-How are you?
-So good.
-Back in New York from L.A.
Does it feel nice to be back in the city?
-You know, it would if I hadn't left all my hair in L.A.
-Oh, no.
-Flew in this morning and had to buy her.
Now she's here.
-Oh, wow. [ Laughter ]
-Thank you, New York City.
-There's nothing we don't have.
-Honestly. Thank God.
-There's a lot of cities you could have flown into
where that would have been a crisis.
-Oh, my God.
I would have braided a paper bag into my hair.
[ Laughter ]
Can you believe that was me in that clip?
Did you guys know which one I was?
-Yeah, that was fantastic. -I was the guy.
[ Laughter ]
I had to grow a beard for this show.
[ Laughter ]
-I do want to ask about -- you know, you have --
There are so many characters in the show.
I think there's over 6 episodes, 100-plus characters.
-Yeah.
-Tell me how you -- a little bit about some of them.
-Yeah. So, this is Chris. -Okay.
-This is Chris. You saw him in the clip.
So, you know how, like, you have an ex-boyfriend and he's a jerk
and then you guys break up and then you get an HBO show
and then you have a character and you name him after him
and then you also impersonate him?
Yeah, that's him. [ Laughter ]
-That's it, okay. That's good to know.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Who's this here? -Oh, my God.
This is Dr. Hadasa Olayinka Ali Youngman, pre-Ph.D.
-Wow.
-Yeah. She's a hertep. -Okay.
She's a woman who spouts lots of conspiracy theories.
-Ah.
-And most of them about white people.
[ Laughter ]
And yeah, she's fun. -And this is really cool.
When you come up with a character, you actually --
you will do a drawing of it.
-Yeah, so, my head writer, Lauren Ashley Smith,
got this framed for me.
So, I drew her here and then the hair, makeup, and wardrobe team
which is just fantastic, created her.
So these little notes say like, "Faux locks, blonde!"
All caps.
Green eyes. I don't know why.
My eyes are green. I didn't need to put that.
[ Laughter ]
An Africa belt buckle, which I didn't get
but I did get this amazing necklace
that our wardrobe designer gave us.
So they're amazing.
-Do you think you put green eyes just so it made it very clear
that you were gonna play her?
Because I know --
-Yes, I had to, because our cast is so good.
Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black, Quinta Brunson.
They are fantastic. [ Cheers and applause ]
And we would have -- Yes, thank you.
For them.
But the applause for me was better. I just want to --
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, we all know this.
-So, we would have rehearsals
right before our table reads, right?
And we would -- because, like you said,
we're playing 100 characters between the four of us --
sometimes we would swap roles
and just see who would be better.
And I was like, "Yeah, sure, you guys can read
a couple of my roles,"
And they stole every one out from under me.
They are that good.
-That is good. -They're fantastic.
-It's very nice that you, as the show creator,
you appreciate that spreading the wealth is a sum positive.
-I do and it was too late to fire them, so --
[ Laughter ]
-You've got a couple more though that you've got.
-Oh, this is Tina.
Oh, speaking of hair, honey, look at her.
-Yeah. -All the way down.
So, she's a member of the bad bitch support group.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Yep. [ Cheers and applause ]
Yep. Thank you. Thank you.
And that group is headed by none other than Miss Angela Bassett.
-And how was -- Such a powerful actor, Angela Bassett.
-Oh, I thought you meant me. -What is it like -- Oh, both.
[ Laughter ]
Both of you. -She's good.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
What is it like to have her on set?
Was she a good sport? Was it a blast?
-Oh, my God. She's amazing.
First of all, she is just such a regal queen.
She looks amazing. You've met her. You know.
But she's amazing.
And she came on set, and I forgot all my lines.
So I'm acting across from her and she's acting and I'm like --
[ Giggling nervously ]
And they're like, "Cut, please. Can you act?"
And I'm like, "I'll try."
-Also actors historically --
comedians I think, think, "Oh, I'll just get it on the day."
Like, actors show up prepared.
-Prepared. She knew all her lines.
I had four and forgot them all.
-And who are you here? -Oh, yeah.
This is Claude, of Claude and the Boppers,
you may have heard of them. -Sure.
-They're a Motown group that sung a song
called "Ice Cream Shop,"
and then I decided I wanted to change the lyrics
to make them about sex.
-Oh, no.
-So I start humping the ground and humping people.
You know, classic.
-All that and more you can see on this fantastic show,
which is getting such wonderful reviews.
Congratulations. -Thank you.
-It's so exciting to have a show like this on TV.
And it's so exciting to have you back.
Give it up for Robin Thede, everybody.