Robert Townsend

Hollywood Shuffle

B.A.P.S.

Greetings and good evening, my good friends. As the world continues to devolve into chaos and discord, all that I can understand and cling to are movies. Movies are an excellent distraction and coping mechanism, but they’re also artifacts, guidebooks, and gateways that can be opened to reveal all manner of magic and talent and ideas you might’ve otherwise never conceived on your own. So this week, let’s focus on a true trailblazer of cinema, who not only innovated the filmmaking sphere but thoroughly made fun of it as well: Robert Townsend. This writer, director, actor, comedian was born on February 6th, 1957 in Chicago, where, early on, he became interested in comedy and performance. He joined the Experimental Black Actor’s Guild and took improv classes at Second City all before he graduated high school, picking up roles in local plays and even landing a small role in the 1975 movie Cooley High. Like many greats, Townsend left college early to focus on his acting career, and soon found himself in New York, studying at the Negro Ensemble Company. He auditioned for SNL in the early 80s but lost the slot to Eddie Murphy—and after Townsend found his own success, he directed Eddie Murphy’s infamous comedy special Eddie Murphy Raw. Townsend would go on to write, direct, and create programming for nearly every network on TV: from HBO to BET, Fox and the WB, steadily working in an industry that was initially impossible to break into. In 2013, Townsend was nominated for an Ovation Award for his role as Dan in a production of Next to Normal, and for the past few years, he’s played Sydney’s dad on the once-great show The Bear. Robert Townsend is now known as a multi-hyphenate artist and businessman, but his early career was defined by his ingenious, scrappy, bold, DIY indie filmmaking where he cast his friends and himself, and fearlessly reflected his personal experiences in everything he produced. The best example of this is Townsend’s breakout movie that established him as a filmmaker, and shined a light on the microaggressions, stereotyping, and overt racism that persists within Hollywood, this is his 1987 film Hollywood Shuffle.

With a tiny bit of savings and a ton of ambition, Robert Townsend set out to make his first movie with a group of friends and a ton of gusto. The entirety of this film’s <$400,000 budget was expensed through credit cards—a gamble that thankfully did pay off. Townsend continued to be a touring comedian throughout the filming process, causing the shoot to last over two years, but all of his methods of money-saving were pretty genius. He would rent camera equipment on Thursday, say they were shooting on Friday, and return the equipment on Monday, getting three days shooting for the cost of one. His crew got away with filming in locations without permits by dressing in UCLA t-shirts, so they would be perceived as film students learning out in the field. And though it isn’t perfect, Hollywood Shuffle became and remains to be one of the most iconic, honest, rightfully ridiculous satires of Hollywood ever made. Hollywood Shuffle introduces us to Bobby Taylor, (Townsend) a hot dog stand employee who lives with his mother, grandmother, and little brother, and dreams of being a successful, famous, Hollywood actor. He is so determined to make it, he endures reading through the limited, half-assed, caricaturized roles offered to black men, as we first meet him rehearsing cartoonishly thuggish lines in the bathroom with his baby brother. Pretty much everyone in his orbit is supportive of his creative endeavors, except for his boss and coworkers at the hot dog stand, who wonder what kind of fake excuse he’ll concoct today to get out of work. Bobby holds his head high as he walks into the audition, unfazed by the literal pimp who comes strolling out before him. The camera pans over a line of clean cut, nicely-dressed, charming and friendly young black people, who are then forced to “act blacker” once they read the script. One light-skinned man talks about using suntan lotion, one woman discusses the creepy requests of producers and directors she’s worked with in the past. The white casting directors go over the many oxymoronic enigmas they have in mind for each character, “What we’re casting for is the girlfriend of the brother of the main character—she’s gotta be tough but sensitive, she knows life and yet she’s very naive at the same time, we’re looking for sex appeal yet innocence, relaxed but some tension, and don’t forget to sparkle!” The casting directors are all rude and demanding, they take phone calls during auditions, they are unimpressed by one young man’s ability to write and speak in iambic pentameter. Some seemingly self-respecting man in line to audition tries to reason with Bobby, pointing out how demeaning this script is and how Bobby shouldn’t degrade himself by playing a butler or a slave or some white man’s idea of what a black person can play, but when his name is called, the man slaps a cheerful grin on his face and tells Bobby, “Good luck, brother!” before heading into the audition room. The rest of the film is a hilarious, clever, no-holds-barred critique of Hollywood movies and their tired, racist tropes, featuring a parody of nearly every kind of film genre from the perspective of black people—which, at the time, just did not exist in the mainstream. Townsend offers bitingly funny satires of action films, horror, noir, prestigious period pieces, wholesome, white-centric sitcoms and the ways in which they tokenize black characters—they even make fun of Siskel and Ebert with a vignette titled “Sneaking Into the Movies.” One of my favorites of these parodies is also the quickest, wherein Bobby is a Superman-type character, flying high in the sky until the helicopter cops try to pull him over. Hollywood Shuffle was both ahead of its time, of its time, and timeless, as painfully racist portrayals of black people still exist in movies and TV—so there’s never any moment in this film that feels too heavy-handed or exaggerated. The film features cameos from some of the most beloved black actors and character actors, like Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, John Witherspoon, Roy Fegan, Brad Sanders, Ludie C. Washington, Don Reed, Paul Mooney, and even a baby-faced Rusty‍ ‍Cundieff. Like all good comedic takedowns of overt and covert racism, Hollywood Shuffle is both absurdly funny and heartbreakingly accurate, and you can still feel the impact of this film upon other uncompromising black creators, decades later. There is not a ton I dislike about this film, but in recent analyses of Hollywood Shuffle, some critics have pointed out Townsend’s “passing of the buck” with his inclusion of homophobic and sexist stereotypes. This only makes sense, given that this film came out in 1987, when even a film about enduring offensive stereotypes couldn’t avoid including some offensive stereotypes of their own. Outdated bits aside, Hollywood Shuffle is quietly, humorously revolutionary, and opened the door for other people of color to creatively call out the countless racist stereotypes that brazenly exist within every piece of media.

In my experience, all of Robert Townsend’s projects are staunchly self-aware but still steadfastly absurd, and that was certainly the case with tonight’s next film, a girly-buddy comedy classic I’ve been needing to see for awhile, this is his 1997 film B.A.P.S. The film opens on a bustling diner, where an immediately groovy song plays as one pair of glamorously long acrylics passes a plate to another pair of glamorously long acrylics. These glorious nails belong to our protagonists, Nisi and Mickey (Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle-Reid), who are way too fabulous and talented to be working in such a grimy place. But their work grind is interrupted when the two besties hear an announcement on the radio that the rapper Heavy D is looking for a new video girl, and the best-dancing gal will stand to make $10,000 on his next music video. Nisi and Mickey have a dream of opening up the first-ever hair salon/restaurant combo, and a little bit of money and fame could go a long way. So the two save up some money, ditch their broke, deadbeat boyfriends, and catch a flight to Los Angeles, ready to make their dreams a reality. But unfortunately for these two divas, Nisi barely makes it into the audition room, as her fresh, new, gravity-defying hairdo ends up whacking one of the other dancers in the face. Nisi and Mickey leave the studio depleted, unsure how they’ll even afford a plane ticket back home, but luckily for them, they’re spotted by a handsome man named Antonio (Luigi Amodeo), who knows of another job for them. They’re chauffeured to a gargantuan, gleaming mansion in Beverly Hills, where a suspicious looking white man named Isaac (Jonathan Fried) explains that this isn’t a music video job, but another kind of acting gig. You see, Isaac’s uncle, Mr. Donald Blakemore (Martin Landau), is dying, and though he has lived a full life, he still yearns for the company of his long, lost lover, Lily, a black woman with whom he fell in love, then was subsequently torn apart from by his family. All these years later, Mr. Blakemore wonders what might’ve been, and Isaac thinks it’d be a great idea for Nisi to pretend to be Lily’s granddaughter, to fill this man’s final days with happiness and love. Hesitantly, Nisi and Mickey begin to spend a lot of time with Mr. Blakemore, swimming in the pool, cooking him delicious soul food, going on shopping sprees, going to fancy restaurants, and without even trying very hard, these two bring this old man heaps of joy. It’s all a very sweet, albeit convoluted gimmick, and Nisi takes to the job better than she thought she would, but of course Isaac has intentions that go beyond his uncle’s happiness. But even before any nefarious plots are revealed, Nisi and Mickey begin to feel guilty about lying to Mr. Blakemore, as he has become a true friend, and they have become his beloved, as he puts it: B.A.P.S. or Black American Princesses. Plenty of hijinks ensue and heartfelt monologues are spoken before the credits start rolling, but I didn’t mind the cliches and predictability of this film, given how genuinely cute it is. I will say, though, because I hold horror and girlypop cinema to the highest standards, that I wish B.A.P.S. was just a teeny bit funnier, and even more confident in its kookiness, because I could tell there was a strong voice in the script here, and perhaps it was snuffed out by cowardly Hollywood suits. I can only assume this is the case based off of the screenwriter’s (Troy Byer) initial disappointment with the film, which has now softened into an appreciation for what has become a cult classic in the eyes of film lovers everywhere. Byer based the film off of her own fish-out-of-water experience arriving in LA after growing up in the projects of New York, and the term “B.A.P.S.” allegedly comes from her godfather, Quincy Jones. It’s rare to have a female buddy comedy, let alone one that features two black female leads, especially one that features a fat black woman as well. This, alone, makes B.A.P.S. truly remarkable, but what really pushes it over into classic-status is the magnificent, eye-popping, stunningly gorgeous hair, makeup, and costuming that this film showcases. Every single look that Nisi and Mickey rock in every single frame was colorful and vibrant and Halloween-costume-worthy, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that Ruth E. Carter was in charge of wardrobe here. The film features memorable appearances from Bernie Mac, Debra Wilson, LL Cool J, Faizon Love, Anthony Johnson, Heavy D, Leon (Cynthia Bailey’s baby daddy), Downtown Julie Brown, Dennis Rodman, and despite its initial bad reviews, B.A.P.S.’ current lovability is a testament to the power and popularity of Black Hollywood. Its staying power reached all the way into the 2020s, when a stage production of this film was planned—with Blac Chyna cast as Nisi—but after researching this extensively, I cannot determine if this play ever came to fruition. (But I hope it did because what the fuck?) I really, really enjoyed both of tonight’s two films, and really, really enjoy the ethos and energy behind all of Robert Townsend’s projects—I promise I will definitely be watching the Jenifer Lewis classic Jackie’s Back next! Until next time, there’s always work at the post office…