By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
Don “D.C.” Curry has been doing standup for more than 30 years. It wasn’t his first job though.
He played professional baseball for the Detroit Tigers for one year before becoming a contractor and then eventually, a standup comedian.
“They suggested I be a comic,” he joked. “They didn’t really suggest I be a comic, but I just walked into it. I always liked comedy and I used to go and watch what now they call open mic nights and it’s just people getting started, and I was always amused by that.”
Curry got his start at those open mic nights.
“I was at a club one night and they ran out of participants and asked did anybody want to come up and nobody in there knew me so I went up there and after that it just grew,” he said.
Curry will perform at The Stardome Comedy Club in Hoover this weekend. He is no stranger to Birmingham having performed here about 50 times in his 30-year career.
“It’s come a long way since I first started performing there,” he said. “It’s a nice city and I’ve always enjoyed Birmingham. It’s up and coming. Last year when I was there, y’all had even fixed the streets downtown.”
Curry doesn’t do a set routine, he just talks about what’s going on in the world so fans can expect to hear a lot of social commentary.
“My shows are a look at life basically in America, but really life anywhere, from my perspective,” he said. “By doing events and with what’s going on in America, you couldn’t pick a better time to be a comedian than now. So, they’ll get my take on what’s happening in the good old USA and a little bit about what’s happening across the water too!”
As far as inspiration, Curry said he always admired comedians like Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory but has received help from his good friend, comedian George Wallace.
The son of a retired pastor, Curry said he doesn’t talk about the church much in his standups but he has been told his style is indicative of a preaching background.
Other than standup Curry known for roles as the zany “Uncle Elroy” in “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next”; a series regular on ABC’s “Grace Under Fire” and appearances on “Everybody Hates Chris,” “The Steve Harvey Show,” “The Boondocks,” “HBO Def Comedy Jam” and host of “BET Comic View.”
Curry is always on the road and recently finished the Platinum Comedy Tour with Mike Epps and the Festival of Laughs Comedy Tour with Sommore. He is currently developing his own talk show and said there is talk of another installment of the “Friday” movie series.
“Of course they’re considering doing another Friday movie with Ice Cube, which looks like now it’s going to happen,” he said. “Before, working on the other movies . . . we did our work, we had our fun, and most of us in the movie had known each other so it wasn’t nothing but a party!”
For more information www.stardome.com.
