USA: SPIKE LEE PREMIERES HIS LATEST FILM DOCUMENTARY STYLE CONCERT OF "THE KINGS OF COMEDY"

Record ID: 389912

  • Title: USA: SPIKE LEE PREMIERES HIS LATEST FILM DOCUMENTARY STYLE CONCERT OF "THE KINGS OF COMEDY"
  • Date: 24th July 2000
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 24) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) SPIKE LEE SAYING OF OTHER COMEDY CONCERT FILMS, In all respect, those films, I'mnot really talking about the performances, Eddie, Richard Pryor, you know, wonderful. I'm talking about the way they were shot. I don't think those filmmakers really added to it, they just, two or three camera
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA9Y01WGKJSSFDZAJNC0EXJ0LPQ
  • Story Text: Taking a break from his work in fictional feature film, director Spike Lee gets behind the camera for "The Original Kings of Comedy," a documentary-style concert film featuring four of the most popular African-American comics in America.
    Lee attended the film's world premiere in Los Angeles.
    This movie is a filmed version of the hugely popular "Kings of Comedy" concert tour started in 1997 by promoter Walter Latham.
    With an established following among African Americans across the United States, it has become the highest grossing comedy tour in history with ticket sales exceeding 37 million dollars.
    For Spike Lee's cinematic version, he shot footage over three days, covering two performances in Charlotte, North Carolina with ten cameras.
    He also used digital video, because it was cost efficient and allowed him to move his cameras quickly to keep up with the performers.
    On stage are four of America's most popular African American comics.
    Steve Harvey is best known as the star of his own television sitcom "The Steve Harvey Show."
    D.L. Hughley also has a TV sitcom named after him called "The Hughleys."
    Both Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac have made names for themselves on the stand-up comedy circuit.
    In directing these four, Lee discovered that stand-up comedy was a lot like boxing, with the performer up on stage almost naked except for a microphone and the daunting challenge of making a sold-out stadium laugh.
    Both Lee and the comics hope "The Original Kings of Comedy" falls in line with a tradition of African American stand-up comic concert films like "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip," "Eddie Murphy's Raw" and Martin Lawrence's "You So Crazy."
    However, for this film, Lee wanted to go a step further, employing some of his unique camera work and involving the audience more than his predecessors.
    After catching on with audiences on the live conert scene, "The Kings of Comedy" have a chance of broadening their appeal even further when the concert film "The Original Kings of Comedy" opens in theaters throughout the US on Friday, August 18.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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