Performance

In our performance series, the JCC presents an array of stage plays, solo performances, works-in-progress and variety shows. While many of our stage productions are cutting-edge and experimental, the JCC also presents a repertoire of traditional theater programs. The eclecticism of the performing arts programs featured at the Prism Stage is unique in the East Bay.

The Return of The W. Kamau Bell Curve Now with 37% more Barack Obama! Just like Led Zeppelin and the Boston Celtics, racism continues to make a comeback in America. White people haven’t talked this bad about un-white people since Martin Luther King had that dream. Since The W. Kamau Bell Curve opened last October, racism has seemed to redouble its efforts. The co-discoverer of DNA said that Europeans are smarter than Africans; Dog the Bounty Hunter tried to break Michael Richards’ record for saying the most ‘N’ words in one breath; and a golf commentator told a lynching joke about her friend Tiger Woods. Somehow in the middle of all this, America might elect its first black president…unless Fox News has something to say about it. Well, W. Kamau Bell is mad as hell and he’s not going smile politely anymore as his un-black friends go, “Sarah Silverman isn’t racist. She’s ironic.” The W. Kamau Bell Curve is one part diatribe, one part manifesto, and several parts funny. This past winter, the show played to sold out houses at the JCC and elsewhere, and now it’s back by popular demand and critical acclaim in three locations throughout the Bay Area. Now that The Curve has moved from monthly to weekly, it will be as fresh with as the news it skewers. Artist Bio W. Kamau Bell has frequently appeared on Comics Unleashed and Comedy Central. In 2005 he was selected to perform at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal; he was the only comedian invited to perform on both The New Faces Show and The Best of The Uptown Comics Show at the festival. “W. Kamau Bell plays against type and comes with not only the insights you wish you had spewed first but also the wit.”— Kimberly Chun, SF Bay Guardian “Smart, stylish, and very much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave Chappelle and Margaret Cho, Bell’s pissed off about recent celebrity racism...[he] manages to make jokes out of the whole situation, while remaining completely furious.” —Hiya Swanhuyser, SF Weekly Watch the promo

Shelton Theater, San Francisco May 8, 15, 22, 29, June 5, 12 Buy tickets here Pro Arts, 550 Second Street, Oakland August 2, 3, 9, 10 Buy tickets here JCC East Bay, Berkeley August 16, 17, 23, 24 Buy tickets here

$15 member $20 general $10 each if you come with a friend of a different race

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