Mo'Nique cuts up in feel-good comedy movie 'Hair Show'

Jet, Oct 25, 2004 by Nicole Walker

Every Black woman knows that her hair salon is more than a place to get her ends clipped and her butter whipped. It's her home away from home where she can let her hair down and relax, swap life stories with the Sisters at the shampoo bowl and share a few laughs with her stylist. When she steps from the swivel chair, she looks good. But more importantly, she feels good.

After all, when a Sister visits a Black hair salon, it is an event, declares Mo'Nique, star of the independent film Hair Show, during a recent JET interview.

"When I lived in Baltimore, I loved going to the hair salon, 'cause baby, for about six hours you're having a good time," the actress-comedienne says. 'You're not just going to get your hair done, you're getting ready to find out what happened down the street, somebody gon' get you a chicken box, and then you got the boosters coming in. You might get a Louis Vuitton pocketbook for 15 dollars depending on what time it is!"

It's that feel-good-sister-girl-expect-anything atmosphere that Hair Show, which opened nationwide October 15, embodies. And Mo'Nique, who plays the fun-loving, outspoken Peaches Whitaker-a hairstylist from B'more who, as Mo'Nique puts it, "can do the hell out of some hair"-makes sure theater audiences feel just as good watching the comedy as they do sharing a laugh in the salon.

The movie, a co-production of UrbanWorks Entertainment and Magic Johnson Enterprises, centers on the relationship between Peaches and her older sister and fellow hairstylist Angela "Angelle" Whitaker (Kellita Smith of "The Bernie Mac Show"), who become estranged after the death of their grandmother because of an inheritance squabble.

In the pursuant six years that the Whitaker sisters refuse to speak to each other, their lives take vastly different turns. Peaches stays in their Baltimore hometown, eking out a living in a small neighborhood beauty shop and racking up tax debt with the IRS. In sharp contrast, Angela leaves the East Coast to find her fortune in California as Angelle, proprietor of a prosperous, high-profile Beverly Hills hair salon. It's not until Peaches receives an invitation to attend the fifth anniversary party of Angelle's salon that the two sisters start down the long road to reconciliation.

"You have this very human story that's family-oriented about two sisters who have to find out how to love each other again in order to solve some of their critical problems," Hair Show director and executive producer Leslie Small tells JET. "However, we nested that in the world of high fashion, glamour and comedy."

And there are antics aplenty, from Peaches' crazy cab ride with tennis star Serena Williams as IRS Agent Ross and rapper E-40 as the slang-spewing cabbie and a street corner encounter with the Lime Pimp (comedian Bruce Bruce) to amusing cameos by actress Vivica A. Fox, actor Tiny Lister, model Roshumba and former NBA star John Salley.

Of course, what salon would be complete without a diverse ensemble of stylists including Tiffany (Taraji P. Henson), the resident gossip and Peaches' partner in crime; the afro-sporting-incense-burning-mantra-chanting Simone (Cee Cee Michaela); Drake the playa-playa (Bryce Wilson), whose salon chair always stays empty although his pockets stay full; and Gianni the metrosexual (Andre Blake), who enjoys manicures and waxing treatments alongside his wife, who may or may not be a woman, since no one in the salon knows for sure.

Rounding out the crew is Jun Ni (Keiko Agena), a cornrow-rocking Asian manicurist whose unsuccessful attempts to cook soul food for her Black husband, Brian (comedian Joe Torry), provide comic fodder throughout the film.

The film, which was shot in about a month in Los Angeles last June, also boasts talented performances by Gina Torres as Marcella, a cutthroat nemesis hell-bent on defeating Angelle in the high-stakes Hair Battle Royale competition and destroying her business, and David Ramsey as Cliff, the handsome photographer/love interest of Peaches.

Small says the inspiration for the film came after producer Jeff Clanagan approached him about making a female comedy. Small, who had seen several hair shows, suggested that a hair show serve as a backdrop for the film.

"When I went to these hair shows, I was like 'Oh my God, this is wonderful,'" he recalls. "It is a combination of hair, makeup, haute couture fashion, music-it's as theatrical as you can imagine. But what caps it off are the hair battles. These hair designers come up with just incredibly fantastic hairdos. It's like out of this world. And the people in the audience were just as decked out and colorful as the people onstage."

Small and Clanagan pitched the idea to Mo'Nique, who had hosted hair shows in her native Baltimore.

"The hair show is the Oscars, but you're giving people awards for hair," explains Mo'Nique, who this year ended a successful five-year run as the flamboyant Nikki Parker on the sitcom "The Parkers." "I've gone to a hair show where I saw a girl with a bird cage on her head and a bird inside of it. A real bird. This is art!"