-Our next guest is a very funny actress,
comedian, writer and producer.
The second season of her Emmy-nominated show,
"A Black Lady Sketch Show" airs Fridays on HBO
and is available to stream on HBO Max.
Let's take a look.
-No! -[ Chuckles ]
It was all so simple.
All I had to do was send a message to the CIA Slack channel
and now the whole agency thinks you're an enemy of the state.
And now that you've killed me, you've proven it.
You're as dead as I am, Trinity. [ Gasps ]
Oh. [ Gasps ]
This was supposed to be painless. [ Groans ]
That hurts very bad. They don't tell you that.
Oh, they don't tell you it hurts. Oh, God.
Aah! Don't just watch me when I die.
Oh, this is embarrassing. You have no sympathy?
[ Moans ]
Oh, I'm still alive and it's burning.
Oh, no, no, now I'm dead.
-Please welcome back to the show, our friend, Robin Thede.
How are you, Robin? -So good. That's ridiculous.
Honestly, one of the most ridiculous deaths
in the history of television. -And this is a character
that only made a very small appearance in Season 1.
Deana is her name. What made you want to bring her back?
Because it's a lot of fun to watch.
-It's -- oh, thank you. You know the show --
even a character with, like, two lines in one sketch
can pop up with a really big role in another one.
So, we just like to keep people guessing.
Yeah, Season 1, she was just talking to Kelly Rowland
of Destiny's Child fame and had, like, two lines.
And then we thought it would be really fun to bring her back
as a villain.
Ashley Nicole Black who plays Trinity, the invisible spy,
always has these weird villains who are looking to take her out.
So that was really fun. -It must be very nice.
I feel like there was gap in the time that you were
doing this show, which is the pandemic started
and you were still talking to people about new shows they had
and then there was this real, like, dead period
where there were no new shows for anybody to talk about.
And I feel like this is part of
the light at the end of the tunnel.
Excuse me. Do you feel that way?
Is it nice to be talking about work that you have finished?
-It's so nice. I mean, shooting it
during the height of a pandemic was challenging.
But, you know, we all came together
because we were one of the first shows back,
because we wanted to get this done.
And we wanted to get back together and have fun.
I mean, we just have so much fun together.
It's so joyful.
And I definitely think people need this right now.
Just to laugh at something silly
and me having the world's longest death.
You know, it's fun. -You are not only
a writer on the show and a performer on the show,
but you're the show runner.
And I'm wondering how that works when you're in the room
with your writing staff.
I'm assuming writers you selected
when you put this show together.
Are they deferential to your ideas
or are they honest with you?
-No, they're very honest.
They don't care that I created this show.
That I star in the show. They don't care.
If they don't think something is funny,
they will just be like "Yeah, no, that's not good."
One time Holly Walker, who is an amazing writer,
was with me at the nightly show.
Is now writing on Sam B.
She said -- I said some joke in the room and it just fell flat.
Like, just eight women looking at me like I was ridiculous.
And I go, "Oh, you guys don't want to laugh?" And Holly goes,
"Robin, sometimes your jokes don't land."
[ Light laughter ] Just, like, knife to the heart.
But you know what? They make me better.
They make me better every day. And that's the greatest thing.
-I have also worked with Holly in the past and I'm pretty sure
I've heard something very similar about my own work.
-She's harsh, but you know what? She's so funny.
-Well, you know, it's interesting.
I do think it's important to hire --
one, talented writers, and two, it's important
to hire writers who are honest, and then it's important to be
the kind of show runner who listens
because ultimately that's the only way it has any value.
-Yes, yes. -Can we talk about
this character, Selena? Because --
-Oh, my god. -This is a hair style,
I've not -- How would you describe that hair style?
-That hair style is pure desperation
and just really giving up on life.
This poor woman, Selena, played a MASH game
back in elementary school with her friend Ladonna,
and Ladonna miscounted.
So I was supposed to have the mansion, be married to Omarion,
have these kids.
You know, have this wonderful life,
but she miscounted so that I got a tragically sad life,
which included a cul-de-sac receding hairline.
So, yeah, I saw that -- actually, during the pandemic
I was creating some of the looks for these characters.
I had more time, right?
And I was like -- I was watching old episodes
of "Murder She Wrote," and I saw a character,
a man, with that hair, and I said,
"I think I want that hair." [ Laughs ]
-I think I had thought of watching "Murder She Wrote"
during the pandemic, that would have been
a better use of my time.
-Listen, Peacock has all the episodes.
Not to plug Peacock, but, you know, that's in your network --
-Hey, look, if we've got the goods,
you've got to give us the credit.
-You're right, and Peacock has all of "Murder She Wrote."
So I give it up. It has "The Amber Ruffin Show"
and all of "Murder She Wrote." What more do you need?
-Yeah, that's a perfect combination.
They cover all of womanhood. -Yes. Exactly.
-Hey, one of the things was always interesting to me
about the show, Season 1, the opening credits were puppets.
-Yes, yes, we -- -I will say, like,
I find a lot of comedy writers think, "Oh, puppets are funny."
But you came by this honestly. You had a background in puppets.
-Yeah. Yeah, so I'm a master puppeteer.
I was trained by a teacher from the Jim Henson School
when I was 13 years old.
I used to tour the country with a Christian puppet group,
believe it or not. And I did this for three years.
And so when it came time to do this on the show, I was like,
"Okay, I know what we're going to do."
And everybody loved that open.
It was really fun for the first season,
but I knew I wanted to shake things up in Season 2.
-Yes, and Season 2, we actually get to see you guys,
which is very nice.
-You get to see our faces. We're not puppets.
This is like an homage to "A Different World."
It's interesting. It wasn't totally my decision
to change the puppet open. Actually, Billy Porter --
-The wonderful Billy Porter. -You know, famed actor/singer,
amazing Billy Porter, actually accosted me
at the "Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon and said,
"Hey! Sorry I couldn't do your show last season,
I was at the Met Gala."
You know, because we had asked him to be on the show,
and he was very supportive and sweet. But we understood.
And he said, you know, "I just want to tell you
the show is so good.
But I have to talk to you about one thing. I do have a note."
And I said, "Okay." And he said, "The claymation."
And I was like, "What is he talking about?"
And he said, "The claymation, you know, in the open."
I said, "The puppets?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,
the puppets.
So, I need to see your face and then your name.
Your face and then your name.
Not the puppet and then a name.
I don't know who you are based on the name and the puppet.
And all that being said, what is your name?"
He had this like 15 minute conversation with me
and didn't know my name, but knew who I was, knew my show.
So Billy Porter, this is for you.
We have now our real faces and our names.
But I think we'll switch it up every year. It'll be fun.
-I feel like when you were becoming a master puppeteer
they should have taught you the importance of making
the puppet so specific to the actor
that this would never happen. -Look, I thought we did.
We had this amazing puppet shop, Viva La Puppet in L.A.
who does all these amazing, amazing shows.
They do "Waffles and Mochi" with Michelle Obama.
I mean, they're the best of the best.
And our puppets do look like us.
I think he just wants to see our human faces.
-I think that what we're finding out is Billy Porter
has puppet blindness. -I think we are.
-It affects a lot of people. -Oh, my God.
This is an exclusive to your show.
This is -- I'm glad that we got to the bottom of this.
-You weren't just a traveling puppeteer as a teen,
insofar as work you were doing.
You hosted a show that, again,
sounds like a made up show for a sketch.
"Quad Cities Kids to Kids." -Quad City Kids to Kids.
And it was a Saturday morning, like, news magazine.
I burned all the footage and pictures.
So apologies that we have none of that.
But I would host this thing at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings
on the FOX affiliate station.
And they would send me out into my town in Davenport, Iowa,
and I would do local news stories.
And one time, they sent me to the Zoo --
the local Zoo, which was tiny,
but they did have two elephants there
and I was talking to the zookeeper about them.
And I said, "You know, these elephants don't look so good."
And he was like, "No, no no, they're fine."
And shortly after the segment aired, he got fired.
They launched a whole investigation
and he was actually, like, not feeding the elephants properly.
And little 13-year-old me was like,
"These elephants don't look healthy enough."
I was very disturbed by it.
So that started my whole, kind of,
run in this righteous television.
-I can't believe, like, they were also public elephants.
It seems like somebody who went to the zoo should have noticed
before the "Kids for Kids" showed up.
-I think that speaks to how poorly attended the Zoo was.
-Right. He's like, "they're fine. Nobody ever comes here."
-Can you imagine? He really --
-Hey, congratulations on Season 2.
-Oh, thank you. -It's always so nice to see you.
-Thank you. It's really fun.
We have two new cast members this season
I'm really excited about. So I hope people tune in.
-The second season of "Black Lady Sketch Show"
airs Fridays on HBO.
And is available to stream on HBO Max.