Chris Spencer Talks About Using Comedy and Virtual-Reality in Times of Crisis

At a time when nearly 30 million Americans are unemployed, entire industries are shut down, and much of the world has come to a standstill, there’s one thing many of us could use right now: a laugh.

To give the world much-needed comic relief in this time of crisis, D.L. Hughley, one of the original Kings of Comedy, tapped three fellow comedians for a new comedy series with an innovative twist. Hugely, Chris Spencer, Ryan Davis, and Bo Dacious teamed up with Ceek to produce a virtual reality series called “The Laugh Experience,” which marks the first-ever virtual reality comedy special.

During an interview on BLACK ENTERPRISE’s The New Norm With Selena Hill, Spencer opened up about “The Laugh Experience,” his life in quarantine, and new-age comedy. “It’s some futuristic stuff. I’m very excited to be a part of it,” he said.

Spencer, whose 30-year-long career in Hollywood includes writing and producing Grown-ish, creating Real Husbands of Hollywood, starring Kevin Hart, and writing for The Emmys and SNL, is also planning to launch his own channel on CEEK. Some of the original content that will air includes his upcoming talk show that aims to bridge the gap between veteran standup comedians and funny social media stars.

“A lot of them think we don’t like them and we think that they don’t like us,” he said. “I want to put them into a room together and let’s have some conversations about how we can help you because your stand up sucks and how you can help us because our social media sucks.”

Outside of CEEK, Spencer is working on a new talk show called Still Standing, featuring famous standup comedians who’ve gone under the radar, like Bruce Bruce, Alex Thomas, Tony Woods, and George Wallace.

“You’re going to get a chance to see all the comedians you grew up with and are wondering what they are doing now,” he said. “Some of them are doing other things besides stand up. Some of them become writers. Some of us are heavy in the stock market…I want to bring that out and let people know where the hell these people are and what they’re doing.”

In addition, Spencer talked about why many people are just now getting hip to VR platforms like CEEK, which launched in 2015 by Mary Spio, a rocket scientist born in Ghana.

Watch Spencer’s interview on The New Norm with Selena Hill below.