Jordan Carlos (or “Stephen Colbert’s Black Friend,” as he is known to hundreds of thousands of Colbert Report viewers) guested on the op-ed page of the Washington Post on Sunday (“My Schtick? Being Black”).
Carlos (pictured below with his white friends Brian McKim and Adam Devine at last year’s Just For Laughs festival!) takes the occasion to talk about living at the intersection of black and funny and explains how he got the Colbert gig.
How did I get to be Colbert’s on-air compadre of color? Simple. One day a friend of mine who happened to be a producer for the show called and asked me to come and have my picture taken with Colbert. He explained that it was for a segment they’d be airing that night in which I would play Colbert’s black friend. With zero prospects and a gnawing fear that they’d find a replacement, I streaked over to the studios on New York City’s West Side, where I was quickly introduced to the man himself, Stephen Colbert. We took the picture and my producer friend showed me out. The joke has since become a running gag. I had hoped to parlay it into a job; instead I got a lot of MySpace “friends.” These experiences didn’t leave me feeling good, but they did make me think more about being black. Better late than never, I guess.
Carlos also tells about how he inquired as to the possibility of getting one of those juicy correspondent gigs on the The Daily Show and being told that the show “tried a black guy once, but it didn’t work out.” Ouch! Eerily similar to the story that nearly all minorities hear– The Female Half recalls a variation on this exchange on countless occasions over the last 20 years: “We had a female comic in here once… two years ago, I think it was… She stunk out the joint!” To which she replies, “Oh… I guess you haven’t had any men come in here and stink out the joint. And (motioning in the direction of the Male Half)… I see you’re still booking men in here!” Sigh.
As for the Colbert producer’s explanation for the dearth of African-American correspondent’s in their lineup, his statement is as much a testament to television’s cowardice/timidity and lack of vision as it is a testament to any racism. (Having read this, however, we advise all black comics to immediately send a package to The Daily Show, whose producers, after having read the quote in the Washington Post, will no doubt make a point of hiring at least one African American correspondent by Monday, which, coincidentally, is Martin Luther King’s birthday. It’s a win, win, win! Sometimes the timidty/lack of vision thing can be worked to one’s advantage!)
NOTE: An earlier version of this post confused the Daily Show with The Colbert Report… not once, but twice! It has since been corrected. Thanks and we apologize for the error.