My wife and I are an interracial couple (she’s Black, I’m White), and we have an almost two-year old Biracial son.  In addition, we are a Jewish family.

I mention this because often when people meet me and learn that I’m a comedian they ask me where do I get my material.  They also often ask which comics are my favorites.

These questions go hand in hand.  Most comedians have heroes or favorite comics that they emulate, and, of course, they emulate those heroes for a reason.   And, if you ask enough comics, you’ll often hear the same names mentioned as being favorites, in particular Richard Pryor and George Carlin.  Both were great and both are favorites of mine.

But one comic who sometimes gets overlooked (which is a huge shame) is a comic who I really emulate because he took an issue so personal to himself — the issue of race — and he made it the subject of so much of his humor in such a brilliant and smart way.  Similarly, because of the makeup of my family and some of the issues we face, race and race-related issues also make up much of my material.  For this reason (and for many other reasons about the way he has carried himself throughout his life), Dick Gregory is a comic who is amongst my most favorite and one whom I emulate and admire immensely.

And, I’m partial to him because he has a great quote about Blacks and Jews and race being an artificial division: