Jillian Ebanks - Where Does Comedy Go From Here?

Performance Revue

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’