Legendary comedian, activist, philosopher, anti-drug crusader, author, actor, and recording artist Dick Gregory will make a rare area appearance at New Hope’s Rrazz Room for two nights: July 19 and 20.
Tickets are $35 and $45 and can be purchased online. Both shows start at 7 p.m.
Gregory is an influential American comedian who used his performance skills to convey to both white and black audiences his political messages on civil rights. His social satire helped change the way white Americans perceived black American comedians since he first performed in public.
Gregory entered the national comedy scene in 1961 when Chicago’s Playboy Club (as a direct request from publisher Hugh Hefner) booked him as a replacement for “Professor” Irwin Corey. Until then, Gregory had worked mostly at small clubs with predominantly black audiences (he met his wife, Lillian Smith, at one club). Such clubs paid comedians an average of five dollars per night, so Gregory also held a day job as a postal employee.
His tenure as a replacement for Corey was so successful — at one performance he won over an audience that included southern white convention goers — that the Playboy Club offered him a contract extension from several weeks to three years. By 1962, Gregory had become a nationally known headline performer, selling out nightclubs, making numerous national television appearances, and recording popular comedy albums.
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