Author: David Peisner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501143360
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 400
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Book Description
“A fascinating inside look at the trailblazing series” (Entertainment Tonight)—discover the behind-the-scenes stories and lasting impact of the trailblazing sketch comedy show that upended television, launched the careers of some of our biggest stars, and changed the way we talk, think, and laugh about race: In Living Color. Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color. Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. Along the way, he introduced the world to Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Rosie Perez, and Jennifer Lopez, not to mention his own brothers Damon, Marlon, and Shawn Wayans. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen, and was part of a sea change that moved black comedy and hip-hop culture from the shadows into the spotlight. Now, the “in-depth, well-researched” (Library Journal, starred review) Homey Don’t Play That reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit. Through exclusive interviews with the cast, writers, producers, and network executives, this insightful and entertaining chronicle follows the show’s ups and downs, friendships and feuds, tragedies and triumphs, sketches and scandals, the famous and the infamous, unveiling a vital piece of history in the evolution of comedy, television, and black culture.
Author: Tommy Davidson
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 1496712978
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
“Tommy Davidson is a journeyman performer. He knows the how and the what and his timing is off the hook. He's one of my favorite performers. Oh and did I mention he's funny, REALLY funny.” —Whoopi Goldberg In this revealing memoir, Tommy Davidson shares his unique perspective on making it in Hollywood, being an integral part of television history, on fame and family, and on living a life that has never been black and white—just funny and true . . . Abandoned as an infant on the streets of Greenville, Mississippi, and rescued by a loving white family, Tommy Davidson spent most of his childhood unaware that he was different from his brother and sister. All that changed as he came of age in a society of racial barriers—ones that he was soon to help break. On a fledgling network, Tommy joined the cast of In Living Color, alongside other relative newcomers all united by an ingenious throng of Wayans siblings, poised to break new ground. Now Tommy gives readers the never-before-told behind-the-scenes story of the first show born of the Hip Hop Nation: from its incredible rise, to his own creation of such unforgettable characters as Sweet Tooth Jones and dead-on impressions of Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson, M.C. Hammer and Sugar Ray Leonard, and appearing in such classic sketches as “Homie The Clown,” the “Hey Mon, family,” and the “Ugly Woman,” through guest-star skirmishes (and black eyes) to backstage tensions and the eventual fall of this pop-culture touchstone. He reveals his own nascent career on the stand-up circuit, as well as reflections on working with Spike Lee, Halle Berry, Chris Rock, and Jada Pinkett Smith. He also shares his very personal story of living with—and being inspired and empowered by—two distinct family histories. Told with humor and hard-won honesty, Living in Color is a bracing, illuminating, and remarkable success story.
Author: Connie Eble
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469610574
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
Slang is often seen as a lesser form of language, one that is simply not as meaningful or important as its 'regular' counterpart. Connie Eble refutes this notion as she reveals the sources, poetry, symbolism, and subtlety of informal slang expressions. In Slang and Sociability, Eble explores the words and phrases that American college students use casually among themselves. Based on more than 10,000 examples submitted by Eble's students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over the last twenty years, the book shows that slang is dynamic vocabulary that cannot be dismissed as deviant or marginal. Like more formal words and phrases, slang is created, modified, and transmitted by its users to serve their own purposes. In the case of college students, these purposes include cementing group identity and opposing authority. The book includes a glossary of the more than 1,000 slang words and phrases discussed in the text, as well as a list of the 40 most enduring terms since 1972. Examples from the glossary: group gropes -- encounter groups squirrel kisser -- environmentalist Goth -- student who dresses in black and listens to avant-garde music bad bongos -- situation in which things do not go well triangle -- person who is stupid or not up on the latest za -- pizza smoke -- to perform well dead soldier -- empty beer container toast -- in big trouble, the victim of misfortune parental units -- parents
Author: Alan Cohen
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 1401928897
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
TAKE A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE . . . WITH ALAN COHEN! Consider this book a hand to hold as you scale the mountain of your destiny. In just a few minutes each day, you can step back from your worldly activity and draw in a deep breath of spiritual renewal. You might like to savor each message in the morning to start your day on a positive keynote, and/or review your day in the light of the principles. Each day’s message includes a theme, a quote of wisdom, a parable or real-life anecdote, a prayer, and an affirmation. After reading the day’s message, close your eyes for a few moments, and be with the prayer and affirmation. Take these powerful ideas into your subconscious, and allow the truth to shine away any darkness. The spirit within you will expand miraculously as you nourish your inner being. There is no limit to the healing, inspiration, and positive changes you can enjoy through applying the principles contained between these covers. March on to the high calling of your heart, and your life will be a testament to the magnificence that is you.
Author: Bernadette Giacomazzo
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538166585
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 223
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Book Description
An entertaining yet conscientious examination of the popular sketch show In Living Color, which broke racial, cultural, and comedy boundaries; launched the careers of stars such as Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey; and helped shape comedy in the 21st century.
Author: Nathaniel Saunders
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595351190
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132
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Book Description
"My life's a Soap Opera... I can write a book about it!" You either play the game right, or you get played... Nick is a rich marketing executive who has worked his way from being a less than average achiever in school, a club-hopping playboy, to finally getting a career opportunity that lands him success. Nick reflects on his past, and how two people in his life have caused him to recreate himself. One was the person who almost caused him to lose everything he had worked for, and the other is the person who inspired him to pull himself together. Diane is the girl next door, who usually goes unnoticed, unless she is looked at, up close and personal. She inspired to become a dancer, but an accident ruined that dream. She now has other dreams of success within her corporate world. Diane, like Nick, has been burned in the past and has strong apprehensions about love and relationships. When the two finally hook up, they put all of their apprehensions aside, and give love a chance, but an accident separates them... or, was it an accident?
Author: Marcyliena Morgan
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822392127
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
Project Blowed is a legendary hiphop workshop based in Los Angeles. It began in 1994 when a group of youths moved their already renowned open-mic nights from the Good Life, a Crenshaw district health food store, to the KAOS Network, an arts center in Leimert Park. The local freestyle of articulate, rapid-fire, extemporaneous delivery, the juxtaposition of meaningful words and sounds, and the way that MCs followed one another without missing a beat, quickly became known throughout the LA underground. Leimert Park has long been a center of African American culture and arts in Los Angeles, and Project Blowed inspired youth throughout the city to consider the neighborhood the epicenter of their own cultural movement. The Real Hiphop is an in-depth account of the language and culture of Project Blowed, based on the seven years Marcyliena Morgan spent observing the workshop and the KAOS Network. Morgan is a leading scholar of hiphop, and throughout the volume her ethnographic analysis of the LA underground opens up into a broader examination of the artistic and cultural value of hiphop. Morgan intersperses her observations with excerpts from interviews and transcripts of freestyle lyrics. Providing a thorough linguistic interpretation of the music, she teases out the cultural antecedents and ideologies embedded in the language, emphases, and wordplay. She discusses the artistic skills and cultural knowledge MCs must acquire to rock the mic, the socialization of hiphop culture’s core and long-term members, and the persistent focus on skills, competition, and evaluation. She brings attention to adults who provided material and moral support to sustain underground hiphop, identifies the ways that women choose to participate in Project Blowed, and vividly renders the dynamics of the workshop’s famous lyrical battles.
Author: Ron Riekki
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476680914
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 183
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Book Description
The frightening yet comic clown is one of the best and most enduring characters in literature, theater, television, and film. Across the centuries, from Shakespeare's Porter in Macbeth to Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog," or Stephen King's Pennywise, horror and comedy have blended to create the perfect recipe for entertainment. This volume gives an in-depth analysis of the clown horror genre, including essays by revered horror scholars such as Kevin Wetmore, Dale Bailey, Kim Hester Williams, Jennifer K. Cox, and Joanna Parypinski. Their essays cover topics such as nostalgia, race, class, and new portrayals of the scary clown as zombies or phantoms. It also offers interviews with actors and directors working in the clown horror genre: Eoghan McQuinn (Stitches), Kevin Kangas (Fear of Clowns), and Jaysen Buterin (Kill Giggles). Some of fiction's most terrifying creations--like the Killer Klowns, Captain Spaulding, Art the Clown, Krusty, Frowny, the Joker, and Twisty--jig through these pages of analysis and deconstruction, asking what these many iterations of scary clowns have to say about our society and its fears.
Author: Jim Hill
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 1685373607
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 582
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Book Description
Born to Be By: Jim Hill Born to a poverty-stricken Black family, Jim Hill’s memoir recounts his life as a child and his journey to break out of the ghetto. An inspiring tale of strength and resilience, Hill, now seventy-five, depicts a life of ups and downs and his passion for life leading him to success. Now seventy-five years old, Hill can say he has never worked a day in his life, and attributes that happiness to finding joy and meaning in his careers. His story is one of hope, a symbol to others in poverty that success and a better life is possible, no matter how far the odds are stacked against you.
Author: Matt Blackstone
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374380651
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
"A boy deals with the recent loss of his mother and his odyssey to find a date for the end-of-year school dance"--
