The natural stand out in this amazing rooster of joke peddling master craftsmen is Gary Owen who of course is the only melanin deficient member of the troupe.  Unswayed by this fact Gary nonchalantly explains that this has become the normal climate for his work environment since the very inception of his career when it was easier to perform on a black stage in front of a Black audience.

By BAKARI SIMPSON

Much like the rich mad scientists of the Saturday morning cartoon variety sometimes the zaniest and wildly delicious ideas come to those with both the time and resources to make it a reality.  In this case it was retired basketball phenomenon Shaq O’Neal with the idea jumping around in his head to create and deploy a comedy tour which is exactly what he did.

In this highly rewarding line up there is included: Deray Davis, Corey Holcomb, Tommy Davidson, Tony Roberts, Capone and Gary Owen and all of them are coming to you for one night only at the Palace Theatre on Nov. 5, 2011!

The natural stand out in this amazing rooster of joke peddling master craftsmen is Gary Owen who of course is the only melanin deficient member of the troupe.  Unswayed by this fact  Gary nonchalantly explains that this has become the normal climate for his work environment since the very inception of his career when it was easier to perform on a black stage in front of a Black audience.

“I just wanted to get on stage, I didn’t care who was in the audience, I was just going to do me and hopefully that was good enough, because to me funny is funny.  So, it was like black people are the ones who embraced me in the beginning and still do to this day.  Most of the stuff that I have been on has been black comedy, the two sitcoms ‘The Wayans Brothers’ and ‘House of Payne’ were both Black sitcoms, most of the movies that I have been on have Black lead actors, so it’s weird that everything that I do is attributed to black people in some respect.”

So moving along unphased, Gary has been enjoying his time on this tour and eagerly looks forward to future projects.  In fact one such project that Gary is rather proud of is the up coming feature film that he is called “Think like a Man” which is based off a book written by one the Kings of Comedy Steve Harvey.  The movie is a star studded affair toting the likes of Taraji Henson, Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut and Chris Brown just to name a few.

Yet, the upcoming morsels are not done there as Gary also has a new one hour special coming out about March called “True Story.”  This will mark his fifth one hour special, the first four being aired on BET, however this one is being produced by Code Black which is the same company that has been releasing Kevin Hart’s recent stand-up performances so it is most certainly good professional company that the witty comedian is keeping.

And directly to the people of Cleveland from the horses mouth, “Please go see ‘Think like a Man’ March 9, with me Kevin Hart, Taraji Henson, Meagan Good, Chris Brown, its going to be big, it’s going to be huge.  And then there is my twitter garyowencomedy and my facebook is /garyown.  Cleveland, come see me, the show is this Saturday and I have nothing to do with LeBron leaving, it’s not my fault, GO JOSH CRIBS!” don’t miss it!