It was honestly the third person in one day who had told me about how amazing and hilarious Mo’Nique was. I was a little over it. Maybe it was jealousy because I wasn’t at the grand opening. Either case I was confused. I was wondering how everyone who attended her new show “Mo’Nique Takes Vegas” at the newly $100 million upgraded SLS Las Vegas would know so much about her.
“But I don’t get it. Did you meet her? What did she tell you? I just don’t get how you would know all of that from just sitting in the audience,” I told my friend with confusion.
Turns out fairy godmothers are real and they come in the form of a tender and slender baby-faced, fashionable friend of mine known who happens to work for a “lab” that chemically creates potions that turns wishes into show tickets to see Mo’Nique, and then I got my answer.
I think that like any skeptic, not to be confused with a critic, I approach everything with a reservation until I see it for myself. But see, the thing about Mo’Nique is that she gives zero fucks about cynicism. Before you even put on your skeptic hat she’s already captivated you. She’s raw, unapologetic, and you’re damn sure going to listen to her every word.
What’s fascinating to me about comedians is how the public files them under “Person Who Makes Me Laugh” when instead they should be filed as “Person Who’s Serving Me Some Digestible Truth In The Form Of Comedy” who was quick and humble enough to admit that her fame fueled her ego and almost deterred her family and business opportunities.
The fact that at 51 she is now able to explore her sexual identity and to be so vocal and colorful about it amongst a predominantly black audience was courageous. Why? Because as she notes from her personal experience homosexuality in the black community is a hell no.
You’d think it’d stop there but her masterful comedic storytelling continues on to tell her first sexual escapade with a woman whom her husband or “Daddy” or her “King” as she refers to him (this is black love) was completely ok with.
Mo’Nique is able to magisterially merge her comedic bit with topics she’s passionate about like homosexuality, racial issues in America, mental health, therapy and the taboo that surrounds mental help in the black and brown communities to sexual abuse. On the process of self-discovery and self-healing, she is unearthing a whole new era of Mo’Nique. You better catch her while you still can at The Foundry.
Photo Courtesy: SLS Las Vegas
