D.L. Hughley

D.L. Hughley: Unapologetic by Douglas Anderson EDGE Philadelphia Contributor Monday Oct 29, 2007 "Unapologetic", comedian D.L. Hughley’s fourth HBO special, feels more like a dress rehearsal than a performance. He spends the first part of the show pacing, eyes fixed on the stage. Maybe he wrote crib notes down there, but I doubt he’d need help remembering the kind of "Comedian 101" jokes with which he starts his act. ("Buh-dum, ching!") It’s not that they aren’t amusing, they’re just familiar. Maybe he’s "gone green," and started recycling. Impeccably decked out in a dapper silver-gray suit, diamond earrings and loosened silk tie, he looks classy and erudite. Then he opens his mouth. If you took the cursing out of his act, it wouldn’t run long enough for people to warm their seats. His perfectly styled hair, twisted into spikes, reminds me of the lightning bolts that shoot out electricity when a cartoon character gets a brilliant idea. In this case, there’s no juice. There’s the inevitable race material, where the white men sound like dorks. Heard it. There’s the "getting a whipping from Grandma" jokes. Heard it. He even has a Michael Jackson joke, for Pete’s sake. Heard it all. I want lightning. Viewing the DVD of a live show, I’m already one step removed from the excitement of being there. I want to get pulled in by the immediacy and spontaneity that great performances have. Like her or not, Kathy Griffin never turns away from the crowd, because that would break the rapport with "her gays." Jerry Seinfeld has made a career of sharing his own pet peeves, and the unique way he frames everyday occurrences makes them funny. Every comic has their own style, but the best ones catch us off guard with unexpected humor. And because it feels true and we can relate to it, we laugh. If I’m going to sit down with an hour-long DVD, I want to be constantly surprised by original material, not subjected to the same old shtick. Just when things are winding down, the act finally comes alive. Hughley starts to tease people in the front row, and it feels like someone’s opened a window and let some air in. Here is the interaction I’d been waiting for, and even if his barbs have no edge or wit, at least I know they weren’t scripted. If only he’d left more room for this in Unapologetic. Does D.L. owe us an apology? Well, not a formal one. Maybe just a promise to do better next time. Douglas Anderson is an entertainment writer and interviewer. He has wrestled over 100 celebrities to the ground and wouldn’t let them up until they’d spilled their life stories