Fri 12/30
Gary Owen
Gary Owen’s impressive list of credits includes being designated “Funniest Serviceman in America,” hosting BET’s
Comic View and acting in
Ride Along,
Little Man,
Think Like a Man and
Tyler Perry’s House of Pain. His most impressive credit, in terms of WTF-value alone, however, is being named “Funniest Black Comedian in San Diego,” while being technically classified as what ethnographers might term “white as hell” — a blue-eyed blond who grew up in an Ohio trailer park. (The contest was conducted via radio call-in show if you were curious.)
Ebony magazine’s postulation “Black America’s Favorite White Comedian” is considerably more accurate, and though his black wife often comes up in his act, Owen’s bits about black culture are always delivered from the perspective of a knowledgeable outsider, a subtle reminder of how very far we are from post-racial society but an even better reminder of how laughter can momentarily make that shit not matter quite so much.
$29.75-$65, 8pm Fri, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — JM