Mo'Nique Gets Her First Comedy Special In A Decade On Showtime
One of the original queens of comedy has a brand new throne. Mo’Nique recently announced that Showtime will be airing her first special in 10 years named Mo’Nique & Friends: Live from Atlanta.
In a clip from the show, shared on Mo’Nique’s Instagram, she proclaims proudly, “They tried to make a bitch disappear, you can’t keep a good bitch down.”
The hour-long Showtime special will premiere next month, and is executive produced by Mo’Nique and her husband and manager Sidney Hicks.
The couple revealed their difficulty in finding the right partner to air Mo’Nique’s new material after attempting to lead a widespread boycott of Netflix, who they claimed presented them a “lowball offer of $500,000” for the rights to her next stand up special. The comedy veteran filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant who has requested the court dismiss it.
Filmed at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, a popular site in Black Hollywood, it will not only include original sets from its star, it will also feature Mo’Nique’s fellow comedy veteran Donnell Rawlings along with a group of spirited new performers including Prince T-Dub, Just Nesh, Tone-X and Correy Bell.
Throughout the years, Mo’Nique has added titles Academy Award winning actress, New York Times best-selling author and producer to her resume, but comedy has always been her first love. She recently completed a residency at the SLS Las Vegas.
The comedian told ESSENCE last year that she learned “patience” from sounding the alarm on the lack of pay equity in Hollywood, especially for Black women, because she “understood” where many were coming from.
“We get fearful of losing out, so we just keep accepting. When people say, ‘Mo’Nique, what’s wrong with you? Don’t you know what’s going to happen?’ Well, baby, I’m going to have to deal with that, but hopefully the little girl who’s not here yet, she won’t. If I don’t do my part, then the ones that came before me will look at me like, ‘What [are] you doing? You know the ass whuppings we took for you?’”
Mo’Nique & Friends: Live from Atlanta premieres on Showtime on February 7.