The Way It Is

Wyatt Cenac will soon get his own sitcom, or appear in a dozen movies. Or he could star in The Office. That’s the fate of Daily Show correspondents after they burn out on the grind of political fake news reporting. Cenac, who is black, is often singled out to do stories involving black people, also white people, and he brings a weary intellectualism to his reporting, reporting which often scares the anchor. He has good instincts. Recently, he was on assignment hiking the Appalachian Trail, navigating with a yo-yo, musing on the theories of Mark Sanford's disappearance. The idea that the South Carolina governor “chased a coyote into the woods to fuck it” prevailed, and it wasn’t far from the truth, which came out later. This week, Cenac returns to our city to report on what’s funny. Expect us to take a few hits — he spent some time wandering S.F. for his starring role in 2008’s Medicine for Melancholy.

Susan Burke opens.
July 9-11, 8 & 10:15 p.m., 2009