Inside the Kanye West HBO Comedy That Almost Was
Kanye West, HBO sitcom star? It almost happened. Long before the notorious moment he grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards or celebrated the birth of his daughter with reality-TV scion Kim Kardashian the hip-hop icon headlined a comedy pilot from Curb Your Enthusiasm executive producer Larry Charles.
The sitcom was shot in 2007 but quickly fell by the wayside after an executive shuffle at HBO. Later that year, West's mother, Donda, died, and the superstar departed on a global concert tour, leaving the TV project behind. It was all a distant memory until this summer, when clips from the pilot started popping up — first on YouTube, and then at a comedy show in Brooklyn, where a bootleg copy of the entire episode was screened.
Tue, Aug 27, 2013