BOISE, Idaho — Standing before an intimately packed crowd at High Note Cafe in downtown Boise, Reese Samuels effortlessly riffs about growing up as a mixed-race child in Idaho. With a white mother and black father, Samuels told a crowd clinging to each of her words, the white kids didn’t accept her because of her black skin, while the Black kids didn’t accept her because she wasn’t “black enough.” “I’m just angry,” Samuels, a 35-year-old comic from Boise, said half-jokingly to the Idaho Statesman in a recent interview about her comedy style.
After five minutes on stage, Samuels passed the mic to LJ Sullivan, her co-host and comedy partner in crime. The duo have known each other through the Boise comedy scene for the better part of a decade and have been close since 2019, when they both first attended the NW Black Comedy Fest in Portland. “It’s so beautiful because it’s like a huge family reunion,” Samuels said.
“All the performers are people of color. We’re all biracial; we’re all Black comedians.” That sense of togetherness is what first connected Samuels and Sullivan.
Now, they’re working to provide a space in Boise for people of color to perform and make a name for themselves. In early 2024, the pair began co-producing open-mic comedy nights in downtown Boise. The shows are open to comics from all backgrounds, but Samuels and Sullivan hope to specifically make their shows an open and safe space for minority comics.
“That is the difficu.