An underwhelming – and quietly offensive – performance by “The African King of Comedy” Michael Blackson meant that St. Louis native Lavell Crawford would have to work twice as hard to win the audience over when he made his return home Friday night at The Chaifetz Arena.
He pulled it off, but Blackson’s dated material and laboring gay jokes would have been a death blow for a comedian of a lesser caliber – or one who didn’t have the city’s support.
Friday night at The Chaifetz Arena marked the second year in a row St. Louis native Lavell Crawford came home to share his comedy with the city for the sake of Mother’s Day.
Billed as the Mother’s Day Comedy Jam, the show featured a broad mix of comics – most from the Def Jam Generation. Lunelle and Tony Roberts joined Blackson and Crawford for a show that reflected on the surge of the urban comedy scene of the 1990s. A scheduling conflict meant that Lil Duval, the only millennial among the group, was missing from the lineup.
The show fared well amidst one of the busiest weekends of the year with respect to crowd size.
Though she wasn’t billed as such, “The Talk” co-star Sheryl Underwood served as mistress of ceremonies and pulled local comedy staple Darius Bradford in as a partner in crime.
They worked especially well as they played on each other’s wit, timing and instinct to follow a joke as if they had planned in advance.
It was an especially good look for Bradford. He’s made his rounds with his especially polished routine, but Friday night he showed comedy diversity as he flew off the cuff with Underwood.
The downside of the Bradford and Underwood tag team meant that the audience wouldn’t see an uninterrupted routine from her.
Aside from Crawford, Underwood was the funniest on the bill by far. But fans would have to settle for snippets as they prepared the stage for the next performer.
Lunelle was up first. She was more enjoyable than one might expect as she spoke on everything from her past drug problems to using her handicap sticker as a “key to the city.”
The fast paced, high energy one liners that have made Tony Roberts a respected member of the urban comedy circuit for more than 20 years were in full effect – and well received as per usual – Friday night.
It would be Blackson’s that would nearly bring the upbeat energy and steady flow of laughter to a screeching halt halfway through his set.
He started strong with some of his reliable self-deprecating material that poked fun at his appearance, but his agonizing bit at the expense of gays made it all for naught. So much so that his routine about being an alumnus of the “Feed the Children” commercials that send money to feed families in Africa almost fell flat.
Headliner Lavell Crawford took the stage following Blackson and was probably wishing the lineup had been switched so Roberts would have preceded him.
Crawford proved himself to be both the consummate comedy professional and “so St. Louis” as he forged ahead and reeled the audience back in thanks to bits about being unable to resist the recipes of Paula Deen despite the n-word controversy. On Mother’s Day Weekend, Crawford’s mother was lovingly on tail end of most of his jokes – including a futile attempt to get her to repay a loan and help him with his homework as a child.
He also wove in some of his signature bits, including mishaps with a dog after missing the school bus and being obedient about not letting anybody in the house when his mother’s goes to work – including his grandmother and his father.
