"Phat Tuesdays," a three-part docuseries that premiered Friday on Amazon Prime, tells the story of the weekly show that brought Black comedy and Black audiences to Hollywood — West Hollywood, technically — and the Comedy Store, from 1995 to 2005, as well as what came before and what's come after. Directed by Reginald Hudlin ("Boomerang," "Safety," "Marshall," lots of television), it's an oral history with pictures, interspersed with clips of comics in their youth, that details what Dave Chappelle calls "an under-recognized cultural moment."
Moved along by a cast of famous and less famous faces from older and less old generations, including Tiffany Haddish, Cedric the Entertainer, Regina King, Luenell, J.B. Smoove, Jay Pharoah, Nick Cannon, Steve Harvey, Chris Tucker, Snoop Dogg, Lil Rel Howery, Bill Bellamy and George Wallace, it is surprisingly sweet and inspirational for something also quite raucous and more than occasionally raunchy.
That might have something to do with the character of its central figure, comedian and actor Guy Torry, who created Phat Tuesday, and though it is true that Torry is the executive producer of the series, there is much testimony to his generosity, openness and all-around niceness, qualities that also come through in his onstage segments. He seems to be using the documentary as a platform to thank all the people who helped him, and to give credit to the people he helped.
