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Deon Cole is one of those guys you kind of, sort of know. He’s spent the past five years writing for Conan O’Brien (who also featured him on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television tour alongside comedy supernova Reggie Watts), and you’ve no doubt seen his face, whether on The Tonight Show, Def Comedy Jam or the incessant commercials for his short-lived 2013 TV series Deon Cole’s Black Box.
But despite his prolific career, he’s somehow remained just slightly under the radar. Now, with a starring role in a new Steve and Nancy Carell–produced TBS show that also stars Rashida Jones—it’s a buddy-cop satire in the spirit of The Naked Gun, and Cole’s partner is a dog (“He has an actual desk and a HANG IN THERE kitty calendar,” says Cole)—the standup is poised to go from vaguely familiar to household name.
In his own comedy, Cole delves into race and sex with a conversational delivery that makes his jokes feel less like a club comic’s shtick and more like actual wisdom worth considering. “It’s just my perspective on life,” he says. “Relationships, being a man, dealing with women…” He riffs about cops collecting suspects’ DNA (“Would you rather give the cops your DNA, or have a cell mate hold you down and take your DNA?”) and says that any white woman about to marry a white guy is allowed one pardonable sexual encounter with a black guy. It’s not that he says what we’re all thinking, it’s that he says what we never even thought to think—and definitely wouldn’t have the balls to say anyway.
His two upcoming gigs at Gotham promise more of his laid-back, observational style and his gift for turning out perfect, surprising jokes. “Comedy is like magic,” he says. “If you don’t see where the trick is going, it’s entertaining.”
Deon Cole performs at Gotham Comedy Club Fri 30 and Sat 31.