Spend the Night With Erica Watson

By Keith Boykin, in theater
Tuesday, June 20 2006, 1:19PM

I first met Erica Watson a few years ago when she moved to New York from Chicago. At that time she was a school teacher, and I kept asking myself how does she keep her students from cracking up from all her humorous anecdotes and life stories. Clearly I wasn't the only one who thought Erica was funny. She heard it so many times from so many people that she decided to take a spin at comedy. One night she walked on stage at a comedy club, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Described as "big, bold and beautiful," Erica is an opinionated and outspoken woman on the rise in entertainment. A woman of many talents, the Chicago native is not only a hilarious comedienne, she's also a social commentator, producer, writer and director. She hosts a set called Wicked Laughter and she has become a favorite at Caroline's on Broadway, Comic Strip Live and Gotham Comedy Club. Tonight, Erica will be performing her big GAY PRIDE SHOW at Carolines on Broadway, so I decided to sit down and talk to her. I learned a lot about her in our raw, uncensored and politically incorrect interview.

KEITH BOYKIN INTERVIEWS ERICA WATSON

Keith Boykin: Last year you were doing something completely different. Now you're hosting comedy shows, doing standup and starring in a hilarious role in the new movie Dirty Laundry. How did you get into comedy?

Erica Watson: I got into comedy because people and friends of mine would always say to me, you're so funny, you need your own TV show, or oh you;re so funny, you need to be on someone's stage...So a good friend of mine sent me an email that Caroline's was having a workshop so i went to the workshop and signed up for a beginning comedy class and then six weeks later i made my debut on Caroline's stage as part of our graduation show....That was in November of 2005 and now here and I am.

BOYKIN: What were you doing before you were in comedy?

WATSON: I actually moved to New York with the hopes and aspiration of being a director of film and theater...So that's what I've been pursuing for the last couple of years and it just wasn't working out. I couldn't get the types of jobs that I wanted, so i just worked a lot of odd jobs temping.

BOYKIN: What kind of jobs?

WATSON: Oh God, everything from, I was a New York City teaching fellow. It was a bullshit program. I hated it. So I came to New York and that was the job I already had....It was basically like a bunch of wannabe liberal white folk that were career changers that decided, 'Hey, I'm tired of being an administrative judge, so I'll just go to the hood and teach these Black and Latino kids their ABC's... I did otter temp jobs...everywhere from plastic surgery doctors' offices to investment banking companies.

BOYKIN: So how does New York compare to Chicago?

WATSON: Chicago and New York are similar except Chicago is clean and smells good. And to me those are like the big major differences. But I love New York and I wouldn't trade New York in for any place in the world. Of course my loyalty will always be to Chicago but New York just has a different energy...I think because it has so many transplants.

BOYKIN: So why leave Chicago?

WATSON: Chicago was such a safe haven for me...all of my friends with a bachelors degree they're already married and they have a home or a beautiful condo or something...and in the type of field I'm in, with me pursuing entertainment, everybody back home doesn't necessarily get me. They don't understand what I'm trying to do. So most of them feel as though I"m kinda wasting my time.

Most people in Chicago are one generation removed from Mississippi so there's a lot of good old fashioned morals and ideas about the way life should go and when you're working entertainment, you're definitely going against the grain. But the people in Chicago are very supportive and they're very good people..You can still find people in Chicago that will walk past a complete stranger and say hello to them, whereas if that happens in New York you better check your pockets, that person probably just stole from you.

BOYKIN: How did you get the title "fag hag"?

WATSON: I've been a fag hag since as far back as I can remember and the word has just become synonymous with my life. I'm not even sure how to give a clear definition of what a fag hag is...but for me it's just that good reliable straight girlfriend of a gay guy. And I think black fag hags or black fag hagers that are the hags of a black gay guy have a different swagger than some of the fag hags for the white gay guys....

The stereotype of the fag hag is usually not fabulous, they're kinda downtrodden and late and they don't have much of a social life of their own, but if you're the fag hag of a fabulous black gay guy, you have to come correct. If anything, you are an extension of his fabulousness, and the kids will read you if you are just late...

BOYKIN: You don't think it's a negative term to be called a fag hag?

WATSON: For me, no, it's always been something that was grand because of the type of gay guys i hang with...if you're a fag hag running with a late crew of boys then you probably have the stigma...but I've had no choice but to have my hair laid, face beat, titties pushed up, sickening outfit...I had to be that because my gay boys expected no less. I definitely think the word fag hag has a different meaning in this day and age than it did at one time...I live a full life, I have boyfriends, I date, and I bring a special fun energy to the life of my gay best friends.

BOYKIN: Do you find it shallow that some of these gay men care so much about these superficial things?

WATSON: Oh my goodness.

BOYKIN: Am I getting too serious?

WATSON: No, no no. Sometimes the vision of a gay girl...If i looked the way some of my gay friends wanted me to look i would look like Harmonica Sunbeam or Pepper Labajea, and I think a lot of times it is superficial because what attracts straight men to straight women is not all of that fabulousness. If you ask most straight women they will tell you their boyfriends love it when they have no makeup on, no extensions...

BOYKIN: Sounds like the India Arie spiel. I am not my hair. I'm not the average girl in the video type of thing. But is it real? Do straight men really not care if their women wear makeup and dress a certain way?

WATSON: I'm not saying they want me to look like Weezy Jefferson, but I am saying I don't need to have foundation on, fake lashes on, looking like Diana Ross and all that...Like if you kiss your man with some lip gloss on he's gonna snap...

BOYKIN: Let's switch gears...what's your comedy about?

WATSON: I try to make people walk away from my comedy shows and say 'Damn I never thought about it that way.' I really want to get people's mindsets to change and take a look at a different perspective...Like for instance, I talk a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a pretty fat girl because nobody understands our plight. I don't think people typically think about what types of issues a pretty fat girl would go through day to day. I also talk about relationships and the way that people interact and try to give a different spin on things.

BOYKIN: What about you makes you funny?

WATSON: I think my frankness, I'm not afraid to step on toes or talk about things that really get under my skin in a very candid way. And I think my abrasiveness is funny...The fact that I can find humor in a subject that normally would be something serious...I've done something lately about abortion and the whole process of getting an abortion and things that happen in the whole reproduction rights debate, and if someone tells you I'm doing a skit about abortion, you wouldn't think that's funny....

BOYKIN: So who are some of the comedians you admire or respect?

WATSON: I love Whoopi Goldberg because her story itself just amazes me. The fact that she was homeless and to see all the things that happen to her to make her life a living legend is a testament that God truly is good because God had her back. She's a black comedian that totally penetrated the mainstream comedy world. It hasn't been done that many times.

BOYKIN: Who else?

WATSON: Eddie Murphy.

BOYKIN: Really? In spite of the homophobia?

WATSON: Pre-transvestite, still homophobic wearing tight-assed leather outfits Eddie Murphy. Once again, another young urban black comic totally taking over mainstream comedy...his multi-million dollar picture deal in itself was remarkable...It's not just comedic styling of a comic that I admire. It's their business savvy too.

BOYKIN: What about the whole transvestite thing?

WATSON: I don't know what to say because when it all jumped off I was still younger and naive....I didn't understand what was going on. But now, I still don't understand what was going on. Because I don't get that whole [straight men with transvestite] culture period. And that's what's unique about me. There's some things I don't get because I'm not gay....Just when I work the door at Luke & Leroy and men come to the door and look for trannies and they ask me where they can find good trannies, and I'm like, 'Go home to your wife, I see that ring on your finger.'

BOYKIN: Do you think some comedians like Eddie Murphy have to sell out to be successful?

WATSON: I always say, 'Do you want to be known as a great stand up comic or do you want to just be funny?' A lot of people out there now are funny but they're not going to go down in history as a great comic...For example, once you cross over and start doing film you lose that edge. All stand up comics go through that...

BOYKIN: Yeah, I liked him on Saturday Night Live and I liked his standup, but I don't think Eddie Murphy is that funny in his movies anymore.

WATSON: I wanna be a great standup comic. I wanna be one of those people where my jokes become stock material....

BOYKIN: Let me ask you about specific people and you tell me one or two words about each of them.

WATSON: Okay.

BOYKIN: Kathy Griffith?

WATSON: Ignorant as hell. In a funny way.

BOYKIN: Chris Rock?

WATSON: You can't follow him.

BOYKIN: One or two words. Okay. Chris Tucker?

WATSON: He's cute. He's sexy.

BOYKIN: Okay, you can use more than one or two words but concise. Sommore?

WATSON: The queen of urban comedy.

BOYKIN: Bill Cosby?

WATSON: Senile.

BOYKIN: You were praising him earlier.

WATSON: I love him but he needs to sit his ass down. He's like somebody's old granddaddy at a family reunion that knows he's gonna die soon so he's saying all the shit that he didn't want to say for years.

BOYKIN: David Letterman?

WATSON: Legendary.

BOYKIN: Jay Leno?

WATSON: The comic's comic.

BOYKIN: Richard Pryor?

WATSON: Truly legendary.

BOYKIN: Monique?

WATSON: I don't have a one-word answer for her. I think she's like a powerhouse. She's making herself a brand. She's more than a comic.

BOYKIN: What's the difference between black and white audiences?

WATSON: It depends on what type of blacks are in the black audience and what types of whites are in the white audiences? If I generalized, I would say that you have to work to make a black audience laugh and I think that some times our community is so overly saturated with sex, drugs and rock and roll that we come to expect that that's the only commentary our comics can talk about.

BOYKIN: What do you mean?

WATSON: Black audiences expect a lot of realness, but in some ways black audiences are kinda closed minded....I think sometimes white audiences are turned off if you do a whole bunch of cursing or a whole bunch of sexual jokes...They expect it to be clever. They want to see what different spin you're going to put on an off the cuff topic. But once again those are generalizations....When I was in Chicago I did two different shows for two different black audiences [and they didn't all fit the stereotype]... Part of the issue is that a lot of black comedy shows are in night clubs because there aren't any black comedy clubs...I'm not trying to say that black audiences aren't smart...

BOYKIN: I know what you mean. You know what bothers me. I hate when I see comedians do the old 1970s-style black comedy. You know the whole 'black people do this and white people do this routine'?

WATSON: Yes, I'm so over that. .I hate the jokes when it's the comparison of white people do this but when black people do it we do it like THIS Or the black female comedians who get on stage talking about, don't' you hate, ladies, when you riding your man and...[speaking in stereotypical black female comedienne style], and I'm like bitch sit down. And you come off corny if you do a set that's nicely crafted and you're trying to do smart comedy if you're performing in front of an audience that only wants to hear potty humor.

BOYKIN: Since this interview is a part of My Favorite Things series, I want you to tell me five of your favorite things in the world.

WATSON:

1. Jamaica
2. tall-dark-skinned, single, heterosexual black men, with no kids, that like big girls
3. cheese
4. the booty talk porn series
5. church

BOYKIN: [Laughter] Church! After the booty talk porn series? That reminds me of all the black entertainers who use profanity all the time and then get up on an awards show and praise God.

WATSON: I have a lot of trouble doing clean comedy. As far as the cursing, I want to get to the point where I don't say any curse words at all in my comedy and and in my life period...I hate that about myself. I struggle with that. And ultimately I know that i will have more commercial success with my standup if it's clean.

BOYKIN: Thank you very much for your time.

WATSON: You're welcome.

Erica will be doing her big PRIDE show at Carolines on Broadway (1626 Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets), tonight (Tuesday, June 20th) at 7 pm. The show features some of the hottest gay comedians and Erica was invited me to be "the FAG HAG for the night." CALL 212.757.4100 to RSVP. Please let them know you're coming to see Erica Watson when you RSVP.

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