COMEDY NOTES
Newsletter sends a comic to the stage
By Nick A. Zaino III, Globe Correspondent, 11/7/2003
When young comedians try out new material, they usually do it onstage, risking humiliation by strangers and more seasoned professionals at an open-mike night. Baratunde Rafiq Thurston bypassed those early struggles, getting his start instead writing a humorous and topical e-mail newsletter, something he has done since high school. Now, though he officially began doing stand-up only in August of last year, Thurston has a new book of political humor called "Better Than Crying" (whose release he will celebrate next week at the Comedy Studio in Cambridge), and he will share the stage with seasoned comics Barry Crimmins and Brian Longwell tonight and tomorrow at Firehouse Theatre in Newburyport. He also plays the Lizard Lounge on Monday.
The first newsletter began when Thurston was head of the black student union in his Washington, D. C., high school. Annoyed with the politics of dealing with the school administration and parents' groups, he started a list he called "jokers," trying to keep students informed of what was going on, and eventually trying to entertain them as well.
"That's where I was starting to actively look for comedy things, and it was a great outlet for the frustration on the political level within the school," he says.
His frustration continued when he was a freshman philosophy major at Harvard in 1996. He couldn't believe how unaware his classmates were of current events, so he started NewsPhlash, the newsletter from which much of his book is culled. "You can really trace the explicit stuff to me satirizing the news and trying to find a way to explain what was going on without just explaining what was going on," he says.
After letting NewsPhlash slide for more than a year after graduating, Thurston dedicated himself to becoming a funny writer and performer in late 2001, during what he calls a "creative explosion." He took stand-up classes in Boston and a Tuesday night writing class in New York City, flying down and taking the train back in to work the next morning.
In his book and onstage, Thurston addresses topics such as the "war on terror," violent and misogynistic hip-hop and rap lyrics, and music "piracy" but also dives into light, observational material. It's a balance that he finds difficult to maintain.
"I don't want to take myself too seriously," Thurston says. "I see the value of comedy in bringing up issues and helping people think about it. But I also don't want to belittle things that are really, really core issues to me."
Thurston's timing in writing a political humor book couldn't be better, with Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Molly Ivins topping the bestseller charts.
Even with so many political books in the market, Thurston sees a niche for himself, talking to a younger generation in a not so heavy-handed way.
"I think that's where I've found the most resonance with a lot of my material, with people who actually watch MTV and know who O-Town is and can sing a Ja Rule song and realize, yes, it is dumb. It is quite, quite stupid."
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