Paul Mooney' been taking on race since it was still fashionable for white folks to be racist. Most recently known as Chappelle' Show' Negrodamus, Mooney also served as Richard Pryor' longtime writing partner and was a driving force behind shows like In Living Color and Sanford and Son. In honor of Black History Month, the 66-year-old Oakland native released his new, delicately titled DVD, Know Your History: Jesus Was Black"¦So Was Cleopatra. Mooney took some time to tell us why Hillary Clinton will be our next president, why Michael Jackson' innocent and why he' stopped using the N-word.
I read that you were recently pulled off stage at the Apollo Theater for insulting George W. Bush. Is that true?
That is true"¦. Because I talked about him on TimeWarner. I was working with Whoopi Goldberg because she was hosting the show. She left and I was supposed to host. I made some comments, some jokes. They were funny to the audience. The audience loved it. The people that were filming it, I guess it went to LA-they could see it in LA. They shut down everything for an hour and a half until they decided what to do with me. I'm glad I have witnesses in the dressing room because they came and they told me that I was fired and why, and then when the press came after them, they denied it.
That' crazy. It seems like the Apollo is a place where you can say whatever you feel like saying.
Right, right. It was. I laughed. I thought it was funny. I called Whoopi and told her and she said, "Welcome to the club." She got fired off that weight-watching thing she did when she made a comment about him.
On the Know Your History DVD, a young white couple gets up and walks out. You seem to like it when people get pissed off at your act.
It' funny that people can be moved by much ado about nothing. I mean, me making a comment about Bush is nothing to get angry about. If you're gonna get angry, you should be angry about that war and those kids dying"¦. People are weird when it comes to jokes. I just think it' funny that they can get so moved by nothing.
How about the presidential candidates for 2008? Do you like any of them?
Oh, I'm the first person to predict that Hillary would be President. I was the first person to say that. The very first.
What do you think would make her a good president?
I spotted it way back in the day. Way back. I spotted it like a bird-watcher. Just like I knew that Ronald Reagan would be president, back before he was governor. I saw him speaking on behalf of someone else, and I thought, "He' talking about himself." I remember telling Richard [Pryor], "He' going to run for president." Hillary, I knew. I felt it. Madam President. I mean, I say it on the DVD and I make jokes about it, but I've always been a big fan of Hillary.
What do you think would be the best thing, or the worst thing, about having a female president?
America' ready for it. We're being groomed for it. And what I really think is that Obama and her will join together. I think that he'll run with her. I think that he'll be vice president. I feel it. Because if he' vice-president, that will assure she won't be assassinated.
Why' that?
Because they don't want a black president.
You've created classic characters like In Living Color' Homey the Clown and Negrodamus. Do you like any one character more than another?
What' done is done. That' my feeling about it. I mean, I'm an artist. I wear different hats. I just enjoy doing what I'm doing. Homey the Clown, Negrodamus, Ask a Black Man-I loved all of them"¦. It' a fun experience for me. Things are meant to be a certain way, and when it ends, it ends.
Once, we were doing a tribute to Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory and a couple of other people at the Apollo. Richard had just gotten sick"¦and I had to put on these earphones and tell Richard his lines. I had to coach him. I was in the booth and I started crying because I knew this was the last time I would ever do this. I knew it was over. What is, is. I just had this feeling it was over. People asked me why I was crying, and I said, "I'll never do this again." I just knew it. And I never did.