Mo’Nique Opens Up About ‘Surviving R. Kelly,’ Women Supporting Women In Comedy And The Netflix Boycott

Mo’Nique has become the first female African American comedian to land a Las Vegas Residency, and it’s much deserved! While in Las Vegas, the Queen of Comedy stopped by Q100.5 and had a very open and candid interview with radio show host Natalia, where she discussed her new residency, R. Kelly, women in comedy and Netflix.

When asked how she felt about the recent R. Kelly fiasco, Mo’Nique expressed that although Kelly has to “deal with the consequences,” she doesn’t love him any less. She did admit at one point, she shunned R. Kelly just like many are doing now, but she shared that one professional experience changed her heart. 

She said, “Do I hate my brother? There was a time I did. ‘Til I did a film called ‘Precious.’ Then I understood the sickness. So let’s understand that’s a sickness that needs to be helped. If it means jail time, so be it. Whatever it means, you’ve got to deal with it. But do I hate him? No, I don’t want to hate nobody.”

In regards to her fellow lady comedians and supporting each of them, Mo’Nique shared how much it meant to have Roseanne Barr reach out to her after her residency announcement as well as how excited she was to be bringing two “fire” lady comics along with her. She said, “They reminded me of back in the day when there was #Sommore, and there was #Adele…they are these fearless women…”

Then, of course, the Netflix controversy came up and in her usual fashion, Mo’Nique didn’t hesitate to name drop and express how individual people and their comments resonated with her. She said, “I understood it when some people in my community said, ‘Mo’Nique, you are the donkey of the day.’ That was from Lenard (Charlamagne Tha God), I won’t call him Charlamagne. But when you have people saying, ‘Are you crazy?’, ‘What’s wrong with you?’, When you have an icon like Whoopi Goldberg say, ‘I could’ve schooled you’…on what? Working for free?”

Mo’Nique continued, “What lessons are you teaching us…But I understand because again when we’re so used to inequality, it’s like how dare you speak up. Not only are you a woman, you’re black. Not only are you black, you’re fat. So now you’re a black, fat woman speaking up. You should just be glad we gave you a ticket to the party.”

The first black woman comedian with a Vegas residency…yasss Mo’Nique! Congratulations!