comedian; actor
Personal Information
Full name, David Adkins; born November 10, 1956; native of Benton Harbor, MI; son of Louise and Donald Adkins (a Baptist minister); married Meredith, 1985, divorced 1992; children: Paige, Royce.
Education: Studied at University of Denver.
Career
Began performing comedy in the early 1980s; served in the U.S. Air Force until 1983; Television appearances: The Redd Foxx Show, played Brian Lightfoot, 1986; co-host, Keep on Crusin, 1987; played Walter Oakes on NBC-TV series, A Different World, c. 1989-91; Brain Damaged, 1991; host of Showtime at the Apollo, beginning in 1987-; Afros and Bellbottoms, 1993; The Sinbad Show, 1994; The Cherokee Kid, HBO special, 1996; Films: Necessary Roughness, 1991; Coneheads, 1993; Meteor Man (cameo appearance), 1993; Houseguest, 1995; Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, voice of Riley, 1996; First Kid, 1996; Jingle All the Way, 1996; Son of A Preacher Man, HBO stand-up comedy special, 1996; Host, Sinbad's Summer Jam, '70's Music Festival, 1995-; Author, Sinbad's Guide to Life: Because I Know Everything, 1997.
Life's Work
Known for his "clean comedy," stand-up comic Sinbad pulls off a rare feat of delivering stage monologues that are funny and outrageous without being profane. The son of a Baptist minister and divorced father of two children, Sinbad strongly feels that stories of life itself are the stuff of humor, and that profanity is not necessary to make people laugh. As he told Aldore Collier in Jet: "Life unedited is funny."
Early in his career Sinbad found that getting rid of profanity in his act was a way of trusting his own comic instincts. "I'll never forget it," he related to Collier. "I was on stage and I was dying. I didn't really know how to do comedy and I was trying to write stuff rather than just be what I am. And I remember I cursed on stage. And it was the worst feeling I ever had. People were laughing, but I said I would quit comedy before I had to do that.... I went home and learned how to be myself. I learned that your life is funny."
The follies of male-female relationships are often the focus of Sinbad's monologues. "Relationships are just plain funny," he was quoted as saying by Collier. "Only a wife or girlfriend could make a man act the way he does. Only a husband or boyfriend could make a woman act the way she acts." Sinbad frequently draws upon stories of his own family in his act.
Being funny has always been part of Sinbad's life. The native of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was always "the goofy kid," as he told a contributor to People. At 6'5", Sinbad originally aspired to be a basketball player, and thought that someday he might mix comedy and sports by being one of the Harlem Globetrotters. While he attended the University of Denver on a basketball scholarship, a knee injury forced him to give up the sport, and he left in 1978. Sinbad later joined the U.S. Air Force, and began working at stand-up comedy after he won a talent contest. "Inspired," as the contributor to People relates, "{Sinbad} set out to get himself discharged by walking off duty in his underwear. 'Just kick me out,' he begged. 'Let's work as a team.'"
After he left the Air Force in 1983, Sinbad became a success on the comedy nightclub circuit in Los Angeles, and eventually was a seven-time winner on the television talent show, Star Search. He also performed as an opener for music groups the Pointer Sisters and Kool and the Gang, and was a regular on the short-lived The Redd Foxx Show. Eventually, he did warm-ups for studio audiences on The Cosby Show, during which time his idol, Bill Cosby, helped land him a role on the hit NBC-TV series, A Different World.
Sinbad's role on A Different World--which humorously depicted the lives of students and faculty at an all-black college--was the irreverent dormitory director and gym teacher Walter Oakes. A reviewer in Variety, who comments that the show's strength is its "likable and energetic cast," added that "dorm antics are infectiously led by the single-named Sinbad, who is delightful as the big guy struggling to keep order in a nonstop party house." In 1990, Sinbad's character on the show was broadened to become a counselor. According to co-executive producer Susan Fales, as quoted in Jet, the move to make Sinbad's character more serious was to increasingly "address social problems, like sex education, teen pregnancy, and drugs" and to have the popular Sinbad become "the voice of what's happening in the Black community." In 1991 Sinbad left the show, while it was still a top ratings draw. However, he continued to pursue his comedy act in clubs across the country, where he now had newfound fame from appearing in a popular sitcom, which allowed him to received better engagements. Later in 1991, he appeared in an HBO special called Brain Damaged, based on his stand-up routine. Two years later Sinbad signed a contract with Fox-TV to appear in a sitcom--The Sinbad Show, which he played a single father of two foster children. Unfortunately, the show lasted only one season.
In 1993, HBO aired another Sinbad comedy special, Afros and Bellbottoms. Sinbad has appeared and starred in several films, including his 1991 film debut in Necessary Roughness. In 1995, he had a starring role in the film, Houseguest (with Phil Hartman). Reviews of the film were generally bad, however, Caryn James of the New York Times wrote "Casting Sinbad was the single good idea of Houseguest." In 1996, Sinbad starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way, a slapstick comedy, which Sinbad played Myron, a postal worker who gets into a competition with a businessman (Schwarzenegger) to buy a hard-to-get action figure toy for their sons. The film received mixed reviews.
A Big Fan of music from the seventies, Sinbad organizes the annual Sinbad's Summer Jam: '70's Music Festival in the Caribbean. HBO televises the annual festival. Sinbad explained to Esther Iverem of the Washington Post, "When you listen to a '70's record, you don't hear about somebody killing someone or beating their woman." In 1996, Sinbad starred in an HBO comedy stand-up special, Son of A Preacher Man.
Sinbad and his ex-wife have joint custody of their two children. Each parent has the children on alternate weeks. When asked about his divorce he responds in Ebony, "I don't think our divorce would have been nearly as traumatic if we weren't in Hollywood, and there wasn't money and lawyers involved." He adds, "Divorce is always going to be bad, but Hollywood just escalates that thing to the nth degree."
Sinbad lives in California's San Fernando Valley. All five of his siblings live within a 20-mile radius of him, and all of his siblings are employed by him at his David and Goliath Production Company. He believes family is first, family is forever.
Further Reading
Sources
- African American Almanac, Seventh Edition, Gale Research, 1996.
- Current Biography, Gale Research, v. 58, n. 2, 1997, pp. 39-42.
- Ebony, April 1990, June 1997, p. 84.
- Jet, February 12, 1990; August 13, 1990.
- People, September 29, 1986.
- Variety, October 4-10, 1989.
- Who's Who Among African Americans, 10th Edition, 1998/99.
— Michael E. Mueller
