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THE BIG INTERVIEW

Stephen K Amos

STEPHEN K AMOS
By : Brigit Grant

Pride Life caught up with Stephen K Amos

If you want value for money from a stand-up comedian, look no further than Stephen K Amos.

Not because he offers two minorities for the price of one (that’s black and gay, not black and Jewish) but because he effortlessly makes you feel part of his act and will probably know your name by the time you leave.

Stephen K Amos is that rare thing, a gentleman comic gently riding the waves in a sea of stand-ups desperate to be edgy and offensive. Sure, he swears a bit and subtly alludes to the size of his manhood – “I’m 6ft 2in – that way”, but overall his routine is very generic for a black gay man.

When he wanted to make a real point about being gay and black he made a Channel Four documentary about it, and Batty Man which was shown in 2007 addressed the issues of perceived homophobia in the Black community.

“I wasn’t having a go at my own community,” he said. “The reason I made the film was because someone I know was killed and I thought I needed to stand up and be counted. I don’t really want to become a spokesperson, but I am very vocal and it’s too easy to hide one’s opinions.

“I felt I needed to make a point to younger people and address misguided views. Thankfully I’ve had nothing but a positive response to the film.”

Though he has never actually had “that conversation” with his Nigerian parents who arrived here in the 1970s, - “I just never felt the need to say it”, and he didn’t have a problem coming out at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006 during his show, All of Me.

“They call it my ‘coming out’ show, but all I did was casually mention, ‘by the way I’m attracted to men,’ ” laughed Stephen, who categorically refuses to confirm his real age.

“It just got such a good reaction and at the time there were quite a few homosexual attacks, and the idea of physically assaulting a stranger seemed such a ridiculously barbaric thing to do, and that for me was the catalyst.”

A long-term commitment to his live-in partner, but with no plans for a civil ceremony – “it’s just not on my radar,” Stephen confesses to a love for cars and shoes, but zero ability for interior design.

“I get a man to do the painting and a man to do the gardening, my gay friends have the skill to do those kind of things, but I do not.”

It’s hard to believe when you see him cajoling Joe Public into piling up their furniture on the street that not so long ago he was treading the boards beside Christian Slater in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the West End.

A thesp no less and the drama continued last year when he played Sir Benjamin Backbite with a cast of other comedians (Marcus Brigstocke, Phil Nicol and Lionel Blair …yes… Lionel Blair) in a production of Sheridan’s School For Scandal in Edinburgh.

Filmed in Sydney, which as you all know is a great town for a black gay comedian – “I single-handedly upped the black population by a 1000%” – Stephen was a wizard in Oz and even managed to get the audience heckling each other

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