The Ms. Pat show
If you thought Tiffany Haddish’s life journey was insane, wait until you hear about Ms. Pat. From teenage motherhood to selling drugs and getting shot at all the way to having her own sitcom: that is the remarkable story of one of today’s finest comedians… or ever.
To be clear, Tiffany Haddish is an amazing comedian in her own right and we might have to write a post about her some day; but this one is about Ms. Pat. Here are a few (true) highlights from her life, that she shared on numerous TV shows, radio shows and podcasts in recent years, including the one hosted by the great comedy duo that is Mark Normand and Sam Morril:
she came from extremely humble beginnings, with an alcoholic mother who died at the age of 40, growing up in a very tough Atlanta neighborhood;
at age 14, she had her first child with a man ten years older than her — and already married. She went on to have a second child with him by the time she was 15;
she began selling drugs to provide for her family — still as a teenager;
she got shot at multiple times, sometimes narrowly escaping death — still as a teenager;
she was arrested and spent some time in jail — still as a teenager;
she ended up taking care of her niece’s children on top of her own because said niece was a drug addict who failed to provide for them. All in all, she provided for 8 children… so far.
she never thought about doing comedy until a caseworker told her she was the best moment of her day, was absolutely hilarious and should definitely try making a career in comedy.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Which still took decades from the moment that caseworker opened Ms. Pat’s eyes: no matter how funny you are, it always takes years to make it in the (show) business. The thing is, however, that lady was incredibly a) talented and b) resilient so she kept at it, grew bigger and better all the way to becoming a regular club headliner, getting on TV, having her first specials… and finally landing her very own, rather autobiographical sitcom a couple of years ago. All of that thanks to the brutal honesty of her work.
No matter how difficult certain episodes in Ms. Pat’s life were and are, she is a master at making any one of them funny. Just like practically anything she says: she is one of those consummate comedians with an uncanny ability to portray things in a hilarious fashion. Which probably came naturally to her, as that caseworker noticed way back when, but also got honed by years of stand-up touring. The result is this: Ms. Pat is, for our money, just about as good a comedian as one could ever hope to be.
And she doesn’t shy away from hot topics: her sitcom deals with homosexuality, sexual abuse and abortion (among other things) in a way that was rarely portrayed on TV, if ever. A lot of it stems from her real life — she’s had abortions, one of her daughters is gay and she (definitely) suffered abuse as a child — but what is most incredible is her way of making the most sensitive topics palatable, with the perfect dosage of humor put into them to make the story stick in people’s minds. Thus helping push key topics in an otherwise tense societal landscape, especially within the African-American community she tends to specifically target.
People who lived the life of Ms. Pat are sadly no exception — even if we wished they are, and hopefully will be fewer and far between as social and economic progress lifts more communities out of poverty. But people who lived such a life and are able to talk about it, not to mention in such an hilarious way, are absolutely the exception. And a greatly welcome one. Thank you, Ms. Pat, looking forward to what you bring us next…