Katt Williams is funny. Say what you want to say about him, but the man is funny. And he’s made millions by making us laugh. Despite his past exploits caught on video: From the possession of drugs and challenging fellow comedians to being on video throwing a punch at a kid and getting into a full-blown fight with the child, who is only in 7th grade, Katt is still going strong.
In his 2014 stand-up special “Katt Williams: Priceless,” directed by Spike Lee, the highly sought-after comedian tells the crowd, “They arrested me five times in five cities in five days. What the f–k? I am not the International Man of Mystery.” But with a number of public meltdowns and triumphs, Katt Williams’ behavior does lead to many questions.
Born Micah Sierra Williams on September 2, 1971 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Katt was raised in Dayton, Ohio. Williams emancipated himself from his parents at the age of 13, moved to Florida, and supported himself as a street vendor.
Now, 50 years old, Williams has been doing this comedy thing for a long time.
One of his most talked about specials is a 6-minute “commercial” for the clothing brand Supreme.
Over the course of the video, Williams jumps from President Trump’s advice to treat COVID-19 with bleach to the global Black Lives Matter protests to the impact that the pandemic has had on countless families.
“If it doesn’t fit, it ain’t s—. And things in this world are starting to not fit. Right now, we have a perfectly suitable clown running the free world,” he said. “We got a guy who’s advice included things that no decent crackhead would tell you to do with a gunshot wound.”
In his 2020 special, Williams hit on a very emotional part of history and disease: HIV/AIDS.
He brought up Hart Island, an area in The Bronx used as a mass grave for disease-related deaths and unclaimed bodies and which was filled with thousands of victims of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-’80s into the ’90s.
Only 11 miles from Manhattan, Hart Island has been the final resting place for New York’s unclaimed and poor for over a century. The island just a hop, skip and jump away from the Bronx is the largest mass grave in the United States. At least 1,000 bodies are buried on the island a year, and more than 1 million can be found in the plots of its potter’s field, known as City Cemetery.
In April 2020, this mass graveyard of a city was thrust into the national spotlight after the city announced it would be using the public cemetery to inter unclaimed victims of COVID-19.
As a teen, Williams traveled the country working for a carnival and did his first stand-up gig at a comedy club.
But Williams soon found the road to fame littered with bumps and potholes, beginning with a charge of possession of a stolen gun at LAX in November 2006. The charge where he received three years probation.
But yet again, Katt won’t let anything hold him down. Whatever subject it may be, Katt has something to say about it. Here’s a 2016 interview of Katt Williams speaking about the killings of Black men and the mission of Black Lives Matter.
In November 2008, he was arrested on gun charges hours before his Carnegie Hall debut. He made it barely on time, telling the crowd, “I just got out of jail about 35 minutes ago.” After the show, he announced his retirement — this would not stick — and gave most of his clothing and jewelry to the audience. A week later, he tried checking into a…
… hotel in a bathrobe, leading to a report that family members had Williams involuntarily committed for a psychiatric evaluation.
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The next few years would find Williams in a number of headlines, many of them not good. From arrest after arrest, the talented comedian seemed to be in a bit of downfall.
Friends and collaborators still have trouble wrapping their heads around how this behavior fails to resemble the Katt they know.
“I continue to be surprised whenever I hear there’s another incident,” says Friday After Next director, Marcus Raboy. “He has a brilliant mind, and it is a blessing and a curse. If it’s not working 100 percent for you, then it’s working 100 percent against you.”
Katt told Ebony magazine, “The only thing that keeps me afloat is that other than death, anything they bring toward me, I’m going to turn it into comedy.”
Katt Williams is currently on tour all across the United States. You can find out dates and times for his tour, here.
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