DAVID ALAN GRIER: AUTHORS BARACK BOOK: New book ‘Barack Like Me’ in stores

      “One of the things that inspired me is that I really wanted to chronicle this period; the period leading up to the Barack Obama election and then going to his inauguration,” he said. “It was like the country was happy for about a day and a half, two days – everybody, even the folks that didn’t vote for Barack Obama because it was a joyous time. The world reaction was stunning.”

      Grier commented on how the election of Barack Obama is beyond historic; that it is an emotional statement that has inspired him and, in his opinion, the entire nation.

      “All these years black folks have been running to Germany, ‘Oh they love you in Germany’ or France, ‘Oh they love you in France.’ But even Germany and France were like, ‘Oh, we couldn’t have done that. We’re not ready for that’ It was surprising to me when the world was like, ‘Once again, America has done it again.’”

       Sounding rather serious, the comedian told EUR’s Lee Bailey that the journey of the election had a lot of “humanity, pathos, and moving moments,” but the new author added that there was a lot of humor, too.

      Grier started work on the book upon Obama’s inauguration in January of this year.

      “I knew what I wanted to write basically,” he said, “but that’s why I worked with a co-writer. I’d never written a book. I needed someone to bounce something off of and say, ‘Does this work?’”

      So the celeb flew to New York and shopped the concept to publishing house after publishing house and got a green light just days later.

      “This is at a point when ‘The Chocolate News’ was on the air,” he referred to his short lived Comedy Central series, “but this book is in my voice. I’m not playing that character on ‘The Chocolate News.’ I didn’t want to write a book in that voice. I couldn’t have told my story.”

      Grier reflected on that story, in particular an inspiring moment in Washington DC at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

      “I'm standing in this crowd thinking, ‘The story about this day is going to be told over and over and over again. How is this story going to be interpreted? How are people going to tell this story?’,” he recalled. “So much of how you experience an event like that is about your personal story. It’s all about what you bring to that event. It’s about each of those people and what their relationship to this country.”

      Unfortunatley for Grier, his relationship with this country was about the assassination of leaders. Fortunately, he’s given up that relationship.

      “That has been my journey. Can Barack make it? Is this country ready? I talk about the generation I grew up in; assassination is what I cut my teeth on. Where in five years as a very young child, Kennedy, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy; all the leaders of a generation were assassinated.”

      “So when Barack Obama started winning so easily, immediately I had a heart pain that something was going to happen,” he continued, “but when I talked to these young, enthusiastic kids, they would look at me like I was nuts. I realized that was because that was my generation. They don’t know anything about that. They don’t have any fear. They influenced me. So I lost that fear and gave it totally over to this process and said, ‘I can’t bring my stuff on to this experience.’ In a way it was cleansing.”

      “At that point I said, ‘It doesn’t matter if it stops here. It doesn’t matter if he becomes president. We can never go back,’” he said.

       In addition to the inspirational and historic aspects of the election – and the book, Grier said that he continues to be fascinated by its initiation of a national dialog about race.

      “The fact that he is of mixed race I think really stirs things up in an interesting way,” he said. “He represented a new generation of African American leaders who were no longer tethered to the old regime and that’s what confused people. Before you had to go through Jesse Jackson, go through this person, go through that person. They all got their bones marching as part of the civil rights generation and I think for a lot of white voters that become a burden.”

       “That was the key. He was a new voice,” he said. “The key is that he changed the game. The way Barack Obama won this election is he outthought, outmaneuvered, and outworked the rest of these folk. Campaigns are never going to be the same. The way he raised money, the way he brought young people in and the fact that it was like a changing of the guard.”

      Obama had the key to success and now Grier has the comedy, in fact he even suggest the President name him as Secretary of Mirth.

      “The comedy of the book is that I am not Barack Obama. I could not make it through the press line of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ without telling everybody to kiss my butt, so clearly I’m not presidential material, but I can definitely offer some insight.”

      David Alan Grier’s new book, Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth, coauthored by Alan Eisenstock is in book stores now. 

      Meanwhile, Grier returned to Broadway this month in the play “Race,” also starring Kerry Washington and James Spader. For more info on the production, visit www.raceonbroadway.com.

Related Article: EUR BOOK LOOK (REVIEW): Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth