Preparing for an overseas trip, Freddie L. Lambert
looked at his birth certificate and noticed that his race was listed as
“Colored” but that his wife’s birth certificate said
“Negro.”
“So I used to tell people I’m in mixed
marriage,” says Lambert, a 20-year Springfield resident now living in
Durham, N.C. Such observations provided the foundation for Lambert’s
standup-comedy act and, now, a book: You Need
Comedy: Let’s Kneel in Laughter.
Lambert, whose family moved to Springfield from East
St. Louis in 1976, performed for the first time at a banquet for St.
John’s AME Church, where he also
attended services.
While living in Springfield, Lambert worked full-time
for the Social Security Administration. When the opportunity arose, Lambert
traveled to Missouri and around Illinois, winning several comedy
competitions. Despite being well into his thirties by the time he
took to the stage as an amateur comic, Lambert had been writing material
his entire life. Granted, many people won’t be able to relate to many
of the situations Lambert — a black kid from a large family,
dependent on public assistance during the 1940s and 50s — describes
in his book. But being dissed by the opposite sex is an almost
universal experience, and, no matter how much it stings at the time, at
some point a heartbreak always provides fodder for a good laugh. For example, when cute neighbor “Tiny”
asked 8- year-old Lambert to accompany her to their fourth-grade dance, he
swelled with pride — but the moment was short-lived, he writes: “Before I could ask her for our first dance she
was off and up with another dude, whom she had prearranged to meet. I was
thinking maybe she’d be right back. I waited around for a while and
finally got the message that she wasn’t coming back. Just like that,
she left me. Cold!”
Lambert, now retired, playing checkers, and enjoying
his grandkids, returns to Springfield on Saturday, Nov. 26, to St.
John’s AME, 1600 E. Capitol Ave., from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. to sign copies of his book, which will
be available for purchase for $16.
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2005.
