Deon Cole is a rock star of comedy.
The award-winning actor and stand-up comic has been in shows reminiscent of “Black-ish,” movies reminiscent of “Barbershop,” and is soon to steal the show in a breakthrough dramatic role in “The Color Purple.”
But, the Chicago native’s profession of creating laughs — one which dates to the Nineties — almost never happened. Deon was a late bloomer, to say the least.
“I used to be like, way out of school and highschool. I’d never been an actual funny dude. That’s why comedy was never on my radar,” he told me on “Renaissance Man.” “I used to think comedians were just pie within the face, just at all times on. Then, I began noticing other comics who were ‘within the pocket’…like George Carlin and Ellen DeGeneres.”
Still, it took something extra to finally break Deon out of his comedic shell — a $50 bet from a friend to get him onstage.
“It took me some time to see what my friend was talking about. Sooner or later I used to be like ‘alright let’s go’… I couldn’t get [onstage] for 3 weeks. Then I finally got on and was like ‘oh, got it.’ ”
Since that fateful night where Deon “got it,” he’s never let go. Currently, he’s been branching out from comedy with a more intense role within the 2021 film “The Harder They Fall.” Deon will proceed to pursue drama in “The Color Purple” alongside Halle Bailey.
In fact, the way in which Deon — who has also been in commercials because the Old Spice guy — discovered he got the role is comedic gold in itself.
All of it began one night in NYC when he was seeing “MJ: The Musical” with close friend and actress Danielle Brooks. After the show, she kept telling Deon how excited she was to see him in person again — he could tell something was on her mind.
Eventually, Brooks, who plays Sofia in “The Color Purple,” told Deon that he had been forged.
In point of fact, Deon’s management was still negotiating for the part and his dear friend unintentionally spilled the beans on the complete thing.
“Then about two days later, I called my manager and just told them the conversation we had … My manager said ‘Yeah, we have now been talking to them for some time. Hey, perhaps it’s going to occur,’ ” Deon said.
“I believe right after that, they were like, ‘Yeah, I would like you to come back back.’ And I just couldn’t consider it.”
Now with the prospect of a lifetime, Deon desires to make it clear to Hollywood that he’s greater than just fun machine.
“I’m on this acting thing, I don’t wish to be in it only for comedy. I would like to essentially take it seriously, study, get it together, and really give the most effective that I can do and see what happens, you already know?” he said. “It’s only a change of pace … just doing something that I at all times desired to do.”
As for what to anticipate in the latest rendition of “The Color Purple,” Deon put it quite succinctly.
“The actual fact is that this ain’t the old ‘Color Purple.’ This ‘Color Purple’ ain’t your mama’s ‘Color Purple,’ it’s an entire different outlook,” he said. “What you’re going to see is something that you just’ve never seen before in cinema. I guarantee it…I’m not only hyping this up, it truly is.”
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the faculty hoops world within the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons within the NBA before transitioning right into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the creator of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
