Reginald D Hunter
Stuart Rolt
Oct 14
|17:22
Reginald D Hunter
Interview by Stuart Rolt
Succeeding in being both laid-back and abrasive at the same time, the effortlessly charismatic Reginald D. Hunter is one of the funniest and possibly one of the most complicated comedians around at the moment.
With inflammatory gig posters being banned in many towns and a multitude of polemic views on several sensitive issues, it’s easy to dismiss the Deep South born Hunter as just another bawdy, loud-mouthed comedian. But that would be somewhat short sighted. The truth is he adeptly uses his vociferous brand of comedy to expose aspects of the zeitgeist that rarely get considered. Due to swagger into town as part of the Brighton Comedy Festival this month, Stuart Rolt caught up with him for a chat Entirely on his terms, obviously.
BN1: Your Wikipedia page says you got into British culture after being introduced to Leo McKern, is this true?
RDH: I never met Leo McKern, I just got introduced to some of his work. There’s affection, but I have a curiosity about anything I don’t know about. I think sometimes newspapers need to print stuff succinctly and they might lose the full meanings sometimes. British culture is great. How about that?
BN1: What are your impressions of Brighton?
RDH: Lovely seaside. I find that wherever there is a thriving gay community the food and clothing apparel seems to improve automatically. I think that if I was to move anywhere in the world, I’d find out where the gay community was and get to that city, just to ensure myself fine clothing and nice food. And safe streets, gay people don’t have a lot of fools in their neighbourhoods, they shut that shit down. If I had kids and they had to walk to school every day I’d say: “Walk through that gay neighbourhood, no-one’s going to bother you”.
BN1: What’s it like viewing Britain from the other side of the pond?
RDH: I don’t think anyone else in the world is as concerned about their perception around the world as British people. They think you’re great, they think you’re all smart. They think you can quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. The British accent is tremendous social currency. It’s the most recognisable accent in the world. You can be anywhere in the world, and you’ll hear: “I beg your pardon?” and everyone turns their heads thinking: “Oh shit. We’re about to get some results!”
BN1: Do you want to tell us about the new show?
RDH: No.
BN1: OK. Is there a particular theme in your current show?
RDH: Yes.
BN1: What might that theme actually be then?
RDH: Everybody wants to know shit before they know shit. I’m starting to really disagree with the philosophy of movie trailers. When I go to the movies I try to know as little as possible about it. I turn up, I pick one and I sit down and think: “Just tell me a story. Don’t wank it up. Just tell me a fucking story.” I found that one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy movies quite as much in the last few years is that I had too much of a preconception about them. Trailers tell you too much. I can tell you what my shows going to be about. But I might just change my mind.
BN1: You never thought of doing voice-overs for film trailers yourself? You’re almost touching on Red Fox with your voice.
RDH: I’ve never thought about it. I don’t know how someone would be ambitious with something like that. Depending on the film... of course. I wouldn’t want to be doing the voice over for Bridgett Jones or anything.
BN1: What do you think you’d be doing if you hadn’t taken up comedy?
RDH: There’s absolutely no way of telling that kind of thing. I might be working in an office somewhere. I might be selling sperm and blood, who knows. I did the blood part, and I was just about to start selling sperm when I got my first gig. So I thought: “We’ll see how this is going to go.”
BN1: I don’t know about using a magazine someone else has already thumbed through.
RDH: Hey man, It don’t matter when you’re eating that sausage pasty later and you’re going: “Mmm, man. I’m so glad I’m eating!”
BN1: You’ve been described in a lot of quarters as being “cool”, have you a personal definition of what cool is?
RDH: Anybody can be cool. All being cool is being natural. You got to be natural. There are a lot of things in a world that are trying to convince us not to be natural. Using accents that don’t fit us, trying to be witty and have the last word. When you try to pretend and trying to always present to people, who don’t even give a shit, you can’t be natural. Anybody who is natural, they aren’t trying to be anything extra, they aren’t trying to prove nothing, but they don’t feel bad about themselves either. I don’t care what your colour is, or if you got food, or if you’re walking around barefoot... Anybody who is natural is easy to be around and is quite sexy, no matter how nonsensically their features might be arranged.
BN1: So it’s not something you can teach?
RDH: All you have to do is just leave people alone. Stop fucking with them from the time their born about conforming. Stop fucking with them about getting a job or a career before they fully understand what those things are. You know when you’re sitting with your friends and you all ‘aint doing much. You’re just calm and you take your time saying things. When you feel like that, that’s natural. How do you take that feeling and put it other areas of your life. If you can be natural in your work and around everybody else, that’s cool.
Cool is just another word for natural. That’s how it is. You’re not trying to be something, or prove something. You’re content just standing in that moment, not proving a goddam thing, and if anybody don’t like that… you just accept it.
Reginald D Hunter brings his Sometimes Even the Devil Tells the Truth show to the Brighton Dome on Sat 15th October.
