Martin Lawrence at Riverside Theater
Sunday night, while the rest of America was first learning of Osama Bin Laden’s death, a full and passionate Riverside Theater crowd sat blissfully unaware of the historic moment as one of comedy’s elder statesmen, Martin Lawrence, made his return to the stage after a six-year departure. Lawrence—who is probably best known for his seminal FOX-network-solidifying sitcom Martin, or for filling the fat suit in the dreadful Big Momma’s House trilogy—cut his teeth with standup in the ’80s. And while an introductory 10-minute “best of” clip reel suggested the evening would be Black Knight: The One Man Show, a gracious and energetic Lawrence instead air-humped and unapologetically riffed his way through a solid 90-minute set.
Coming out to a standing ovation and incessant calls of, “We love you, Martin!” the veteran comedian made good on the audience love, wasting little time to get comfortable with obvious-yet-hilarious anecdotes of pissing gone awry, and his thoughts on the Shake Weight. From there, he leapfrogged into stream-of-consciousness rants about Tiger Woods and a hump-happy impression of a sex addict—“Somebody get me some pussy! I GOTTA HAVE IT!”
Lawrence touched on President Obama, pondered a White House “smelling like ham hocks and collared greens,” and dissected the black and white sides of the nation’s biracial Commander In Chief. Of course, this included a patented “white-guy dance.”
The consummate entertainer danced, punched, kicked, and gyrated himself into a sweat-soaked lather for the show’s entirety, only stopping twice to apologetically take sips of water. (“You can’t pause at a black comedy show.”) Amid the onslaught of jokes about race, infidelity, the rise and fall of relationships, and coming to terms with his age, Lawrence also made reference to his history of drug use. “Is somebody smoking weed in here?” he interjected mid-joke. “I love that shit. But I can’t do it no more.”
The majority of Lawrence’s performance centered on sex. Still, between bits like, “You ever come so much that air comes out your dick?” and his thoughts on “hot butt love,” he waxed strangely prophetic on broad topics of love, togetherness, and respect.
Admittedly, Lawrence’s material on its own didn’t exactly make any leaps or bounds of comedic genius, but the energy and enthusiasm with which the 46-year-old poured into his impassioned performance of fart and pussy jokes perfectly explained the comic’s decades of popularity and deserved mass appeal. Here’s to hoping Lawrence tears the likely forthcoming script of Big Momma’s House 4: Back In The Habit asunder, and instead remains on stage to continue to play his greatest character—Martin Lawrence.
