Vinson Cunningham’s “Tracy Morgan Turns the Drama of His Life Into Comedy”

From The New Yorker's archive: a nuanced Profile of the comedian and actor, published in 2019.  View in browser | Update your preferences Profiles Tracy Morgan Turns the Drama of His Life Into Comedy After a near-fatal car crash, the actor got enough money from a settlement that he no longer has to work. But, with his own TV series and a return to standup, he has become even more ambitious. By Vinson Cunningham The writer Vinson Cunningham is a keen chronicler of artistic sensibilities. Since 2015, he has contributed more than a hundred and fifty pieces to The New Yorker, on topics including the subversive art of Sanford Biggers, Thomas Jefferson's interpretation of the Gospels, and the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. For the past three years, he has served as one of the magazine's theatre critics, reviewing pandemic-era shows both virtual and onstage. In 2019, he published a nuanced Profile of the comedian and actor Tracy Morgan, a star of "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock." Morgan is known for playing broad characters, but Cunningham's piece, which was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in 2020, finds a way to look beneath the surface of Morgan's larger-than-life persona. His prose glistens and pops as he describes the performer's distinctive comedic gifts, lingering in particular on his elastic style and intonation. "Morgan's voice is thick and textured, almost syrupy on longer syllables, with an old-school black Brooklyn accent," Cunningham writes. "He erodes consonants, turns simple vowels into unpredictable diphthongs, and takes each new sentence as an opportunity for rococo improvisation." Cunningham doesn't just deliver a portrait of Morgan. He takes us along the passageways of the actor's grim adolescence, marking key milestones and allowing his subject to emerge as a figure full of depth and dignity. At times, Morgan appears almost to be playing with Cunningham, challenging the writer to keep up with the staccato transitions between his family anecdotes, recollections of his TV work, and thoughts about the creative process. Cunningham expertly navigates the multilayered aspects of Morgan's rough background and hard-won successes; his prose deftly highlights Morgan's own penchant for interweaving the bleak with the buoyant. At one point, Morgan remarks that it is the jester who is "the noblest person in the court." He's the only one, the comedian observes, who is ever allowed to tell the truth.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive Onward and Upward with the Arts The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers From 2018: An under-sung artist upends received ideas about race and history. By Vinson Cunningham The New Yorker Interview Kehinde Wiley on Painting Masculinity and Blackness From 2018: The artist describes his work as "a type of self-portraiture. It's about looking at people who happen to look like me." By Vinson Cunningham You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers.    Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.