HBO sketch comedy star was named after Robin Williams

After its first episode that premiered last Saturday, Aug. 3, HBO GO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show airs its second episode tomorrow, Aug. 10, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Created, written and directed by an array of black women who also star in it, the show is a narrative series set in a limitless magical reality full of dynamic, hilarious characters and celebrity guests (Angela Bassette in the first episode as the Baddest B---h).

Laugh-out-loud funny and not afraid to be controversial, the dark comedy touches on such culturally relevant themes as social norms, anxiety, religion, sex, dating and relationships. Each episode consists of five to six sketches showcasing the comedic talents of Robin Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis and Quinta Brunson playing varied characters as well as hyper version of themselves stuck in a house during an end-of-the-world event.

Directed by Dime Davis, tomorrow’s episode titled Your Boss Knows You Don’t Have Eyebrows, her co-stars uncover a shocking truth about Ashley’s nighttime ritual.

A Black Lady Sketch Show is one of four new HBO shows discussed at a recent junket at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The three others are His Dark Materials, The Righteous Gemstones, and Watchmen (more on them in future issues).

Robin Thede, creator/executive producer/writer/star of A Black Lady Sketch Show…

Roundtable sound bites from Black Lady Sketch’s Thede and Davis:

Thede: My father was a big fan of Robin Williams so he named me after the comedian. Williams was a treasure, gone so young, so soon. I never met him in person but I was devastated when I learned about his passing. It was devastating the way he died. My role model is Whoopi Goldberg. I am in awe of her. She has been a constant inspiration.

Davis: I love black women. I love telling stories about black women that I grew up with. In the show, I could tell so many things that I couldn’t tell them to their faces. Not only could I say things I’d been wanting to say, such as “You’re magical, you’re amazing,” I can also say, “You’re funny!”

Thede: I’ve been performing with black women in my late-night shows and it’s the perfect time for this kind of show. It’s a hilarious show! I said that it’s the right time for HBO to put up this kind of show because HBO has the same vision as I have.

Davis: My goal for the show is to make it the cast specific and universally fun. I find comedy to be such a lovely world. It can communicate things that the words always can but sometimes cannot…and the feeling that you get from something that can make you laugh, something universal. I have this friend who told me, “I didn’t get all the jokes but everything was funny.”

Thede: It’s cool that Dime is able to create a cinematic world in our show, a beautiful world…a genre in which she switched from spy thriller to musical to horror, so we go into a genre in sketches that other shows cannot, the ability to do that and make it look good.

…and Dime Davis, director of the show.

Davis: We have these exceptional black performers whom I call the best of both worlds come together. We want the world to see black women in a new light, in a way that they can tackle this kind of comedy.

Thede: Visually, with our make-up, our prosthetics, our wigs, our wardrobe and all the stuff that we do, we go really crazy, especially as the season goes on. We try not to make things too specific in some parts and hyper specific in the other parts, such as a marriage gone wrong, secrets revealed, etc. The show enables the viewers to see black women from a different perspective.

Davis: Where and how do we get our stories? Oh my gosh, we have great writers who are really funny. So many of our stories have actually happened to us.

Thede: Yes, from our own personal experiences. I would say that 75 percent of our stories are absolutely true, stories that we have written before we even hired writers. The best characters are real people that we know. One such character is an awful guy that I know, hahahaha!!! Did he know it was him? Yes, he did. Didn’t he complain?

Davis: We sort of fictionalized it so he couldn’t sue. It’s fun to be able to do that. The best thing about the show is that, yes, the stories are derived from real life so viewers can easily identify with the characters.

Thede: In a future episode, we are featuring an insane woman, back on the show in a crazy way. We love to cancel people these days.

Davis: I would say that the best comedy is smart comedy.

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