CARLTON FLETCHER: D.L. Hughley’s book reminds me of ‘DeAndre’

Laugh, laugh, I thought I’d die. It seemed so funny to me.

— The Beau Brummels

I just finished reading actor/writer/radio personality/comedian — especially comedian, he always makes me laugh — D.L. Hughley’s second book, “Black Man, White House,” the often funny, sometimes dramatic, always compelling “oral history of the Obama years.”

It should be a must-read for political junkies, and judging from the hundreds of squawks this newspaper receives each week — an overwhelming majority of which are about the cringe-worthy presidential race — there are plenty such junkies in the area.

(Of course, if you take away the squawks by individuals who simply repeat the day’s talking points doled out by their side’s talking heads — I call it the Rush Limbaugh Bloviation Corollary — with not even a scintilla of original thought, those squawks would diminish significantly … by about 80 percent or so.)

Every time I see Hughley on TV or hear him on the radio, I can’t help but think back to the night a few years back that he performed at the Albany Civic Center during Albany State University’s homecoming week. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey and Bernie Mac were doing their red-hot Kings of Comedy Tour at the time, selling out 30,000- to 50,000-seat stadiums, so the logic was … hey, you’ve got one of the Kings breaking away from the hottest tour in the country performing during homecoming week at one of the nation’s premiere historically black colleges and universities.

Had to be a home run, right?

Mmmm … No. For reasons I still can’t fathom, Hughley’s performance in Albany drew maybe 1,000 people. And that’s stretching it.

But I have a lot of really cool memories from that night, the first of which was Hughley saying defiantly, “I don’t care if there’s 1,200 people or 12,000, I’m doing my job.” I always respected him for that.

Some of the other things about that show that I remember were talking on the phone with Hughley a few days beforehand and finding him to be an engaging interview, witty and sharp. And I remember a lot of his bits, most of which it’s best not to repeat here. But let me just say that his take on “black people owning gold fish” was classic.

I also remember laughing, probably as hard as I’ve ever laughed. Hughley was mesmerizing as he stalked the stage, offering his unique take on topics that were, in and of themselves, relatively mundane, but turning them into comedy magic.

Oh, and I remember DeAndre.

When Hughley came out on stage and I was standing front-and-center, taking photographs, he remarked, “That’s just what I wanted, to show up in Albany, Georgia, and the first thing I see is some white dude pointing a camera at me.”

As Hughley’s performance — most of which I watched from the wings of the Civic Center stage — wound down, he started what was easily the highlight of his show. He began stage right (that would be the audience’s left), calling out every single person sitting in the front row and busting on them. He talked about people’s clothes, their hair, their weight … no topic was off-limits, as he worked his way down the length of the Civic Center stage.

By the time he’d reached mid-stage, I moved out onto the Civic Center floor so I could see his performance, and the people he was insulting. I was laughing as hard as anyone when, after he’d worked his way completely stage left (your right), he said, “But what I really want is for that spotlight to go over there.”

And he pointed at me.

I won’t replay the entire bit Hughley did (again, it being a family publication and all), but it involved me going up to the stage and serving as straightman. I will say that Hughley found me OK enough that he decided I needed a “brother name.” So he called me DeAndre.

After the show was over, I went with a friend to IHOP, which was then located on Slappey. We relived the evening and was laughing at some of Hughley’s more memorable lines when a guy walked by our table, did a double-take and stopped.

“Come here, honey, see who it is,” the excited gentleman said. “It’s DeAndre.”

One of my proudest moments.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.