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Comedy with a sharp political consciousness from W. Kamau Bell, October 2
Photo: W. Kamau Bell. Photo by Matthias Clamer.
HANOVER, NH, August 4, 2014—Warm and approachable but with a wit and socio-political consciousness
that can skewer hypocrisies at 40 paces, W. Kamau Bell hits the Hop's Spaulding Auditorium with his
heralded one-man mock lecture/comedy show The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour,
on Thursday, October 2, at 7 pm.
With his short-lived
but highly acclaimed
TV series Totally
Biased with W.
Kamau Bell, Bell
emerged
internationally as a
social commentator of
rare political insight,
as well as spot-on
funniness. The New
York Times called him
“the most promising
new talent in political
comedy in many
years.” Salon.com
named Bell to their
“Sexiest Men of 2012”
list, calling the series
“surreptitiously revolutionary in its effortless diversity and humanism.” The San Francisco Chronicle raved,
“It makes The Daily Show seem like something your dad watches.” Executive produced by Chris Rock, who
became a fan after seeing a performance of Bell's one-man show, the show was nominated for a 2013
GLAAD Award as well as “Best Talk Series” at the 2012 NAACP Image Awards.
Bell is also a favorite at comedy clubs across the country and has appeared on Comedy Central, HBO's Real
Time with Bill Maher, Conan, WTF with Marc Maron, MSNBC, ABC's The View, NPR's Fresh Air, Henry Louis
Gates Jr’s PBS series Many Rivers To Cross, Maximum Fun's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, KCRW's The
Treatment with Elvis Mitchell, among others.
Premiered in 2007 in a phenomenal three-month run in his home city of San Francisco, Curve is one part
manifesto, one part diatribe, and several parts funny—a seamless mix of stand-up comedy, video and audio
clips, personal stories and solo theatrical performance. A comedic exploration of the current state of
America’s racism, the show combines current events, lesser known historical gems, a little PowerPoint and
Bell's smart, informed comic commentary, continually refreshed with material from today's headlines.
He has performed Curve at the New York Fringe Festival, the Facing Race Conference, the New York
Comedy Festival (critic’s pick in Time Out New York), the soloNOVA Festival, the Moontower Comedy
Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (comedy pick in The Guardian). The show has also been a hit
with college students at the National Association for Campus Activities annual conference and on campuses
across the country.
Bell graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended the University of
Pennsylvania before dropping out to pursue a career in comedy. After establishing himself as a sociopolitical comedian and community activist based in San Francisco, Bell became a founding member of the
comedy collective "Laughter Against the Machine," which in 2011 shot a documentary of the group's tour
of some of the country's most politically charged situations—seven Occupy Wall Street encampments, a
Michigan mosque, New Orleans' Lower Ninth War, as well as crossing the border into Arizona with
immigration rights groups and marching with striking hotel workers in Chicago. In 2012, portions of the
documentary were featured at the Netroots Nation Rally and Take Back The American Dream Conference.
In addition, Bell has been named an Ambassador of Racial Justice by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Bell also co-hosts the podcast The Field Negro Guide to Arts & Culture with Living Colour guitarist Vernon
Reid, writes the blog “Kamau’s Komedy Korner” for The San Francisco Weekly, and sits on the board of The
Applied Research Center, a racial justice think tank and home for media and activism. He has been featured
on several of the biggest comedy podcasts including WTF with Marc Maron, Comedy & Everything Else,
Citizen Radio, The Sound of Young America, and Jordan, Jesse, GO!, and is a regular correspondent on The
War Room on Current TV. His 2010 stand-up album Face Full of Flour was named one of the Top 10 Best
Comedy Albums of the year by iTunes and Punchline Magazine. In 2012, he was voted San Francisco’s best
comedian by the SF Weekly, the SF Bay Guardian, and 7×7 Magazine.
Download Word.doc press release and high-resolution photos
CALENDAR LISTING:
W. Kamau Bell in The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour
A late-night TV favorite and Chris Rock protégé, Bell makes spot-on comedy from societal taboos. Best-known
through his brilliant FX comedy series Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, he’s “one of our nation’s most adept
racial commentators, with a blistering wit” (Punchline Magazine). A hit at college campuses and comedy
venues across the country, Bell Curve is a hilarious and eagle-eyed exposé of people’s assumptions, hypocrisies
and unacknowledged prejudices. Contains adult language. "Skewers racism [and] stereotypes…with
provocative wit."—San Francisco Chronicle.
Thursday, October 2, 7 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$25, $10 Dartmouth students, general admission
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.