by Paula Schwartz
Whoopi Goldberg talks up ‘Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ To Tell You’ At 2013 Tribeca Film Festival
“I’m glad you all are laughing,” Whoopi Goldberg told the audience after the screening of the world premiere of, “Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ to Tell You,” at the Tribeca Film Festival Saturday night. She added, “Cause this chick is still funny, and that you’re laughing is really meaningful to me.”
On the red carpet, Goldberg said of the comedic pioneer who is the subject of her directing debut, “We celebrate all the other firsts. Why haven’t we celebrated the first stand up comedian who was a woman and had been doing it since 1928?”
Jackie “Moms” Mabley performed in a costume, a frumpy dress and pushed in hat. She had a gravelly, deep voice and an elastic face and no teeth. But her comedy had a satiric bite and a subtle if resounding political message.
She began as a vaudeville star on the Chitlin’ Circuit and travelled with other iconic performers. She worked for nearly half a century and at the height of her career earned $10,000 a week. The documentary, which is entertaining and hilarious, has already been snapped up by HBO. Mabley’s story is told through photographs, documents and interviews with comedians and entertainers, including Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poiter, Quincy Jones, Bill Cosby, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Murphy, Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
On the red carpet Goldberg told me, “I needed to refresh people about who she was before I did a one-woman show. Then I discovered there was more that needed to be done and eventually someone will do a biopic. It won’t be me but somebody will do it.”
Early in her career, Goldberg did a one-woman show about Mabley. “I was going to do Moms again for the stage,” she said. “This was about 10 years ago, and I didn’t do it and I kept saying I was going to do it until I got to the point where I realized most people wouldn’t know who she was now. And I thought if I could reintroduce her to people maybe that would facilitate me getting on stage to do it.”
The most challenging part of making the documentary she said, besides raising the money – she got $75,000 on Kickstarter.com – was finding the material. There are recordings but “very little of her performances except on the TV shows that we remember from the 60’s and a couple of movie things that she did, but there’s not a lot.”
The premiere brought out an interesting crowd, including Robert De Niro and wife Grace Hightower, Mira Sorvino, Ali Wentworth and husband George Stephanopoulos, comedian Caroline Rhae, Billy Mitchell (Mr. Apollo), and Sheila Nevins, the president of HBO documentary films and more.
One image in the film that is sure to surprise is a photograph of Mabley dressed as a man. After Mabley finished her performance as an elderly, dowdy woman, she took off her costume and changed into a silk shirt, tailored slacks and Italian shoes and slicked back her hair. Jackie “Moms” Mabley became Mr. Jackie.
During the Q&A, Rhae asked if there was more documentation of Mabley as a gay woman. “What we have there is everything. That’s it, and the fact that we even found this information that we could prove that she was a gay woman. It’s like we couldn’t make this a bio because there’s just not enough information. They were not filming or doing any of those archiving,” back then. “These were black comics and nobody,” cared Goldberg said, adding, “She wasn’t hiding anything and nobody talked about it.”
As for Whoopi’s favorite Mabley joke, Whoopi did a spot on imitation of the famous Mabley voice and joke, “Two Old Women walking down the street. One turns to the other one and says, “I smell hair burning.” The Other one says, “You walkin too fast.”
Goldberg was asked about the clip that spoke to her from the moment she saw it and without hesitating she said, “The one that I loved, love, love, is she and Kris Kristofferson because he’s in love with her.” He’s walking her out on the stage as a presenter at the 1974 Grammy Awards. “ She didn’t’ care where she was she would pull those teeth out, and to me, this freedom to be yourself, for 77 years is the highlight of life to me because, you know, it’s okay to be gay, it’s okay to be individual, it’s okay to have a point of view. She made me realize that whatever you did you had to stand on your own two feet and know who you are.”
RED CARPET PHOTO GALLERY
(Click on thumbnails to see pictures)
Photo Credits : Sabrina Boasman
Photo composite : Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival