THE QUEEN LATIFAH SHOW
Original Taping

August 22, 2000
Reviewed by Ben Adams


Since I'm probably the only Queen Latifah attendee who's home by now, I'll
give a little report and let the others fill in the details later. Soon
after I got there Marty (Ken's brother) and his wife and 2 female relatives
showed up in a long stretch limo!! I went up to them and managed to
immediately go backstage with them! Unfortunately the backstage we went to
was occupied by "mother-daughter makeovers," so we just sort of stood around
for a while. I met Jake and Jennifer, the two list members who were guest
fans in addition to Marty. Oh yes, and how could I forget: There was a lady
named Lois who was going to have her head shaved by Sinead! She had
travelled from San Francisco. They took Jake, Jennifer, Marty, and Lois away
to get makeup and instructions, so I stood there for a while with Jennifer's
husband and Marty's wife and relatives. Some security guard kept telling us
we were getting very special treatment, but then they whisked us into a big
room full of other "VIP" ticket holders... I would say that about half the
audience ended up being "VIP", and in fact we didn't really get any special
treatment (except for being able to help ourselves to the sandwiches and
drinks laid before the mother-daughter makeover people). We had to wait
around forever to be seated, and when we told them we were family of the
guests (well, everyone except me) they gave us the worst possible seats in
the nosebleed section, as far away from the performance stage as possible!
Unbelievable! We kept trying to move, but the show's employees were quite
stern and bossy. There was some kind of pre-show entertainment, and they had
people in the audience stand up to sing songs. I was tempted to get up and
do an a capella version of "Famine," but I felt way too shy. We noticed
someone giving Jake Reynolds a front row seat, and I believe I saw BP Fallon
("Beep," Sinead's close friend) sitting in the row behind Jake. For some
reason I thought Jake would be tall and bony, but he was actually, in the
words of Marty, a bit "chubby"! It reminded me of what I looked like at that
age! When Queen Latifah came out, she acknowledged Jake and said he was a
future rap star. Then Sinead's band came out, followed by Sinead, who looked
more stunning than I've ever seen her. She was wearing a loose pink outfit
and looked like a queen. She made a great statement about the
disorganization of that show when she went over to the mic and stood there
with the lights dimmed and asked, "Now what do we do?" It was very funny,
since nobody (including the Queen) seemed to know what was supposed to
happen. After some fumbling around by the cast, they re-introduced her, and
then she launched into a great rendition of Jealous. Then Sinead went and
sat on the stage with Queen Latifah, who told her about the fans sending in
video tapes. They showed her some clips of Marty and Jennifer, who then came
out from backstage and gave her big hugs. Then they went to a commercial.
There wasn't really any talk about the new album, besides the fact that she
hadn't put one out for 6 years, and that she'd had her 2nd child and put out
an EP. After the commercial break, Jake got to stand up and talk about
Sinead's influence on him, and he gave her his painting. She seemed really
thrilled with it and kept staring at it after he gave it to her. She also
hugged and kissed him on the cheek after he handed it to her. I'll let Jake
tell you more about his part in the show. This was followed by Lois getting
her hair shaved by Sinead. Sinead asked her if she was absolutely sure she
wanted to have it done, and Lois said, why not? Lois was so funny, because
she just seemed so relaxed and laid back, and apparently before the show she
was very bold in saying exactly what she would and would not do. Several
people ended up helping Sinead do the shaving, and then Queen Latifah
announced the biggest surprise of all. She said that she wanted Sinead to
sing 2 songs, but Sinead had told her she would sing one of her own and one
of the Queens!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited!!!! They did a duet together, and
I really don't know the name of the song, but it was SOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOLLLL!
I can't wait for you guys to hear it! And someone HAS to tape it and send a
copy to Eduard, so he can put it on CD for all of us! I think it was a song
from the Queen's first album, and it mentioned something about Jamaica.
Queen Latifah did the rapping, and they sang the chorus together several
times, frequently looking into each others' eyes with huge smiles. AH! It
was beautiful. Marty told me he heard the sound check, and that Sinead was
burping and farting and using vulgarities as she rehearsed the Queen Latifah
song. They went to a commercial and then Sinead waved her last goodbye. A
few minutes later Marty waved for us to go backstage with him, but
unfortunately Sinead had already left by then. I was annoyed to hear that
her record company was being verrrrry uptight and not letting her sign
autographs or anything. I mean, come on, indulge us for 5 minutes,
please!!!! You would think they would be more gracious to the Sinead fans
who travelled across the country to see her. Oh well. It was a really cool
show, and Sinead seemed to have a lot of fun with it. I'd be interested to
hear the other attendees' takes on it...

Ben