Reginald D. Hunter
The unofficial title of Reginald D. Hunter’s show is Trophy Nigga, owing to the media’s habit of booking him for commentary only when race-related issues are in the news. His response to such requests is to insist that he be introduced as ‘Reginald – King of the Blacks!’, which tends to be a dealbreaker.
He has a reputation for controversy and an obvious, deep-seated belief that everyone should get their thoughts, no matter how unpopular, out in the open. A recent profile in The Age said that he has been labelled a misogynist by some thanks to his ‘referring to rape in a punchline’. Actually, in this show he jokes about rape no less than four times. The profile paraphrases him as saying that anyone seeing a comedy show might assume that the performer is joking. You might also assume that in a room with more than, say, ten women in it, at least one will have experienced sexual assault.
It really doesn’t help that his performance is completely off. At the beginning of the show he tells us that as it’s the last preview night, he has to get all of the mistakes out of his system. (I guess no one told him it was also media night.) He struggles to find a rhythm, which is almost forgivable, but when he asks an audience member for the time midway through the show he looks crestfallen upon learning that he still has 25 minutes to fill.
After a hefty dose of dead air while he stares off to stage left waiting for a techie to bring him a beer, Hunter proceeds to lurch from one random topic to the next. Tiger Woods, anal sex, stupid people, the Matrix movies – wait a minute, the Matrix movies? If you’re going to clutch at straws, try to pick one that’s less than seven years old. They get brittle with age.
Reginald, you may be the King of the Blacks, but your work is off-colour in more ways than one.
Bah! Reginald is hilarious and a comic pro. I’ve seen this guy 3 years in a row now, and his relaxed style is what makes him great. Any Melbourne comedy fan would do themselves a real favour by seeing him.
Our night was not that short but he really didn’t seem to want to be on stage. My boyfriend saw him last year and loved him but was disappointed this year.
I saw Reginald at the opening night all stars comedy festival. Out of all the comedians, he is the only one I went to see again. Maybe it helps that I am southern American and I relate to his jokes but I think you Australians could learn a thing or two from us about comedy. First, I can’t understand half of what you are saying because your accent is so thick. Second your Australian jokes are only funny to other Australians because no one else know what the hell you are talking about. Take my word for it don’t listen to this reviewer unless you are uptight sensitive person in which case you shouldn’t go see a live comedy show anyway! Reginald D. Hunter is the funniest comedian to come to the festival this year!
I can imagine some domedians may have bad nights, maybe you were unfortunate enough to have one of those because i saw reginald during the festival and he was most definetly the funniest male comedian performing this year (and i saw a few shows this year too). Chris was right in suggesting that anyone uptight (or anyone who can't relax their butthole, trust me, that sucker can get really really wound up by some people) should avoid this show, but for the ones who aren't, Don't hestiate to go the next time he gets to grace our stages here in australia.
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