Reginald D Hunter interview

The social commentator and controversial comic philosopher talks with Victoria Nangle

VN: How’s the tour been going?
RH: I’ve been enjoying it.

VN: I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it. The way you say it you don’t sound completely convinced about everybody.
RH: Well, I’m saying I can only account for my own experience. I mean, you can see people laughing, happy. You go home and see people are mad on Twitter. So, as far as I can tell, I’ve enjoyed myself doing the show.

VN: It does seem odd that people don’t know what to expect when they come to your show, with your profile being as high as it is. Does it still puzzle you when people respond so strongly to you using the words that you are known for using?
RH: No, no. Less and less. It’s for people who just want to listen and stand. They don’t want to resolve the issue. They just like to have a position and be counted to it. And I’ve met people like that who (are) reactive about my work – but if it wasn’t my work they was that way about it’d be something else.

VN: I always find your work very thought-provoking in that it challenges me with my assumptions. And then it makes me re-examine them.
RH: Some people don’t like thought-provoking. Some people they get thought-provoking, it just make them mad.

VN: Their thoughts are like bears and should not be provoked?
RH: It’s hilarious. They just feel provoked. “I want to believe what I want to believe! Leave my thoughts alone!”

VN: You have this high profile but you also seem very true to your own voice. Is it still as easy as it’s always been to maintain that voice, or does it get more difficult as your profile gets higher?
RH: It is a decision you make that means not being a part of a group. There will be lots of times that you will stand alone, but that’s how you develop a voice.

VN: Would you be interested in doing a TV or radio show if it was developed entirely around you?
RH: I ‘d only want to be involved in a radio or TV show if it was good, if it contributed something that was worth watching. I mean, I would like to be the star of something like that. If something like that was even getting made it would be nice to just be involved.

VN: So to be a part of something that was good?
RH: Yeah, be a part of something that was good, something that worked well. I mean, there’s a reason why there are so mangy bad things on TV. Most of the things that are on TV were something else when it started, and then it becomes **** in order to get on TV.

VN: … which was why I was thinking more radio. They do seem to be truer these days.
RH: Uh… Sure. I hear that from people who really like radio.

VN: Maybe it’s because I listen to podcasts. They are an opportunity to have a true voice.
RH: Hmm. My experience in the podcast world is limited though. I have no facts to contradict you.

VN: But if you did you would voice them.
RH: Well, it depends on the conversation I’m having. Some people don’t take too well to being contradicted. They just want to be right. If they’re not right they want you to act like they are. If me and you were talking about something and it didn’t matter to me, and you needed to be right, I’d be like, ‘Hell yes.’.

VN: But equally when it’s important to you, you need to be right – or you need to make sure that everybody knows that this is your opinion?
RH: No, No I’m… My mind, it don’t run quite like that. It runs, just not like that. No, there are some things that I think are a point of order, some things that just need to done, and sometimes just takes a person to just be a ****ing adult and just – if you see something that needs to be done and you don’t see no adult to do it, it might just mean it’s your job.

VN: You’ve been over in England for a long time. When you go back to Georgia (USA) to visit do you feel like you’re more British and over here you’re more Georgian?
RH: I don’t know, I used to feel stuff like that. I have to say there’s one thing that I’ve gotten quite English in, and I don’t think I ever would have come to if I hadn’t been in England. I am sure I’ve really developed a strong intolerance for rudeness. It’s new, like in the last year. It’s like, I’m used to rude – I come from rude. But in the last year I’ve become more and more like; “Excuse me! Could you do something about your tone?” My family finds that odd when I come home.

VN: I can imagine. It could be something to do with getting older. Do you find getting older affects your tone in your stand up?
RH: Oh, definitely. I mean, you are your stand up. So any changes that you make in your life – mental, physical or emotional – should come out in the wash in your stand up. If there’s a comedian who has done the same jokes for years, then that is indicative of arrested development in his life.

VN: A number of your peers – I would call them your peers, I don’t know if you would agree with that – a number of them seem to be coming forward and ending their set with a musical turn.
RH: Oh yeah?

VN: Yes. Like Jack Dee or Stewart. Lee. Would you ever step forward and go; ‘Right, here’s a blues song I’m playing for you’? Would you ever consider going into doing some music?
RH: Well, I would hate to presume on any decision Future Reg might make, but Current Reg is completely surprised by you even telling me that this is happening. Who knows. Future Reg might be desperate, or on the way down, or just… Future Reg might get some babies or a mortgage and the next thing you know he’s doing ******** mainstream songs. I don’t know, man. But I currently am not siring children and I don’t have a mortgage so…

VN:… there’s no possibility?
RH: I just… I don’t have an excuse to do ********.

VN: I get the impression it amuses them. And that seems to be the core with stand up in that if it amuses you then that’s half the battle.
RH: Well, I can’t speak for any of these cats – certainly since I just didn’t make no musical turns at the end – but I do know that when you’re on tour for long periods of time you get tired of your own voice, you get tired of your jokes, you get tired of the way you make jokes, so you do any number of things to tickle yourself and to keep yourself interested. So, yeah. I mean, I probably wouldn’t do a song but I’d probably do something twisted though.

VN: I’m really curious to see what ‘twisted’ is coming from you.
RH: Well I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned then won’t you.

VN: I certainly will.
RH: My agent will listen to this and think: let’s keep his boredom levels down.

VN: Would you consider moving into acting, like a lot of other comics seem to do?
RH: I don’t see enough interesting work that’s available to anyone at my level, or even slightly higher. I think that there’s a one-off project that I could get into. The acting world is too polluted with people who have nothing to do with the skill and the artform. They have many different agendas that they follow. And it’s like, I could see doing projects but to give myself, like “I am an actor now”? No, you can have that ********.

VN: So we’re not going to see you dancing around?
RH: I mean it’s just… any profession that’s just makes you overtly concerned about how liked you are, it just makes you crazy. I mean, at least with stand up if something ****s up on stage, I know where to start my investigation. It’s right here. And I know that if I’m funny, and if I’m interesting, I know I’ll work. But in acting I can not work because I’m not tall enough, or my tits ain’t big enough, or I just got old. Nothing to do with acting. Man, **** that **** – you can have that!

I mean, anybody in this life, you realise you’ve got to fight something. You realise that you have to earn your keep. And you’re willing to handle any battle as long as it’s straight up. But that ain’t straight up, now. There’s plenty of people not working in acting, just because somebody didn’t like them.

VN: Stand up is very self-contained.
RH: Look man, I know average ******s who are average funny but they put their kids through college with jokes. You’ve got to respect that now.

VN: Your show is coming out on DVD soon?
RH: The show I’ve been touring until July is coming out.

VN: Do you have any DVD extras you’ve come up with for it when you were battling your tour boredom threshold?
RH: I’m sorry, I was far more bored with that aspect of it that even that. You’ve got me far more interested in that than I was.

VN: I was just thinking of where your brain might go to when you’re bored of what your brain is currently turned to.
RH: I tend to write really twisted jokes when I’m bored. I mean, any jokes that have real punch to them, that you’re going to get mad about, especially like, contentious subjects. You’ll be, like, somewhere – I don’t know – maybe somewhere real, you’ll be sitting somewhere looking out the window looking at the beach, all bleak. You’re mad at your show for being bored. You know. Everybody you meet sounds the same. All the women you meet demand to be treated like they’re special, but the very language they use is identical to each other. It’ll be like: “I’m trying to, man. I want to see you as special, just do something different today. I don’t care. Do a backflip or open a Coke bottle with your ***** – anything other than just: “I’m special because I’m me!” After a while you start writing jokes and they have bite to them, and you don’t mean to. You don’t sit down and go: “I’m going to write ****ed up **** today.”

VN: What you’ve done is you’ve turned the weapon of your wit and your intelligence and you’ve turned it sharp.
RH: The thing is, it became sharp and I didn’t mean for it to. I got friends and ex girlfriends and they call up and we’ll speak for a minute or two and they’ll say: “Oop! You got your comic thing going on. I’ll talk to you after you wake up tomorrow.” It makes you really sharp this comic stuff. Essentially if you’re like me, you try to answer people’s questions or criticisms – and then after a while you just have some contentious material and some contentious people. After a while you just get adept at shuffling balls.

VN: Shuffling what?
RH: Shuffling balls, that’s what I call them. I shuffle balls. I just handle all kinds of big situations. I shuffle them. I shuffle balls. I been shuffling balls since I was about six.

VN: I’ll bet it was that quick wit that got you shuffling them in the first place.
RH: Well, you know that quick wit occasionally has me drop balls. “Whoops! I dropped one!”

VN: Well, thank you very much for taking time out for this chat. I appreciate you time, and your wit and intelligence.
RH: I don’t think I ever had me and wit put in the same sentence before. It just tickles me. I think I’m given far too much respect in this country, but I’m going to let you guys get on with it. I remember the days when it wasn’t like that. Take care’ ma’am.

Reginald D Hunter – In The Midst Of Crackers, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Saturday 23 November 2013, 8pm, £24/22; 01273 709709, www.brightondome.org

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