Sinbad - Brain Damaged

When I was growing up in the 80's and 90's, stand up comedy was a huge entertainment enterprise. We had big time stand up comedians on top of the entertainment world like Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, and Martin Lawrence (who hosted the iconic stand up comedy show on HBO called 'Def Comedy Jam'). There was also a nightly stand up comedy show on BET called 'Comic View' that a lot of comedians got their start on. I truly believe a lot of my personality comes from watching these shows and trying to be funny. I actually think I'm pretty funny.....hey, I make myself laugh everyday! Anyway, we were also blessed with comedians that released classic stand up specials. If you ask people about some of the most classic stand up comedy sets, you probably would hear about Chris Rock's 'Bring The Pain', Dave Chappelle's 'Killin Them Softly' or even the movie 'The Original Kings of Comedy' with D.L. Hughley, Cedric The Entertainer (one of my personal faves), and Bernie Mac. The show was hosted by Steve Harvey. Now, I loved all of what comedy was about back then, but the problem was......most of the comedians (with the exception of Bill Cosby) cussed and talked about stuff I probably shouldn't have been listening to at my age.

However, there was one comedian that I could watch with my parents and sister. His name was Sinbad. I was immediately drawn to him because of his sports background. When my 11 year old self heard about a tall comedian who used to play basketball in college.....he had my full attention. He also never veered toward any of the language or content that I had to sneak around to watch. Sinbad was around a long time before he put out my absolute favorite stand up special. He was even on my favorite show, 'A Different World', back in the day as Walter the (you guessed it) basketball coach at Hillman College. Well, we had heard about him releasing a comedian special called 'Brian Damaged' and I found it at Blockbuster Video on a Friday looking for something to watch over the weekend. I was super pumped because we made it 'family night' event. We all ate pizza around the TV and watched it as a family.

I remember specifically back in the day liking it so much because of how he mentioned that his mom would be overcome with a 'demonic' being after he disrespects her. One of the most memorable line/part of the special was when he said he tried to run from her and her hand became bionic and stretched to grab him all the while saying 'Don't you ruunnnnnnn from me!' I still chuckle when I think about it because my mom may or may not have had the same 'demon' come over her as she spanked my behind for acting up. All of the other stuff he mentions about marriage, relationships, getting older didn't really land with me......UNTIL NOW! Let me tell you, EVERYTHING he mentioned in this special is true and I have experienced it first hand. He mentions how as man you are dating someone special, and she makes you feel like a king and goes along with every and anything you say, but once you get married, the now wife is like.....'SOME THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE AROUND HERE'. Another highlight was when he mentions that women tend to see other attractive women up to ten minutes before the man sees her and waits for his reaction before the other attractive woman is even in his sight. I'm telling you, Sinbad and this special is genius. He's not only on the money about relationships and random things like fast food drive-thru's....he also touches on getting older. Its almost a 'throwaway' part of the special, but when he mentions that when you get older, you wake up with the most random, mysterious aches on your body that won't go away. Let me tell you, I have woke up with a random stinger on my right tricep that I have no idea what I did to get it....and it usually takes like a week to go away!

I truly believe that Sinbad doesn't get the due he deserves but this dude has been killing it in the comedy game for a long time now and it doesn't appear that he's going away anytime soon. He's my favorite comedian of all time and this special in particular is a masterpiece!