Review: Arthur Simeon, The Blackest Panther
The returns have been wildly uneven in the half-century since Richard Pryor popularized the whole black-people-do-this, white-people-do-this form. After all, we're still only eight months removed from Saturday Night Live having to turf their "conservative" demo comedian for being on the wrong side of is-this-funny-or-is-this-racist?
If Ugandan-Canadian comic Arthur Simeon's new album The Blackest Panther were to be evaluated simply against the Pryor standard, though, he'd be considered a master craftsman. The white people zings are there like, I dunno, mayonnaise. Simeon expertly picks apart the decidedly white phenomenon of inappropriate companion animals, the slightly confusing ways in which Montrealers hurl slurs and the disconcerting realization that if you date a white woman you'll end up camping at some point. It's all gold. But it's only the surface layer of The Blackest Panther. Dig deeper and a whole other hilarious and cutting layer reveals itself around the concept of family.
Simeon's observational humour in this area might be even better. Through the course of his set he accuses his mother of being a cokehead (multiple times), explores how having three older sisters warped his mind and presents an uncomfortably plausible scenario where his parents might murder at least two of his siblings. If Simeon suddenly disappears from the face of the Earth we'll know why (cokehead murder mom), but at least we'll have had some laughs along the way.
The Blackest Panther was released February 21, 2020 on Comedy Records.
Listen to it here