TheOrator.Press ‘Comedy & Jest’ Comedy Feature Special: Slim At The Royal Palladium! November 2021

Slim’s Epic Tale of ‘Cat & Mouse’ Highlights Black British Comedy Not Pussyfootin’ Around.

The Cream Has Risen To The Top. And The ‘One In’ ‘One Out’ Policy Really Needs To Stop!

Slim’s Time To Shine At The Royal Palladium

Slim Is So Humble, Likeable, Approachable, Dedicated And Very Much A Long Term Member of The Black British Comedy Scene, That Members of The African/Caribbean British Community Turned Out In Droves To See Him On His Special Night. Causcasion Fans And Other Supporters Too All Wanted To Celebrate His Palladium Debute. Havin’ Been On The Black Comedy Circuit For More Than Two Decades. 28 Years To Be Precise, It Was His Time To Shine.

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Long Time Perseverance Paid off And On Sunday November 14 2021 He Made Comedy History By Walkin’ Onto The London Palladium Stage To Give The Comedy Performance of His Life.

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In This Classy Theatrical Capsule of Comedy Where Entertainment Legend Bruce ‘Brucie’ Forsythe Said Many A Time “Nice To See You Nice” Slim Delivered Comedy For His Dedicated Followers That Was Epic, Progressive, Professional And Powerful. It Was A Spicey Spikey Comedy Delight. And Notably The Audience In This Packed Theatre Was Inclusively Both Black And White.

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One In, One Out, Needs Phasing Out

However The Continued Operation of A ‘One In, One Out’ Policy, Designed To Hold Black People Back or Control Them As If Black People Must Somehow Be Contained Otherwise They’ll Run Wild, Is Not A Practice The Black Community Has Time or Tolerance For Anymore. It Has Been Evident And Prevalent For So Long. And It Needs To Stop.

The Message Portrayed By That Policy Is That Black People In General Have No Talent Worth Shoutin’ About, Except A Tokenistic One or Two or They Need To Be Kept Down Regardless of Talent. In Reality The Majority of Society Knows That Is Simply Not True. But In Practice It Was The Gatekeepers Who Would Not Allow Black Talent To Shine Through. Certainly Not In The Same Way They Let European Caucasion Talent Do.

Gina Yashere Gave A Very Insightful Interview To BBC London News Recently On The Trajectory of Her Journey Compared To That of Michael Mckintyre’s Who At A Critical Point Was Her Comedy Circuit Contemporary. Durin’ This Time She Says So Close Were They She Remembers Helpin’ Him Out With A Simple Act of Empathy When They Were Both Strugglin’ To Become The Success That They Both Eventually Turned Out To Be. However, Notably Her Journey To Success Turned Out To Be Quite A Number of Times Longer Than His. And Also Neccesitated Her Movin’ To An Entirely Different Country In Order To Make It Big.

In This Day And Age We Have To Put Things Into Perspective or It Would Be Utter Fallacy Not To Have A Conversation Based On Cultural Reality. Black Parents, Grandparents And Great Grandparents Played Lowly Lowly, Slowly Slowly, Quietly Quietly, And Look What Happened To The Windrush Community.

However In This Post Windrush Scandal, Floyd Game Changer, And Social Justice Reform Era, The Racist And Jurassic ‘One In, One Out’ Policy Is No Longer Sustainable Nor Tolerable. And The Thing Is There’s Not Much New About Black Talent. That Fact Is It Was Always As Great As Anyone Else’s. Sometimes Better. It’s Just They Were Never Allowed To Equal Opportunities To Show It.

Here’s The Thing. One In One Out Was Born of A Racist Policy Based On The Notion That “Negroes Are Scary”. Oh Irony of Ironies. It Is European Caucasions Who Have Committed Some of The Worst Sins Against Humanity. Includin’ Western Pioneers (AKA White Immigrants) Brutally Wipin’ Out A Whole Race of Native Americans From Their American Country And The Establishment of International Slavery Based On The Abuse of Numerous Africans Citizens From Numerous African Countries And Exploited Throughout The Empire & The Colonies.

The Fact Is Despite That Brutality The Black Community Is Still Here And Remains The Global Majority. And The Narrative Is Changin’. Shereen Daniels (Social Commentator & Diversity Expert) Says Forget “BAME” And Recognise The Black Community As “The Global Majority”. Because That’s The Reality. Recognising That Inevitably Means Embracin’ Diversity, Equality And Inclusion.

The Reality Is Racist Policies Were Even Prevalent In Comedy. For Instance One of The Biggest Stars of In The 70s Was Jim Davidson, Who Is Now In His Sixties. He Was Booked To Perform At The Palladium At Number of Times And Would Pack It Out. He Had His Own TV Shows. Hosted Primetime Entertainment Shows And Was Considered Hilarious. So The Gatekeepers Simply Kept Bookin’ More of The Same.

He Still Has A Followin’. One of His Primetime TV Jokes Told The Tale of A Man In A Pub Who Had A Monkey On Each Shoulder. A Fellow Customer Gives Each of The Monkeys Five Pounds. Why Did You Do That A Fellow Customer Asks? “Because You Can’t Take It Out On The Kids” Came The Seemingly Hysterical Punchline. Controversial And Racist As That Joke Is, We Shared It Because Many People (Including Jim) Say He Is Not Racist.

To Be Fair, There Are Also A Small Number of Black Comedians Who Also Say He Is Not Racist And Have Worked And Continue To Work With Him. Perhaps Picking’s Were Slim (No Pun Intended).

But The World’s Moved On. We Can Do Better. Slim Has Done The Hard Yards. As Have His Relevant Modern Day Comedy Contemporaries. Black People Have Always Had Allies. Finally A Modern Day Talent Management Company Got Fed Up Seein The Same Old Comedy Faces And Decided Ten Years Ago That Comedy Needed A Reboot. A Decade Later They Have Taken Slim Under Their Wing After Virtually Three Decades of Him Tryin’ & Tryin’ On The Comedy Scene. Hope Springs Eternal!

Previous Black Actors, Comedians And Phesbians Have Had To Go Abroad Because UK Gamekeepers Overlooked Their Talent And Under Estimated Their Ability And Then Discriminated Against Them Disproportinately. David Harewood, Eamonn Walker And Gina Yashere To Name But A Few.

But Knowin’ Their Worth And Potential To Be Even Greater They Had The Courage To Leave The UK To Fight Against Their Industry’s Refusual To Recognise Them. Respectively They Fared Well Elsewhere. Harwood In Homelands. Walker In Chicago Fire And Yashere With ‘Bob Loves Abishola’ Which She Wrote. It Stars Billy Gardell of Mike & Molly Fame (The Smash Hit Comedy Created By Mark Roberts With Whom Gina Worked). America Has A Tendacy To Be Significantly Ahead of Us Here In The UK. T’was Ever Thus. And Gina Actually Excelled Herself As Bob Loves Abishola Features Both An African Actress Playin’ The Female Title Role And An African Female Writer, In The Form of Folake Olowofoyeku And Miss Yashere Herself Respectively.

Indeed Slim Himself Had Planned To Go To America Just Before Covid Broke Out, But At The 11th Hour He Got A Fresh Break From His Now New Management Team (To Whom He Had Applied Years Ago). They Were Keen To Develop A Different Kind of Comedy And Havin’ Started Out Ten Years Ago And Worked With The Likes of Mo Gilligan, They Eventually Worked Their Way Round To Developin’ Slim Too.

They Put Their Faith In Him And Started To Develop Him To A New Level Fully Aware of His Hard Work And Hammersmith Apollo Triumphs Over The Years. They Took Him To The Next Level of Management And That Took Him To The London Palladium. It Definitely Seems In This Case That “Team Work Makes The Dream Work!”

Actor Eammon Walker (L – Forefront), Actor David Harewood (Top Right), And Comedian & Script Writer On Bob & Abishola Gina Yashere All Left Britian In Order To Be Recognised For Their Talents & Build Their Careers. (Gina’s Show Promo Above, Bottom Left And Pictured With Slim Below;)

No Need To Get Hysterical About Natural Change & Social Evolution

The Transistional Power of The George Floyd Case Has Indeed Changed The World. Whilst Haters May Try And Deride The New Woke Approach Which Enacts Change, Those Who Believe In It Need To Own It With Pride And Develop It’s Power For Good.

To Be Awoken To Social And Historical Systemic Injustices or Imbalances And To Seek To Legitmately Redress or Reset This Is To Be Wonderfully Woke. Lashana Lynch As A 007 For Instance. No Time To Die Is The Most Successful Bond Film Ever. Wakanda Forever – Black Panther. One of The Most Successful Marvel Movies Ever And One of The Most Successful Films Ever In The History of Cinema. And Now Comedy King Slim – Packin’ Out The Royal Palladium Theatre. The First Black Man To Headline His Own Show At The London Palladium. The ‘One In, One Out’ Policy Was Always Skewed And Twisted And It’s Time For Such Policies & Practices To Go. That’s Exactly What His Management Team UTC Management Have Been Trying To Do. And It Looks Like They’ve Been Successful.

“Never Before Have We Been Held So Accountable For Our Behaviour”

Dr. Martha Newson, Behavioural Scientist, Sky News, November 2021

Keepin It Real Is One Reason Slim’s Fans Love Him So Much And Crown Him A Comedy King. He Performed Like A Rock Star. A Few Trusty Classics Were Safe Crowd Pleasers To Warm Up The Audience And They Were Delivered With Notably More Fine Tunin,’ Polish And Power As Befitted The Venue.

Classics Included Workin’ On The Buses, Regular Birthday Treats From The Mrs’ & Copin’ With The Modern Day Demands of His Kids. New Material We Hadn’t Seen Before Included The Workin’ Cat And The Dirty Mice, Global Social Issues Faced By Pets In Birmingham, And A New Take On Football Racism, Which Was So Outrageous, Edgy And Contemporary It Was Only Capable of Being Delivered By A Comedian of Slim’s Calibre – And Frankly – Culture!

The Audience Lapped It Up, Laughin’ Loudly And Knowingly Because There Was Pathos In This Palladium Performance As Well As Punchy Observations. They Say “Many A True Word Spoken In Jest” And Slim Was Right On The Money. In October Durin’ A Halloween Feature On ITV’s This Morning Programme Veterinarian Scott Miller Spoke of The Fact That Black Cats Are The Most Discriminated Against. And On Saturday November 20 (Within A Week of Slim’s Performance) Dr. Martha Newson, A Behavioural Scientist Who Specialises In Football Behaviours Was On Sky News Talkin’ About The New Age of Accountablility In This Era of Social Justice Reform.

So Whilst He Is A Veteran of Comedy, Slim Is Simulataneously Hilariously Contemporary & Now Mixin’ In Royal Circles!

A Special Word From Fellow Comedian Mr Cee

The Very Dapper Mr Cee Gives His Take On Slim’s Historic Night In Black British Comedy.