“People forget ‘In Living Color’ was the first sketch comedy with a black cast. Families watched it just glad to see sketch comedy on a black show. I was introduced to comedy [because of ‘In Living Color’].”
Lil’ Rel’s journey and style of comedy has landed him his own half-hour comedy special on Comedy Central as part of their “The Half Hour” stand-up series on Friday, June 7, 2013 at midnight.
Lil’ Rel’s comedy is so fresh, clean and it really left me in tears from laughing so hard as I watched one of his performances on “BET’s Comicview.”
“When I first saw ‘Eddie Murphy Raw’ I was at a church reunion,” Lil’ Rel laughed at the irony when explaining why his comedy is ‘clean.’ “He was the first person to do characters, that’s why a lot of what I do is characters. I had been praying about it [and] I had a break-through one-day. [I realized] that I don’t have to do what everybody else is doing, that’s not me. My comedy grows as I grow as a person.”
The second season of the Comedy Central Stand-Up “The Half Hour” series is produced by Triage Entertainment. John Bravakis, Stephen Kroopnick and Stu Schreiberg served as executive producers and Joe DeMaio is director. JoAnn Grigioni served as executive in charge of production for Comedy Central.
Lil’ Rel’s has performed on such shows including: “BET Comicview,” “Baisden After Dark” and “Chelsea Lately.” He was also part of “Russell Simmons presents Stand-up at the El Rey,” “Cut ‘n It Up: Chicago,” “The Big Black Comedy Show Vol. 3,” with Michael Colyar and “P. Diddy presents the Bad Boys of Comedy,” which was a television documentary. Lil’ Rel hosted “Unleashed Comedians Off the Chain” and last year was part of “In Living Color Reboot.”
“I’m honored…performing on Comedy Central is #1 on my goal list,” he pointed out to me about the show. “I’m a student of Comedy Central. It launched careers; Wanda Sykes and even Kevin Hart. The first time I was introduced to him he was on Comedy Central. It puts you on the map…Hollywood knows now. It’s honestly kind of surreal.”
You can follow Lil’ Rel Howery on twitter at @LilRel4 and Comedy Central at @CCStandUp.
The Syndicated Column “The Pulse of Entertainment” is written weekly by Eunice Moseley who is also a PR/Business Management consultant. For more entertainment news, visit: www.ThePulseofEntertainment.com or www.FreelanceAssociatesInc.com