Whoopi Goldberg's film tribute to a comedy pioneer

Whoopi Goldberg is making her directorial debut with a documentary about pioneering comedian Moms Mabley.

Her 90-minute film, I Got Somethin’ To Tell You, premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York tomorrow, and will later be aired on HBO.

It uses rediscovered performance film and previously unseen photographs to tell tell the story of Mabley, once described as ‘the funniest woman in the world’.

Mabley, who died in 1975 at the age of 81, was a trailblazer on the so-called ‘chitlin circuit’ where black entertainers – primarily blues and soul singers – could safely perform in the age of segregation.

She was one of the first comedians to perform edgy ‘X-rated’ adult material and to tackle racism in her set. She modeled her stage persona on her grandmother, who had been a slave, and would dress in a frumpy, bedraggled dress and floppy hat.

Mabley would eventually record 20 comedy albums, and could command $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theatre the height of her career. She became known to wider audiences in the Sixties thanks to her appearances on the top-rated Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

And in her personal life, she came out as a lesbian at the age of 28 – in 1921.

Goldberg has credited Mabley as being an influence on her own comedy, saying: ‘Moms Mabley has been a huge inspiration to me and so many others, but not a lot of folks outside of the comedy world know about her legacy. There are a lot of us who wouldn’t be working today without pioneers like her.’

Other comics paying tribute in the documentary include Eddie Murphy, Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, Bill Cosby and Jerry Stiller.

The film was partially crowd-funded, with more than $70,000 pledged on KickStarter after the project ran out of money to clean up the old footage of her performances.

Here is a clip of Mabley’s stand-up recorded at the Apollo:

Published: 19 Apr 2013