He's all right. My brother may have brought it on himself a little, that's why I have a little trouble telling the rest of the story, especially since my brother passed two months later. Plus it's hard to tell this story because my brother bought us all tickets to see the show. What was funny was, Paul Mooney kinda mentioned something that had to do with this night, about six months later on a you tube video.
I might as well tell the rest of the story. Didn't mean to give shade to Paul Mooney, and of course not my brother. And I still don't when I tell the rest of the story. But as Paul and his entourage were about to enter the backdoor, my brother cracked a joke, and said "Paul, I want you to make at least three White people get up and leave tonight". Paul didn't get the joke at first, plus my brother's voice was very weak at this stage. So Paul asked him, "What was that?". So my brother said it again. So Paul understood the joke this time, and smiled, while giving my brother a look like, "That was a good one". So he gave my brother a thumbs up. I guess that was my brothers last chance to be a comedian...all in fun.
If you ever saw somebody with stage 4 cancer, then my brother looked like he was at stage 5. So everybody in that auditorium who saw my brother, including Paul, knew he was very, very ill. Anyway, we sat on the upper level on the balcony. When Paul came on, he began telling jokes about dead people, saying things like, "I saw Ray Charles last night". Then he said, "Seriously, I'm not kidding". Then he said the same joke about three more deceased celebrities. I was wondering how my brother was taking his jokes, and probably everybody else was who saw him in that condition. I looked over at my brother, and he had his elbow on the table, and his chin resting in his palm, like he was getting depressed, the pose most people do when they're depressed, or tired. But my brother was depressed, and everybody knew it, although my mind was trying to tell me he wasn't. Then I heard somebody mocking Paul Mooney's laugh later in his show, while he was telling another joke. But that was my first time going to a show like that, and I kinda admired the courage someone must have, to be able to set in front of all those people, and just start chatting, with a spot light on them. Mooney had a little drink in his hand while he was sitting down there on stage. I wasn't sure if that was what he always does or not, being the first time seeing him, or seeing a show like this period.
Then dikk Gregory came on. The first thing he said was that he had been in the business for a long time, and Richard Pryor and Paul Mooney were punks when he started. It was all in fun, and he had us all rolling. dikk did good that night. And I was able to understand him much better than I did when I would hear him on the radio sometimes.
But most people said Paul Mooney didn't do too well that night. I kinda think it had something to do with my brother telling him that joke, and how he responded to it during his show. This could have been taken one, or both of these two ways: First, he could have been chastising my brother for still having hatred in his heart for White people so close to the end of his life, and he could have been trying to tell my brother to get his heart straight before he transitioned. Or Mooney's pride could have got the best of him, and felt like my brother tried to tell a better joke than him. Sometimes people in show business have egos, and feel threatened when they think a fan is trying to out do them. So part of me felt like perhaps Paul should have just let it go, and gave my brother his last chance to get off one last good one, since my brother was obviously near the end of his life, and since he had to be one big fan to come out there and see him in that condition. Then he may have needed somebody big like Mooney, to get the hate out his heart for White people. My brother had gotten dogged real bad on his government job, like I did. My brother admired me for standing up against White people, which costed me my job. But I bounced back and got blessed with twice as much. My brother never forgot that. I think that's why he introduced me to Paul Mooney. Btw, when I took that stand against discrimination in the work place, dikk Gregory was one of the speakers. That's where I met him. And that's probably another reason my brother introduced me to Paul Mooney. Plus when you're in that stage of cancer, you may say some things you wouldn't normally say.
But about six months later (it may had been a little longer, like a year later), I saw Paul Mooney on this you tube video say, "You know what I hate about being a comedian?..."Everybody wants to be a comedian". So I knew that had something to do with my brother telling that joke. I still have mixed feelings sometimes. It wasn't like my brother insulted him. But that could have affected Pauls' performance that night, since it caught him off guard. This is a tough one. Like I said, my brother died two months later. But I don't hold nothing against Mooney, because he was caught off guard, and I'm not sure what he really meant that night on stage.
Sometimes, I think my brother met Paul Mooney before off stage, to feel comfortable enough to relate to him the way he did that night.
