I always loved David Alan Grier. His career, while nothing to complain about…well, in my less-than-humble opinion, he’s one of the most underrated and—in a positive sense—underexploited talents today. I mean, for the amount of work he’s done, between stage, cinema and television…aww, I probably sound like his mother…

On Sunday night, the man Entertainment Weekly calls a “national treasure” popped up on ABC as the off-camera announcer of the 2024 Oscar broadcast.

See what I mean?…while EW got that “national treasure” right, DAG should’ve been in front of the Oscar cameras! Moving right along…

Written and directed Kobi Libii, [The American Society of Magical Negroes, Griers’s new film,] offers a provocative twist on movies like 1999’s “The Green Mile,” where the prisoner played by Michael Clarke Duncan used his inexplicable healing powers to help prison guard Tom Hanks, and 2000’s “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” where the mysterious golf caddie portrayed by Will Smith appears out of the mist to aid the golfer played by Matt Damon.

Grier plays Roger, a veteran of the society who believes in its quest and recruits Aren as a member. As Grier puts it, “If someone were to say, ‘Well, if magical negroes are doing so much, look at the world. There’s so much suffering, so much racial strife. You guys aren’t doing anything!’… I think my character’s response would be, ‘Oh, we’re doing a lot. Imagine if we weren’t here.'"

Asked whether he ever played the sorts of parts that Libii is satirizing here, Grier says with a laugh: “Trust me, I auditioned for a bunch of those magical Negro roles. I never got them because I wasn’t giving that vibe off. They were like, ’Thank you, David, no.'"

Grier emerged on television as a comedy star through the early 1990s Fox sketch comedy hit “In Living Color.” Alongside castmates like Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans, Grier played a wide range of popular characters like blues singer Calhoun Tubbs, who was based on longtime Ann Arbor street musician Shakey Jake.

Best of luck and continued success, Mr Grier!

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