3 Reasons You Need to Stop Wachu Doin and Watch Amanda Seales' "I Be Knowin'"

I love my mother-in-law. Not only because she calls  "just cuz I was thinking about you" or because buys me Christmas gifts each year. Not even only because she birthed my wife, Ashley. I love my mother-in-law because she lets us use her HBO subscription. Last night, Ashley and I turned to HBO and watched Amanda Seales' comedy special, "I Be Knowin'".  (Advisory: the special contains explicit language) We laughed and learned for sixty one ab-tightening minutes. Below are 3 reasons you need to stop wachu doin right now and go watch her special. 


1. The Feast of Black Knowledge

Amanda, a renaissance woman in entertainment (actress on HBO's "Insecure", singer, VJ, podcaster, host, comedian), also famously holds a masters degree in African-American Studies from Columbia University. Listen to how she talks with Trevor Noah about how her studies inform her comedy.

From Harriett Tubman to Nat Turner to James Weldon Johnson, this is a primer in African-American Studies. Personally, as someone who also has a graduate degree in African-American Studies, I'm excited about the exposure of the discipline. Amanda connects historical content with contemporary struggles around race and gender. This is a master class in what she calls "edutainment". Schools should study the way she weaves in ratchetness and black empowerment.  In one example, she gives a memorable distinction of whiteness (there are people who happen to be white and then there are white people). If her YouTube show, Gem Droppin', is an appetizer, this is an entrée. If her traveling game show, "Smart Funny & Black" is a knowledge bowl, this is a knowledge buffet. 


2. The Audience

Part of Amanda's appeal is she knows who she is and doesn't try to accommodate white people. If you're at her show, you know what you're getting. In this crowd, there are no fairweather fans, but "passionate" supporters, mostly Black women, there to root on their girl.

I was glad about this. Amanda has a following already and I was worried HBO would try to dilute her to be a comic for everyone ("everyone" is code for being palatable to white people). The ovation she got when she came on stage let me know her people were in the building. They didn't let up either. They sang along to her rap remixes. They cheered her quips about menstrual cycles and sex with exes. They double-clapped on command!  During one punchline about passive aggressive white people, a woman in the front row jumps out of her seat in jubilant agreement with Amanda. The audience makes you wish you were in the room that night. 


3. The ShowWomanship

If you've never seen Amanda do anything, she doesn't halfstep with her energy. She's "passionate" and that comes through in this show. I've been a fan of hers for years now and felt pride as she presented some of her notable jokes with flair and freshness. This was her tour de force, her "Bring the Pain" (Chris Rock), her "Killin' them Softly" (Dave Chappelle). I don't name these male comics to legitimize her - she doesn't need that. Only to give a comparison to the combination of social critique and laugh-out-loud funny she demonstrates. 

This is a classic. It is a black woman at the peak of her powers and somehow not even at the peak of her powers. This show is an event, a mood, and Amanda recognizes it and lives into it fully. The occasion does not overwhelm her, but she embraces it and seems driven further by it. At multiple points, she takes deep pauses, inhaling the moment and letting us all anticipate the punch line. After a one hour set where she sang, danced, taught, rolled (Ashley cracked up and rewound that part), and half-preached, she wasn't even sweating. (I don't know a thing about this, but shout out to the makeup team) She did the damned thing. 


Around midnight, Ashley and I looked at each other in deep appreciation for a night well spent. Our cheeks hurt, our cores burned, and our hearts swelled. We had witnessed something glorious. Never before have I felt more like calling my mother-in-law... just cuz.