‘Random Acts of Flyness’

Late night gets surreal in Terence Nance’s ‘Random Acts of Flyness’ (2018). An HBO sketch comedy produced, directed and written by Nance whose subconscious may be the trippiest thing you’ve seen in a minute.

Refracting modern America through the prism of his kaleidoscopic mind, Nance presents a series of sketches, conversations, interviews, animation and music in a 30-minute pilot free to watch on YouTube.

Or rather experience.

Artistic in its commentary on black American reality, ‘Random Acts of Flyness’ exists in the vein of ‘Atlanta’ on the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and Nance shows you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

A heady blend of performance art and documentary, the pilot ‘What Are Your Thoughts on Raising Free Black Children?’ digs deep and non-linear. Presenting disarming segments such as ‘The Thousand Worries a Black Man Shouldn’t Have to Worry About’ in which Nance makes the potentially fatal error of accidently getting into a white person’s car that looks just like his, the show flits through scenes and scenarios as surreal as the black American experience.

While Ripa the Reaper sends black children to their deaths in 70s-style game show ‘Everybody Dies’, the absurdity of their causes of death is more the harrowing as we recognise familiar scenes from the headlines.

As the title implies, the tone is ever-changing. Actor Jon Hamm swoops in as the voice of an infomercial advertising ‘White Be Gone’, a topical ointment that cures a disease called Acute Viral Perceptive Albinitis (Whiteness), a symptom of which is white thoughts.

“White thoughts can be deceptively euphoric as they give victims of whiteness a profound sense of identity and purpose as well as unbridled populace political power,” says Hamm amidst a skit in which his white character considers whether his reading of Noam Chomsky mitigates being racist.

Considering black face intercut with the beauty of real black faces, the sexual proclivities of the black community and whether black artists should address whiteness less and affirm blackness more, ‘Random Acts of Flyness’ is a mind-bending ride that adds a claymation segment on gender-fluid bisexual dating in a stream of consciousness that begins with Nance riding his bike through Brooklyn before being hassled by a white police officer.

Topical, fresh, finding its stride and even kind of fun, ‘Random Acts of Flyness’ is the one thing you need to watch this week.

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