Reginald D Hunter: 'I don’t have to constantly be aware that I’m black'

The American comedian was happy to settle on this side of the Atlantic, where race isn't as big an issue 

Reginald D  Hunter plays Cork and several other Irish centres. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

Reginald D Hunter was living in his hometown, Albany, Georgia, in the mid-1990s. He was in his twenties, kicking around, going nowhere fast. An attempt at an acting career had stalled. He filled his weekends gambling. He had a gambling partner, who had an engineering job; Hunter was teaching. On weekends, from about eight o’clock Friday evening until six o’clock Monday morning, they disappeared into the subterranean world of card schools.

Hunter always read the room. He liked playing against guys who were high because they were loose. Hunter’s weakness was that he was cocky, too cocky. “I look back at the chances I took,” he says, “and I wonder, why did I think that would work?”