Cover Stories BLACK IN THE GREEN ROOM; Luenell Stars in Netflix Comedy Special Produced by Dave Chappelle
In 2006, Luenell was a fan favorite in the mockumentary “Borat.” However, “the original bad girl of comedy” has a career spanning over twenty-five years, beginning on the standup circuit.
Currently, she is touring across the country on her “Fresh Out of Favors Tour.” She’s also part of the all-female “Because They’re Funny Comedy Festival” at the Anthem Theatre in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 7, 2023, with fellow comediennes Nicole Byer, Ego Nwodim, and Aida Rodriguez.
Luenell also has an ongoing Las Vegas residency at the Jimmy Kimmel Comedy Club. And she is the star of her own comedy special, produced by Dave Chapelle, directed by Stan Latham, and currently streaming on Netflix.
Luenell says two of the most exciting things about the new special is the respect it adds to her career and looking up at herself on billboards all over the country.
“Somebody asked me how I feel about everything going on now, and I said I feel seen,” said Luenell. “It doesn’t matter when you get it, as long as you get it.”
Luenell says her new special captures her humor, her vernacular, her tonality, her intelligence, and her relatability.
The name of her new Netflix special is “Chappelle's Home Team - Luenell: Town Business,” produced, as mentioned earlier, by the one and only Dave Chappelle.
“There are Netflix specials dropping all the time. Then there’s a Dave Chappelle produced Netflix special,” declared Luenell. “That’s on another level.”
“I don’t know if all specials get translated into fifty different languages,” said Luenell, “but I know mine does. I don’t know that every special goes to one-hundred and twenty-five countries, but I know mine does.
Taped in the place Luenell calls home – Oakland, California at Yoshi’s Jazz Club – her special, she says, is a love letter to the city and she hopes she has given Oakland a reason to be proud.
Oakland has one of the highest crime rates in America and the chance of being a victim of a property or violent crime is one in thirteen, according to a report released on Neighborhood Scout.
Luenell says her positive achievements display the wonderful things that can come out of Oakland.
Luenell reflected on how her comedy special came to be. She says it began with a chance meeting between Luenell and Chappelle in Canada at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
She says they then ran into each other again in New York when Eddie Murphy was making a return to Saturday Night Live after twenty-five years to guest host.
Then during the COVID shutdown, she says, Chappelle invited her to join him for his comedy show “Comedy in the Cornfield.” Luenell was accompanied on that trip by her daughter, DaNelle.
Luenell says DaNelle told her, while Chappelle watched her perform, that he was going to get Luenell a comedy special.
“He told her, then she told me. And if anybody knows anything about Black mothers – you can lie to my friends, you can lie to my neighbor, you can lie to me, but don’t lie to my child,” said Luenell. “Because then, now we got a problem. I knew it was going to happen because Dave knows the rules. He knows better.”
Luenell says she knew then the comedy special was going to happen; she just did not know when. However, within a year, it was streaming on Netflix.
Chappelle brought in legendary director Stan Lathan to direct because he knew he would be a great fit and Luenell affirms it was a fantastic pairing.
Luenell had worked with Lathan before on Kevin Hart’s BET mock reality show “Real Husbands of Hollywood.”
“The fact that he directed my comedy special was a cherry on an already delicious cake,” said Luenell.
Luenell continues to shine in the glow of her accomplishments. In September of 2023, she was honored with the Comedienne of the Year Award at the Comics Rock Convention in LA.
She was also a brand ambassador for Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie plus, and she has a cameo appearance in Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty Fashion Show Vol 2.
In the future, Luenell would like to be the next Black female late night talk show host.
Luenell’s new comedy special, “Chappelle’s Home Team – Luenell: Town Business,” is currently streaming on Netflix. For more information on Luenell, her merchandise, and her upcoming standup comedy tour dates visit http://heyluenell.com.