5/5 Talkin Dirty After Dark staring Rodney Winfield, Captain of Clowns by Malik Jubal
  by Malik Jubal
The Captain of Clowns, Rodney Winfield by Malik Jubal

The one great treat in the movie Talking Dirty After Dark is Legendary Comic icon, Rodney Winfield. Rodney Winfield was the consummate clown, stylish, artistically arrogant, funny, sad, and thought provoking. Rodney was the 4th Horseman of Hilarity that road out of the Book of Revelations swinging the sharp sword of stand-up comedy, riding a horse called

Humor! Everyone who knew him can share their own Rodney story with you about one of his off stage escapades, for it was when he was off stage, that he was truly on. I performed at every hole in the wall club and bar in the St.Louis area with Rodney Winfield, watching Rodney turn a dismal dark room with five patrons, into Carnegie Hall.

Rodney Winfield had the most unique way of forcing an audience to look at themselves and their surroundings with realistic resolve. Devilishly disarming, with a touch of synchronized culture shock, which he released throughout the room like comical cyanide, choking the crowd with laughter until the point of tears. Yet, Rodney Winfield did battle silently with his own personal bogeyman. Maybe he was haunted by the embarrassment of having a mob family take him directly to the airport in his silk Italian pajamas after Rodney slapped his platinum blonde lover in the lobby of the Flamingo Hilton in Vegas. And reliable sources recall the time in a sold out arena in Houston Texas, when MC, Rodney Winfield and singer Teddy Pendergrass came to blows over $300 worth of blow! Rodney could be heard screaming at Pendergrass "N.......r, you better go sniff some of them panties they threw up on stage at your a..., cause the rest of this is mine"!

And it most certainly could have been the time when Rodney worked a Catskills Resort and a Borscht Belt manager instructed Rodney before the show that he was free to talk about anyone with the exception of the Jews. What ensued was what has come to be known as a Rodney Winfield Reverse, as the comedian went on stage and delivered somewhat less than flattering comic observations about Jews for 50 minutes! And just as the manager was walking on stage to grab the microphone, Winfield remarked, "See, here he comes, Hitler killed every Jew but the one I owe $1,500 to, Mr. Goldstein!" Fully aware of the damage in dollars and cents, Rodney walked off stage and this time escorted himself straight to the airport! No pay, no guilt!

Rodney was also tormented by his strained paternal and maternal relationships with his daughter, his mother, and a son he never got to know until the last decade of his life. Ad to this conscious aggravation, the subconscious realization that he will sooner or later have to meet a God who's existence he publicly denounced almost every time time he walked on stage.

While we may never, with any degree of accuracey, map the course or reasons Rodney Winfield crashed and burned on the road of success, I do recall one of his most brilliant moments that validated this genius. It was at Westport Plaza in St. Louis County, where Myself, Rodney Winfield, the comedy team of Zack and Mack and a few other comedians went out to the Funny Bone Comedy Club to watch an old friend of Rodney's, Shirley Hemphill from the tv show "What's Happening". Shirley was killing the crowd with her observations of our legendary local late night 'White Castles". I glanced at Rodney, and saw that he was crying, sitting at the very back of the room against the wall.

It was so painful to watch this theatrically gifted Titan come to tears. Mack and I looked at each other, bowed our heads humbly and quickly, so that we would not make eye contact with Rodney. Zack, however, had in his own mind, drew the short straw of consolation and appointed himself to go over to Rodney for a heart to heart. Most people lacked the guts to approach Rodney Winfield when he experienced these mood swings, after all, this man was larger than laughter to us and to see him cry was like seeing Muhammad Ali tell you he isn't the greatest!

I was sitting close enough to hear Rodney saying to Zack "I'm nothing, I'm a failure, I'm nothing, look at me!" I sat with a faux funny face, watching Shirley on stage as she ripped the roof off the place, while Rodney ripped the heart out of me! At this point Mack and I are in tears, camouflaged by the audiences assumption that they were tears of joy brought forth from the comedy of Shirley Hemphill.

Suddenly, Zack stood straight up, his 7ft tall, 720lb. massive frame cloaking Rodney from our site. Mack rose immediately after, and he and Zack marched with divine determination to speak with the Bone manager, Al Canal. Whatever they said to Al Canal, took all of 5 seconds, Canal shook his head yes and pushed his glasses back up his nose. It was a Saturday night at the Bone and there was three shows scheduled. Mack returned to the table and informed me that Rodney Winfield would perform on the second show.

All of the comics in our group were giddy as school kids at the thought of seeing Rodney do his thing for the full capacity, all caucasian crowd. We had only seen Rodney perform for all black crowds, so we all expected this room full of white's to evacuate the club after witnessing the first two minutes of molten material spit forth by this vehement volcano of humor.

The room filled quickly, and a team spirit overwhelmed us all, as we knew that if Rodney Winfield could curry laughter from this corporate crowd, he would pave the way for black comedians throughout the city. The Eight and Ninth Continents of Comedy, Zack and Mack took the stage, with no introduction, no applause, they just walked up and greeted the audience. Zack stood in his usual frightful pose, manicuring his nails with a file, that judging by the look on some faces, looked like a knife twelve inches long! Zack was a gigantic, Zulu black, menacing attention getter, and he knew how to milk the cow of nervous curiosity.

Then Mack began a humble introduction: Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to take you back to a time when comedians used social satire and demonstrated heart in their routines. This was a time when George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and this cities own Redd Foxx carried on the tradition of comics like Mort Salh, Lenny Bruce, Sandy Baron and other greats who held true to the creed of comedy, which is Truth! It wasn't always pretty, but as comedians it is our duty to point out the absurdity, and make us laugh in the face of tragedy. It was a time when comedians challenged our great Constitution and fought for the right of Freedom of Speech and expression in the arts. Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we are privileged to have such a comedian with us. He has appeared in movies that we are sure you haven't heard of, which are from the blaxploitation era of movies. He is a favorite at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club, and Maurice's Gold Coast Lounge on Olive in the heart of the Ghetto! He is Jack Nicholson's favorite comedian, we know you are going to love him, cause we love him. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Rodney Winfield!

We all watched with great peer pridefulness as our monumental mentor, Rodney Winfield wearing a straw derby, tuxedo jacket, slacks with his bow-tie hanging off the wing tip collar, gained immediate respect and laughter from this audience. They laughed and applauded with respect and awe for the intelligence of his material, his peculiarly nasal voice and the clever manner in which he delivered it. It became obvious to this upper class crowd that Rodney Winfield was a Captain of current events, capable of commenting on any subject, comically or serious. So someone in the crowd yelled out "What about Michael Jackson!" Rodney replied "Michael Jackson got a billion dollars, he can afford to f....k anybody he wants, he'll I wished he liked me!" by Malik Jubal [...]


5/5 MY REVIEW
  by L. STRASSLE
I OWN THE VHS. MARTIN L. IS MY MAN IN THIS STUFF GOING ON HERE.

4/5 DEF comedy JAM at its best
  by John W. Morton (Japan)
If you liked the DEF Comedy JAM series, you will love this movie as many of the comedians from DEF Comedy appear in this film. Very Funny. Above all else, if the critics say it is bad then you know it must be a great movie.

1/5 Value our children and refuse to lower their expectations
  by
I watched this film years ago, and even laughed a little. Now I think about the messages that he's teaching our young children, and it upsets me. I belive Martin is a talented comedian, but I refuse to believe that this is the best way for him to express himself. This is my "OPINION"

1/5 Value our children and refuse to lower their expectations
  by
I watched this film years ago, and even laughed a little. Now I think about the messages that he's teaching our young children, and it upsets me. I belive Martin is a talented comedian, but I refuse to believe that this is the best way for him to express himself. This is my "OPINION"