In discussing my performance, we need to talk about the elephant in the room.
Don't misunderstand me, people of palour. I'm not saying I bring my elephant into the room whenever I do a gig. Ha! Ha! That would indeed be wasteful and ridiculous excess, would it not? I shall answer my own question because it is rhetorical. Yes, it would.
What I am saying is that as soon as I take my comedic place behind the microphone, people are waiting for me to broach the subject of my ethnicity. The tension is palpable. And I should know. I’ve palped it not infrequently.
It doesn’t matter where I do a gig. It doesn’t matter who or what the audience may be. There is a tension, a barrier, a melanin curtain between me and the audience. There is a metaphorical elephant in the room. And it will not go away simply because we’re all pretending it isn’t there.
So you know what I do? I acknowledge the presence of the elephant. What I really want to say is “Elephant, get out of the way. You are impeding the comedy here!”. But I can’t say that because the elephant is a metaphor and it doesn’t understand English.
So you know what I do? Again rhetorical. Put your hands down, please.
I acknowledge my ethnicity. And everything is fine. The audience accepts me. They like me. They embrace me (but only figuratively, of course). I couldn’t let them embrace me physically as many of them are white and if that happened my parents would be obliged to murder me.
Oh, a few little squirms there. But a few laughs too. From the people who think I’m joking.
See? The elephant has gone away.
He’s eating a bun in the car park.
The comedy can begin.