What Makes Chicago A Launching Pad For Success?

I'll discuss the experience of co-writing the book "All Jokes Aside: Comedy Is a Phunny Business" on Thursday, July 26, 2018, at the Grammar + Chill meetup with Donna Marbury at Barrel on High, 1120 N. High St. in the Short North district of Columbus, Ohio.

I co-wrote "All Jokes Aside" with Raymond Lambert, co-founder of the legendary Chicago comedy club of the same name. All Jokes Aside was a star factory that helped launch the careers of superstars such as Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Oscar winner Mo'Nique, Steve Harvey, Carlos Mencia and D.L. Hughley, just to name a few.

These kings and queens of comedy are only a small sample of successful African American in all industries who got their start in Chicago. Does Barack Obama ring a bell? How about Oprah Winfrey? Michael Jordan? 

Or maybe you're familiar with Chris Gardner, the investment banker whose life was the basis of the blockbuster movie and best-selling book "The Pursuit of Happyness." Raymond worked for Gardner's firm before leaving to run the All Jokes Aside comedy club full-time with Morehouse College buddy James Alexander.

Collaborating with Raymond on his amazing life story entailed a lot of trips back and forth from Columbus, where I live, and the Windy City. In the process, I found out a lot about Chicago. The following excerpt, which ultimately didn't make the final published version of the "All Jokes Aside" book, describes the city's history as an incubator for African-American talent: 

It's no surprise that the nation's first black president has roots in Chicago. The Windy City has a long and storied history as a breeding ground for black leadership, beginning with its founding by Haitian fur trader Jean Point du Sable in the 1780s.

Since Point du Sable became Chicago's first permanent resident when he built a settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River, the city has, over the centuries, churned out countless African-American inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who have gone on to national and even global success.

Like Point du Sable, many of the African Americans who rose to fame in Chicago were transplants from other regions: Barack Obama from Hawaii, Ebony Magazine founder John H. Johnson from Arkansas City, Ark. Michael Jordan from Brooklyn, N.Y.

And news anchor-turned-talk-show host/global media icon Oprah Winfrey from a small, segregated southern town called Kosciusko, Miss.

It was on Chicago's fertile soil, fortified with generations of black history and black entrepreneurial success, that another transplanted African American ‒  Raymond Lambert of Wilmington, Del. ‒ sought to stake his claim in the late 1980s.

You can also learn more about the history of All Jokes Aside in the award-winning Showtime documentary Phunny Business. 

Chris Bournea is a writer and filmmaker. He is the co-author of "All Jokes Aside: Comedy Is a Phunny Business" and the novel "The Chloe Chronicles." He also directed the documentary "Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring." 

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