A rambunctious, sold-out crowd greeted actress/rising TV mogul Issa Rae during an appearance in Houston on Saturday, January 18.
Best known for creating and starring in the popular HBO show Insecure, the actress/film & TV mogul of color was in town for An Evening with Issa Rae, which took place at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Rae was in town to promote two things: One of Them Days, the just-released, number-one buddy comedy she produced starring Keke Palmer and SZA (she even made a post-screening appearance at Regal Edwards Houston Marq*E and Cinemark Tinseltown 290 on Friday night); and Viarae Prosecco, her sparkling white wine (which the theater was serving in the lobby via a special menu).
After an hour of local DJ CeeWatts playing tunes (from older, grown-and-sexy jams to club anthems) that hyped up the crowd, 97.9 The Box personality Keisha Nicole came out to introduce Rae, who was hit with thunderous applause when she stepped onstage.
Rae and Nicole basically had a public gossip session, as they both sipped on Viarae and Nicole asked Rae questions ranging from the possibility of an Insecure movie (“I love that y’all love it, but I feel the story has been told,” she told the disappointed audience), how she handles being perceived in the industry (“I hate being underestimated, but I love it too”), men in LA (“They’re pretty… and wanna be bad b****es”), and who’s the better producer: DJ Quik or Dr. Dre (for Rae, it’s not Dre).
Later on, the crowd participated in an audience Q&A. At one point, a dude from one of the upper boxes didn’t even wait for a microphone and yelled out to Rae about getting him acting work on one of her shows. “I’m not doing any shows right now,” Rae told him.
The evening ended with Rae and two Houstonian actors who appeared in Insecure – DomiNque Perry and Kendrick Sampson – playing trivia games with groups of audience members, with Perry and Sampson as team captains and Rae as the host, spinning a wheel of topics. At one point, Sampson and Perry led the audience in a sing-along of Z-Ro’s “Mo City Don.”
After the event, Rae told a group of reporters backstage that this evening was a test drive for a live show she’s been working on. “This is still kind of an experimental show, like figuring out what it is,” Rae said. “And, so, I'm just grateful that people want to come and see what it is, and it's something that we're shaping. We're doing another one in D.C. but it's just always fun to meet the people who've been supporting me for a very long time.”
Rae certainly enjoyed trying things out in front of a very appreciative, very enthusiastic Houston audience. “They were amazing,” she said. “I mean, they were so, so hype and I could feel the love and the energy and the excitement. It was just a privilege to be in front of them.”
