The Essay: Top of the Bill

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The Essay: Top of the Bill: Stephen K Amos on Redd Foxx

Stephen K Amos on Redd Foxx

Top of the Bill

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Comedian Stephen K Amos on American performer Redd Foxx and his impact on his own career.

When he was a teenager, Stephen K Amos’s family moved back to Nigeria.  And there, for the first time, he saw TV that mirrored his own life and discovered the work of Redd Foxx.

As a teenager, Stephen K Amos’s family left London for Nigeria.  There, for the first time, he saw television situation comedies, imported from America, about black families whose lives he recognised. Here were shows where the ethnicity of the lead characters was not central to the story or the punchline to a joke.  One of his favourite shows was Sanford & Son, and for his essay Stephen has chosen one particular episode and its star, Redd Foxx, who took the lead part of Sanford.  As he came to know more about Foxx’s life Stephen began to see the possibility of a life of his own in comedy.    

Stephen K Amos started in stand up in 1994 taking his first shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1997.  His work has taken him all round the world, and his striking ability to connect and talk with his audience, his charm, exuberance, intelligence and warmth have won him huge audiences.  He has had his own ‘name above the title’ series on BBC Television, written several series for BBC Radio 4 including the semi-autobiographical What Does the K Stand For and now combines stand up with acting, presenting documentaries and writing.  His documentary about homophobia in black communities, based on his own experiences of being a black gay man, won a Royal Television Society award and was nominated for a BAFTA.  He took part in the recent BBC TV programme Pilgrimage: Road to Rome in which he got to meet the Pope and talk to him about how he feels that, as a gay man, he is not accepted within the Church. 

Written and read by Stephen K Amos
Produced by Caroline Raphael for Dora Productions

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