The Eastside Scene, July 31, 2015

the E A S T S I D E

scene

August 2015

Steel & Glory Who are these people, and why are they pointing swords at our faces?

Find out on page 4

PLUS: Who is Mrs. Goldberg? 7 | Thrifty business 8 | Comedian Tommy Davidson 10

2 the eastside scene

AUGUST

EAT | Taste of Main

The Don’t-Miss List

Drink wine, be merry and taste your way down Main Street for its seventh year. This fun day filled with a wide variety of food, live entertainment, shopping, giveaways, and, yes, wine, will help benefit the Detlef Schrempf Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bellevue.

Buy one ticket for $15-40, get one child entry free.

To purchase tickets early, visit www.tasteofmainbellevue.com.

When: Aug. 22, 12-5 p.m.

Where: Main Street in Old Bellevue

SEE | Art in the Garden

Take a stroll through the garden and view the beautifully displayed sculptures and art for your garden, deck, and patio. Have some refreshments and meet local artists. Word in the garden is Ciscoe Morris might make an appearance.

Appreciate the arts. It’s free fun.

To see a full list of artists, visit www.artinthegardenbellevue.com.

When: Aug. 29-30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Where: Bellevue Botanical Garden, 12001 Main Street, Bellevue

Jah Bouks in a music video for his song Angola.

Jah will perform at the Seattle International Reggae Festival in Snoqualmie August 22.

Image credit: Reggaeville on YouTube

LAUGH | Luenell

Borat’s “hooker with a heart of gold” is living her dream as one of the top 25 funniest people in LA (according to LA Magazine). The Arkansas native has found roles on Think Like a Man, Hotel Transylvania, Taken 2 and That’s My Boy. Don’t miss your chance to see this comedic force of nature.

Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased at www.parlorlive.com.

When: Aug. 6-8 at various times Where: Parlor Live at Lincoln Square Bellevue

LISTEN | Seattle International Reggae Festival

Last year, production company Caribbean Blu held the inaugural Seattle International Reggae Festival in the big city. In its second year, the epic concert is coming to the Eastside, where I and I can enjoy some of the best performers in the great outdoors and the presence of Jah’s natural glory.

The festival will be emceed by Fyah Wyah, with performances by Keith N Tex, Big Mountain, Sister Nancy, Papa Michigan, Winston Jarrett, Jah Bouks (pictured), Selassie, Soldier, Guidance, Blue Meadows and John Holt tribute act Jr. Holt, with others.

When: 12 p.m.-12 a.m. Aug. 22 Where: Snoqualmie Point Park, 37580 Winery Rd. in Snoqualmie

DO | Seafair Weekend

LISTEN (AGAIN) | Brit Floyd: An Amazing Journey Through Five Decades of Pink Floyd

Back again for its 66th year, Seafair Weekend never ceases to amaze the masses. From hydroplane races and wakeboard competitions to the Boeing Air Show, there’s plenty to see and do all over Lake Washington. If you don’t mind the crowds, you can watch most of the action from the Interstate 90 bridge where the Blue Angels fly right above your head! But if that’s not your thing, you can still see them from any high point on the Eastside as far as Lake Sammamish.

To find a full schedule of events, visit www.seafair.com.

When: July 31-Aug. 1 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Aug. 2 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

Where: Genesee Park/ Lake Washington.

the E A S T S I D E

scene

Publisher William Shaw Editor/Layout Daniel Nash Production Designer Diana Nelson Contributing Writers Kris Brackmann Allison DeAngelis Brandon Macz Keegan Prosser

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ON THE COVER: The Seattle Knights. Photo by Daniel Nash

Whether or not you enter this show as a Pink Floyd fan, you’ll be leaving one as soon as the stage goes black. These guys who don’t need no education bring you the “world’s greatest Pink Floyd show.” Tag along with some friends to this special one-night event that features amazing stage effects and light show. You’re gonna wish you were here.

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Steel and Glory Inside the world of medieval stage combat troupe The Seattle Knights Story and photos by Daniel Nash

“M

ost injuries happen with daggers. The reason for that is that they’re small and they’re hard to keep track of in a fight. Plays will often use collapsible daggers if they have a scene where someone needs to be stabbed.

We don’t use the collapsible daggers.”

It’s a Friday afternoon and Dylan Birtolo and I are sitting outside the cafeteria of Building 50 on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Birtolo spends most of his days writing programming instruction manuals for the Windows 10 UAP, but at the moment he’s taking a break to explain the finer points of medieval weaponry.

The problem with collapsible daggers, he explains, is that they work mechanically and mechanisms can fail. Especially when they’re improperly lubricated or jammed up by foreign matter — say, blood.

“You can really wind up hurting someone if you go for a full stab and the dagger doesn’t collapse,” Dylan says.

Though Dylan’s weeks are spent in a windowless office figuring out new ways to explain cross-platform coding, his weekends are spent with swords, maces and jousting lances. You see, he’s a member of the Seattle Knights, a stage combat performance troupe that sells its services to Renaissance faires, Medieval Times-style dinner theater venues and film or televi-

sion productions — recently, members appeared as extras on HBO’s Game of Thrones.

“We prefer to use real weapons while using techniques that make it look like we’re stabbing someone without actually stabbing them,” Dylan says.

Some Microsoft employees having lunch at the next table look over at us as Dylan explains this. One could be forgiven for thinking this is some kind of History Geek Amateur Hour, some kind of Adult Playtime for Fantasy Nerds. Forgiven, but still wrong.

“It’s much safer,” Dylan says. *** Five days later, I’ve driven from work to the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle, home of the Washington National Guard’s Seattle Armory. Dylan’s told me this is where the Seattle Knights hold their weekly practice, but after two trips circling the parking lot — and two good looks at the sign reminding visitors that trespassing on federal property is a felony — I’m tempted to cut my losses and bounce for the night.

Then I spot two women getting out of their car. Dressed in T-shirts and yoga pants, they could have been any pair of friends out for an evening WOD at the

Crossfit studio across the train tracks.

Except when they reach into the trunk for their gear, what comes out are a halberd and a spear. Bingo.

Soon enough, I’m following them past the Armory gate into a small gymnasium where the steady clang of sword impact after sword impact is backed by the loose change sound of two dozen women and men fitting chain mail and steel plate over their Under Armour and Reeboks.

I find Dameon Willich, the founder of the Seattle Knights, sitting in the corner with senior members of the troupe, talking logistics for their show in July’s Highland Games in Enumclaw. He gets up to greet me and, standing north of 6-foot, broadshouldered with a mane of snow white hair

swept into a ponytail under his ranger hat and a spiderweb of blood vessels that lend his nose a permanent sunburn, he cuts an imposing figure. When other Knights say his name, they say it in reverent tones, the kind of “Oh captain, my captain” tones reserved for a Dear Leader. When he barks orders, there’s just a little bit of give in his voice, like a soft-but-stern father or a stern-but-soft football coach.

We exchange greetings and then get down to business.

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Dameon says in his characteristic gruff tones. “I’m going to find you a chair and a corner where you can sit and watch safely. We’re going to

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<< KNIGHTS, cont’d from 4 have a lot of swords and other things swinging around the room and it’s easy to get hurt. I’ll send people over to talk to you.”

I’m a little disappointed I won’t be in the thick of things. But then I remind myself if I had my druthers, I’d be jamming my gut into a breast plate and swinging a flail with the same cowboy enthusiasm as Major Kong in the climactic scene of Dr. Strangelove. So, fair enough.

After all, the people on the floor had put in two years to get to this point: One year in “Knights Academy,” a series of four 10week courses that cover everything from walking in armor to advanced choreography and improvisation, plus a second “internship” year as an unpaid squire, fetching water and performing other support duties at shows.

Twenty feet in front of me, a squat, muscular woman in a black T-shirt and camouflaged fatigue pants wanders from Dameon’s makeshift office onto the open floor, dragging the blade of her broadsword against the smooth concrete in loop-deloop swirling motions. The idly violent gesture is a common pop culture trope: highly impractical, but also highly intimidating.

I wonder how many of her characters are villains. She makes it halfway to a basketball

jousters,” he says. “Or, if they do, they’re just eye candy.”

Kyle, lean and lanky with a long ponytail, stays in a comfortable crouch for our entire chat. I can tell he’s one of those guys who has a graceful ease about him at all times — when he’s in character, he plays Sir Gerard Valliant, a swaggering ladies man. But he assures me that Kyle — the real Kyle — is Very Stressed working out the details of the Knights’ upcoming joust arena at the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire in Bonney Lake.

“This is basically my directorial debut,” he says. “I mean, I’ve directed individual jousts before, but Midsummer is three weekends, three shows a day… that’s 18 shows. In a row.”

He exhales hard, as if to punctuate the point. “When I joined the troupe [in 2004], that was the last year they performed a three-weekend Faire.”

Just listening to him describe the logistics is exhausting: casting parts, rotating schedules, scheduling fights on the steeds and on the ground, dealing with fans, making sure the client is happy, looking after the well-being of the jousters’ horses — horses they often own, usually for the sole purpose of jousting.

At the same time, this is Kyle’s idea of heaven. He attended Renaissance faires for years before he joined the Seattle Knights

The shield twisted his arm on impact, wrenching his shoulder and popping out his collarbone hoop in the corner and brings the point of her sword up to another woman there, challenging her to a duel. They draw closer and immediately engage in a half-speed block and parry, their swords striking one-two, one-two, one-two.

“Is everyone here practicing their routines for this weekend’s show?” I ask Dameon.

“Practicing old routines and building new ones,” he replies.

Dylan had explained to me that fight choreographers have their own language, a system for committing the fights they build in practice to paper so they can be more easily memorized or picked up by other performers. The language is largely numeric, assigning numbers to points on the body. The standard used by the Society of American Fight Directors for sword fights is a five-point system; the Knights use 18.

The two women end their battle and separate without a clear winner. *** “One of the things we pride ourselves on is that, I think, about half of our troupe is female.”

The first person Dameon’s sent over is Kyle Robinson, a longtime performer and an up-and-coming director in the Knights.

“A lot of joust troupes don’t have female

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and the first time he saw the Knights was at Midsummer, when it was still the Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire in Gig Harbor.

“My jaw dropped,” Kyle says, mimicking the expression. “The rest was history.”

I first met Midsummer’s operations manager, Tracy Nietupski, two years ago on another assignment. Chatty and jovial, she was the quintessential “theater mom,” regularly checking in on her volunteers and making sure they stayed fed and hydrated. She was always armed with a laugh whenever the young men joked about flirting with wenches.

But she was also supremely dedicated to the Faire’s mission of historical education and accuracy. Actors at Midsummer don’t wear costumes, they wear period correct clothing handsewn from whole cloth. The buildings aren’t two-dimensional facades, they’re solid structures. For the three weekends a year that it exists, the fictional destination of Merriwick is a fully functioning village that entertains more than 30,000 visitors.

“As far as the show goes, we want this to be as close to a village in 1571 as possible,” Tracy told me at the time. “Most of our performers try to speak as people back then would speak. It was a chivalrous and courteous time. So the queen will walk by and they will all bow and say ‘God save the queen!’ Visitors obviously don’t have to do that, but all of

our performers are working to make this an authentic historical experience.” *** The woman in the camouflaged pants is at it again. This time she’s locked in mortal combat with a great mountain of a man swaddled in a royal blue cloth shirt and matching bandana. She holds her own well and at one point traps him in a bear hug aided with the flat of her blade over his chest. He breaks free and swings for her head. She kneels to avoid the strike, but as she comes back up, Big Blue comes in with the punch.

After they wrap up, Big Blue comes over and introduces himself as Sir Edward. I’m momentarily gleeful when he offers me his sword and introduces me to the first two rules of swordplay: “Move first, block second” and “Strike with the blade, block with the flat.”

“Sir Edward,” Dameon barks. “What’s that man doing with your sword?”

Edward snatches his blade back out of my hands with a speed that belies his size.

“Nothin’,” he says, shooting Dameon an ‘aw shucks’ smile.

Edward confides that he’s on R&R after a recent surgery. He’s still allowed to practice, but Dameon’s restricting him to maybe 10 minutes at a time, at a leisurely pace. Edward lives on the west side of the Puget Sound, so effectively he’s taking the ferry each week to spend the better part of two hours not practicing.

Every person who wanders over to my dunce’s chair offers another shock at the effort and sacrifice it takes to be a part of the Knights. Edward isn’t the only member who lives in the Olympics and, by his account, most of the members travel from well outside Seattle. One woman, Tiffany Kreider, tells me she rides the bus from Kirkland each week with her chainmail, sword and spear.

“I get looks,” she says. “The ones I love are the people who want to ask about them but don’t. Because you can tell when they want to ask.”

Dylan’s list of investments in the knighthood alone could fill an article. A few years ago he bought a horse, Connal, for the sole purpose of jousting, with no idea whether it would take to the sport or not. He lucked out — once Connal got used to seeing Dylan in his armor, he turned out to be a natural.

But risk is ever present, even under ideal conditions, and Dylan took a nasty fall off his horse during a show.

“When you fall, you’re supposed to ditch your shield immediately,” he says. “But this one time, I couldn’t throw it away from me and I landed wrong.”

The shield twisted his arm on impact, wrenching his shoulder and popping out his collarbone. It didn’t incapacitate him, but Dylan says he still feels the injury every day.

So why do it? Why traverse counties for two-hour practices? Why spend two years learning an entirely new and largely impractical skillset? Or spend thousands on weapons, armor or beasts of burden?

Why does Edward have the purest look of pride I’ve ever seen when he shows me the necklace he received upon entering the knighthood?

The specific reasons I’m given vary. One Rentonite, Jordin Mitchell, tells me the acting side of knighthood brought him out of his shell, helping him overcome a shyness that kept him from saying a word during his first days in the academy.

Tiffany, who struggled through class after class until she was “happily in the middle” of performance, felt like it was a natural fit from the moment in 1994 when a member of the Knights — who still performs today — let her sit on her horse.

“It’s funny because I learned that’s one of the things you’re absolutely not supposed to do, for the liability and insurance and everything,” she says. “So I asked her years later why she did that and she said, ‘I had a feeling about you.’”

Edward tells me he gets a kick out of the children who buy into his character, hook, line and sinker.

“When a child looks up at me with big, wide eyes and asks ‘Are you a knight?’” he says, imitating the expression. “That’s the best.”

But for every single person I talked to, for every specific little reason I heard, it all eventually boiled down to one big reason: It’s just frickin’ awesome. “[My favorite part about this] varies and my answer changes year to year,” Dylan says. “Right now, it’s being on the horse, either after a joust or a run, riding around at breakneck speed, whipping off my helmet, screaming at the crowd and having them scream back at me.

“Yeah. That’s pretty cool.”

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FAST Above: One of the art pieces making up the Mrs. Goldberg exhibit, which is running at the Kirkland Arts Center through Aug. 8.

Below: The piece by Carole d’Inverno from which Mrs. Goldberg was born. | Credit: Kirkland Arts Center

Identity by committee

Comedy Central & Showtime Comedian

SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO

A Kirkland Art exhibit ponders life, personality of mysterious Mrs. Goldberg

T

o some, Mrs. Goldberg is a wild adventurer, a woman who enjoys wing walking and once joining a group of friends from Seattle to trek down to Burning Man. To others, she is an aging, doting mother who struggles with, but eventually supports, her daughter’s decision to make jewelry instead of becoming a doctor.

None of the ideas floating around on Mrs. Goldberg’s Facebook page can be proven right, yet none of them are incorrect.

Mrs. Goldberg, the fictionalized woman at the center of the Kirkland Arts Center’s new exhibit Mrs. Goldberg, A Curated Life, has sprouted the imaginations of artists and art patrons alike.

Viewers are meant to take away their own ideas about who Mrs. Goldberg is from the myriad of pieces that make up the exhibit. What they interpret about the mysterious Mrs. Goldberg from these fragmented pieces is meant to juxtapose reality with the identities people create online.

“If you look at the Facebook page, that person could be just as real as anyone else,” said one of the exhibit curators, Michael Dickter.

Dickter and fellow curator Nancy Whittaker brought the idea to the Kirkland Arts Center during an open call for exhibit submissions.

The imaginary entity of Mrs. Goldberg was created ten years ago by Ballard-based artist Carole d’Inverno in response to Dickter asking for the identity of the woman in an abstract oil painting she had just finished.

“Oh, that’s Mrs. Goldberg,” she said flippantly, creating a woman who would become a long-running joke between the two, and later the star of the nearly 30-piece

by Allison DeAngelis exhibition.

Most pieces in the show don’t comment on the physical aspects of Mrs. Goldberg. Instead, they act as scattered breadcrumbs, tidbits of information about her life and her personality.

But there isn’t even a set trail to follow — the exhibit wasn’t arranged with a particular workflow in mind.

For example, Mrs. Goldberg’s Struggle To Maintain “I wasn’t interested in Balance, which features a coming up with who rough three-dimensional Mrs. Goldberg was. image of an abstract hanging What was interesting scale, is made of mysteriwas what everyone ous rough-textured materibrought to it and takes als. Look closely, and you’ll see the frame is made from away from it.“ orange peels. The jury is out Michael Dickter, on the other materials and Mrs. Goldberg curator. what balance Mrs. Goldberg is trying to maintain.

Both Dickter and Whittaker have sometimes contrasting but constantly evolving interpretations of the various artwork. Stopping in front of Mrs. Goldberg: Stowaway, a misty-colored painting showing the hull of a rowboat on calm waters, they offer differing opinions on if the boat is departing and arriving, where it came from/is going to.

“I’ve walked through this exhibit so many times, but I still have all of these new ideas about the pieces,” said Whittaker.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the show is that the purpose and takeaway is constantly changing.

Spoiler alert: There are no answers. The conclusions drawn are entirely in the minds of the beholders.

“I wasn’t interested in coming up with who Mrs. Goldberg was,” said Dickter. “What was interesting was what everyone brought to it and takes away from it.”

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the eastside scene 7

Thrifty Business

ant said. “You’ve got to have a little haggle.

It’s like buying a new car.”

Revenue from Jubilee Reach’s thrift store goes to supporting youth sports programs, but family connection centers in schools also put the nonprofit in touch with families needing housing and furniture.

Gift certificates are also issued to needy families to take to the thrift store and hook themselves up.

loop. Seniors (55-plus) get 15 percent off on Mondays.

The hospital’s six boutiques take in an average of $600,000 annually, that goes into the uncompensated care fund for those families who would otherwise be unable to pay.

Seattle Children’s Bargain Boutique 15137 N.E. 24th St., Redmond

If you have a job interview coming up and need to look designer chic without paying designer prices, the Bellevue LifeSpring Thrift Shop in Bellevue Square has your back 362 days a year. A word of caution from 11-year volunteer manager Maggie Vergien: Mall employees know the inventory, and word about the good stuff — say a $60 Armani jacket — spreads quickly. High traffic is 11-11:30 a.m.

Thrift shop profits go to LifeSpring services that feed, clothe and educate children living in poverty, which adds up to about 3,600 kids in Bellevue. Gift cards are also passed out to use at the thrift shop, but Vergien says the store struggles with children’s clothing donations.

For every $200 of assistance LifeSpring provides an adult, they are expected to provide an hour of community service, which can be done at the thrift shop.

About 20,000 volunteer hours are logged their every year.

Prices and deals vary, depending on how long an item has been on the shelf.

Blue tagged items are 75 percent off; designer fashions with an orange tag are 50 percent off and items with red, yellow or green tags are 25 percent off.

Donations to Seattle Children’s Bargain Boutique are thoroughly researched and Bargain shopping with a conscience by Brandon Macz priced at value for a month before being marked down by 30 percent, said manager Sarah Ladiges, but many customers are here’s a certain wave of satisfaction Jubilee Reach’s Heart and Home thrift willing to pay full price when it’s supporting that follows an unbelievable thrift store’s outside signage is so classy that the Seattle Children’s Hospital’s mission of shop discovery, where the bargain some people don’t realize there are barcompels one to snatch up their find and gains in there, says general manager Jason providing little ones with medical care.

Don’t bother trying to haggle; the prices make a beeline for the register. The only Bryant. To rectify this issue, the nonprofit you see are non-negotiable. thing that makes a penny-wise treasure is changing the name to Jubilee Thrift “They tend to buy it when they see hunt more fulfilling is knowing your Store as part of its August relaunch and it, because, usually when they gamble purchase is helping someone with needs accompanying block party (Find out when with it, it’s gone,” Ladiges said. “We have greater than your own. by following their Facebook page). huge support from the community. Our Across the Eastside, nonprofit thrift One of the largest thrift stores in Beldonations are wonderful. They really give stores set the standard for second-hand levue, in terms of square footage, Bryant us the best of the best. … We get a lot of quality and style, all the while pumping says Heart And Home is crammed with designer items, especially in clothing.” funding into their charitable causes faster inventory on Mondays, but customers (Don’t expect much in the men’s section, than you can say Macklemore. pack the house for Wacky Wednesdays. because men wear clothes until they’re That’s when customers get to try their luck falling apart.) at drawing a ticket good for 40-70 percent Jubilee Heart and Home (Thrift When the Bargain Boutique has too off anything in the store.

Store) much inventory — furniture, kitchenware, But on any other day, a savvy shopper 2301 148th Ave N.E., Bellevue clothing, etc. — Ladiges said the store will can always practice his negotiation skills. put on a sale to make room, but it takes “This is like a swap meet every day,” Bry- joining the store’s email list to stay in the It may sound like a backdoor brag, but

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Gilman Village

Tear down this wall Village Theatre opens up developing show Great Wall to the general public for its Festival of New Musicals

by Daniel Nash

I

t's an exciting time to be a Northwest theater geek. In mid-July, 5th Avenue announced the lineup for its inaugural NextFest program for musicals under development, rattling off a list of nine shows that included a WWII period drama about a master art forger, an adaptation of a classic Ray Bradbury novel and a murder mystery in a world where clowns are an ethnicity.

The bad news? You won't be able to see any of these shows unless and until they're finished -- at least, not unless you're willing to drop $2,500 on a donation to join the theater's prestigious Artist's Circle.

That's also largely true for the Village Theatre's Festival of New Musicals, which announced its sixshow lineup earlier today (although Village Originals memberships, starting at $150 for donors who want to attend the festival, are just a wee bit easier on the wallet for your average Joe Drama Nerd).

Five of the festival's shows — presented as gussied-up stage readings of the scripts — will be closed off to everyone but professionals and Originals members who will be tasked with providing feedback on what they did and didn't like about the infant productions.

But that won't be the case for

Great Wall — a show by Kevin So and Kevin Merrit with creative input from M. Butterfly's David Henry Hwang — which last made an appearance at the festival in 2012 and has appeared in development at nine other festivals and venues across the country. Village Theatre is opening up the staging of Great Wall to the general public, at $25 for adults and $20 for children and seniors.

Here's the premise, from the description in Village Theatre's announcement: It’s a long shot for Kevin to become an Asian-American rock star, but that’s exactly what he’s reaching for as he struggles to smash glass ceilings and become America’s new sensation. But after the sudden death of his father, a clash of family and cultural expectations force him to choose between supporting his family and pursuing

The title page of the production draft of ‘Great Wall,’ shared to the musical’s Facebook page July 23. | Photo credit: ‘Great Wall - Musical’ on Facebook.com

stardom. Full of soulful melodies, this bold new musical takes a fresh and honest look at the American dream, examining the choices we make, the risks we take, and the relationships that make it all worthwhile.

Pretty cool, right? Despite breakout hits like 1988 Tony Award winner M. Butterfly, it's an open secret that Asians and Pacific Islanders are generally underrepresented in the performing arts. One 2012

story from NPR cited a study by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, which found that over the course of five seasons, less than 3 percent of roles in Broadway productions went to Asian-American actors. Great Wall confronts this problem head on, both in its premise and in the very fact of its production.

Great Wall will run Aug. 6-9 in Issaquah and Aug. 15-16 in Everett.

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Conversations with Funny People

Tommy Davidson Interview by Keegan Prosser

A

n original cast member of In Living Color, (1990-1994) Tommy Davidson — along with cast members Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and Damon Wayans — built a legacy of laughs for their groundbreaking and innovative comedic talents. And in the years since, Davidson has continued the tradition.

In addition to perfecting hilarious impressions of Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson and President Obama, Davidson has released three Showtime specials: On Strength of New York, Illin’ in Philly and Takin’ it to DC. On the big screen, Davidson has starred in films including Strictly Business, Booty Call, Bamboozled and Ace Ventura II: When Nature Calls. Davidson has also lent his voice to the Adult Swim show Black Dynamite and Bruce W. Smith’s animated series, The Proud Family.

The Eastside Scene caught up with Davidson (to talk politics and such) in advance of his headlining shows at the Parlor Live: If you had to describe your act in two words, what would they be?

TOMMY DAVIDSON: Fan. Tastic.

What inspires your comedy?

DAVIDSON: Just everyday life. I’ve been blessed to see the funny in everything — I can see funny where people don’t see it.

You’re known for doing some great impressions, including ones of President Obama and Sammy Davis Jr. What’s your favorite?

DAVIDSON: Right now, it’s Obama, because he is so current. But I switch between them at different times.

You’ve been doing this for several years; has your humor changed over the years? And how so?

DAVIDSON: I wouldn’t say my humor has changed, but I go in more directions. I have more skills in doing standup.

You have your hand in a lot of different things; cartoons, movies, videos, standup? What’s your favorite thing to do, and why?

DAVIDSON: I love them all like my kids, but they are all different.

I love them each for different reasons. I would say singing, that’d probably surprise you the most. Singing makes me feel good. And I’ve been doing that since I was a kid.

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Do you have any musical projects in the works?

10 the eastside scene

DAVIDSON: Not anything soon, but I’m always working on music.

The In Living Color reboot was cancelled early in 2013. Can you speak to how you felt when you heard that?

DAVIDSON: What I would say is that Keenan [Ivory Wayans] is not ready. He’s very, very smart. When he’s ready, it will be unveiled.

What can fans expect form your standup act right now?

DAVIDSON: I talk about people. White people, black people,

Hispanic people, Caribbean people — all types of people. I go off in a lot of directions about people — don’t ask me how I got there. I just did [laughs].

Last question: Pop culture website TMZ has caught some funny moments of you in L.A. driving some pretty beat up cars. So what are you driving these days?

DAVIDSON: A ‘63 Dodge Dart.

Is that a new purchase? Or something you’ve had for awhile?

DAVIDSON: I’d say that’s a new purchase. I love that car.

Tommy Davidson performs at Parlor Live Comedy Club August 20-21.

This article originally ran in the August 2013 issue of The Eastside Scene, then published as The Bellevue Scene.

Keegan Prosser is the former assistant editor of The Bellevue Scene. She is currently a staff writer for ReelWorld Productions, a global radio company that began in a one-bedroom Seattle apartment in 1994. In 2011, ReelWorld’s European headquarters opened in London and relocated to MediaCityUK in 2013.

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