On stage, on the airwaves or on a podcast, D.L. Hughley is speaking his truth

Comedian D.L. Hughley has had plenty of high-profile gigs on the small screen: sitcom star, talk-show host, game-show host, ensemble player in an Aaron Sorkin dramedy, “Dancing with the Stars” contestant. CNN even gave him his own short-lived, weekly show years ago, where he mostly riffed on the news.

But these days, Hughley has been communicating more to audiences off-screen, behind a mike. People all over the country can hear Hughley every weekday afternoon on his own radio show, aptly titled “The D.L. Hughley Show,” which airs in the Triangle, from 3 to 7 p.m., on FOXY 107.1/104.3 FM.

“I can’t tell what I dig more: doing radio or stand-up,” says Hughley, 53, calling in-between radio interviews. “They all feel closely. They’re closely, at least in my mind.”

Every day, Hughley and his cohorts rant, rave and generally go off on what’s happening in the country, something Hughley has built a reputation doing onstage. He’ll do the same Sept. 22, at the Durham Performing Arts Center.

Of course, Hughley enjoys having a daily platform to do current-affairs comedy, especially in this accelerated-news culture.

“I think that there is so much information – like, you can know anything,” he says. “You can watch the news or you can be on social media. You can listen to a podcast. You can have tailor-made information specifically designed for your tastes.”

Hughley picked up his radio skills during his days as a young stand-up in Los Angeles, not too far away from his South Central roots.

“I used to work at KJLH, which was a radio station in Los Angeles that Stevie Wonder owned – and he kept firing me,” he remembers, laughing. “So, radio had always been something I dug. So, this was a chance for a syndicated radio show, and when the opportunity presented itself, we got into it.”

But Hughley isn’t just making his voice heard on the radio airwaves. A couple of months ago, he launched his own podcast, called “The Hughley Truth,” which has him interviewing news and media personalities. So far, he’s talked to Don Lemon of CNN and Soledad O’Brien (formerly of CNN and current chair of Starfish Media Group), along with fellow comics like Marlon Wayans and Jordan Carlos.

“It’s just all about talking to people and receiving information and getting different points of view,” he says.

But Hughley hasn’t forgotten about TV. This fall, he will star in the scripted comedy series “The Comedy Get Down” on BET. The show is based on the recent stand-up tour he did with George Lopez, Eddie Griffin, the late Charlie Murphy and Cedric the Entertainer, whom Hughley famously toured with on the “Original Kings of Comedy” tour nearly 20 years ago. Both Hughley and the Entertainer have previously had experience with BET: for two seasons in the early ’90s, Hughley hosted the stand-up showcase “ComicView,” which Cedric briefly hosted after Hughley left.

“It’s ironic because (the channel has) changed and so have both of us,” he says. “So, it’ll be interesting to see, because I think it’s some of the funniest stuff we’ve done, and I’m excited to see how it plays out and whether people will enjoy it or not.”

The show wrapped up before Murphy passed away earlier this year from leukemia. Even when they were on tour, Murphy’s health wasn’t something Hughley and the other comics discussed.

“I guess it’s safe to say it would be naïve or disingenuous to say that we didn’t know that he was sick,” he says. “We didn’t know how sick he was – or, if we did know, I think he was pretending that we didn’t know. It was something we didn’t accept. And, so, I can honestly say that when he passed, I was shocked. And, also, I shouldn’t have been, because there were all the signs there.”

If the show does get picked up for another season, Hughley says they’ll handle Murphy’s death in a tasteful manner.

“If we did another season, obviously we would have to address it,” he says. “So, I think we’d try to make it as organic and seamless as possible. But we’d have to sit around and decide how we should address it.”

At the moment, Hughley is continuing to rock the mike, either onstage or over the airwaves. He’s also penning another book, titled “How to Not to Get Shot by the Police, and Other Helpful Tidbits White People Insist on Giving Black People.”

But no matter how he presents his humor, Hughley feels it’s his job as a satirist to make fun of the things that deserve to be made fun of in our culture.

“I think we tell a story about ourselves, and I think comedy to me – from my perspective – is showing the ironies or poking holes in the ideas of ourselves,” he says. “And that’s just, whether it’s personal or from a national perspective, that’s just kind of how I see things.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "On stage, on the airwaves or on a podcast, D.L. Hughley is speaking his truth."