Earthquake Just Wants Comedians to Tell Jokes Again

Earthquake is in the joke-telling business. While that may seem like an obvious statement to make about someone who’s been a comedian for 30 years, according to him, too many in the industry don’t deliver on the job’s basic promise anymore: to tell jokes and be funny. 

Instead, they focus on scoring political points or prioritizing clout. That’s why his new Netflix special, which dropped today, is simply called Earthquake: Joke Telling Business. And that’s exactly what he wanted to talk about when I caught up with him via phone to chat about the new special.

Tell me about the title. Why Joke Telling Business?

Because comedians are getting off of the job description. They’re not being funny. They’re doing everything else but telling jokes. 

I wanted the rest of the comedians and everybody else to know, that’s all I do. I’m not a politician. I’m not your pastor. I’m in the joke-telling business. So, when you come to see Earthquake, all I got for you is jokes. I’m like McDonald’s, I sell hamburgers. I’m in the hamburger business. You know what I mean? It’s the joke-telling business, that’s what I’m about and that’s what I’m looking forward to continuing with my career. I’ve been doing it for over 30 years.

Is this a recent problem, comedians not doing jokes? Why do you think comedians are getting away from that?

A lot of people get into our profession and forget what the main ingredients are: being funny. They get followers, they get attention for being provocative, but they fly under the banner of being a comedian. All I’m trying to do is snatch my profession back to say, “Hey, anybody that says they’re a comedian, the first question you need to ask them is: ‘Where’s your jokes?’” 

With comedians, it needs to be just like a driver’s license — renew your license, and we say you’re a comedian. You know what I’m saying? When was the last time you did a special? When was the last time people said you were funny? If not, then call yourself anything else other than a comedian because this is what the country needs. We need community. We’re the third eye to society that tells the people what they need to hear. So, I think comedians need to just get back to being funny.

With that, what’s the role of the comedian in your mind?

Tell joke to power. Tell truth to power. I always believe comedians are just like nurses — we give the medicine to the patient, which is America and the world. Like, when you feed a child, you put applesauce in the beginning of the spoon and you put all the medicine behind it. We’re going to make you laugh, but that’s why we make you laugh — we’re going to tell you what we see and what you need to know. So I think the job of the comedian is being that third eye. We’re the ones that can speak truth to power in a hilarious way.

What does that mean to you — telling truth to power?

Well, it stands on the principle that you’re not a hypocrite. You don’t get down with the forces that you know are wrong. You speak your truth, whatever it may be. Your truth to power could be your situation and the dynamics in your relationship. Your truth to power could be how you perceive the injustice in your own community or injustice in everyday society. Truth to power is, in a comedic way, you tell your truth.

So it’s not strictly political.

No, because a lot of comedians are nonpolitical. The definition is: Whatever dynamic you’re in that you feel needs to be spoken about that a normal person wouldn’t speak about, put it in a format with a joke.

In a recent interview you mentioned that comedians are more important now than ever. Why do you feel that way?

Through all the intolerant times that this country has gone through, comedians were always talking to the people. We are at the front line, we see the average American, they come see us. We’re live entertainment. We get to talk to them in settings of 300, 400, 14,000 people. And, like I said, if you can get them to laugh and put a message behind it, that’s the most important, best way to do it. Because they’ll be like, “Yeah, he was right. He’s telling the truth.” That’s more important than anything right now.

How does free speech factor into this?

Well, you can tell with what’s going on now that there’s no such thing as free speech. It’s speech that certain people of power want to tolerate, and other speech they don’t want to tolerate. You have to make a calculated guess. Are you willing to take on the consequences of standing on that belief? Go back to Muhammad Ali. He lost three to four years of his prime because of what he believed in. It all depends on how you want to have it, but it’s not free. It’s only free if certain people want to hear the opposing point of view and are able to tolerate it. That’s what we’re living in now.

Who do you see as really speaking truth to power today?

It’s a lot of people. You have D.L. Hughley. You have Roland Martin. You’ve got a lot of people speaking truth to power.

In this special, I noticed you seemed to get a little bit more political than I’ve seen you get in the past, was that a conscious choice?

No. For me, I just take in information, and I make a joke out of it. I’m diverse. Relationships, politics, my humor runs the gamut. Sometimes I choose which joke carries more weight than others and that’s how I decide which ones I put on a special. They always have to be a number one joke that goes in the special. That’s why it’s called a comedy special, because it’s supposed to be special. 

But I never sit there and say, “I need some political jokes.” It’s just whichever joke is funny. I stay with the job description. If it’s funny, then that’s where you start. If you have an alternative motive other than being funny, that’s when I feel a comedian gets in trouble. If you look for certain areas just to be offensive or controversial then, for me, you’re not a comedian because you’re missing the job description. Call yourself something else — a civil rights leader or a political advocate, anything else — but you’re not a comedian.

I saw that you got married recently. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. Yeah, I walked through the valley of death. It’s a beautiful thing. I found her. We’re happy. We coexist without doing anything at all. That’s when I knew I had the right woman.

As a comedian who talks a lot about relationships, does the material get harder to find when you’re happier versus more turbulent times in your personal relationships? Does it make a difference?

Well, no, because, again, it’s truth to power. It tells you that you can find that person, because you really think that person doesn’t exist. It’s this figment of your imagination, but no, they exist. So I allow my comedy to be based upon where I’m at in my life. This is a blessing, and my comedy reflects that.