Dane Baptiste interview: “The revolution will be streamed”

On February 28 this year, in perhaps the most anticipated Academy Awards opening monologue of recent times, Chris Rock stepped on the stage. Dressed to kill in a plush white tuxedo, with that trademark grin plastered across his lips, he proceeded to use his razor sharp wit to break down the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that had dominated the pre-award show conversation.

Starting as he meant to go on that evening, he chirped “Woo! Man I counted at least 15 black people in that montage. I’m here at the Academy Awards otherwise known as the white people appreciation awards!”That night, Rock used comedy to tackle controversy head on. Here across the pond, there hasn’t quite yet been a moment of that magnitude – the perfect meeting of a funny man and a historical juncture. Speaking to London born stand-up Dane Baptise, though, I get the sense he might just be the man with the skills and the vision to step up to the mark.

The best thing is being able to challenge people’s viewpoints and not being forced to conform to standards and conforming to what you’re told.

The first black comedian to be nominated for the prestigious ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014, before a Chortle award nomination one year later, Baptiste is known for his sophisticated style and keen eye for social critique. The Independent called his current Reasonable Doubts tour “observational comedy at it’s finest.”

His rise is all the more remarkable considering up until 2010, he was stuck in an office job.  Musing on his move from media sales to the comedy circuit he tells me “I probably always wanted to be a stand up in retrospect. As the son of immigrants either you’re working in medicine, you’re working in an office, or you’re a failure. I was thinking: am I going to get stressed over a job that I don’t like? Even if there isn’t a lot of money in comedy, I’d like to be able to make my own decisions about what I want to do with my life.”

He believes the rise of internet based media has presented socially conscious performers with a platform they’ve never had before.

And so, driven by a desire to pursue his passion and an independent streak, Baptiste performed in his first gig at the spiritual home of black British comedy Kojo’s Comedy Funhouse in Corks Winebar, West London. Reflecting on the show he tells me “I remember being nervous when I did it. A bunch of people from my school and a bunch of people from my area turned up. It went well in the end.”

Baptiste’s comedy has a wise guy’s type of innocence to it, an element he explains is rooted in his school days. “I liked being a class clown. The best thing is being able to challenge people’s viewpoints and not being forced to conform to standards and conforming to what you’re told.” When the conversation turns to his long term goals as a comedian however, Baptiste loses any semblance of being the schoolboy joker.“I watched the MOBOs last year when Lenny Henry had a special recognition award which was deserved and I was just thinking really and truly there’s nobody else that you could think of over the last 20, 30 years since Lenny Henry.”

As long as I have a pen or a laptop, I’m still going to continue to create stuff and nothing’s going to stop me, man!

Now in full flow, he tells me he believes the rise of internet based media has presented socially conscious performers with a platform they’ve never had before. “We live in a post-digital era where, you know, the same gatekeepers who had historical control over media don’t have the same level of control, which I think contributes to a lot of other unrecognised black talent being able to reach an audience. As long as I have a pen or a laptop, I’m still going to continue to create stuff and nothing’s going to stop me man! I believe that the revolution will be streamed, not televised.”

Enthused by Baptiste’s breathless but brilliant social critique, I ask him about his opinion on the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement in Britain. He responds without missing a beat “I think it’s amazing. This movement has led to a renaissance of black consciousness. I have to say I’m so proud of how black students have been moving with the protests in Heathrow and elsewhere.”

Black Lives Matter has led to a renaissance of black consciousness. I’m so proud of how black students have been moving with the protests.

That leaves me with one final question; could the movement provide Baptiste with the springboard to truly puncture the British social conscious? Again he’s optimistic – “Oh yeah I would love to talk about it, and by doing that I hope I wouldn’t be the last comedian to address it – irrespective of that comedian’s race or gender. So if it came to the point where I could have the ears of an enormous audience where I could describe that, then I would relish it.” For now, the Reasonable Doubts tour will roll on, but Baptiste has made it clear that his message is intended to stretch far beyond, the Arts Centre, or Britain for that matter.

Reasonable Doubts plays in the Arts Centre Studio on Sunday 30^th October at 8pm – tickets are available at the Arts Centre Box Office and website.