By Nirmala Nataraj. Published 2:37 pm, Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Robert Townsend earned his degree from the school of hard knocks, and he has an impressive body of work to show for it. Townsend is an actor, comedian, writer, producer, director and network-programming CEO, but the road hasn’t always been smoothly paved. His new one-man show, “Shakespeare, Pimps and Hollywood” at SFJazz Center, is a captivating tell-all about the ins and outs of his artistic journey — one that is at turns horrifying and hilarious.
Townsend is the creator and producer of two successful TV variety shows, the CableACE award-winning “Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime” (HBO) and “Townsend Television” (Fox). He also created and starred in the WB Network sitcom “The Parent ’Hood.” No stranger to satire, Townsend also wrote, directed, and produced “Hollywood Shuffle,” a 1987 film depicting the hardships and victories of African American actors in Hollywood.
Townsend says the title of his show describes the magical journey of his life, “from growing up in a rough neighborhood around gangs and pimps, to discovering Shakespeare in the fifth grade and how that experience turned my life around and propelled me from the hood to Hollywood.”
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