N.Y.’s Apollo Theater Calls Oak Park: Cake Decorator is a Hit As an Up-and-Coming Comedian
By Antionette D. Griffith, Detroit Free Press
Feb. 17–Comedian Crystal P. of Oak Park has been selected to return to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y., for the taping of “Showtime at the Apollo.”
She was just there for “Amateur Night at the Apollo.” After she got home, the show’s talent executive, Vanessa Brown-Rogers, called and asked Crystal P. to return to New York to tape the show beginning Feb. 29.
“We plan to get a chartered bus to take some of my Detroit family and friends to help cheer me on. My husband, my children, my best friend … and others have expressed interest in going,” said Crystal P.
Crystal P. (her full name is Crystal Parker) is 35. She was born in Southfield, raised in Royal Oak Township and attended Oak Park schools, graduating from Oak Park High in 1990.
She has been a cake decorator with her own business, Crystal P’s Creations, for almost 10 years. She also works as an accounting assistant for the State of Michigan. Most importantly, she is the wife of Detroit Police Officer Frank Gregory, and mother of Brittany, 13, and Bria, 10.
Her family and friends have helped launch her growing career.
“My best friend, Monique Jones of Ferndale, was the first person I told that I wanted to do stand-up comedy. She immediately told me that I should’ve been doing that all along. I didn’t encounter any resistance from any family or friends. I did my first open mic at the Comedy Castle in Royal Oak in November 2004. I had 40 people in the audience that night,” said Crystal P.
“My family has traveled with me and has shown up at various clubs and churches to see me perform. And having a family that’s very comical also helps. My mother, father, sisters, brother, husband and daughters all have an outrageous sense of humor.
“My dad, Jim Parker of Ferndale, performed at a club once and he keeps his students amused at Oakland Community College all the time. Everyone loves to come over during the holidays because they love being ‘entertained’ by my family — it’s a constant show! If you have asthma, bring an inhaler because you will be wheezing by the end of the night!”
But most of all, she said, “My family is true. I don’t have an ‘American Idol’-type family. … If they don’t like a joke or they think something isn’t funny, they will say so. They keep it very real with me. That saves them from embarrassment and saves me as well. So, know that when I hit a stage, I’ve been prepped and prepared.”
In 2005, Crystal P. was named Royal Crown’s Crowned Comedienne by WJLB-FM (98) and she was chosen by the station’s listeners to open the show for P. Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy at Detroit’s Fox Theatre. In 2006, she was voted Detroit’s Queen of Comedy by WMXD-FM (92.3) and was an opening performer for Steve Harvey’s Show Your Love Tour at a sold-out show at the Fox.
“I don’t just stick to Christian comedy. I actually do mainstream and urban comedy the most,” she said. “People have placed the name ‘Christian’ comedian on me because I don’t curse and I do attend church regularly” at Living Faith Church in Warren, formerly of Southfield.
Her comedy does include some light sexual humor, she said, “yet still the industry labels me clean.”
Crystal P. has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and in Ohio and all over Michigan. She is a featured act at the Comedy Castle in Royal Oak and Chaplin’s Comedy Club in Clinton Township. The “Showtime at the Apollo” taping possibly will end March 3.
“At the moment, I’m not sure what date the ‘Showtime at the Apollo” will air. I will have all updates on my My-Space pages,” she said.
“My next local show could be for any show someone hires me,” she said, laughing. “I get hired a lot for private shows” like birthday parties, retirements and at sororities and fraternities.
She also is back to acting and will appear at Marygrove College on Feb. 24 in “The Vagina Monologues,” to benefit Looking for My Sister, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of domestic violence. She’ll return to the cast of the gospel comedy play “In My Father’s House” in March. For comedy, she’ll be at the Italian-American Club in Livonia on April 4.
And, she added, “I’m supposed to be retired from my cake business, but some of my regulars just won’t let me go. I actually decorate cakes out of my home, but I have a MySpace page for my cakes where people can contact me and view pictures of some of the cakes I’ve done.”
Contact Crystal P. via www.myspace.com/crystalpiscrazy or www.myspace.com/whoiscrystalp; for cakes, the site is www.myspace.com/crystalpcakes. Contact ANTIONETTE D. GRIFFITH at 313-223-4496 or agriffith@freepress.com.
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