Jimmie Wallker on new president, influences
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.
2 Responses
Reply to: Jimmie Wallker on new president, influences
Wow. Jimmy Walker, huh? Pretty relevant to today’s comedy scene, right? Only hundreds (if not thousands) of working black comedians, and we get a nice interview with a guy still riding off his 30-year-old catchphrase. Comedy struggles because, unlike the rest of the entertainment industry, it clings to the old rather than embrace what is new.
Ward calls Jimmie Walker “a guy still riding off his 30-year-old catchphrase.”We haven’t seen him perform lately, but he’s booked constantly (and we believe him when he says he’s booked 46 weeks a year).He specifically says he’s not riding off the catchphrase (read the interview) and, from all accounts, he still writes material, much of it topical.Your uncharitable characterization of him is at odds with reality. (We suppose in Ward’s world, all those who had a television show at one point in their lives must cease any and all performing, lest Ward accuse them of coasting. Note to Ward: At one point, Bill Cosby was a man who hadn’t starred in a television show for 16 years– and the show he starred in was only a modest hit, running for three seasons.)BTW, Ward: “Comedy struggles?” Not in our world. And if you think “the rest of the entertainment industry” embraces what is new, you’re deluded. Name any genre of music, any sort of television show, any format of radio or any kind of live performance venue, and the top-grossers, the influential, the revered performers are quite often those with 30 years of experience or more.As for Good Times, Wikipedia says:“The program premiered in February 1974; high ratings led CBS to renew the program for the 1974–1975 season, as it was the seventeenth-highest-rated program that year. During its first full season on the air, 1974–1975, the show was the seventh-highest-rated program in the Nielsen ratings and a quarter of the American television-viewing public tuned in to an episode during any given week.”And we wouldn’t expect you to know this Ward, but Walker’s career as a standup began before the series hit the air, becoming a comedian in 1969.