#danitra vance

[blackqueernotables]

This video pays tribute to trailblazing Black women taken by breast cancer as we bring awareness to the disproportionate toll breast cancer takes on the Black community.

[negrolicity]

The Colored Museum (1991) | Loretta Devine Danitra Vance EDITED #Danitra...

[wanderingmind867]

Why does anyone work for SNL!? Their work culture is toxic (or so I've heard), and the place might as well be cursed! I'm not too superstitious, but let's count how many people have died there:

John Belushi (Drug addiction that he could've gotten help for, but no! Lorne isn't that altruistic)!

Gilda Radner (A big loss. She was the best person on the original cast, and you can't change my mind! She was better than SNL! She didn't deserve to be on a show that inconsistent)!

Michael O'Donoghue (I hate this guy. He yelled in Catherine O'Hara's face once! Or so I've heard! Still, he died young).

Charles Rocket (I know people dislike his season, but have respect for Charles Rocket)!

Danitra Vance (She got very little to do on the show, and she deserved way better!)

Phil Hartman (Another Tragedy. Still, at least you could say he got more to do in his lifetime than Gilda Radner got).

Jan Hooks (I know very little about her, but it sounds like another case of the Gilda Radner problem. She deserved better)!

Chris Farley (My mom loved Chris Farley. So it's a shame he died so young. Lorne could've helped him but no! He just let him do it! Screw you Lorne)!

Tom Davis (the last one I'm aware of. He might also be the oldest one to die on this list. But that's a maybe).

Look at that! 9 people from SNL have died before turning 60! 9 people in nearly 50 years! Pretty bad odds! At least Carol Burnett or SCTV never had that bad of odds. It speaks to how unsafe SNL is! Someone needs to shut them down! Immediately!!

[elcomfortador]

I want everyone to know about Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay person to perform in the cast of Saturday Night Live.

Terry was hired in season 11, which is the 1985-1986 season — the first one where Lorne Michaels was in charge again after a five-year absence. Considering that it took until 2012 to have another openly gay person in the cast, this strikes me as being more progressive on SNL's part than I would have guessed. What's more, Terry is bringing a distinct gay flavor to his performances, which is notable considering that a more frequent face of gay America at the time was the AIDS epidemic. Take this sketch, from a Dec. 8, 1985, episode hosted by John Lithgow. Not only is the First Lady being portrayed by a drag performance, but also his version of Nancy Reagan works differently than, say, Phil Hartman as Barbara Bush, because Terry is bringing a distinct gay flair to the role that a straight performer probably wouldn't.

This particular sketch is interesting to me because Terry is essentially using his Nancy impersonation — and his platform on this TV show with a national reach — to make everyone watch him do a song and dance number with sexy back-up dancers, which is kind of a little gay boy's dream? There's not that much of a "joke" to this sketch, really, other than Nancy dreaming that she would have ever been the most famous performer in all of show business. The "joke" is that he got NBC to sign off on him doing this very gay thing on network TV.

What I especially love about this performance, however, is that it's not a pre-tape, which I feel a lot of performers would prefer, because choreographed dancing is hard enough, much less doing it while you're singing. Instead, you can see that Nancy is wearing her stage dress when she appears at the beginning next to Ronald. She's just throwing off her blazer and running to the second stage while the establishment shot of the theater is running onscreen. When she's done, she's disappearing behind her dancers and running back to the first set, to the point that Terry a little out of breath because dancing while singing is a lot of work, it turns out.

He really gave it his all.

This is all something I talk about in the newest Gayest Episode Ever, which is the first part of an in-depth look into how SNL has portrayed LGBTQ characters and themes over its nearly fifty years on the air.

Of all the eras this show has had, I feel like this one is the most off-limits to people today, just because it wasn't frequently run in syndication, it often is not included in SNL's own retrospectives of its own history, and it's under-represented in what's streaming on Peacock. But I really think there's some interesting stuff from this era, that can help us understand how mainstream audiences came to understand LGBTQ humor the way it does.

And yes, season 11 also featured Danitra Vance, who was both the first black woman to be hired into the main cast and also a gay person herself, but she was not out at the time. I'll be profiling Danitra's work as we move through the series run of SNL.

[70s80sandbeyond]

Nancy Allen & Danitra Vance in "Limit Up" (1990)

[retropopcult]

Saturday Night Live cast photo for Season 11 (1985-86): Nora Dunn, Danitra Vance, Randy Quaid, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Michael Hall, Terry Sweeney, Joan Cusack, and Jon Lovitz.

[aygmam]

we always somebody else

"While these men sold out stadiums, however, women comedians, still combating the social construction of humor as a masculine practice, remained largely excluded from comedy-club main stages and cable network specials, and were hindered from exercising the expanded expressive possibilities of stand-up comedy (Zoglin 2008, 183)."

"In the comedy-club circuit, [Danitra] Vance recognized a “tradition” of performers yielding to audience expectations to secure laughs (Vance 1994, 383). Unwilling to let audiences remain “who they were when they came in,” she made the decision to “say to hell with the audience,” in part by pivoting to performance art and theater (Vance 1994, 384)"

"I use the metaphor to illustrate the challenges of eliciting laughter from an audience whose referents for the performer are girded in a gaze that Toni Morrison assails in The Bluest Eye. In the novel’s afterword, Morrison frames her writing in relationship to an “immutable inferiority originating in an outside gaze” ([1970] 2004, 210)"

"Misogynoir speaks to how the great distances between the somebody elses’ invented by “a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” and the self, are a distinct conundrum for Black women comedians (Du Bois 1903, 3)."

on pg 193 talks about warfield wanting to be as close to herself onstage as possible

[fredalan]

The Talent Pool HA! TV Comedy Network 1990

"Performance Artist" was the term of art in the late 80s. As producer Christine Ecklund remembers co-creator Albie Hecht's definition, "...longer form material, no joke tellers. A downtown feel."

Monologist Spalding Gray had a hipster success with his performance piece (and eventual film) "Swimming to Cambodia." His recitation of his travel, writing and acting experiences, mixed pathos and humor to engaged audiences for several years in New York theater.  

When MTV Networks launched HA! in 1990 we pitched channel head Debby Beece that among Gray's contemporaries were humorists with the goods that would hone the network's reputation with up and coming talent.

"The Talent Pool", an anthology of performance artists, set up shop in midtown Manhattan's Lamb's Theatre, site of a beautiful gospel brunch, and started casting. Between Chauncey Street and the network we settled on a pretty stellar bunch (pictured above from the top):  

• John Leguizamo is a writer and actor who went on to win four Tony Awards, appear in over 100 films, and whose Columbian/Latino roots and community are always up front.

• Lewis Black, who's angry rants about history, politics, religion, and cultural trends eventually gave him a regular perch on "The Daily Show."

• Jim Turner became a star when MTV presented him as his creation ‘Randee of the Redwoods’, and later acted in movies and TV. 

• Frank Maya was one of the first openly gay performers to gain a foothold in mainstream stand-up comedy, who sadly passed away from AIDS in 1995.

• Danitra Vance was a comedian and actress who came to great attention in the 1985 season of "Saturday Night Live." She was on The Talent Pool during her diagnosis and eventual death from breast cancer. She was awarded with an Obie and NAACP Image Award. 

• Chucklehead was a troupe whose comedy addressed fears of the Cold War, entropy, mortality, and the likelihood not enough tickets would be sold at their shows.

• Julie Hayden was a delightful writer and actress who was later in Ben Stiller's "The Cable Guy" with Jim Carrey, She was finding her way in the TV pilot season when she died of cancer in 1997. 

• Jeffrey Essman (not pictured) is often referred to as avant-garde, but he’s a hilarious writer, an often costumed performer and, a Benedictine monk.

• Barry Yourgrau (not pictured), a South African born writer and performer, has published several books and whose fictions have appeared in the New Yorker, Paris Review, VICE, Bomb, Poetry, Film Comment.

The show wasn't particularly highly rated, but we were completely taken by each of our fantastic cast and heartened when so many of them went on to highly visible and acclaimed careers. ..... Created by Albie Hecht & Alan Goodman Producers: Christine Ecklund, Craig Coffman Directors: Craig Coffman, Dana Calderwood Business Affairs: Elliot Krowe, Jim Arnoff Executive Producers: Alan Goodman, Albie Hecht, Fred Seibert  Chauncey Street Productions, New York

[jammerslayer]

"Today NBC announced four new featured players who will be joining the cast of Saturday Night Live, including Molly Kearney, who to the best of our research will be SNL’s first nonbinary cast member in its 48-year history. Molly was selected for Comedy Central’s “Up Next” showcase in 2019. They can also be seen in Amazon’s A League of Their Own (this is maximum gay) and Disney+’s The Mighty Ducks (a show that’s technically not very gay, but has lesbian moms). Their birthday is May 2, which I thought was included in their bio for all the astrology gays, but apparently NBC announced the birthdates of all the new cast members? Why? I have no idea.

Molly joins a pretty strong queer history on SNL. Obviously they are coming on the heels of Kate McKinnon’s notorious reign (she left the show last season after an impressive decade long run). They also join Bowen Yang and Punkie Johnson, two current queer cast members (Bowen also writes on the show). Danitra Vance and Denny Dillon are past lesbian cast members, neither were out during their time on the show, and there was also Terry Sweeny, the first openly gay male cast member of SNL."

[yourdailyqueer]

Danitra Vance (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 13 July 1954  

RIP: 21 August 1994

Ethnicity: African American

Occupation: Comedian, actress

Note: First black woman of the primary SNL cast and tied for the first LGBT member, though she was not openly out

[pygartheangel]

#BOTD: Actress & comedian Danitra Vance ( July 13, 1954 - August 21, 1994). The Obie and NAACP Image Award-winning actress became Saturday Night Live’s first Black female cast repertory player in its 11th season, & its first LGBT woman cast member. She appeared in the original production of George C. Wolfe’s play  “The Colored Museum.” She died at age 39 of breast cancer.

[wanderingmind867]

My Rant against SNL: Part 2

Seasons 7-10 seem like some of the best years SNL had. Their cast was great. Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Christine Ebersole (who has a beautiful singing voice and starred as White Diamond in Steven Universe), Tim Kazurinsky, Billy Crystal and Martin Short (who seems very funny, from what I've seen of him). I've seen a best of Eddie Murphy compilation, and it made me realize just how funny he's always been. I also saw one episode of season 10, and I loved it. Harry Shearer, Martin Short, Billy Crystal, etc. It was truly an all star cast. Makes me all the more angry when Lorne Michaels comes back and fires them.

Once Lorne comes back, It seems like he at least stayed semi-okay in the beginning. Sure, Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance seem to have only played stereotypes, but at least some of the others were fun. I've liked Jon Lovitz in some other stuff, and Randy Quaid is funny sometimes (I like him in those vacation films).

Seasons 12-15 or so seem okay too. At least they seem to be one of the most sober casts. I don't think any of them did drugs, but it's hard for me to say definitively. But at least they sound more sober, and that's good for me. Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Jan Hooks, Mike Myers, etc. They all at least seem entertaining. I like Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman from their roles on The Simpsons, and Mike Myers was in Shrek (and I liked most of those). Not much to say since I haven't seen these seasons, but they sound okay.

The 1990s sound like a return to the drug added mess of the 70s, however. And that's not a good thing. I read a whole New Yorker magazine article on it once, and it's really tainted my view of the era. Comedians like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and the others can be funny, but in moderation. Also, I hate Rob Schneider. Stupid vaccine denialist. Shows you just how lax Lorne Michaels was when it came to hiring people. There was still some good from this era (as said, their performers could be good in moderation), but it seems like a return to the hit or miss days of the 1970s.

I'm going to save my views on Mid to Late 90s SNL for Part Two, however. This is mostly so that I can cut Part One off before it stretches into the long and unreadable territory that I fear we're fast approaching.

Part 2: SNL of the 2000s I've not seen much of SNL in the Late 90s. But it seems like their cast was at least okay. Will Ferrell has had a bunch of funny films, and Molly Shannon is good in her guest role on Bob's Burgers. I don't have too much experience with a lot of the other cast members, however. Still, they seem okay. My Dad liked Norm Macdonald, but I don't have much of an opinion on him. Point is, at least a good chunk of the people here went on to do bigger and better things later in life.

I can't speak much about the 2000s as I know so little about them when it comes to SNL. Still, at least some cast members from back then seem funny. Not all of them, but some of them.

Now, let's talk about the 2010s. Let's discuss the cast members, and how some of them were funny and some just don't seem super entertaining. Kenan Thompson has always seemed pretty funny, and Bill Hader has done some decent stuff outside of SNL (like his guest part in Bob's Burgers, for one example). Jason Sudeikis is good in some things, although I never watched Ted Lasso or nothing.

[elcomfortador]

A Queer History of SNL, Part Four: The Lost Years

People use the term “the lost years” differently when speaking of Saturday Night Live, but this podcast is using it specifically from the time Lorne Michaels left the show after season five up until season eleven. Aside from Eddie Murphy’s presence on the show, these are the sketches that are less remembered today because they weren’t rerun on Comedy Central in the 2000s as much and they’re largely absent from the cache of episodes preserved online today. And that’s too bad, because this is when the show boasted some legends in the cast — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Short and Damon Wayans among them, as well as queer cast members Terry Sweeney, Denny Dillon and Danitra Vance.

The sketches (and click here if you want to watch them):

“SoHo Lesbians” (S6E10: Debbie Harry)

“Little Richard Simmons” (S7E1: No host)

“James Coburn Is a Homosexual” (S7E11: James Coburn)

“Focus on Film: Making Love” (S7E12: Bruce Dern)

“Penny Lane” (S10E11: Roy Scheider)

“Pinklisting” (S11E1: Madonna)

“Mr. Monopoly” (S11E12: Griffin Dunne)

Monologue (S11E16: Catherine Oxenberg)

“Lesbian Pick-Ups” (S11E18: Anjelica Huston)

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[itsblosseybitch]

Been trying to track this down for months! It's Carrie Fisher, Griffin Dunne, and Danitra Vance on an episode of the PBS series Trying Times on an episode titled "Hunger Chic." Directed by Buck Henry.

[theherstorybuff]

Danitra Vance

Danitra Vance (1954 - 1994) was an African American comedian and actress. She was the first black woman to be a part of the primary Saturday Night Live cast. Raised in South Side, Chicago, Danitra grew up with her mother, sister, and maternal grandparents.

Despite struggling with dyslexia, she thrived on the debate team and in theatre in high school. After graduation, she attended the National College of Education before transferring to Roosevelt University. There she studied playwriting and acting, graduating with honors. Danitra then travelled to London where she continued to study acting, becoming classically trained in Shakespeare and earning a Master’s in Fine Arts.

She returned to Chicago in 1971 determined to break into the acting world. Working as a teacher by day and comedian by night, she developed her sets at night clubs throughout the 1970s. She even found success with the Second City Comedy Troupe, before moving to New York in 1981. Four years later, she would have her big break when she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. Danitra became the first African American woman to become an SNL repertory player. 

Unfortunately she quickly became frustrated by the roles she was being given - those often stereotypically associated with young black women. She was ultimately let go by the show at the end of the 1986 season along with many other players of the time. After leaving the show, she focused her career on Broadway, which would eventually bring her an NAACP Image Award and an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress. She continued to act in a number of films and plays throughout her later life.

In 1990, Danitra was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. She incorporated this into a skit and later expanded on her experiences into an autobiographical show called “Pre-Shrunk.” This show was planned to premiere at the Public Theatre, but Danitra’s cancer returned and she was unable to perform. She died a year later in 1994. Danitra requested her funeral be held at an amusement park, and her family threw her a “going away party” with apple bobbing and bean bag tossing to respect her wishes. Upon her death, it was revealed she was survived by her longtime partner, Juones Miller. This made her also the first lesbian SNL cast member, though she was not out during her time on the show.

[granvarones]

today we honor and celebrate the legacy of danitra vance, who was a highly regarded stage actress and comedian.

danitra vance was the first black woman and first out queer woman to become a cast regular on saturday night live.

the chicago born artist mounted her own off-broadway show, “danitra vance & the mell-o white boys”, in 1984. the village voice wrote, “stabs while she entertains...vance creates an unsettling tension among stereotypes and conditions that create stereotypes.”

the chicago born artist mounted her own off-broadway show, “danitra vance & the mell-o white boys”, in 1984. the village voice wrote, “stabs while she entertains...vance creates an unsettling tension among stereotypes and conditions that create stereotypes.”

danitra became an SNL cast regular for just one season in 1985. vance was dyslexic and struggled to remember her lines and would often times ad-lib her lines w/ great success. her most remembered sketch was “that black girl”, the spoof of the 60’s show “that girl.”

although danitra proved herself to be a strong comedic actress, she was frustrated with SNL writers who put kept putting her in stereotypical roles. this was made apparent in the 1986 episode hosted by oprah winfrey where vance player lorne michael’s personal slave.

after SNL, and despite winning an NAACP award in 1986, tv and movies roles were far and few in between. danita returned to the stage and appeared in george c. wolfe’s play, “the colored museum.” the play was televised in PBS in 1991.“the hairpiece”, featured danitra starring along side brilliant actors, vickilyn reynolds and loretta devine.

in 1991, danitra was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a single mastectomy. she continued to write and perform her own material. unfortunately, the cancer recurred in 1993. danitra died in the following year. she was just 40 years old.

danitra vance’s time in the limelight and on the earth was brief but her quite impact continues to be felt. she was black, queer and unapologetic creative.

miss danitra is black queer history!