-Our next guest is an Emmy-nominated actress,
comedian, writer, and producer.
The third season of her critically-acclaimed show,
"A Black Lady Sketch Show" premieres April 8th
on HBO and HBO Max.
Let's take a look.
-Our next comedian has never
been on Comedy Central or ComicView.
why you would write that down?
I -- Okay.
Give it up for Keisha.
♪♪
[ Scattered claps ]
-[ Laughs ]
Yesss! How y'all doing?
How y'all doing tonight? I'm Keisha.
Y'all look gooder than a Honda with all its hubcaps.
[ Laughs ]
You got a car, ma'am? You rich!
Oh, what else, what else?
You know I'm just working out some material.
Let's see what we got.
Aw, man, hey. Guess what?
I like my men like I like my coffee.
Instant. [ Laughs ]
Hurry up, sir!
-Please welcome back to the show,
our friend Robin Thede, everyone.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome back. How are you? -Hello there.
Hi, everybody.
-It is very exciting to have a third season of your show.
-Listen, you ain't never lied.
Having a third season of anything.
-I know. In this day and age. -In this day and age?
-Season three? Don't mind if you do.
-Don't mind if I do.
-So Keisha the stand-up comedian there,
this seems like a well-observed take
on a kind of stand-up that maybe nobody is ever happy to see.
-Yeah. No. I love it.
You know, I started out, you know this,
but I started out writing for comedians.
In my early days, I was writing for
Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, all these amazing comedians.
So I was in the clubs all the time, and I would see her
in various iterations, male, female, whatever.
And actually, you know, if you don't --
I'll just do a little now.
[ As Keisha ] Hey, how y'all doing tonight?
Hey!
[ Applause ] No, don't clap.
Don't clap. She's terrible. She's terrible.
[ As Keisha ] How y'all doing? Hey!
What's your sweater?
Sad? Because it's blue.
[ Laughs ]
What else?
-The speed!
-This is a person that when she --
I don't know why I'm using this.
What the person would yell, like, the key to their comedy
was just yelling the explanation of the joke.
So it's like, "Your sweater is blue 'cause it's sad.
It's blue!
'Cause it's sad. [ Laughs ] Get it?"
That person, the more you yell
the explanation of the joke, it doesn't help.
-It seems like a lot of characters on this show
must be people that you have observed in real life.
-Yeah.
-Is that something you're always --
do you feel like you have a good radar
for who might be a character inspiration?
-Well, I definitely steal it from
any and everyone I can, that's for sure.
I am watching people constantly, like a creeper,
and listening to them all the time.
but it has gotten me in trouble.
-You have gotten caught creeping?
-Oh, yeah. -Really? Wow.
-Okay, I was at the car wash and a guy walks past me.
I have my head down, I'm on my phone,
and I hear him go, "You are so beautiful."
I look up and I go, "Thank you."
and he goes, [Whispering] "I'm on the phone.
I'm on the phone."
So, you know, that wasn't even me observing characters.
-That was just eavesdropping.
-Absorbing compliments that weren't mine.
-You have so many great guest stars,
which you had in the first couple seasons,
but more than ever.
A nice mix of comedy guest stars that I'm assuming
show up and you know exactly what you're going to get.
And then a lot of dramatic actors as well.
Do you get a little nervous not knowing
how funny they're going to be until they show up on set?
-You know what's crazy?
This season we have over 40 celebrity guest stars.
You guys are going to love it.
-That is amazing. -It's crazy.
In six episodes.
-What's your bar, though, for famous?
-Wanda Sykes.
Hello? -That's very famous.
-David Alan Grier. Tommy Davidson.
-Very impressive. -All these amazing people.
Then we have the drama actors, also, like Vanessa Williams,
Lance Reddick, Michaela Jae Rodriguez from "Pose,"
Michael Ealy.
So many amazing, amazing dramatic actors.
And you would think that when they'd get on set
they would be like, "What is my motivation?"
But they're not. They're the goofiest ones.
Lance Reddick.
-That makes me so happy. -Oh, my God.
He was just like, "Please, just give me more jokes."
They love it.
-It must be so liberating compared to, you know,
especially when somebody like Lance Reddick,
who's oftentimes doing really dark material.
It must be so fun. -Yeah, this isn't "The Wire."
You're good. You can let loose a little bit.
The funny thing is, you know,
so we'll do the script as written.
Our Emmy-nominated writers.
-Of course. You have to do it as written.
-You have to do it as written, because they're very sensitive.
And by they, I mean me.
So we do it as scripted,
but then we're like, "Okay, rip up the script.
Now do whatever you want.
And they just kind of look at you
like a deer in headlights.
They're like, "What do you mean, whatever I want?"
I'm like, "Just say any words. It's fine.
You know the story."
And they're the best at it, actually.
-That's wonderful.
I imagine because you have been so successful
getting people to do your show,
that now people pitch to you all the time other people
who you should go out and ask.
-They do. They do, which sometimes works,
if the person is someone that I feel like we can get.
My mom is constantly pitching,
"Why don't you have Beyonce on the show?"
-That's a good idea.
-One of my other friends is like, "Janet Jackson.
Just get Janet Jackson."
-Why don't you listen to these good ideas?
-Listen, Janet Jackson, Beyonce, Blue Ivy, Sir, Rumi, any of you,
please, come on the show.
-I have terrible news. They don't watch this show.
-They don't. They definitely don't.
Some of them are way too young to be watching.
-I didn't know about this.
I read this, that you were named after Robin Williams.
-I was. -So that says to me that
comedy must have been
an important part of your upbringing.
Your parents obviously valued it,
if they named you after Robin Williams.
That must have been a really cool thing.
-Or I look very different now than I did as a baby,
if I resembled him.
I'm not sure.
-You were born in suspenders.
-I was. I was. Oh, my God.
I think they were just watching "Mork & Mindy" when I was born.
I don't know.
It was like, a real bonding time for my dad and I.
We would watch "SNL" right up until Weekend Update.
That was, you know, I was like, 5.
And so it was like,
"Alright, you've got to go to bed at that time."
But, yeah, he loved Robin Williams.
He was such a massive fan, but who isn't?
-Of course.
-But he loved him with such unbridled passion.
-As a kid, then, did that give you --
were you sort of encouraged to do sketch comedy?
Did they like watching you goof around?
-They definitely didn't not encourage it.
I would be watching the local news
and the news anchor would say, "Tonight, our top story,"
and I would go, "Tonight, our top story."
They're like, "What is she doing?"
And then they would laugh, and I'm like,
"Oh, wait, I'm getting laughs."
And so, yeah.
I would start mimicking everything I saw on TV.
-Well, it paid off.
They have a lot to be proud of.
Congratulations, again. -Thank you.
-Three seasons. -Yes!
[ Cheers and applause ] -This is the best one yet!
You guys, that's Robin Thede.
The third season of "A Black Lady Sketch Show"
premieres April 8th on HBO and HBO Max.