Interview with Duante the 'SuitMan' Barnett
Season 2, Episode 20, May 21, 2021, 08:42 PM
Esperanza interviews Seattle based comedian & producer Duante 'SuitMan' Barnett. He shares the challenges of being a big black man with Asperger's and PTSD, his focus on booking comedians from underrepresented communities, his thoughts on how public schools are failing to diagnose neurodivergent children of color, systemic racism in law enforcement and much more. Let’s unpack this.
In this episode of Unpacking Life's Crazy, Esperanza interviews Seattle based comedian and producer Duante 'SuitMan' Barnett. Duante explains the frustration of how existing as a 6 foot tall black man with Autism puts him at daily risk of dangerous interactions with law enforcement. Duante shares the inclusive motives behind the shows he produces at SuitManComedy.com and his future plans for world domination. We delve into mental illness within the comedy community, our very different approaches in coping with with PTSD and additional challenges faced by comedians when they decide to go sober. We also explore the ways in which our public education system fails to identify neurodivergent children of color and the issue of systemic racism in law enforcement. There's so much to unpack in this episode...