Jason Howard Green

Jason Howard Green

Friday, February 19, 2021

Celebrate Black Queer Voices: Feb 19 - Flame Monroe

 


Flame Monroe’s brand of humor ain’t for everybody.  She is vulgur, crude and offensive – so her brand of humor is just perfect for me.  Her story is so unusual.  You cannot categorize her and that’s okay.  Her pronouns are #heshewe.  She identifies as a black man, a transwoman, and a member of the LGBT community (part time).  And heshewe is only attracted to butch lesbians.  They are a father and they have been in the game of stand up comedy for twenty-five years.

While trans visibility may be mainstream now, that hasn’t always been the case. Flame was up on stages as a trans person, doing comedy in all-black venues, 25 years ago.  That’s amazing to me.  I just recently heard of her when she appeared as one of the comedians featured in Tiffany Haddish’s Netflix special They Ready.  I don’t think the crowd was ready for Flame.

That stand up special has tremendously broadened her fan base and introduced her to folks who would have never heard of her otherwise, self included.  What’s interesting about Flame is how she can identify in so many categories and offend them all at the same time.  She offends black people.  She offends trans people.  And I believe, you ain’t nobody, til everybody hates you.  Check out the video below where she sits down for an interview with Charlamagne daGod and the The Breakfast Club.

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