Diddy really?

Rap mogul Diddy has turned to live comedy,  performing at a gig in New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Comic Chris Gethard spent more than a year bugging the musician to appear in his regular sketch show there, sending YouTube videos and Twitter messages urging him to make contact.

And on Friday the rapper – real name Sean Combs – finally appeared at the venue’s late show, when he was ribbed about his lavish lifestyle, his hard-sell of Ciroc vodka and his work on the reality show Making The Band.

Gethard, who has had his own show on Comedy Central, then interviewed Diddy, asking for advice on performing and wondering whether he still suffered stage fright. ‘It can give you gas,’ Diddy said before offering the advice: ‘Never stop shitting.’

Diddy also presented some gifts to his host to help him on the road, including a fake gun, a wad of money and three strippers. One of the comedian’s fans said his guest had been ‘an excellent sport’.

The musician’s appearance came 13 months after Gethard posted his first YouTube video, recorded half-naked in his bedroom, urging Diddy to appear at the club.

In the clip, below, Gethard said: ‘Look how cool the world we live in is, where something like this can happen: a nerd like me – a shirtless nerd – in bed on Christmas at 2.30 in the morning can reach out to a guy as cool as Diddy and be like go “Yo, you should be in my show.” And maybe it can happen. Maybe we live in a world where amazing things like that can happen.’

He urged his fans to join a Twitter campaign targeting the rapper, and mentioned it on talk shows. Gethard cornered Diddy – who recently did a comic turn in Russell Brand’s film Get Him To The Greek – backstage at Saturday Night Live last month, and finally convinced him to make the stage appearance.

Published: 16 Jan 2011