Still figuring it all out

Ahead of his show in the INEC in Killarney on October 19, Kevin Hughes talks to comedian Reginald D Hunter about the moment that changed his life, moving to London from the US, Trump and why he now finally thinks that OJ Simpson could just be guilty ....

“I’M staring down the barrel of this gun and all of a sudden I’m thinking about all the things I never did but had intended to and it became crystal clear.”

And that was the moment that would change his life forever.

What comedian Reginald D Hunter also reveals is that the gunman was a crack addict, a high school friend and that the argument was fuelled by a high stakes card game.

“I was going through a period in which I was working on a significant gambling addiction. I was gambling with drug dealers and one of my buddies from high school who was on crack, he accused me of cheating and pulled a weapon out on me. Then that thing they say about your life flashing before your eyes, that really f**king happened.

“I’m staring at this weapon and I’m thinking about all of the things I never did but I had intended to do and it became crystal clear. I thought, oh f**k, I’d planned on visiting the UK before I die and I thought, if I get out from this, that’s what I’m going to do. And the very next day I went down to the library and started trying to get a mailing address for RADA - The Royal Academy for Dramatic Art.”

It’s 20 years since this deep thinker made the trip across The Pond from Albany, Georgia to London, England. Back then he was following a dream to study acting. But he soon ditched acting for comedy and built a reputation for cutting edge material that doesn’t shy away from racist, political or other controversial issues.

So just how has he changed since that move to London?

“In those 20 years I’ve lost innocence, belief in America and exceptionalism. I’ve learned that Jews, gays and communists are not scary, in fact they’re probably just people too, oh and add athiests to that,” he adds with a smile and a trademark laught that resonates like chestnut.

“Where I came from in the South I previously had a fear of communists and athiests and all that stuff. But it was now like the first time I actually tried expensive coffee after watching Frazier for all those years. I tasted it and thought this is just f**king coffee! Let me get a triple mocha!”

Talk soon turns to Trump but not at Reginald D’s behest. In fact, he’s never met the man but feels he has to respond.

“It’s hard being an American in a room of non Americans and not say something about it. I’m sure he is not actually a supremacist. I know he keeps cutting it with supremacists but you don’t have to be racist to necessarily be good at racism.”

And that deep laugh begins again.

So after so many years spent abroad, is he still patriotic?

“I’ve had disillusionment, that was one of the most grevious things I learned coming over here – discovering that my America was not the America I thought it was. But I am still patriotic, it’s just that my patriotism makes we want America to go around the world and undo the suffering it has caused rather than extend empire. I think America owes a lot of people an apology, some land and some money around the world.”

The interview is just two days before OJ Simpson’s release on parole after a nine year stretch for armed robbery and the subject matter – and title – is something he leans on heavily for his current tour ‘The People v Reginald D Hunter’. The tour delves into the trial of the century and how the American football star was eventually acquitted of murder.

“You remember that documentary that came out about OJ, ‘Made in America’? Well I watched that documentary and it was the first time since the whole thing broke out in 1994 that I though, ‘Oh my God, this nigger did it!’. I’ve been defending him for years with like maybe the glove but, no, he actually did it.”

“I just think that one of the problems of the western world is that we have gotten way away from calling things as they are. We love diluting the truth and cherry pick it so we can alter perception. Back then I thought it was impossible for OJ to do it because OJ was me .... I mean OJ was this black dude who was working really hard in the world of white people, he was trying to represent black people as best he could, so I thought there’s no way I’d slash to death a white woman and a Jewish dude and so I was sure he wouldn’t do it either.”

Reginald D thrives on controversial material and is no stranger to criticism, so how will he go down with Irish audiences?

“I will connect with Irish people through a shared sense of being ignored by white people, through the fact that my personal economy does not matter,” he says with yet another smile.

And so his favourite Irish comedians? “I have several favourite Irish comedians. Of course, I love Dave Allen but I don’t consider him in my class, he seems above and beyond, somewhere else apart from my contemporaries. He is a retired five star admiral from my fleet.”

He pauses for a few seconds when asked where his toughest audience has been, eventually recalling a certain gig on his last tour.

“It was near Folkestone, England, and it was half way through the show that we realised that we were definitely in Brexit leave area and those people seem kind of particular about the type of edge you have in your comedy.”

So does he get politics this side of The Atlantic?

“I’ve recently tried to hunker down and get my head around UK politics - it was during the last UK election. Theresa May has brought into power some guys I’ve never heard of called the DUPs (he pronounces it ‘doops’ for effect).

“I’ve been here 20 years and never heard of a Dup. It seemed that the Ukips were not much of a threat any more so we had to invent somebody like the Dups. It’s like we need a bad guy, someone divisive and slightly deranged to keep the election process interesting,” he jokes.

“Meanwhile, the difference between Trump and Theresa May is she speaks to you as if you might remember the last thing she said, Trump is devoid of this.”

He’s known for his laid back style, doesn’t get ruffled and refers to his Southern upbringing as reason for that. He explains

why.

“My parents were old, my father was 50 and my mother was 42. Old school, old world people, the bigger the crisis was the calmer and more still they got and so I always had a lack of panic in a crisis and it comes from that,” he reveals.

So how would he describe his humour to Irish audiences?

“I’m really not in the habit of explaining my comedy to anyone, I stopped doing that when I had to explain it to my family! I just show them my awards and my DVD releases and say to them that clearly some white people in Europe think that I might be okay!”

And there’s that laugh again. To hear more laughs and catch up with Reginald D Hunter, check out the INEC on Thursday, October 19, doors open at 7pm.