Cellar and hear that soulful, spastic, he-haw laugh that envelops a room and screams touchdown.  I have no right to claim you as one of our guys Patrice because you're way too cool and much too black but Mike Epps has a shot though.  Rest in peace big fella. In my eyes, you’ll always be somebody to love.  

Rest in Peace 

From an aspiring somebody 

Josh Kornbluth 
 






 

 

Comments

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Sure it was an Opie and Anthony crowd which he was a regular guest on yet it was obvious that the audience knew that they were in the presence of black comedy hero that they’d be willing to fight for. Patrice made the stand-up comedic proffesion a much deeper, holier, pursuit than any of his draping silver chains, and trench coat mafia coats would indicate. I would’ve loved to make Patrice laugh at the Comedy Cellar and hear that soulful, spastic, he haw laugh that envelops a room and screams touchdown. I have no right to claim you as one of our guys Patrice because you're way too cool and much too black but Mike Epps has a shot though. Rest in peace big fella. In my eyes, you’ll always be somebody to love.

Rest in Peace

From an aspiring somebody

Josh Kornbluth