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Arts & Entertainment

Tears of Laughter: Comedian From East Bay Celebrated by Comics She Left Behind

Comedian Kibibi Dillon, a member of El Cerrito High's class of 1997, who died Dec. 28 when her car plunged off a cliff at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, was remembered fondly in a benefit show Thursday night in Sacramento, her most recent home.

SACRAMENTO—Halloween night, Kibibi Dillon was onstage raising the dead.

The 33-year-old comedian, who was raised in the East Bay, was in a near-empty Folsom, CA, bar testing out a new piece she had written. It dealt with a fictional ancestor who was the lone African-American to go down with the Titanic.

The still-developing piece culminated with the ancestor—a great-great-great granddad named Rotatus who had been bedeviled all his life by a society that froze him out of “whites only” institutions—pleading with God to keep him segregated from his oppressors one final time.

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“Oh Lord, if it be your will that this ship go down and kill everyone on board,” Dillon keened, contorting her soft, cherubic features into an old man’s sorrowful grimace, “please, dear Lord, let it be ‘whites only.’”

It was the kind of piece most comedians don’t even try anymore: a slow-building, character-driven story that eschews multiple jokes for a single, stirring payoff. After Dillon finished, her friend and fellow comic Sean Peabody threw his stout arms around her and said, “That was beautiful.”

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On Dec. 28, 2011, the two friends hugged goodbye one last time, after Dillon performed at an open mic at Oakland soul food staple Dorsey’s Locker.

Somehow, on her way home to Sacramento, where she had settled about a year prior, Dillon and plummeted 40 feet into the lower parking lot at . (The coroner's office has not made a final ruling about what led to her death.)

"SUCH A PRESENCE AND SUCH A LIGHT"

The fatal accident  where Dillon had quickly become known, and loved, for her large personality, expressiveness and her willingness to bare all in the pursuit of emotional truth. 

“She put herself in a whole different category,” Peabody said of Dillon, who graduated from Howard University and produced plays off-Broadway. “She mixed her theater with the comedy. Kibibi would (create) a picture on stage rather than just telling you it. She was a master at it.”

Dillon's friends posted tributes and remembrances on Facebook and Twitter upon news of her death. An East Coast vigil was held two days after. A memorial is planned for .

Thursday night, members of Sacramento’s comedy community gathered at one of their favorite performing haunts——to celebrate a fallen comrade the only way they know how: by turning their shared grief into tearful laughter.

The benefit show was put together to raise money to help Dillon’s family with memorial costs. Another purpose, however, was to provide those who got to know Dillon during her time in Sacramento a forum to exorcise their communal grief.

Dillon’s death was a rarity for the tight-knit community of stand-up comics, which isn’t used to losing members for reasons other than success or retirement.

“She was such a presence and such a light in everyone’s life that we had to do something,” said friend Samm Hickey.

Peabody, a local celebrity on the Sacramento comedy circuit, pulled the show together with the support of the owners of Laughs Unlimited. Everyone else quickly followed.

“Sean Peabody was the one who kind of grabbed the bull by the horns,” said comedian Leaf. “We all felt like we needed to do something, but we didn’t know what.”

THE COMMUNITY COMES OUT

The benefit was well attended, with appearances by television personality Mark S. Allen and performances from local headliners like Andrew Bailey and Mark G.

The night was also filled with more personal tributes to Dillon.

Comedian Sam Bruno said he tattooed Dillon’s initials on his microphone hand, “so that she will always be up on stage with him,” said Leaf.

And, in a fitting gesture honoring her profession, a stool with a towel and Dillon’s signature shot (Grey Goose vodka) was placed on the stage as the red light was shown that notifies comics when their stage time is done.

In all, 36 comics went onstage to share stories about the late comedian.

After the ceremony, Dillon’s mother took the stage and thanked those who participated in the event.

“We knew as a family how special she was, but to see how many lives she touched is simply amazing,” she told the audience, according to Leaf.

Outside the venue, those who knew Dillon clinked beers and shared their own stories. Comics Tristan Johnson, Shawn G., Leaf and one other sang Dillon’s praises to a reporter with a notepad.

All swore she was on the precipice of breaking through in a career where such breaks are rare, with Johnson comparing Dillon to a young Whoopi Goldberg.

“She was on her way,” nodded Sean G.

Did you know Kibibi Dillon? Please share memories and photographs here.

A memorial service will be held at the Antioch Progressive Baptist Church, 7650 Amherst St., in Sacramento on Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. 

A memorial show for Kibibi will be held in Modesto, CA, on Jan. 26 at the St. Clair Theater. Dillon was supposed to have headlined the show.

Read  members in our Storify post about Dillon.

If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email at albany@patch.com.   

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