“I’m bringing the same thing I’ve been bringing since day one…I’m bringing the funny,” Sinbad said just two days before he touches down in St. Louis for his performance at the Peabody Opera House.
“I’m bringing the pain – I hope I jack them up so bad that they can’t talk after the show.”
He’s made a name for himself over the years through television and film, but he feels like staying true to his comedy roots is what has kept him in the game.
“I’ve never stopped working,” Sinbad said. “It’s kind of like a band that never quits playing. If you just keep playing you grow and get better.”
He says he knew as a toddler that the world would know his name –even before he knew how or why.
“When I was 4 or 5 years old I told my mother I was going to be famous – but I didn’t know what I was going to be,” Sinbad said. It wasn’t just comedy. It was music and basketball and scuba diving – and all kinds of other things. I had ADD; I thought I was going to be everything.”
But in middle school he saw a clear path to comedy and ran with it.
“I was always funny. I would act crazy,” Sinbad said. “And then in eighth grade I thought ‘can I control it? Can I hone it in where I can be funny on cue?”
He clearly figured it out – and has more than 30 years of a successful comedy career to prove it.
What’s interesting about Sinbad is how his act seems to connect with mainstream audiences.
“Funny is funny,” Sinbad said. “Whenever they talk about crossover, they are always talking about minorities. I didn’t ask to cross over to you. I’m good at what I do and I expect you to dig it. I didn’t change anything or do anything different in my performance. I tell people, don’t change who you are to try to reach a certain audience. Be whoever you are – and whoever wants to come will come.”
But he’s quick to point out his gratitude for his beginnings on the urban scene.
“In my early days of my comedy career, my audiences were all black,” Sinbad said. “And that was like the Litmus test. If my jokes are funny to black people – then they are funny to everybody. Everything you want to sell – if it’s clothes, you sell it to us first. You want something to be hip, you give it to us first and the rest of the world buys it.”
What separated him from his contemporaries at the time when his generation adult themed urban comedy scene was taking off, Sinbad kept it clean.
“When I say positive, you can still have bite,” Sinbad said. “You don’t have to be stupid to have an edge – that’s what I’m trying to do out here.”
He says it’s what St. Louis can prepare itself for this weekend.
“They say St. Louis is a tough crowd, but I love St. Louis,” Sinbad said. “I don’t judge one place differently from the next. If you are in a band and you can play, it don’t matter where you go…right? If you’ve got skills as a comic it’s the same thing. I don’t go, ‘man, St. Louis is tough.’ I hope you’re tough.”
But more than anything, he loves the connections that he forges when he delivers his comedy on stages around the world.
“I give comedy and music the same level – because I love music. And I’m going to tell you, we change people’s lives,” Sinbad said. “I see it all the time. People might say ‘well, you aren’t curing cancer.’ But sometimes you do. Laughter makes things happen all the time. If you’re about to get angry, even if you fake a smile, you can’t stay mad.”
Sinbad will be performing at The Peabody Opera House on Saturday, November 2 at 8 p.m. For tickets, or more information, visit http://www.peabodyoperahouse.com/.
