Details via press release below: Verizon has partnered with the King of Comedy, Walter Latham, to bring Latham’s comedy to viewers globally; it was announced today by Walter Latham, CEO of Walter Latham Comedy. Verizon’s Potential of Us platform continues to empower multicultural audiences by encouraging them to let “technology power your passions.” Now, with its recent partnership with Latham, a multitude of shows and new comedic talent will be offered at the fingertips of customers; thereby satisfying the ongoing need for richer comedic entertainment. Verizon will symbiotically leverage Latham’s platforms and partners as well in efforts to drive audiences to...
- 12/3/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
"The Original Kings of Comedy" helped turn Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley into household names, but it was Walter Latham who conceived the original tour. It's also Latham who owns the rights to the footage, which he will put to good use with the launch of his YouTube channel, "Walter Latham Comedy," this week. The North Carolina-based entrepreneur, who has worked with Chris Tucker, Chris Rock and several other prominent comedians, is quick to note he is the only black non-celebrity to get his own channel as...
- 7/6/2012
- by Lucas Shaw
- The Wrap
YouTube is in the TV business, in case you didn't get that memo. Producer Walter Latham (The Original Kings of Comedy, The Queens of Comedy, Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat) is launching his very own YouTube channel, called Walter Latham Comedy. Making its debut on July 7, the channel will iinclude never-before-seen content from Latham's already existing library of work, as well as content from film and TV franchises of the past 10-12 years, and some new content, including: the aforementioned series he produced, as well as P. Diddy's Bad Boys of Comedy, Latin Kings of Comedy (featuring George Lopez, Paul Rodriguez and Cheech Marin),...
- 6/12/2012
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Things are heating up in the streaming video space. All the major companies with a stake in digital content streaming are trying to find new revenue streams, and new ways to compete for audiences as Netflix voraciously increases the amount of content it offers, especially with respect to television series. Three of the major streaming players -- Netflix, Hulu and YouTube -- have made new deals to provide content to users, and a fourth company, Redbox, is raising prices after testing an increase in limited markets, but is also planning to launch a streaming service by the end of the year. Let's start with the item that will probably be of the least interest: Hulu has made a deal with the CW to run episodes of current CW series on Hulu Plus the day after they air. And for those who don't subscribe to Hulu's pay service, shows like Gossip Girl...
- 10/31/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
If you remember a couple of weeks ago we reported that there was going to be a Queens Of Comedy Re-Union of sorts, as its seems the Queens, comedians Ms. Laura Hayes, Adele Givens, Sommore and Mo’Nique were having a gathering on The Mo’Nique Show. In case you have been under a rock for the last couple of months, The Mo'Nique Show is Bet's late night talk show which features comedian Mo’Nique as the Host interviewing her guests.
Well, as we stated previously, the time is now here. The show we told you about will be broadcast on Thursday October 29th at 11Pm Pst.
The Queens Of Comedy Tour, originally produced by Walter Latham, was ultimately captured live onstage in Memphis during their triumphant and filmed for a theatrical release.
Questions or comments? Please email us at thehumormill.info@gmail.com...
Well, as we stated previously, the time is now here. The show we told you about will be broadcast on Thursday October 29th at 11Pm Pst.
The Queens Of Comedy Tour, originally produced by Walter Latham, was ultimately captured live onstage in Memphis during their triumphant and filmed for a theatrical release.
Questions or comments? Please email us at thehumormill.info@gmail.com...
- 10/29/2009
- by noreply@blogger.com (The Humor Mill Magazine)
- Humor Mill Magazine
Its seems that the news out of Mo’Nique’s camp isn’t slowing down anytime soon. As we stated in our post yesterday, Mo'Nique is preparing for her Oct. 5th launch of her Bet talk show titled The Mo’Nique Show. So far, her line up for her first week is stellar.
As we reported, Mo’Nique intends to dedicate a show to Arsenio Hall, plus she landed a very rare interview with Morris Chestnut and David E. Talbert as they discuss Talbert's upcoming DVD release of his blockbuster play titled Love In The Nick Of Tyme.
Today she taped an episode dedicated to relationships with her guests that included actors Hill Harper discussing his new book titled The Conversation, and Boris Kodjoe with wife Nicole Ari Parker.
But the biggest bombshell we discovered today was that Mo’Nique is planning on dedicating a show to the Queens Of Comedy,...
As we reported, Mo’Nique intends to dedicate a show to Arsenio Hall, plus she landed a very rare interview with Morris Chestnut and David E. Talbert as they discuss Talbert's upcoming DVD release of his blockbuster play titled Love In The Nick Of Tyme.
Today she taped an episode dedicated to relationships with her guests that included actors Hill Harper discussing his new book titled The Conversation, and Boris Kodjoe with wife Nicole Ari Parker.
But the biggest bombshell we discovered today was that Mo’Nique is planning on dedicating a show to the Queens Of Comedy,...
- 9/10/2009
- by noreply@blogger.com (The Humor Mill Magazine)
- Humor Mill Magazine
Actor-playwright Tyler Perry has inked a deal with CBS to develop and star in a comedy series project for the network targeted for fall 2003. There is no concept yet for the project, which Perry will executive produce with his manager Walter Latham. Several networks are said to have been interested in Perry, with CBS ultimately landing the actor. After living on the streets for six years, Perry got his big break in 1998 with I Know I've Been Changed, the first of Perry's five successful gospel shows, which have grossed more than $20 million. In his Urban Theater comedy plays, Perry writes, directs, stars in and performs all musical numbers. Latham, the producer behind the Original Kings of Comedy and Queens of Comedy tours and films, recently partnered with Miller Lite to develop a 13-episode talent show revolving around the search for the next generation of kings and queens of comedy. WMA, which recently signed Perry for representation, brokered his deal with CBS.
- 10/28/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat," the actor-comic's latest performance film, is a two-for-one job. The first part contains a spectacularly unfunny stand-up routine consisting of weak, off-putting and belabored jokes. The other is a rationalization for all his recent legal and personal misfortunes.
The Maryland native delivers his jokes and excuses to thousands of adoring fans at Constitution Hall in Washington. Thanks to a hit TV series and several popular films, Lawrence has a definite following of forgive-and-forget fans, so the laugh track is solid. This concert film should also score with fans nationwide, but it is unlikely to win many converts for Lawrence.
The best comics, whether their material is off-color or not, deliver observations and insights into the human condition with wit and verbal dexterity. Neither weapon is in Lawrence's comic arsenal. His crude routines focus on safe sex, getting old (he's all of 36), disciplining children ("Whup you child's ass!"), sex after pregnancy, prenuptial agreements (he's for them) and overweight women (he's against them).
Lawrence has little to say on any of these topics. Worse, he is one of the least articulate comics in the history of stand-up. If you eliminate the words "fuck," "shit" and all their variations, this movie would barely qualify as a talkie.
Of course, humor is a matter of taste. Fans may love his comic riffs. Things only become pathetic when Lawrence decides to "tell my own story." The three now-infamous incidents he explains are his deranged behavior with a gun in the middle of an L.A. street -- "I was higher than a motherfucker!" -- a nightclub fight and a bizarre episode where he nearly died of heat stroke and dehydration while jogging in the noon sun.
His defense of this misbehavior: "No one is immune to the trials and tribulations of life." No apologies. No declaration that he has cleaned up his act. Just a defiant "We're all human". Everyone does these kind of things, he insists. Really?
This guy could have taught Tricky Dick Nixon a few tricks. He invokes God whenever he thinks that will go down well. He patronizes his audience by insisting that through all his self-imposed trials, "I felt your love". He even invokes Sept. 11 in response to his critics in the media without ever explaining what one has to do with the other.
The film itself is very cut and dried. An opening sequence contains clips from old TV shows and films and shots of Lawrence revving up backstage for his show. Once it begins, director David Raynr keeps the cameras trained on his sweating comic, seldom cutting away for obligatory shots of the crowd screaming with laughter. Daryn Okada's cinematography is refreshingly no-frills.
MARTIN LAWRENCE LIVE: RUNTELDAT
Paramount Pictures
MTV Films and Runteldat
Credits: Director: David Raynr; Writer: Martin Lawrence; Producers: Michael Hubbard, Beth Hubbard, David Gale, Loretha Jones; Executive producers: Martin Lawrence, Robert Lawrence, Van Toffler; Director of photography: Daryn Okada; Production designer: Richard Hoover; Co-producers: Walter Latham, Michael Cole, Momita Sengupta; Editor: Nicholas Eliopoulos. Cast: Martin Lawrence.
MPAA rating R, running time 103 minutes.
The Maryland native delivers his jokes and excuses to thousands of adoring fans at Constitution Hall in Washington. Thanks to a hit TV series and several popular films, Lawrence has a definite following of forgive-and-forget fans, so the laugh track is solid. This concert film should also score with fans nationwide, but it is unlikely to win many converts for Lawrence.
The best comics, whether their material is off-color or not, deliver observations and insights into the human condition with wit and verbal dexterity. Neither weapon is in Lawrence's comic arsenal. His crude routines focus on safe sex, getting old (he's all of 36), disciplining children ("Whup you child's ass!"), sex after pregnancy, prenuptial agreements (he's for them) and overweight women (he's against them).
Lawrence has little to say on any of these topics. Worse, he is one of the least articulate comics in the history of stand-up. If you eliminate the words "fuck," "shit" and all their variations, this movie would barely qualify as a talkie.
Of course, humor is a matter of taste. Fans may love his comic riffs. Things only become pathetic when Lawrence decides to "tell my own story." The three now-infamous incidents he explains are his deranged behavior with a gun in the middle of an L.A. street -- "I was higher than a motherfucker!" -- a nightclub fight and a bizarre episode where he nearly died of heat stroke and dehydration while jogging in the noon sun.
His defense of this misbehavior: "No one is immune to the trials and tribulations of life." No apologies. No declaration that he has cleaned up his act. Just a defiant "We're all human". Everyone does these kind of things, he insists. Really?
This guy could have taught Tricky Dick Nixon a few tricks. He invokes God whenever he thinks that will go down well. He patronizes his audience by insisting that through all his self-imposed trials, "I felt your love". He even invokes Sept. 11 in response to his critics in the media without ever explaining what one has to do with the other.
The film itself is very cut and dried. An opening sequence contains clips from old TV shows and films and shots of Lawrence revving up backstage for his show. Once it begins, director David Raynr keeps the cameras trained on his sweating comic, seldom cutting away for obligatory shots of the crowd screaming with laughter. Daryn Okada's cinematography is refreshingly no-frills.
MARTIN LAWRENCE LIVE: RUNTELDAT
Paramount Pictures
MTV Films and Runteldat
Credits: Director: David Raynr; Writer: Martin Lawrence; Producers: Michael Hubbard, Beth Hubbard, David Gale, Loretha Jones; Executive producers: Martin Lawrence, Robert Lawrence, Van Toffler; Director of photography: Daryn Okada; Production designer: Richard Hoover; Co-producers: Walter Latham, Michael Cole, Momita Sengupta; Editor: Nicholas Eliopoulos. Cast: Martin Lawrence.
MPAA rating R, running time 103 minutes.
While the title might suggest a Martin Scorsese director's cut, neither Robert De Niro nor Jerry Lewis are anywhere to be found in "The Original Kings of Comedy", actually Spike Lee's filmed souvenir of a highly successful tour (more than $37 million in ticket sales from 98 shows) by a quartet of top black comics.
The kings, or jokers, in question -- Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac -- are all extremely funny, highly polished performers at the top of their craft. And Lee respectfully gives the show, shot during two nights onstage in Charlotte, N.C., ample room to breathe -- with ample, unfortunately, being the operative word.
Clocking in at 117 minutes, "Kings" deals out too much of a good thing, overtaking by a good half-hour such proven hits of the genre as "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip," "Eddie Murphy Raw" and, more recently, Martin Lawrence's "You So Crazy".
There's also the question of whether the film's four-comics-for-the-price-of-one selling point will sufficiently persuade its niche audience to pay to see what they might feel they can regularly see on BET and HBO. More assured, however, is a strong performance on video.
The group certainly knows how to put on an entertaining show that generates substantial tear-producing laughter. And there's a discernible bit of Pryor in each of them.
Affable emcee Harvey plays the exasperation card, venting at rappers and dumb criminals and delivering a particularly hysterical bit about the hypothetical behavior of passengers aboard the Titanic.
Quick-witted Hughley keeps the observational quips going at a fast clip and likes to mess with the audience. Cedric the Entertainer lives up to his crowd-pleasing name with a generous sampling of song and character impressions. And confrontational Mac, a self-described road rat and master of the slow burn, isn't afraid to say the kinds of things most folks would never dare say out loud.
Needless to say, all four share a fondness for a certain 12-letter word situated high atop the Pryor lexicon, one that begins with an "m" and ends with an "r" -- and we're not talking "manufacturer."
Lee, meanwhile, working with his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Malik Sayeed, keeps it real by shooting on digital video and allowing the camera to work the room while remaining unobtrusive.
And thanks to Harvey's unapologetically old-school stance, there are plenty of vintage '70s musical cues featuring the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players and Lenny Williams, not to mention a terrific sound mix that places the viewer front row center.
But while no performer likes getting the red light, "Kings" chooses to ignore the old showbiz adage about always leaving 'em wanting more. Almost two hours later, ain't nobody demanding an encore.
THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF COMEDY
Paramount
MTV Films and Latham Entertainment present
a 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production
A Spike Lee Joint
Director: Spike Lee
Producers: Walter Latham, David Gale, Spike Lee
Executive producer: Van Toffler
Director of photography: Malik Sayeed
Production designer: Wynn P. Thomas
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Executive music producer: Alex Steyermark
Color/stereo
Performers: Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac
Running time -- 117 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The kings, or jokers, in question -- Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac -- are all extremely funny, highly polished performers at the top of their craft. And Lee respectfully gives the show, shot during two nights onstage in Charlotte, N.C., ample room to breathe -- with ample, unfortunately, being the operative word.
Clocking in at 117 minutes, "Kings" deals out too much of a good thing, overtaking by a good half-hour such proven hits of the genre as "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip," "Eddie Murphy Raw" and, more recently, Martin Lawrence's "You So Crazy".
There's also the question of whether the film's four-comics-for-the-price-of-one selling point will sufficiently persuade its niche audience to pay to see what they might feel they can regularly see on BET and HBO. More assured, however, is a strong performance on video.
The group certainly knows how to put on an entertaining show that generates substantial tear-producing laughter. And there's a discernible bit of Pryor in each of them.
Affable emcee Harvey plays the exasperation card, venting at rappers and dumb criminals and delivering a particularly hysterical bit about the hypothetical behavior of passengers aboard the Titanic.
Quick-witted Hughley keeps the observational quips going at a fast clip and likes to mess with the audience. Cedric the Entertainer lives up to his crowd-pleasing name with a generous sampling of song and character impressions. And confrontational Mac, a self-described road rat and master of the slow burn, isn't afraid to say the kinds of things most folks would never dare say out loud.
Needless to say, all four share a fondness for a certain 12-letter word situated high atop the Pryor lexicon, one that begins with an "m" and ends with an "r" -- and we're not talking "manufacturer."
Lee, meanwhile, working with his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Malik Sayeed, keeps it real by shooting on digital video and allowing the camera to work the room while remaining unobtrusive.
And thanks to Harvey's unapologetically old-school stance, there are plenty of vintage '70s musical cues featuring the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players and Lenny Williams, not to mention a terrific sound mix that places the viewer front row center.
But while no performer likes getting the red light, "Kings" chooses to ignore the old showbiz adage about always leaving 'em wanting more. Almost two hours later, ain't nobody demanding an encore.
THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF COMEDY
Paramount
MTV Films and Latham Entertainment present
a 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production
A Spike Lee Joint
Director: Spike Lee
Producers: Walter Latham, David Gale, Spike Lee
Executive producer: Van Toffler
Director of photography: Malik Sayeed
Production designer: Wynn P. Thomas
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Executive music producer: Alex Steyermark
Color/stereo
Performers: Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac
Running time -- 117 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/14/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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