Each week I’ve decided to post something new that I’ve come across. It could be anything from a new concept or idea, to something more tangible like what I’ve chosen to share as my very first This Week’s Discovery. I hope you check out my discoveries and give me some feedback when you do.
This week’s wonderful discovery is Larry Wilmore’s “Black on the Air” podcast! I’ve missed Larry’s voice since his show was cancelled on Comedy Central leaving me to wonder why Tosh.0 seems to have an unnecessary lifetime engagement. Please pardon the digression.
Anyway, it’s nice to hear Larry’s distinct voice as he interviews various people like Ibihaj Muhammad, the Olympic Fencer, or engages in random discussions with someone who fills in for a guest who was MIA and who tries to take Larry down the conspiracy trail of JFK and the moon landing. That episode reminded me of the many discussions with my son who is so thankful to be “woke” about the Illumanti and Valiant Thor, the alien from Venus who worked in the Petagon. What do you even do with discussions like that? I generally find myself poochie mouthed, furrow browed and looking at him in silence until he says, “What? You just want to stay sleep mom.”
For anyone who doesn’t know Larry Wilmore, I first became aware of him on The Daily Show during Jon Stewart’s reign. His title on the show was Senior Black Correspondent. He would come on to provide a humorous “black perspective,” as if there is such a thing, on news events involving black people. He then branched off with his own show on Comedy Central called The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore that followed The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. It was a nice lineup on Comedy Central. Unfortunately, the Nightly Show was cancelled shortly after Wilmore’s, and I have to keep it one hundred, painful to watch performance at the White House Correspondence Dinner in 2016. He doubled down on his lackluster jokes by closing with a “tribute” to President Barack Obama by saying, “I’m going to keep it one hundred, yo Barry, you did it my nigga.” I located the video specifically to quote him and I still cringe when I hear it. I’m not going to get into the reasons why I feel that to be horribly wrong because it’s just something that will live on as one of those moments of the Obama era and possibly the unfortunate end to a very good show. Even in light of making the decision to use that term, which he totally owns and probably doesn’t totally regret, I find Mr. Wilmore to be smart and of course fearless. He’s someone I’d love to be in a room with and just talk about all of the latest political events of the day. He’s been resilient since the cancelation of his show. He has his executive producing hands in the brilliant “Insecure” with Issa Rae on HBO and helped to launch Black-Ish. Prior to those recent accomplishments, Mr. Wilmore had developed a long list of writing creds, including the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and In Living Color. The man is clearly talented and I’m so happy to be able to reconnect with him through his podcast.
Below is a picture of Larry Wilmore (Center) with my husband and our wonderful cousin Julie.
This Side of the Apple 