Playing the Dozens, The mother of Black comedy and Rap.

How it all started…

As I further my comedy career, I was having a conversation with a fellow comedian, who happened to be a Jewish woman, and she asked me how did I get started in Comedy? This forced me to look back on my past, to see where my interests came from. As far back as I can remember, my family played a game we called “The Dozens”, and I was a MASTER when it came to this game! It has many names though. Some would call it bagging or bags, getting roasted, etc. My fellow comedian had never heard of anything of the sorts, so I did some research and put together some articles to help her (and everyone who didn’t grow up in an urban Black American home, which is mostly where this game is played) understand exactly what playing The Dozens is. Slightly different from what mainstream would call a roast, the person getting roasted doesn’t talk back. However, The Dozens is a back-and-forth between two or more players.

At first, I found negative information that was misleading, at best, like this article.