Modified On August 13, 2012
Jimmie Walker, interviewed in the Toledo Blade:
Q: What does having the first elected African-American president mean to you, and to your comedy?
A: It seems a lot of white comedians are still feeling their way around what kind of jokes they can make about Obama. I never thought I would see [the] day in my lifetime. The people most shocked by a black president are black people!!! But regardless of race, the president is the president and he is in the news and if it is in the news it is in the act. The terrorists and the Republicans aren’t gonna give him a pass, so neither can comics. He will come into the office at a very difficult time but we can’t abdicate our right of freedom of speech. Humor is very important to Americans and the American way of life.
Blade staffer Kirk Baird also asked who influenced Walker:
Dick Gregory, Godfrey Cambridge, George Kirby– people today don’t remember them but they were some of the greatest comics of all time. Lenny Bruce, only because of the phenomenon around him– I have never worked “blue” it’s not my style. And the classics: Bob Hope, Jack Benny– I liked their timing and work ethic, and the fact that they were successful in many mediums, radio, TV, and movies.
I would like to be like Myron Cohen and Flip Wilson and tell stories where the journey is more fun than the final destination. It’s a style of comedy that I enjoy and respect, but I always felt other guys did it better.