THE BEST OF TASTY CLIPS: Comedy is no joke to Earthquake, who is speaking his mind

By Bill Vaughan

Entertainment Writer

“Right now, I’m a 30-year overnight sensation to a lot of people,” said the comic actor born Nathaniel Stroman to Tasty Clips in 2022. He was riding the crest of fame generated from being the star under his stage name of one of Netflix’ best standup comedy specials of the year: “Earthquake: Legendary,” as part of “Dave Chappelle’s Home Team” series.

“I mean when you have the hottest comedian introduce you such as Dave Chappelle, you can’t do nothing but [rise]. A lot of [MFs] didn’t even know me,” he said.

While taking a break from portraying recurring characters on CBS’ “The Neighborhood,” HBO Max’s “South Side” and Bounce TV’s “Johnson,” the Southeast Washington, D.C. native who resides in Los Angeles, was about to embark on his first headlining national tour, called “Legendary” with Donnell Rawlings (“who they call ‘Too Soon’ because he’ll talk about it at the funeral!”).

We had a chance to chop it up on several subjects of the times.

TC: You’ve been doing a lot of television roles lately. Do you prefer that to performing your comedy live?

EQ: “Well, It’s a necessary thing. I love the art of it. It doesn’t give you immediate gratification like comedy does. Acting, you have to sit there and you’re not much in control like you are in stand-up comedy. You’re the director and editor when you do your stand-up. When you’re acting, you have to wait until somebody else cuts. Someone has to put it all together and you don’t know how you’re going to look because it’s based upon someone else’s eye for their project. I prefer stand-up to be honest.”

TC: What separates you from many of your comedy peers?

EQ: “My jokes are not jokes. I just speak with my mind, and I allow the repercussions or consequences that come along from what I say do whatever its going to do. I never walk into coming out with a joke and try to say this one is going to change the culture or this one right here is going to educate our people — unless I see the void in it and I just address it as such.”

TC: Would you consider running for office in your hometown D.C. like comedian Red Grant did?

EQ: “Yeah, if they turn D.C. into statehood, I’d run for the senator. I don’t want to be mayor. No disrespect to the mayor but that’s a no. If they turn D.C. into statehood and give us voting rights instead of just taxing rights, it would be elegant at that point. I’m with that. I mean, … my hometown is a beautiful place, but a lot of people don’t’ have the patriotic feeling that I have for it. You know what I mean? To each his own, but I love it. If I played sports, I’d play for my hometown. I would.”

TC: What do you think of the Russian detainment of the WNBA’s Brittney Griner over vape cartridges that allegedly carried a trace of hashish oil?

EQ: “She can have Jesus. Putin don’t give a damn about that. Jesus can come down and say I gave her that hemp. Putin don’t care. Only person that matters is Putin. Apparently, he don’t want to let her out.”

TC: You had a role on HBO Max’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” which was put on blast by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and others for fabrications. Did you feel the burn from that?

EQ: “As always in a movie or TV, it really ain’t your call. You’re the actor and your job is to portray the writers’ perspective on the work. We didn’t know they didn’t like it until the project was already completed. I was just with Kareem. He didn’t bring it up to me and I ain’t bring it up to him.”

TC: He might’ve missed your part though.

EQ: “He probably missed mine, because you blink, you’ll miss my … part.”

TC: Wanda Sykes has said “Oh, hell no!” to returning to host the Oscars due to their handling of the Will Smith/Chris Rock incident. Should comics unite to boycott the ceremony?

EQ: “No. No. Not at all. Why? I mean Black people were running it. Will Packer was producing it. You need to boycott Will Smith’s music. You need to hold the aggressor accountable, not the Oscars. They didn’t slap Chris Rock. Will did.”

TC: Have you ever been assaulted on stage?

EQ: “Nope and this ain’t the time to start. That’s why that mic stand is up there. I’m from Africa. You’re going to see my spirit work if you come up there. I offer you to come up if you want a mic stand in your lung.”

TC: So you would have handled it differently.

EQ: “No. Now that I’ve seen how Chris Rock did it. I would’ve done it the same way he did. I’d have already started suing him by now, but I would’ve handled it the same way because of the enormity of the situation with a Black producer, who I have the utmost respect for. Yeah, I would’ve took one foot. I mean, you’re already slapped. Last thing you want is you and him fighting on international TV. That just spurs even more of the stereotype. I would’ve took it, but I would’ve whupped his ass later on.”

TC: You would’ve caught up with him …

EQ: “Oh yeah, He would’ve had to show me he’s Ali.”

TC: What’s coming up next?

EQ: “TV, movies (like “Bed-Ridden” with Rawlings), another Netflix special, touring overseas. I’m a tour ho, it seems.”

TC: If you had an OnlyFans account, what could we expect to see?

EQ: “Just me acting a fool. I for damn sure not taking my clothes off.”

Earthquake is headlining Stand Up & Slow Jams featuring music by Dre Scot Sept. 24 at B-Side at Blue Note Los Angeles. For more info on the evening hosted by Ron G with Kings Ether, Fahim Anwar, Jessie Mae Peluso and Arijana Ramic, visit www.bluenotejazz.com/la.

For more than 12 years, Bill Vaughan has kept Wave readers up to date with the latest news in entertainment. To contact Vaughan, visit his social media pages on Facebook and Instagram or @tasty_clips, on X @tastyclips, and on LinkedIn to William Vaughan.