elizaskinner.net - the jambox

Growing up a white kid in a predominantly black southern city, I was fascinated by commercials for the touring gospel plays. They had great titles like “Mama I Want to Sing,” “He Say … She Say … But What Does GOD Say,” and “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show!” - and the commercials all featured a lot of sassy finger pointing and scathing head-tossing retorts. I wanted to go SO bad.

My parents went to the theater a lot, but not to see fun like this stuff - they saw things like Death of a Salesman and Crimes of the Heart. I’d think, “Jesus, is that supposed to be the difference between a black family and a white family? We have quiet desperation and suicide attempts, and they get wig snatching and the electric slide? BOO! No fair!”

Now, almost 20 years later, it really shouldn’t have surprised me to find out I am a Tyler Perry fan. Yes, that Tyler Perry. Diary of A Mad Black Family Reunion Tyler Perry. His films manage to be both ridiculous and amazing, all at once. Glennis and I ended up seeing “Why Did I Get Married?” in a packed theater in Chicago and just about wet our pants from the laughing and the crying ya’ll. It. Was. Awesome. (Even the NY Times thought so.)

After that I started reading up on him and his work and found out that his roots are in my beloved gospel plays or “the Urban Theater Circuit.” Well, duh. That’s why he seemed to appear out of nowhere with a tremendous following already intact. He had spent years shaking his giant fake tits all over the country!

Which brings me to my one issue with Tyler Perry: Madea. Now, I know a character like Madea - fat sassy black momma played by a man in drag - is a short road to big laughs. Even if the laughs make you feel a little queasy and depressed. But Madea already took Perry everywhere he needed her to go. Her wacky antics opened the doors for him to get out the stuff he really wanted to say, and now people are listening. He’s moved past her and on to projects that stand on the strength of their characters (engagingly melodramatic divorcees) and dialogue (delightfully naturalistic yet preachy). By finding ways of making his regular non-drag characters express the same frustrations Medea could spout blithely, he creates really rich, tense scenes.So now he could hang up the dress - or at least give a real woman an opportunity to play the part.

But he can’t let her go! Tyler Perry is addicted to the fat suit and support hose! He is inserting her unnecessarily into EVERYTHING he does now - which, between you and me and the internet, is not a boon. I imagine him pitching movies like “Ok, so it’s about a jewish family in Amsterdam in 1940, a precocious little girl named Anne is our narrator. They must stay quiet in their tiny apartment so the Nazi’s don’t find them, which is hard because Madea always has something to say!!” I want to find him and stand behind him while he writes so I can snatch the pen out of his hand before he puts her into another movie.

So Tyler Perry, here’s my message to you, paraphrased from your own “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” (please imagine me in cornrows and a bandana):

Look at me! You’re a good (writer), you deserve ME. You want out of that (character), I KNOW you do. The only reason you’re going back to it is because you’re still afraid. I’m right here. (Tyler Perry) I love you. But I need you to trust me. (No more Madea.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.