Stand-up comedian and actor Tommy Davidson, popular for his roles on the iconic 1990s sketch comedy TV show “In Living Color” will be in St. Louis at Helium Comedy Club for five shows this weekend, Aug. 4-6.
Davidson, who also provides the voice of Oscar Proud in the animated Disney+ series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” calls St. louis “a second home.”
“St. Louis, that’s like my home,” he said.
“My best friends are from St. Louis. Joe Torry, Guy Torry, Cedric [the Entertainer]. St. Louis… that’s like coming home. I love St. Louis.”
He also shared how impressed he is with the talent that comes from St. Louis and East St. Louis.
“They the bomb,” Davidson said while talking about the city’s comedy scene.
“I always tell kids you can do anything if a Black girl from East St. Louis named Pookie can be a doctor.” – Tommy Davidson
“Don’t give up, that’s for sure. They did good. St. Louis knows how to put it out. St. Louis [has] put out everything. St. Louis [has] put out great athletes, great everything. East St. Louis [has] put out great [people.]”
He shared a story about a Black girl from East St. Louis named “Pookie” whom he met years ago when he performed at a university in Illinois. She scheduled his visit and showed him around the campus.
She also told him that she wanted to be a doctor. About 25 years later, Pookie approached him at a show and reintroduced herself confirming that she did in fact become a doctor.
“I always tell kids you can do anything, if a Black girl from East St. Louis named Pookie can be a doctor,” he said.
Davidson has more control over his career now than in the past. He has released movies and TV shows under his global entertainment company One/Song Entertainment.
“I’m having a lot of fun doing what I’m doing, it’s a good time for me because it took me a long time to get to the point where I could do exactly what I wanna do,” he explained.
“I’ve had a great career. I’m so grateful about my career. But I [was well into] my career before I realized ‘I think it’s time my audience saw some stuff that comes from me and me only.’”
He has a kids movie release coming soon. He plays a principal who appears to be nice, but is really plotting to get another principal’s job. He’s also been performing comedy shows around the country.
Davidson hopes to soon publish his second book. He published his first book, his memoir “Living In Color: What’s Funny About Me?” in 2020.
He also has established himself as a smooth jazz artist on his own label. His singles are entitled “I Know,” “Kid Zero” and “Sweet Reunion.” They are receiving airtime on several platforms including the SiriusXM smooth jazz station Watercolors.
While most well known for his acting and comedic abilities, music has always been a part of Davidson’s life. He said he began singing when he was four and wanted to start singing professionally at seven after seeing a 12-year-old Michael Jackson perform with The Jackson Five.
His mother wanted him to live life “as a regular kid” and he’s now ready to introduce himself to the world as a musician.
“The way the music industry is right now, I was careful of how I entered into it,” he said.
“I just didn’t wanna be vulnerable. I wanted to be able to express myself musically with a group of people that appreciate and understand it. I wanted to get into the music industry because now I’m at a point in my life where I can express myself even better.”
His role as the overbearing Oscar Proud, father of Penny and twins BeBe and CeCe, husband to Trudy, and witty salesman and creator of Proud Snacks, was reprised 20 years after its Disney Channel debut in 2001.
“I’m loving it. It’s even better,” he said.
“When was the last time that you had a job 25 years ago and then they called you to come back and do it again?’ I got really lucky with that.”
Davidson’s earliest success was as a cast member of “In Living Color,” created by Kenan Ivory Wayans. The show was a launch pad for Davidson, Wayans and his family, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier, Jim Carey, and several other entertainers.
“The young people of color have been throwing down like that in comedy, but never really had a chance to get it seen,” he said.
“It was seen on “Saturday Night Live,” but it was only a couple of us. Now it’s almost like a basketball league or something. It’s like, were y’all surprised when y’all turned the league out?’ No we were surprised they finally let us in cause they took so damn long.”
His memories of being on the set of “In Living Color” are positive.
“Everybody there was at their best and we were having fun with it,” he said. “What made this the best was that we all loved each other. We all loved the heck out of each other.”
He released his memoir “Living In Color: What’s Funny About Me?” in 2020 detailing his life, including being abandoned as an infant in a trashcan. He was adopted by a white family, which began a new journey. He decided to write the book because his sister questioned why he never talked about their mother publicly.
“I had to look at that and when I started thinking about it more and more I knew the reason,” he said. “I was ashamed of her. I didn’t really want anyone to know she was my mother because she was white and I grew up in a Black neighborhood. When she came around, Black people would start acting differently towards me and then when I was with her in other places, the white people would be looking at me.
“As long as she wasn’t around I ain’t have to deal with her on either side. I wanted to tell people about how that was, how much I loved my mom, and how much my family changed me into the man that I am today.”
His advice to up-and-coming comics is to practice their comedy live on stage in clubs and the places they typically perform at and don’t perform from their phone.
“Don’t try to do it from your phone cause once you get to the place where people are you might not be that good because you’ve been doing it on the phone,” he said. “You may not be used to it or didn’t get as good as you needed to because you wasn’t there.”
Commonly a lot of comedians have bombed in the beginning stages of their career, but Davidson luckily never really had that problem. He said he left the stage with at least a couple laughs once. He provided new comics with advice on how to handle bombing.
“You ain’t going to be able to swim at all if you don’t get in the pool,” he said. “You can’t be safe on the sideline talking about I’m a swimmer; it’s only one way.”
Davidson has two shows at Helium on Aug. 4, one at 7:30 p.m. and the other at 10 p.m.; two shows on Aug. 5, one at 7:30 p.m. and the other at 10 p.m. and a final show on Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. Helium is located at 1151 Saint Louis Galleria, Saint Louis, MO 63117.
Visit https://www.thetommydavidson.com/ for more information about Tommy Davidson.
