ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Inflation and the availability of specials on streaming services are creating challenges for comedy clubs. Black-owned venues are especially strained. Fewer than 10 in the U.S. dedicate their stages to comedy. So what do you get when you combine a creative promoter with the long tradition of Black comedic performers in America? Justin Kramon has the punch line.
JUSTIN KRAMON, BYLINE: Ken Jones is dealing with some issues. Ticket sales are low this month, and one of his comedians dropped out before the show. Still...
KEN JONES: I try not to worry too much anymore because I've been doing it so long. I know we're going to make the best of whatever we have.
KRAMON: Jones runs a comedy show called "Laugh The Pain Away." Once a month, he features two comedians along with two poets in an event space here in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KRAMON: The performers, like the audience, are mostly Black. And the ticket includes a soul food meal, wine, a raffle ticket and a DJ. Jones, a comedian himself, says the show is a place to relax and let go of the week's stress.
JONES: They realize, all you got to do is laugh a couple more times, and you'll get out this little moment you're in.
KRAMON: Performances like this have a long history in America. As early as the late 1800s, a collection of Black performance spaces arose that later became known as the Chitlin' Circuit, says Rashida Z. Shaw McMahon, a professor of English and African American studies at Wesleyan.
RASHIDA Z SHAW MCMAHON: These were the Black-only segments of what was an American pastime, which was vaudeville.
KRAMON: Jim Crow laws required theaters to be segregated, but by the 1920s, Black entertainment was booming, giving rise to stars like comedian Moms Mabley.
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MOMS MABLEY: Love is just like a game of checkers, children. You sure got to know what man to move.
(LAUGHTER)
KRAMON: As America legally desegregated, Professor Shaw McMahon says a new Black performance circuit emerged, this time by choice.
SHAW MCMAHON: Born out of an intentional interest by these Black artists to perform for Black audiences in nontraditional spaces.
KRAMON: So in the later 20th century, you get Black playwrights staging plays and comedians performing routines for Black audiences in churches and catering halls and community centers. The productions don't have to explain references that Black people will get.
SHAW MCMAHON: It was responding to an absence - Black people saying, we are going to spend our money here, right? We should be able to create what we think is important.
KRAMON: Back in Philadelphia, host Ken Jones is starting his show.
JONES: We're going to laugh the pain away.
KRAMON: The jokes are conversational, like when Jones complains...
JONES: If you ever want to be unappreciated by your children, take them to an amusement park. As soon as you say yes, my daughter will talk about, well, can we bring a friend?
(LAUGHTER)
JONES: First off, I got two kids. I made you a friend. What are you talking about?
KRAMON: Lamarr Todd, the headliner comedian, says that although he performs for a lot of diverse crowds, he makes a point to continue playing Black comedy rooms.
LAMARR TODD: The Black rooms kind of keep me sharp and also being genuine to who I am.
(LAUGHTER)
TODD: I like the hat you got there on right there, ma'am. That's reminiscent of "Color Purple."
(LAUGHTER)
KRAMON: But as Black comedy clubs close, Todd says it's getting harder to find these rooms.
TODD: There's less Black venues. The Chitlin' Circuit is fading away.
KRAMON: Which means the Black comedy circuit has entered a new era - preservation. Audience member Vanessa Crenshaw says she attends because the community is so important.
VANESSA CRENSHAW: I come every month. It's something to look forward to. I don't know. I feel a sense of family with them.
KRAMON: Which is why Jones says he's not going to stop anytime soon.
JONES: Thank y'all for being y'all.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER #1: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER #2: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER #1: Yeah.
JONES: Thank y'all. I'll see y'all next time. And I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER #2: Love you, too.
KRAMON: For NPR News, I'm Justin Kramon in Philadelphia.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONVERTIBLE ROOF BRONSIN SONG, "FRESH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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