Williams pimpin’ Sunday night at Morris

Katt Williams believes there has never been a better time to be a comedian.

“Historically speaking, there’s so much going on now,” Williams says from a cell phone as he travels between gigs from Grand Rapids to Detroit. “For a comedian, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Williams may be best known for film roles that include Rickey the choir director in this year’s “First Sunday,” a pimp named Lord Have Mercy in 2007’s “Norbit” and Money Mike in 2002’s “Friday After Next,” but his quick wit and animated stage persona have made the diminutive comic a stand-up giant.

His “Pimp Chronicles Tour” was the second highest grossing comedy act in 2007, behind only Larry the Cable Guy, but success hasn’t slowed him down. Williams performs tonight at South Bend’s Morris Performing Arts Center as part of “The It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’ Tour” — his third 100-city stint in 18 months.

“We’re about 71 shows in,” the 5-feet-4? inches-tall Williams says, “and it’s at a point I think where the audience leaves feeling they really got something from it. For me, that (shows) growth.”

The 34-year-old comedian was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Dayton, where his parents preached education.

“It was a great environment for me,” Williams says. “Dayton has always been a blue collar working town, Sex Tour but it’s also pretty racially mixed. So you got to see both sides.”

Growing up in a socially and politically charged household, however, led Williams to emancipate himself from his family as a teenager. After living in Florida, and Oklahoma, he moved to Sacramento to pursue his comedy career full time.

“It was very rough,” Williams says. “You’re there without family, and you’re moving to a new place and into a profession where there’s very few opportunities. But at the same time, it was exciting.”

Williams played rooms in Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco before making the move to Los Angeles. By 1999, the boisterous, self-proclaimed pimp was playing The Improv, The Comedy Club, The Icehouse and even had his own room at The Hollywood Park Casino.

“(Material) was coming to me a little bit clearer,” Williams says. “It got to a point where I could turn it over faster and I was trying lots of different things.”

In October 2001, Williams auditioned at New Line Cinema for “Friday After Next” and landed the part of Money Mike. That led to a guest spot on “NYPD Blue” and recurring roles in “The Tracy Morgan Show,” “My Wife and Kids,” Nick Cannon’s MTV improv show “Wild n’ Out” and voicing Slickback on the animated series “The Boondocks.”

“There were a lot of little opportunities that didn’t seem that big at the time,” Williams says. “ ‘Tracey Morgan’ and ‘Friday After Next,’ then right after I did ‘Katt Williams Live,’ I did a 50-city tour. Then it kind of hit me that it was really taking hold.”

Williams’ latest fast-talking, expletive-rich set is filled with political rants about President Bush and the White House bid of Barack Obama, as well as observational bits about race and the sex-based pimpin’ punch lines that have been a staple of his 12-year stand-up career.

Sex Tour “I’m still talking about real issues we all happen to deal with,” Williams says, “but I’m more topical and current on this tour than I’ve ever been before.”

• World news
• The spy who came in Latest Novel
• The magic of the well-shod novel
• Some lives follow a predetermined trajectory that arcs towards
• Sex in city, slap in face
• Sex in city, slap in face
• Second Avenue And Blanchard Stree Latest Novel
• Prostitution Looks Chic, But Truth Is Ugly
• Preview Article continues
• Nobel Prize guessing game is in full swing