I have seen very little of Dick Gregory's comedy. He did do some of it
in that live event I saw and I suppose it was funny enough. He was also
a decent enough civil rights activist. But it is his ideas on nutrition
that he was awful on. He was presenting himself as an expert on
something he knew nothing about. It was that simple.
On 8/21/2017 11:29 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
My sense that Dick Gregory was not as entertaining as some of the
later Black Comics, like Bill Cosby, was not meant to detract from his
central role in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies as a Civil Rights
Advocate. Gregory, in my opinion was far more of an influence through
his daily life than was Bill Cosby, over whom I absolutely fell off my
chair laughing. But Cosby used his enormous talent to satisfy his own
greed, while Gregory used his talent to open doors for all Blacks and
people of Color. Amy Goodman had an hour with clips out of past
interviews with Dick Gregory on this morning. While my respect for
him grew, I still found his humor to be not so funny.
As for Jerry Lewis and my claim that many people saw in him a negative
stereotype of a NYC Jew, That was my recollection of years of hearing
people talk about him. People who "loved" the man, even as they made
cutting remarks.
Maybe I read more into all of that, just because I never, ever liked
anything about Jerry Lewis.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/21/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wanted to add to this conversation because there was a piece regarding
Dick Gregory on Unauthorized Disclosure that I heard this morning. I do
think that Carl's and Roger's posts have sold him short. There was an
amazing interview with Dick Gregory held in 1964 on a public radio station
in which he responded to the interviewer's rather naïve questions, with
excellent imply phrased explanations of what it means to be black in
America
and also, some predictions about the reactions of white people as they
begin
to comprehend that they are a minority of the world's population with less
power than they're accustomed to. There was also an excellent little stand
up comedy bit about what it was like for a black person to order food in a
restaurant in the South. Additionally, Gregory has a history of working
for
a variety of causes of which you would approve, starting in the 70's.
Miriam