By Zack Anchors

Staff Writer

    Although South Portland isn’t usually thought of as
a hotbed of either African-American culture or the entertainment
industry, the city is gradually becoming more diverse. One recent Los
Angeles transplant–Topper Carew–has brought to the city his unique
mission of “producing a generation of film and other content that is
about the African-American experience in it’s most positive light.”

    Along with his wife Cornelia, Topper runs Urban Neo
Productions, an independent label operating out of their South Portland
home that produces and distributes “urban comedy, music, children’s
fare and family programming” throughout the country and world.

    “One of the great things about Urban Neo is that I
no longer have to be known as the person who co-created and produced
the ‘Martin’ TV show,” joked Topper, sitting with Cornelia during an
interview at his home last week. “I did not want that to be my legacy.”


    But the TV show, which featured the comedian Martin
Lawrence, who Topper discovered and managed for four years, is a good
indication of the degree of success, high-level connections and
entertainment business experience that he brings to his current
projects. “Martin” is not the only high-visibility project Topper has
been involved with. Serving variously in the roles of producer,
director and writer, he has brought to the screen dozens of television
shows airing on HBO, Showtime, PBS, and other channels. Among the most
well known films he has worked with are the 1983 film “DC Cab,” which
starred Mr. T and was co-written by Topper and director Joel
Schumacher, and the 1991 comedy “Talkin’ Dirty after Dark,” which
Topper directed. But Topper says having become most commonly identified
with “Martin” does have some advantages.

    “It gives me an interesting cache in the
African-American community,” said Topper. “There was a validating BET
[Black Entertainment Television] poll which asked their audience to
determine what they thought were in fact the top 20 African-American
television shows of all time– Martin came in second.”

    Although South Portland, in many ways, is a polar
opposite to Los Angeles, Cornelia, who moved here to take a job as the
director of Portland’s Breakwater School after 35 years of teaching in
LA, says she and Topper have adapted well to their new environent. The
cold climate and lack of diversity have taken some getting used to, but
overall, Cornelia says they have been able to find a simple way of life
here they enjoy.

    “Ironically, we are the complete antithesis of a
Hollywood couple,” said Cornelia. “Our sense of life is very simple,
meaning non-material. It’s much more about creating visual experiences
and messages.”

    Lately, Topper and Cornelia have had several Urban Neo projects to keep them busy.

    “There are three very active projects, with a fourth
one deep into the works,” said Topper. “One is a film called, ‘We Don’t
Die: We Multiply,’ that is about a friend who was a comic, who on the
first night of his first national tour, after a sold-out performance,
died of a heart attack.”

    The documentary, which has received positive reviews
since distribution began last year, tells the story of the comedian
Robin Harris, who died in 1990.

    “In this film you see Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac,
Cedric the Entertainer, Robert Townsend– they all say that Robin Harris
was one of the two greatest black stand-ups they’ve ever seen, the
other being Richard Pryor... All of these guys say he was the one who
opened the door for them–he was the post-Eddie Murphy guy.”

    “The second project, still in the works, is called
‘The Fine Art of Frying Chicken,’ which won the Maine International
Film Festival, but we don’t feel like that film is totally complete as
of yet...By the first of the year, it should be finished and find it’s
audience.”

    Another project, which Cornelia has been highly involved with, is directed at children.

    “I’ve always felt that there is a huge academic gap
in the African-American community–in terms of education–compared to the
majority,” Cornelia said. “And so Topper and I came up with this
concept of the ‘Chumbies,’ which are buddies and chums put together,
that are African-American puppets.”

    Among the ‘Chumbies’ are eight-year-old Cha-Cha and
six-year-old Chester, who quietly sat through the interview with
Cornelia and Topper. At the Chumbies website, which can be found at
www.toppercarew.com, there are activities for children, introductions
to all the Chumbies and even a Chumbies blog.

    “We hope, with some success, that we could make a
feature length film,” said Cornelia. “And we have been in schools in
Maine and throughout Massachusetts...What’s so much fun is that right
in this hall is where most of the stories have been created and
actually produced through the magic of Topper’s digital camera and our
voiceover.”

    “The interesting aspect of the Chumbies, which is
the third project that Urban Neo has taken on, is that it’s also the
first project that has involved people from Maine,” said Topper. “Our
fourth project, which is a funny, musicalized project, is also a
project that is involving Maine people–actors, comics, and behind the
camera personnel. We’re very intent on finding a reservoir of talent
here that we can work with, even though we still have our ties to Los
Angeles and New York and Boston. So we feel pretty good about that.”

    Although he says he does not want to share much
about it at this point, Topper said the fourth Urban Neo project is
along the lines of a mockumentary, and includes the participation of
local comic George Hamm.

    “It’s funny and it’s extraordinarily original,” he said.

    Although most of the projects Topper works with
involve humor in some respect, at least one Urban Neo undertaking is of
a more serious nature.

    “We’re also doing a film on lynching–it’s not very
funny,” he said. “But our theory is this–there are a lot of people that
don’t know that tragic, dark phenomenon existed in the annals of
American history. We’re filling in that space for a lot of young people
who don’t know how far we’ve come.”

    Topper and Cornelia say they are feeling more and
more at home in their new South Portland neighborhood, but will
continue to travel frequently, heading to Los Angeles every six weeks
or so and visiting Topper’s hometown of Boston from time to time. They
also have five children spread throughout the country, and important
business to tend to back in the big cities.

    “The checkbooks are in the drawers in New York and
Los Angeles,” said Topper. “And even though I’m in Maine lots of the
time, I find that I have to constantly be maintaining awareness of the
shifts and dynamics of the business, and most of those shifts and
changes occur in New York and Los Angeles.”

    Topper, who used to produce concerts and has
extensive connections with major jazz and blues figures, says when he
really wants to hear some good jazz he has to go to Boston. But after
hosting a block party last summer for family, friends and neighbors, he
and Cornelia got the idea of trying to turn the party into an annual
musical event.

    “Our ambition is that maybe next year or the year
after it ends up being a small blues or jazz festival,” he said.

    The festival is just an idea for now, Topper said,
but next month, on Dec. 13, he will be bringing music to the Greater
Portland area over the radio waves of local station WMPG (90.9), as a
guest host of the evening blues show.

    “From five to seven, I’ll be pumpin’ those blues out, man.”