If you are a comedy fan than you are more than very familiar with The Shaq All Star Comedy Jam brand, produced by Codeblack Entertainment, which has toured the country for several years and has featured many comedians from Kevin Hart, Mo’Nique, DL Hughley, to even Mike Epps. With that being said, the show has also featured many comedians whose star is on the rise from DeRay Davis, Tony Roberts, Gary Owen to Capone, as it’s intent is to create new stars in comedy.
What you may not know is several years ago the brand began a national search for the next Shaq All Star by holding a comedy competition titled Shaquille O’Neal’s Next All Star Comedy Competition to eventually breathe new life in comedy by opening up doors for comedians who are complete unknowns. This eventually enabled comedian Robert Powell to begin his path to super stardom as he was able to take home the first crown of Shaq’s Next All Star.
Fast forward a few years, and now as host for the brand Powell is on board as the brand seeks to crown a new king (or queen).
While the brand is on its tour to other cities in search of its new talent, one of the stops was in Los Angeles at the new comedy spot known as Inside Jokes this past weekend. On hand competing were many comedians who were trying to get on the tour; comedians such as Antoine Young, Daphnique Springs, Tahir Moore, Joe Fox, Tony Baker, Helen Hong, Brandon Broady, Vince Royal, Ron Gee, Tyree Elaine, T Murph, Teddy Ray just to name a select few. Some comedians were huge crowd favorites (who are still being talked about) like Tony Baker, Ron Gee, Antoine Young, T Murph, Ron Gee, Tyree Elaine and Teddy Ray. What we heard was that some folks had phenomenal sets as Codeblack Entertainment’s Executive Producer of the show Tamra Goins (and one of the judges) discovered the hard way.
Anyway, the event began last Thursday and as of last night, there were four comedians selected to continue on in the search for the title as Shaq’s Next All Star. Comedians Billy Sorrells, Kevin Tate, Tacarra Carthan, and James Davis were the finalists who now move on to compete with the other winners from the other cities such as Oakland, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and several others.
Stay tuned for more info on the future dates of the competition!
(Photos by Ant Rose)
The finalists from Sunday’s show
Robert Powell hosting
Ron Gee and Tyree Elaine being photo bombed by Teddy Ray
