“Have I Got News For You is new-comedian proof. I will tell anybody who is about to do HIGNFY, they have been making the show so long and everybody is so good at what they do, that no matter how bad or good you do, you will not f*ck up the show.”
ONE of comedy’s coolest customers is on the line from his London base and talking about his frequent role in BBC’s long running panel show, ‘Have I Got News For You’.
Reginald D Hunter, from Albany, Georgia and a Londoner for the last two decades, is familiar to most from his TV appearances on ‘8 Out Of 10 Cats’, ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’ and ‘QI’ and of course, as guest on ‘Have I Got News For You’.
Reginald credits the panel regulars Ian Hislop and Paul Merton for making HIGNFY a show that comedians thrive on, where the regulars make the guests look good.
“Unlike all these famous show hosts over here, Hislop and Merton will pass the ball as much as they try to shoot. Merton is always given credit for being a scorer. He passes really well too.”
Reginald came to London at the age of 27 to study drama but discovered the city’s comedy clubs and soon turned his full attention to stand-up.
His new show ‘The Aluminum Negro’ ponders the question, what it would be like to be a Negro?
Reginald’s show is a no-holds barred study of race and sexuality and is not afraid to explode a few myths in the politically correct minefield.
Does Reg’s live show have more of an edge than his TV appearances would suggest?
“The reason I got to be TV Reg is because I worked for years being Standup Reg. Standup Reg is my bread and butter.
“I love the fact that people who know me from other vehicles come to my stand-up but I say this with no disrespect, they are late to the party.
“When I write stand-up, I write for the people whom I imagine have been with me stand-up-wise for years. Every show I do is like the next episode for those people.”
Taking a romp through this minefield will always throw up some casualties. It is well documented that Reg has taken heavy fire for his brutally honest and controversial comedy.
A preview gig the previous night in Amersham Arms in London was interrupted by an audience calling the comedian “toxic”.
“I wondered if I was going to be asked about that today!” he laughs.
“I did an hour and 20 minutes, and that is the longest I’ve done since November. The first hour was beautiful, the last nine minutes they went a bit sideways.
“I win a lot of arguments and debates over here. I win not because I’m always right! It’s because I argue and I debate looking for the better answer. I’m not trying to win. And I often go up against people who just want to win the conversation.
“Sometimes I say some things that seem to strike a chord with some people, like the other night at the Amersham Arms, this lady yelled out that I was being toxic.
“I said ‘Ma’am, I’m not yelling at you, I’m not insulting you, I’m not swearing at you and I’m still calling you Ma’am. So put that in your toxic and smoke it’. I had forgotten that I can make people mad a lot particularly a certain kind of woman and it is like it seems to be a gift … I don’t seem to have a lot of control or intent with it. I been doing that since I have known my mother.”
With his natural charm, good humour and that rich deep southern accent, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Reg wouldn’t be fighting off attention from the girls.
“I hear that a lot. I hear that a lot from white guys. Women hear that voice, they must throw themselves at you!
“I always say, ‘I don’t know if you have ever tried to acquire sex from a woman but they tend to be a lot more lucid than that’.”
The critically acclaimed BBC2 series ‘Reginald D Hunter’s Songs Of The South’ explored the rich musical heritage of the southern states and his native Georgia. The series was an emotional voyage of re-discovery for Reg as he returned to examine the roots of blues and soul music from the homelands that he was more than happy to leave behind when he fled to London. Do his roots still define his music taste?
“My friends say my music is eclectic. I like what I like.
“I like true soul music which is more than Motown or ’60s and ’70s music and it is more than just black people. Soul doesn’t come from race. Soul comes from knowing what it is like to have to stretch one into two. When you are hungry, it comes out in your music. It can be a physical hunger, or an emotional hunger or a political or intellectual hunger or a spiritual hunger.
“Music is more than just sentiment and a riff and a computer regenerating it or going on and on about how much you want to f*ck somebody or how much you destroyed my world because you broke up with me. The music industry has got those things down to a formula.
“I’m ain’t putting it down, there’s some muthaf*ckers who sample real good and I don’t want to put them out of work,” he laughs.
Reg has talked about moving to Ireland in many interviews and perhaps the West of Ireland could be the perfect base?
“I’m kind of an odd dude. I prefer night to day. I prefer rain to sunshine. I seem to prefer the weather of poets.”
Limerick it is then, we say…..
Reginald D Hunter takes his new show ‘The Aluminum Negro’ on a Irish tour starting in Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick this Wednesday June 1. He will also play Cork, Dublin, Derry and The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny in the coming weeks.
