Jillian Ebanks - Where Does Comedy Go From Here?
Manage episode 282777678 series 2858608
The first installment of Performance Revue's 'Where Does Comedy Go From Here?' is a conversation/interview/check-in with Jillian Ebanks.
Jillian is a comedian, actor, a Bob Curry fellow, a co-producer of B.A.P.S., and a brilliant black woman just trying to survive during a global pandemic in a regressive country.
Jillian's waxing video is now on YouTube! Give it a look: https://youtu.be/-_0sikMMaZQ.
Time Stamps:
01:20 - Recap of Previous Episode Begins
- Mention of Drake
01:55 – “I’ve toned down my love of rappers”
02:16 – “I’m trying not to idolize celebrity”
- Mentions of Lizzo, Beyonce, Megan Thee Stallion
02:52 – “I think celebrity is dangerous”
03:00 – Recapping the “Drake Rant”
04:01 – Recommending ‘Unlocked’ by Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats
- Mention of Tiana Taylor
05:14 – Harry Potter and the Curse of the TERF Author
- Mentions of J.K. Rowling
08:03 – Lauryn Hill, ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’ is a slut-shaming song
- Mention of ‘Friday Night Lights’
09:42 – Kanye West is a mental landmine in my randomized playlists
- Mention of Kim Kardashian
12:20 – “I host weekly support meetings for people who have given up their favorite rapper”
- Mention of ‘Rami’
13:58 – The Covid Waxing Video
- Inspired by waxing her face during a Zoom call. Improvised performance
17:20 – “Covid Chic”
19:43 – Chicago Winters
21:17 – Will all performances be online?
- Mention of BAPS
23:31 – “I got invited to do a stand-up show in a back yard”
24:38 – “Broadway is closed until January”
25:14 – COVID Begins; the impact on gigs and jobs
27:25 – The governmental response, or lack thereof
- Mention of Bob Curry Fellowship
30:40 – How has COVID changed your comedy?
32:21 – “I haven’t been able to find anything funny about Corona Virus, itself”
33:13 – Impact of the George Floyd protests
33:45 – “Even white people are protesting now”
34:14 – “I’ve never watched any footage. Ever.”
- Mentions of Philando Castile, Eric Garner
36:30 – “Being black in America was hard enough”
38:05 – Mention of Colorism
38:30 – Mentions of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland
39:25 – “Where does comedy go from here?”
40:48 – “We are living in farce”
41:51 – “I write from a source of insecurity”
43:53 – Sidebar on Marxism
44:43 – Fuck Starbucks
44:57 – Internalized Capitalism
46:37 – “I was up for a promotion and I didn’t want it”
48:26 – “I feel like I wasted this stay-at-home order”
- Mention of Pro Tools
50:00 – Jillian has a hard time accepting compliments
Life During Quarantine
50:34 – Dating during quarantine
51:49 – Intimacy (or lack thereof) during COVID
53:10 – Addressing priorities and FOMO
54:00 – Roommates and companionship
56:30 – The creative process
57:10 – Jillian accepts the compliment
57:40 – Pay people a living wage (unions are good)
- Jillian talks about working out of a theater in DC
59:28 – “This is the most money I’ve ever had, and it’s because I’m on unemployment. That’s not fun for me”
1:01:28 – “This feels like 2008 all over again”
1:02:10 – My biggest investing win
1:03:30 – How industries and jobs are changing
1:05:06 – “We have no national guidance”
1:05:44 – “I’m not a sharp enough satirist to satirize what’s going on right now”
- The Banana Republicans sketch
1:06:52 – Political false equivalency, “Why are we appeasing racists?”
1:08:30 – Mitch McConnell can die
1:08:36 – Media Diet
1:09:35 – Jillian Recommends HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Gentefied’
1:09:55 – We review ‘Veep’
- Neither of us liked it, but we respect the effort by the talent involved
1:11:31 – Jillian’s criteria for consuming quarantine media
1:12:16 – For the record, ‘Insecure’ is an amazing show
1:12:25 – Jillian recommends ‘Rami’, ‘Snowpiercer’, ‘I May Destroy You’, and ‘Killing Eve’
1:14:35 – Jillian does not recommend ‘Ozark’
1:14:45 – I recommend ‘The West Wing’
- Stark contrast between the show and the Trump administration
1:15:49 – “It’s hard to watch newer shows right now”
1:16:02 – Jillian enthusiastically recommends ‘Hamilton’
- Mention of Daveed Diggs
1:16:48 – We both recommend ‘Blindspotting’, ‘Black Panther’, and ‘Into The Spiderverse’
- Mention of Spike Lee’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’
1:18:10 – We both recommend ‘Always Be My Maybe’
1:18:53 - Jillian pitches me on ‘The Lovebirds’
1:20:17 – I pitch Jillian on ‘The Witcher’
- Mention of ‘Game of Thrones’
1:21:30 – No black main character in ‘The Witcher’ (Mimi Ndiweni as Fringilla Vigo notwithstanding)
1:21:54 – “Storse material”
1:22:28 – Jillian recommends the new ‘Charmed’ reboot
1:23:07 – First impressions of ‘Space Force'
- Something is missing from the show, even though it has a lot of talent involved
- Show is trying too hard. Too much going on.
- Mentions of ‘The Office’, Steve Carrell, ‘High Fidelity’, Tawny Newsome, Lisa Kudrow, Zoey Kravitz
1:27:23 – Jillian can’t stop watching ‘Hamilton’
1:27:56 – I stan for ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’
1:28:20 - Jillian stans for ‘Hamilton’
1:30:48 – “I love fantasy, I just don’t feel represented in fantasy”
- Mention of Disney, Avengers, ‘Endgame’
1:34:29 – Disney corporation constantly changes laws on public domain
- Factual Error: Ron DeSantis is the Governor of Florida, not Rick Scott. I confused one anthropomorphic sack of turds for another.
- Mentions of Disney World, Disney Land, Michael Eisner, Rick Scott, Stacy Abrams, Andrew Gillam, Beto O’Rourke, Lori Lightfoot
1:36:40 – Possible futures for media production and live performance
- Mentions of ‘Euphoria’, Zendaya, John David Washington, Leslie Odom Jr., ‘The Winter Soilder’
1:39:04 – “All the things we want, we can have. We just don’t want to wait for them”
1:39:40 – Final Thoughts
- Recommendations for ‘Pose’ and ‘Disclosure’
65 एपिसोडस