Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley

The documentary takes up Jackie Mabley. Her stage name was Moms Mabley. She was a stand-up comedian. She came up through the Black American vaudeville circuit. Those stages were known as the Chitlin Circuit. From there she reached a wide audience. For a time she was billed as the funniest woman in the world. Mabley kept no boundaries in comedy. She took on gender, sex and racism. Those were not easily spoken of on stage in those years. She kept performing until her death in 1975. The documentary sets out her influence. Whoopi Goldberg directed it, her first film. Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier speak in the seventy two minute documentary, with Joan Rivers and Kathy Griffin also in it. The American production was finished in 2013.