June 22, 2022 • 49 mins
The creator and show-runner of A Black Lady Sketch Show discusses her all-Black writer's room, the rising star power of her costars, and who she wants next. As a matter of fact, Questlove helps her make a pitch to a certain Queen of Pop live on stage.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Welcome to fire Child Set. I funked that up totally.
What do you meant to say? Was fireside chat? Sirefy
chat that too. I think there's a proper term when
you reverse. This is already turning into a QLs orld jury. Yeah,
(00:24):
let's get into it. How's everyone doing out there? These
these are things, These are things that rappers asked before
they start performing, like is Philly in the house and
then his dead silence? Exactly? All right? Yes, we are
introducing but more importantly, for the first time in two years.
(00:52):
Fuck we get our theme back. We have not done
our theme Like, yeah, you better get on your ship
it real fast, hurry up. The people are waiting with
actually breath. Can we bring our special guest out right now?
Without star Hi, everybody? Suprema Sma roll call, Suprema roll call,
(01:21):
sua roll call, sua call. I can't believe it. Yeah,
I don't have a rhyme. Yeah it's time for a
roll call. Yeah, I messed up the run. Suprema suba
roll call, sub prima su Suprema ro call. Name is Sugar.
(01:45):
Yeah I missed you all? Yeah, what I missed the most.
Yeah is this oh call spa Sukama su Suprema rule call.
I'm on paid bill. Yeah, now what to do? Yeah?
We in Philly. Yeah, some of the soul part two?
(02:08):
Rolla roll Yeah, it's hot as Haiti. Yeah, somebody sail Robin. Yeah,
I'm a black lady. Broo rollo, roll call Robert. Yeah.
(02:34):
And I'm not needy. Yeah I know what else? Yeah,
let's start this need not roll so roll call, so
free so prima roll call. Wow, all right, that wasn't that.
(02:59):
I was freely unprepared. Please, class, you never let me
do it. I didn't know you were gonna let me
do it today. Well, every you've done what do I do?
Improv for a living? Yes? Some of us? Hi, everybody,
what's up feeling? So, ladies and gentlemen, we are a
quest Love Supreme, doing our first show in front of
(03:20):
each other in two years. Almost. You look different, We
all look different. Fair you look for award winning Yes,
earthy drift. You look like an oscar. Beat you in
the faith in a way anyway, gentlemen, Welcome to Team Supreme. Alright,
(03:44):
can you pause that? Welcome boss, Welcome boss to the
other stage. Yeah, welcome. Welcome is not rock Kim So anyway, Um,
if you're not familiar with the show or in our
far right, we have the one and only president of
the Sugar Network, Sugar Steve Buck. I missed the theme
(04:12):
song exactly. And then um on our far left over
here on the stage, of course, our organizer, our our
mother are everything. Give it up a lot year, Lady
John Yeah, to my direct left. If you have kids
(04:33):
that still watch Sesame Street, this is basically I mean,
you're much more than that. Thanks. Hamilton's No, I mean
you're you're damn near and egot, you're so are you anyway?
Well combined, we're kind of an guy. We are. Let's
(04:53):
take it. Yeah, Okay, so together, lazis and gentlemen, give
it up for now. Yeah, day now, all right, this
is a long The best part of so Quick, Paul,
(05:18):
whose theme song is the best yours is actually I'll
take it. Moving on, of course, we have to give
a shout out to so hard of this show, which
is Fontigelo, who is not here. He's working hard on
this Little Brother documents. He's also afraid of Covidielo. He
(05:39):
also has a lot left North Carolina, and he's been
you know, he's been doing Little Brother shows now and then,
so that's true. That's all ready to get out of
the house. Ladies and gentlemen, Please welcome our steam guests.
One of my favorite shows on television. Now. The last
time you were on the show, um of course you
were promoting in your BT talk show right and now
(06:05):
I think Black Lady Sketch Shows Black. I'm sorry of
Black Lady Sketch Show is one of my favorite shows
of all time. Please welcome Robin thee. Robin, I have
no theme song. You couldn't play some meg or something. No.
I was going to you know, I was, I was.
(06:27):
I was half ascided. I'm sorry, and I appreciate people
say about you everything. Yeah, I do. Have you actually
flew in just to just to do this right back out? Yes,
very busy person. I feel very touched. I did it
for you. Thank you, ya, I really did it for y'all.
(06:48):
Thank you. Somebody yell we love you. That's never happened
to me. I'm a rock star. They might not have
been yelling at me. To be fair, well, you were
telling me that you're going back because you Yes, it's weird.
I guess if you're a show runner, you don't get
a summer because you have to prepare your next So
when do you get time off? I don't. I'm still
(07:09):
doing stuff for marketing for season three and promoting for
Emmy's that we hope to be nominated for. Congratulations for you,
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, we're starting. We're going right into
season four. So I'm so excited. We're gonna We're gonna
get started right away. So as a fan of the show,
(07:30):
and I'm glad I caught it. Did everybody just get
an amber alert? Hold on, is that not the craziest
ship that ever happened? That's that was bad ship, Silver Suzuki? Right,
huh huh, okay, okay, sorry continue, Wait what does happen?
So my everything everyone just vibrated, correct, and everyone just
got an amber alert and it says Silver Suzuki XL seven.
(07:53):
Everybody in this audience just got the same. Man, why
don't you get it? What's wrong with you? That's what
I don't want to know. Is it because have a
flip phone? Or it might be I was born in
the seventies. It says a lot about you. So this
is this is what I want to know, you know,
I started studying like when the pandemic started. Season one
(08:15):
was you know where I fell into the rabbit hole.
And of course season two and season three, I've watched
each episode maybe like ten times each and there's so
many meta hidden jokes inside of each episode. It's almost
like you're seeing it for the first time, blinking you
missed it. Can you walk us through how you get inspiration?
(08:38):
Because I feel like you're covering everything that I've not
seen television cover as far as like black comedy is concerned, Yeah,
I think without giving away all the secret sauce. I
think for us it was like we didn't want to
give y'all we were gonna have something called a Black
Lady sketch out. We wanted to give you layers and
wanted people to feel seen. We wanted to like create
(08:59):
something that was cinematically the most beautiful sketch show ever.
We wanted to have black women look good and all
light like it was just important. So so in order
to do that, we wanted to really layer the show
so it wasn't just a funny character. There were also
crossover elements between sketches because I knew have y'all seen
(09:20):
season three, okay, perfect, perfect, So spoilers for anybody who hasn't,
But y'all seem to be good. So we I knew
what was going to happen in the finale, and I
knew that the women over these three seasons, it wasn't
really the end of the world. It's the end of
the world. Is we all know it? Because what world
would have elected dr had also presidentent Um they've seen it.
(09:43):
You haven't seen the finale, okay, I didn't see the
final Yeah. Oh, all rights are in this audience. Every listen.
Here's the thing, and I admitted this in the book
I have thanks mom show. Oh yes, yes, people have
(10:09):
been watching my career while no. I was saying that
whenever I watch any series, especially in streaming, it's something
about the penultimate episode, in the final episode, I won't
watch it until I know that season four is ready. Okay,
So anyway, I would thank you. Oh Rob, I've been
waiting for that moment. So you're gonna get it spoiled.
(10:31):
I'm so sorry, But but I knew that the world
was going to be the end of the world. Storyline
was gonna be wrapped up. Um, so we could kind
of start something new in season four. So the layers,
without getting into the spoilers, are really important to me
because I wanted the characters to start to meet. As
you saw what happened in the finale. I won't tell
you who, but they all start, they start to meet.
(10:51):
The world starts to kind of fold in on itself
to create new possibilities for these women now that they're evolved.
So there's a story within a story. But then this
sches you start to realize if you look in the background,
it's like, oh, that Patti LaBelle poster from all my
own season one is in a sketch. Season three isn't
what if I'm three? In season three and like, stuff
is like starting. Two characters are starting to meet, things
(11:12):
are starting to happen. So I knew if we could
do that, we could create this Black Lady multiverse with
these characters that you guys, Black multi Verse, Black Lady Multiverse,
And so I'm excited for you guys to see now
what can happen with them because you know that any
of them can interact, like Dr Hadassa can meet you know,
(11:33):
the Coral Reeves, like Chris can meet Trinity or whatever. Right,
So it's exciting just asking for a friend. What's the
sign for black Lady multiverse? There is it's black Lady. Yeah, okay,
a black Lady multiverse. I love that. Moving on the
(11:54):
signers that the Roos big Nigs have always been legendary.
Can I ask you yo? I know, set he's like
more than the root because when you put your body
in its next level. But let me let me ask
this general Black Ladies guest show question because I always
want to notice as a watcher, how much are the
ladies that we see that are a part of the
(12:15):
show involved in the writing. And if they're not, like
how much? Say, how does that go? How does that
that labor of work? I know there are other people
we don't see in the background, but the ladies that
we do see are Emmy nominated writers. Yes, um yeah,
so Ashley Nicole Black wrote on seasons one and two.
She's amazing, She's so sick. Um. But that's it. That's
(12:38):
the only person who's written besides me, So yeah, Quinta
sky Lady. None of them wrote. But but that's not
to take away from their creative collaborations. I was gonna
say the improv must be improv is crazy. They also
bring the looks how they want their characters to look.
They design that piece by piece with all of our
black lady glam departments, so no gaps are people. She
(13:01):
from Philly and she I thought she was from Philly. Oh,
sometimes you get it out like the people I like
to Ohio and DC. Yeah, she kind of lived on
my other hometown. Why am I telling all her business?
A right? So what happened was when she was like
watching tennis. So if I were a betting man, when
I when I go tonight to watch the Finality, which
(13:21):
I will, which I've spoiled. I'm assuming that Quinta makes
a return to the show. Correct, I didn't say that.
I'm assuming though, right? Why would you assume that because
he's wearing hair? I don't know. Does she make him
return to the shower. We're gonna tell him. They're not
gonna tell my motherfucking people. They're not gonna tell you
because Quest Love is quest Love Supreme is the only
podcast in which everyone actually hates the hose. That's not true.
(13:48):
How happy are we for Quinta? This woman is killing?
Are we proud? Oh? No? That pretty Philly's very hard.
Robin the Supreme, Now I gotta I got enough to do.
So yeah, so that's what I want to know. As
(14:10):
far as the crafting, does it start with like out
of a dream like, Oh we should do blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah, like when you did the
hair sketch that was the cold open for season three?
The product? Yes, So is there just uh sort of
a think board on Yeah, I'm going on. Here's how
(14:31):
the SNL like they'll have our our show is very interesting.
So we only have like seven writers and they write everything.
So they come in. They come in with a pitch
that has a beginning, middle, twist, and end. Like they
come in with their raw, their own concepts. Because it
was really important to me that this it's not a
Robin the Sketch show. It's a Black Lady Sketch show.
So it's really important that we have different points of view.
(14:54):
So no, they come in and um, that was actually
a key La Green who wrote that. Um, who's incredible.
She works on Black Monday and a bunch of other shows. Um,
she actually wrote that in season two, but we couldn't
shoot it till season three because we couldn't have a
hundred women running down the street during COVID so um.
So yeah, she just came in and pitches. She was like,
(15:14):
what if, like the movie The Purge, black women had
fifteen minutes to return all their unused hair products and
get a full refund, Like how chaotic would that be?
And I was like, yes, go right that, you know,
But yeah, I gotta give the writer's credit. I write
a lot of the sketches too, but it's it is collaborative.
Like sometimes they'll be like, Okay, I have an idea
(15:35):
it's like Romeo and Juliet, but we're not sure what
to do with it. And I'm like, okay, Ben, let's
put that together with the stand culture sketch and do it.
And I am at pentameter and then you get Roman Julissa.
You know, so we it's very collaborative to now, working
at thirty Rock, I often meet writers who at SNL
getting their feelings if their sketch doesn't make it to
the show, so how are you? Also, do you have
(15:59):
to put the bad guy at the show as the
leader of the show, And yeah, sometimes, but I think
we all kind of know which sketches are rising to
the top. So we'll do like internal table reads and
perform it and you know, critique it. But I think, um,
it's pretty clear by the time we go to our
shooting scripts what's gonna work. Um. But no, they don't
(16:20):
get their feelings hurt because everybody gets sketches on. Because
we have so few writers, everybody gets sketches on. So
do you'll ever get pushed back from HBO? Like, has
there ever been a taboo or no, a taboo? No,
it's HBO. You can do anything. Yeah, but can you
because you're the first Black Lake Country's ask Lovecraft Country? Okay,
(16:43):
well look, don't don't mess. I don't know about that.
It got nineteen nominations, right, but it wasn't there because
he didn't want to continue the person that did it.
I don't know, Robin don't want to be on that
side of I don't want to. I don't want to.
I don't want to get involved. I love that show.
Um yeah, I think for us, no, we really don't
(17:04):
get any pushback. I think it's just like the funniest
stuff rises to the top and they just say, you know,
be true to the show. But we really don't get
a lot of wortchback. There's no real taboo subjects. They've
never said, oh, don't do that. What's the sketches that
y'all I had problems getting through because y'all just been dying.
I just need to know, like, have y'all ever been dying?
Laughing so hard? It has been hard to get And
(17:25):
my mind was I'm going to take it back to
the to the courtroom, but I feel like courtroom wells
is very easy to break. So yeah, I'm messed with
her really bad. Whenever she's in a sketch, She's like,
why are you always with me in every sketch that
I do? And I'm like, I don't know, but I
know it's because I want to mess It looks like
you'll you're challenging her? Are you trying to hold face
(17:47):
like you're sketch every sketch not JUSTSA. All of our casts.
My job is to make them break, but they're so
good they don't. The Last Supper and the Resurrection, like
those Disciple sketches are really hard to get through anything
with like Gabrielle as the head of the Coral Reeves
at Leasta, it's hard to get through um A lot
(18:09):
of them are really hard to get through, to be honest,
especially this season. The improv is crazy, Like the outtakes
are so much longer. We have so much stuff we
couldn't even show you guys because we have a time limit.
Like there's so many jokes that the world will never see.
I have a dream world where like Larry David does
a guest spot on The Black Ladies Squet Show and
it's like Battle of the improvorld. That's one of have
(18:31):
a louder dream world there about twenty thousand. That's like,
can you guys tell her why that would be impossible?
Because it's a Black Lady sketch show and there're no
white people on the Black Lady scut Show never, not one,
not even in the background, not even not even not
even out the art on the walls that Larry correct,
(18:52):
we're black women play all of the characters from season one,
never even in a you're on a wall? Oh my god,
is that what free? Don't look like? That's what the
finale is saying, like, when you live in this book whatever,
you have to watch a finale, But when you live
in this world and you get involved to your and
you get to enter into this world where we are
(19:15):
free of the gays of anyone else. And to me,
that's Mecca, that's heaven. That's so yeah, because isn't that
amazing And it's not. I'm sorry, well, I know it's
not at the exclusion of anyone else. It's just at
the celebration of us. I'm like, if I have a
chance to create something on HBO, like, let me create
(19:36):
this dream scenario. I think it frees up the comedy too, right,
because I don't want to do a Karen sketch or
microaggression sketch, Like I don't want to do that. I'm
not saying they don't have value. We don't do that
because you gotta you gotta caster. Well, because I don't
want to re traumatize us. I want you to have
thirty minutes of joy, like I want you to, oh
(19:57):
my god, joy. No white Jewish guys at all, I'm sorry.
They probably pay a bill or something, but not even
like the biggest white Jewish guy, Larry David. Nope, not
even him. Um so where I know that for a
lot of sketch comedians, Uh, they're Mecca is second City
(20:20):
or like in Chicago or citizens Yeah, right, was it
you see you CEB if you are black, Like, is
there what's the version of them? No, there's not my show.
But no, I think because I did Second City in
IOH and I've done some shows at UCB, but um no,
(20:42):
they're not. Actually just joined the advisory board for Second
City because I think we need to do better and
we need to invite us in legitimately, not us in
to be tokens in a class. We need to legitimately
have experiences that are authentic and that teach us how
to hone our comedy, not how to do somebody else's comedy,
how to do hours. So yeah, no, I think I
(21:02):
think we're gonna We're gonna try some things to help
out the school that raised me. And you know, I
think we got a long way to go, but we're
definitely working at it because you know, like I live
in a world where everyone's always improving, and like with music,
I can handle it, but with words, I can't handle it.
(21:24):
And I feel like the person that's at on a
you know, double dutching that can't get inside the roop,
Like I'm constantly like, well you saw me the moment
music was playing, I floundered I couldn't even rhyme with
my own last name. But I think, yeah, I think
the answer is always yes, yes, yes, it's yes and no.
But but but you know what's interesting, But um, we don't.
(21:47):
It's not that hard. It's not like an improv school
on our set. It's like we're just trying to make
a funny show. So wherever we go, we'll just follow,
like you know, Gabrielle in those in the Resurrection sketch
us specially but the Last Supper, just because I mentioned that,
when she comes in the scene as Mary, we know
she's just gonna be chaos. So she plays Mary Magdalen,
and we've made her this like mean girl to these
(22:08):
other women who aren't invited to any of the disciple events,
and she is, um, she's just so like we know
when she comes in, it's just gonna be a mess.
She's gonna do what's scripted, but everything else is gonna
go out of the window. So we just follow each other.
Really well, I think for us, it's not necessarily us
in but it's just follow where they take you, and
(22:30):
anybody can move the story along, but as long as
we all go together, So I think that's what you
see on the screen, especially in season three. How many
people have reached out to you about like getting on
the show or like I know that you added Sky
to the faster celebrity guests. Oh not even celebrity guests.
(22:53):
That's what mean regular people, because I want to know
my my way of doing it, because I just be
talking to you every six months. So well, you know
what's funny for the core cast because we really don't.
I don't know what just happened over um No, for
the corecast, we don't really change it that much. I
(23:16):
mean we add Takeaway each season one or two, maybe
I guess, but people don't really approach me for that.
They tagged me mostly and like people's TikTok's. But I'm like,
here's the thing. If you can't do a hundred impressions
and characters, like I don't know what. Yeah, we've all
in three seasons, those of us who have been there
since day one have played over a hundred characters in
(23:37):
eighteen episodes. So it's like, if you don't have that
kind of depth and range, then people don't. Really, it's
way more celebrities pitching than people trying to be regulars
in the cast. It's a hard job. It's a hard job.
You know. Other sketch shows have big, big cast, but
like we're a small, scrappy show. We play all the characters,
believe it or not. I think a lot of people
watch it with Gabrielle, was like, did not know she
(23:59):
had all that? It is crazy? All like wait from
the game, she's killing it and the old spite. I
was like, wait, who is this person? No, y'all sleep beautiful.
It was beautiful. I mean y'all not sleeping, but the
people listening to the podcast, you'll sleeping on Gabrielle. She's
so versatile, she's so incredible, Like people like, oh, I
(24:20):
just knew here on the game and I didn't like her,
and it's like, okay, but this one. So I met her.
She actually beat me out for a sketch show on
Showtime when that Damon Waynes was doing back in the day.
This is like fifteen years ago, and I remember being
at the audition. We were like the last two and
she got it and I heard her in the room
and I was like, ship, she needs to get that.
(24:41):
She's really good. So no. I used to watch her
doing stand up back in the day. I used to
watch her doing sketch like she can mimic any singer,
and because we can't afford to do that a lot
on the show, she doesn't really get to use it.
But I'm gonna try to do it more next season.
But she can mimic any singer living or gone, never
a female singer. She's incredible. She's she has an ear
(25:06):
for musical mime, which is incredible. And then she's just
got a ton of characters. You throw anything her way,
She's like, I'll figure it out. She played a character
named Steve in the sketch called Escrow Download like this
dude that just like had an accent, but it was
every accent. She wasn't supposed to play that character, was
supposed to be a guest star, and we table read
it and she just started doing this character and I
(25:27):
was like, well that's you now, Like it's just she
just like, we'll grab these roles we never intended to
be as funny, you know, we wanted them to be funny,
but the way she takes it to the nth degree
is just crazy. They all do that, though, Sky is
really coming into her own. Ashley is a genius. Ashley
and what's the character. At first, see Trinity the Black Woman,
(25:48):
the black woman's superhero. They nobody knows the world's most invisible,
the world's best spike. She's called the invisible Spy because
she's just like a plus size black woman, was not
wearing makeup, so no one acknowledges her. I mean that's
a statement and a half, you know, talk about the
development of that character. So she actually brought that to
(26:10):
us the first season. She was like, Yo, I think
my superpower is being like a plus size black woman
who just blends in because nobody even notices I'm there.
So she's like, I want to make that the world
the cia is best spot. And I was like, that's
fucking genius. So I mean, that's just what she does though.
She just comes up with sketches so easy. She also
came in the room and goes, what did Patty lebill
(26:32):
um every time you get broken up with makes you
sing on my own to you like, she won't leave
until you sing on my own. I was like, yeah,
what about that? Go write it? Why not? She she
came up with black Lady Corn Room. She's amazing. Yeah,
she wrote the first one, I wrote the second one.
But yeah, like those those ladies. The writers are so good,
(26:55):
Like I think a lot of people think the magic
just happens on set, but those scripts are incredible. Whatever
it is, it looks like y'all come together like Vultron. Yeah,
so is there uh for you a dream sketch that
you're reading? Like either for a production cost or we
were like we will you get close to ever executing that? Yes?
(27:19):
I will, and that's all you can say. No, I'm
gonna tell you what it is because I'm campaigning this
season to get Janet Jackson on the show. You came
to the right place. Come on, I was like the
bat phone, So I want you? Can you picture in
thirty seconds? Probably because now never rob it is now?
(27:46):
Never is now I never? You gotta come on a
mirror is now what never? You said you wanted it,
you put it out there, don't put you see y'all
lesson put something in the end show us. Listen, listen,
I'm gonna videotape you. Okay, that's my or are you
gonna FaceTime? He did. I don't want to put it
on the spot, but I will send this to her
and I'll be in the background. You got a cheer
(28:07):
at the the uncomfortable white guy in the background go
hang all right, jan I'm not putting you on the spot,
but this is a pitch. Jannet Jackson. It's Robin Thady
from a Black Lady Sketch show. You are cordially invited
to season four to star the most epic sketch we've
ever done, and the world wants to see it. We
love you and we want to see it. Right, Let's
(28:29):
take care of you. We got you, Jannet, let see us. Okay,
all right, I'm gonna sending that to her and then
she can do whatever the fuck you want. Rights be like,
I want a white dr herdassa. I'll be like, fine,
I'll coach you on the voice. You literally it's doable.
Oscar Son. I think you would have hit her before
(28:51):
I know. I just said you would have hit There's
three people in the world. You're either giver, a taker,
or a connector. Yeah, I'm a connector, connector connect Nice
to meet you. I'm a connector. That's why you hear
all of us are connect The only time you guys
have ever gotten along ever, I've taken some ship, but
(29:16):
you've always been paid on time. I'm a connector, but
I'm a connector. Yeah, but thank you. I think that
that was awesome. That's what's gonna happen. It's gonna happen, Robin.
I know absolutely. I think she's hilarious. I think she's
such a phenomenal actress. I think she's so funny. You
(29:37):
know the reason why Angela Bassett did the show is
she said, I did it because you asked, and no
one thinks I'm funny. And she got nominated for an
Emmy for Bad Bite. Some more group like she's so dope,
like and she's so dope. She's so supportive. She was
actually the first guest star we booked. We hadn't been
on the air, no one knew what the show was.
(29:57):
She was like, yoh, I like your late night show
and I want to do it. No one thinks that
can be funny. She never these I mean, think about it,
these black women that have been on the show, and
the black men that have been on the show, they
none of them have ever hosted S and L. None
of them ever. And this is no shade to S
and L. It's just like we just didn't have an
outlet for us you know that was that was dedicated
to us. So that's what I want to try to provide. Oh,
we got time, right, let's say questions from the autist?
(30:19):
That so fun? I mean, whatever you say. I feel
like they have something. Oh my god, can we do it?
I'll come out, Greg, I'm not coming to you. Okay,
who got a question? Okay, yeah, all right, you don't
have to go. I like doing this stuff. You can't.
How are you going to get down there yelling? Jump?
(30:45):
I'm a radio girl. I'm a Philly radio girl. Because
all right, you got a question? Which make sure you
introduce yourself to everybody. Hello, guys, I Elizabeth, I'm from Philly.
We love Philly. I have a question for you, Robin.
(31:05):
Could we extend this to possibly a movie? A black
lady movie? I mean, Bob's Burger's got one? Why are
you while we can't? Why are you so mad at Bobs?
We just started watching bobs Burgers. It's been on ten years.
I know. Is that something you'all would watch? Yes? Sure,
(31:26):
why not? I don't know what I'm gonna have time
to do it, but why not? Why not? Alright? I
love that idea? Hey, y'all I'm India. I'm from Texas. Hey.
So my question is, with the show being so amazing,
do you ever have writer's block? Or have you ever
had a sketch come out where it took so long
to produce that you had a prolong or to another
(31:47):
season question. No, we had some sketches we couldn't make
in COVID because they had like kids, or like a
bunch of extras or whatever. But no, we never had
to postponed to another season for any other reason. Do
I ever have writer's block? Always? I'm always thinking of sketches.
My mind just kind of works that way. So then
you don't smoke, drink. You don't smoke or drink. I
(32:07):
don't drink. You're a writer too, Yeah, I mean, look,
writer's what can happen. There's some people that don't believe
in it. But sometimes you just don't feel like doing
a ship, or you just can't get an idea. You
know what you gotta do. Just write a bunch of
bullshit and some of it will be good. Yeah, just
keep typing or taking nap. How many drafts you go
to before a lot? The sketches go through a lot
(32:30):
of drafts, sometimes ten twelve drafts for sure, and then
we continue to punch on set, and then we improvise
and then we've edit different so it's always Yeah. Have
you ever a moment where you are reading one of
your things and you know it's not working and oh god,
trying to But no, they will not laugh at me.
(32:51):
If my ship is wet, they'll be like dead silent.
One of the writer's season two said, I was like,
why did y'all laughing? I'm killing this. This is why
how Keisha got the joke Keisha the Bad State of Comedian.
That's how she happened, because that was me in the
really pitching bad sketches and jokes, because I'm just a
pitch machine. Like I'm one of those people just like right,
(33:13):
like you're just gonna get a hundred ideas and they're
allowed to be honest with you. Yeah, no, you say
yes first. You know people with egos where you have
to laugh at the don't do that, laugh at their
bosses jokes. I never heard. I was about to say
that don't happen here. You know people with egos, But no,
(33:34):
you can't even ego because the audience isn't gonna give
a ship it's not funny. All right, we got another question?
Do you well? Thank you? Thank you question? Yes? No,
no numbers? Oh all right. My name is Rown from Virginia.
My question is very simple. I love the credits to
opening credits that y'all do. Can you explain that because
(33:55):
I feel like they change? But I could be high
and missing ship. I like, I'm sorry, I got open.
My point is like, could you could you talk about
that to me? Because I thought like the layers and
ship like trying to get on the ship. Now you
told me this season to look for and I did
(34:18):
and I couldn't find. I was like, I must be
an idiot because I don't see a difference in like
how obvious are the wait? Do you see the finale? Well,
it's the text. So this year's opening credits, the opening
sequence is exactly the same except for the text on
the screen, and it tells a separate story. But that story,
(34:40):
I'll tell you, Mr. Virginia is a bit of a
red herring. Uh. It's supposed to throw you off the
trail of who's actually mind controlling them by sending you
down this other rabbit hole. Um, but it all dovetails
into this idea that these black women are creating these
characters in this universe, and it's giving you long story
for each of the I can't believe you haven't noticed,
(35:01):
because I know you've seen one through five, six, you'll
be able to see you have to pause it. It
was also kind of a It was also a fun thing, yeah,
for the audience. I wanted you to have to pause
it to read the ongoing story as long as fun
as because I think it's hilarious, and because I think
that I want you all to have to be so
(35:21):
engaged because people like people be like, oh wow, that
was sketch went by so fast, and I'm like, I
want you to have to actively, like have to pause
and like really digest it. And I want you to
get in the vibe of doing that for the sketches
because they'll be so much more rich if you do that.
Is there an easter egg from one to or three
that is so deep and funny that no one has
(35:44):
come back to you yet with. I mean there's ship
that you would really have to pause it to see.
In this sketch called It's getting a heist in here,
it's a museum high sketch kind of like Oceans eleven.
In the cases it's a Rhanna fashion exhibit and is
a Rihanna diamond but all the fashion in the cases
that they go by our our interstitial outfits from last
(36:06):
year and they're the last supper outfits also in one
of the cases. So it's like showing you that this
world is all starting to dubtail. But the biggest one
is Millstone Coffee. So if you look, Millstone Coffee was
the corporation that plug your ears that Dr Hadaza secretly
owned and used to fund her mind control of the women. Okay, done,
(36:29):
so you'll see Millstone. Batman support group starts with Angela
Bassett pouring a cup of Millstone coffee. Like you see it,
Trinity kicked Nicole buy Or into a case of Millstone boxes.
The no makeup sketch Um is at Millstone. She's just like,
how can I brew up an answer for you? She's
literally selling Millston coffee. Millstone has been there since episode one,
(36:50):
and it culminates as kind of the evil, nefarious UH
corporation in the end of season three. All right, I'm
making good, y'all. What's up y'all? Money is bree Daddy,
I'm coming all away from Miami and the reason I'm
but I'm film fucking filmy, so shout out family, all right?
As an Afro Latino woman, black representation is so important,
(37:14):
but we all know how it is. It could be
hard to represent ourselves as black woman, black women, black man,
non binary, whatever your choice is, how do y'all get past?
How do you get past impostor syndrome? That is not
where I expected that question to go. That I've never
(37:35):
had impostor syndrome. I don't even understand it. Honestly, I
just kind of have reckless confidence and everything I do
like it's just gonna be great. So that's just right.
I don't I'm never like should I be doing this?
What I will tell you is I do know that
there are people just as funny and funnier than me
who could have had this opportunity. So I don't want
(37:56):
to suck it up because I want to keep the
door open for all of us to be able to
do it. That's why I called it a Black Lady
scotch O, not the because I can't represent us all
and I want us to be one of many. Right.
I wanted Amber rough and to go get her late
night show Z way to do what she's doing. All
the Sam Jaz women be doing this, and I think
that we've helped in that. I'm not taking responsibility for
(38:16):
their success, but I'm just saying, like, us being there
season after season is showing the world how funny we
can be. The funniest women in the world to me,
are black women like and you know on the show,
it's so important to us that are aff Latina's sisters,
Gina Torres, Marlon Egra, like all these after Latinos on
the show, Reagan Gomez, like, it's important that that they're there.
It's important that our trans sistors are there. It's important, Like,
(38:37):
it's really important to me because we're not the same,
we're so different, and we have some in this season
coming up. It's really gonna explore a lot of that
in the way we haven't had a chance to. Um,
So I'm really excited about that because we're so rich,
we're so you know, diverce amongst ourselves. Speaking of seasons,
I know this is a very like BBC network thing,
(38:58):
this whole like one season is only four episodes thing,
we have six, thank you very much. Yeah, but that's
what I'm saying, like, why where is the traditional who
decides what an aren't is for the season. As far
as the volume is concerned, like the number of episodes, Oh,
that's determined by HBO. I don't have any saying about that.
(39:19):
But what I will say is, people, I know that
the episodes go by fast. You'll tell me this all
the time, but if you think about it, we're doing
like fifty short films, like it really is denser than
most tell I know that doesn't help because the show
goes by fast, but we're on location. We don't shoot
on a stage. We got new characters, were like reinventing
(39:39):
a sitcom every day, twice a day sometimes, So it's
just it takes a while. Like I work on the
show three sixty five days a year. People think I'm like,
you know, just doing six episodes in like three weeks. No,
we shoot for three months, we write for three months,
we prep I post for three months, Like you know,
it takes a long time to make the show. But
so any more episodes, you wouldn't have anytime for yourself. Yeah,
(40:02):
but I don't anyway, So that's fine. What are you
afraid to take a break? Because what I did learn
with the pandemic. No, no, I'm not trying to get deep,
but I'm just saying what I learned in the pandemic
is when you have silence and like the sound of
what we're hearing right now, that's where ideals really come
(40:23):
and that's where the ideas flow in and inspiration. So
for you, if this is all year round, where you
have to now spend the summer months thinking and thinking,
crafting and building and building and then shooting, shooting, shooting,
shooting and then promoting, promoting, promoting and all that, when
(40:44):
I'm never out of ideas, I don't know. I'm do
you take time out just to have nothing happening? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Like I'm definitely like, you know, have three or four
day like a Memorial Day weekend or something like that,
and go somewhere just chill out. But that doesn't really
help me. I know, I know what you mean, but
that doesn't I'm not one of those people. I work
really weird. Like the more should I have going on,
(41:04):
the more creative I am. And I'm not gonna say
that the pandemic I wasn't created, but I don't like
sitting still. I'm not really that person. So I mean,
you know, for me, playing dozens of characters in a
season is like great, that's the stattus quo. Like I
can't imagine being on one show playing one character would
be so bored. So for me, you know what, Also,
you know, this like this is like my seventh sketch
(41:26):
show that I've been on. So it's like I did
shows with David Allan Greer and Damie Fox and Apian
Crockett and everybody, and so for me, it was like
I got to watch all of them have shows that
happened really fast and didn't get second seasons, and I
was like, Okay, I want to take all those lessons
and make this love letter to black women and like
(41:46):
make it really funny and like make history. And I
just don't take it for granted. So taking a break
as far as like the show, like maybe not doing
it one year or whatever, I've thought about it because
sleep is good, but I feel like people need it,
like especially in the pandemic, Like people need it, and
I think that's important, and that's that's like we do,
but we don't never want you to put us before
(42:08):
your own self. No, But it's not because it's sacrifice
your life for us. No, no, no, here's the thing.
I'm very rich, so it's fine, okay, but then this
is the very last question. Then all right, thank you.
Sign you from Cleveland, Ohio. Two part questions. First, have
you thought about a tour around the country where you
can expose new black female talent. Second, what's the advice
(42:29):
for young people who are trying to get in this work? Um, yes,
I have thought about a tour. I wanted to take
my cast around. They're just so insanely busy. They go
to immediately to other shows when they're not shooting this one.
But in terms of showcasing like unknown talent, that's I mean,
that would be dope. I mean we try to get
every year. We try to get folks from like everything
(42:50):
from Angelo Bassett to folks from TikTok and YouTube, and
you'll see them on the show. Like you may not
recognize some of them, but if they're your favorites, you will.
And then um, I just ran into during Bernard was
performing on the other stage and he was so dope. Yeah,
we got him in the sketch this year, and like
people you wouldn't expect to see in sketches. I think
that's really fun. But yeah, I mean a tour would
be great. I don't know when I would do it,
(43:10):
but I have a fine time. We could do it
on the weekends, but um yeah maybe. But also what
advice do I have? My thing is, don't think you're
better than any job, like, especially for young people. There's
a thing that's happening now that I'm seeing where like
people would be like, Okay, cool, I want to come
in as the the CEO of the company, or I
(43:30):
want to come in like and have an overall deal
at a studio, and it's like, we haven't done anything yet. Like,
go be a p A, you know, Go be a
production assistant, Go be a writer's assistant. Don't think you're
better than those things, you know, and just work your
way up. I'm a showrunner, right, so that means I
run the whole show. I manage a multimillion dollar budgets
and on any show that I run, and and I
also write and I acted, you know all this stuff.
(43:52):
So it's a lot of hats to wear. But the
only reason I was prepared to do that is because
I had twenty years in the business doing every job
on so many for shows, So I don't know if
y'all know a lot about where I came from. But
like I was writing for my Gaps and Chris Rock
and Kevin harton all these comedians, like I would be
on the road with comedians. Then I started writing for
award shows and writing like the monologues and the sketches
(44:14):
and the jokes. Then I got um. Then I started
stabbing in rooms as those comedians started selling shows. Then I,
you know, worked my way up to being head. Right,
we should remind people robbing that that story is actually
in the q l S Classic. It is. It is
also the puppeteer version as well there too. But I
say all that to say, not to run down the resume,
(44:35):
but just to say like I've been here a long
time and some people just got to know me yesterday,
you know so, and and I'm and I'm grateful for that.
I'm never better than somebody just now saying. There's probably
people standing here who were like, who is this woman talking?
You know, but now you might go Google. So I
thought they were seeing us. We don't know you have
they're waving to you, right question, well, speaking of you
(45:02):
writing for other comedians will you ever or is it
even a bucket list of yours to try stand up once?
Because that's the thing I was shocked at. I don't
because you've never You told me you never done stand up,
and you yell at me because you're like you're literal
late night show was you standing up telling jokes? So
(45:24):
I guess I did do stand up? No? I mean, look,
I wrote for literally, name your favorite comedian. I wrote
jokes for them, so, you know, being on the road
and watching them do what they do, do you still
feed them now? Like, yeah, sometimes a good idea for you.
Why don't you sometimes? Um? Sometimes, but like I'll reach
out to them because it's just that community. Like when
Wanda was hosted in the Oscars, I was like, yo,
(45:45):
you did some jokes. She was like hit me, you know,
and like, and I didn't because I'm a bad friend.
But um, I just got caught up doing she and not.
I forgot but but but no, it's that kind of
community though, or if they called me, like I'm there,
if Brock calls me, I wanna calls me whoever, I'm there. So,
but will I ever do stand up? I don't think so.
For the same reasons that, like a lot of older
(46:07):
comedians don't really do stand up anymore. I think it's
like you gotta go out and fail for a year
doing that material. And because I never put my ten
years in right now it's a good time. Now, it's
not a good time to start. No ten seconds. No,
(46:28):
I will not be swayed there. This is why I
play the bad comedians like I know where my strengths lie.
I know I'm good at impressions and characters, like I'm
not good at just standing up and being myself. Maybe
that's imposter syndrome for the lady that I don't know.
I know, I just knowing, I don't. I don't like
it twice and almost your uncomfortable. But for what most
(46:48):
stand ups are doing it so they can get a
TV show. I have had multiple television shows. I am multiple.
You got active. You gotta do the TV shows before
you do the stand up in the standard. It would
be hustling backwards, wouldn't it bad? I mean, you should
do what you want to do. Yeah, I have no desire, right, Yeah,
(47:10):
I'm not doing a toxic you know. I think you
know you know why too, Because it's a very solitary life,
and it's a very solitary pursuit. And I like doing
things with other people, and I like supporting us, and
I like showcasing us. And I feel like stand up
would just be showcasing me, which I don't think I'll
take that. Wait before you wrap it up, I gotta
(47:32):
ask you a question, boss, Wait before you wrap it up,
because we don't get moments with quest love at the
Ruth Picknic. Robin. You don't know this, but this is
the only time that he actually leaves like area. This
is really so, can you give us any insight on today,
what you're looking forward to? How was last night? Like,
tell us something, This is the return of the Ruth
Picknic in three years? Yes it is. Um, You know
(47:54):
for me that it's there's the biggest story because the
one thing we didn't talk about yesterday was Yes, it
was our thirty the roots. As you know, it was
our first for me to see you know, two two
friends from high school bust Or on the corner of
(48:15):
South Street. Um, and you tell me, thirty years from
this date, you're going to hit over sixty thou people
in the backyard of the borough that you grew up in.
I mean I came here thirty years ago to see
invoked and arrested development and now it's like this is
my home. So you know, um, for me, it was
(48:38):
a dream. It was a dream playing with Mary as well.
You know she uh definitely gave us feed. She wants
to she wants to make that happen again. So every
time somebody does the Roots picnic, sure did the same
thing right. Every time they do they perform with the Ruts, Robbin,
they always be like, what else we do in Vegas? Yeah, well,
no band is gonna compare obviously. Thank you. By the way,
(49:01):
can you text Mary j Bars while you at it? Also,
she will be good on the show. I wanted them
all on the show. We're gonna get you on in
Sei anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, this is a quest Love Supreme.
I'm paid Bill, thank you. This is Robin Phete, Thank you.
(49:21):
Enjoy the rest of the Roots pick thing, Please be safe,
love one another. What's Love Supreme is a production of
my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
(49:42):
you listen to your favorite shows.
Quest Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Welcome to fire Child Set. I funked that up totally.
What do you meant to say? Was fireside chat? Sirefy
chat that too. I think there's a proper term when
you reverse. This is already turning into a QLs orld jury. Yeah,
(00:24):
let's get into it. How's everyone doing out there? These
these are things, These are things that rappers asked before
they start performing, like is Philly in the house and
then his dead silence? Exactly? All right? Yes, we are
introducing but more importantly, for the first time in two years.
(00:52):
Fuck we get our theme back. We have not done
our theme Like, yeah, you better get on your ship
it real fast, hurry up. The people are waiting with
actually breath. Can we bring our special guest out right now?
Without star Hi, everybody? Suprema Sma roll call, Suprema roll call,
(01:21):
sua roll call, sua call. I can't believe it. Yeah,
I don't have a rhyme. Yeah it's time for a
roll call. Yeah, I messed up the run. Suprema suba
roll call, sub prima su Suprema ro call. Name is Sugar.
(01:45):
Yeah I missed you all? Yeah, what I missed the most.
Yeah is this oh call spa Sukama su Suprema rule call.
I'm on paid bill. Yeah, now what to do? Yeah?
We in Philly. Yeah, some of the soul part two?
(02:08):
Rolla roll Yeah, it's hot as Haiti. Yeah, somebody sail Robin. Yeah,
I'm a black lady. Broo rollo, roll call Robert. Yeah.
(02:34):
And I'm not needy. Yeah I know what else? Yeah,
let's start this need not roll so roll call, so
free so prima roll call. Wow, all right, that wasn't that.
(02:59):
I was freely unprepared. Please, class, you never let me
do it. I didn't know you were gonna let me
do it today. Well, every you've done what do I do?
Improv for a living? Yes? Some of us? Hi, everybody,
what's up feeling? So, ladies and gentlemen, we are a
quest Love Supreme, doing our first show in front of
(03:20):
each other in two years. Almost. You look different, We
all look different. Fair you look for award winning Yes,
earthy drift. You look like an oscar. Beat you in
the faith in a way anyway, gentlemen, Welcome to Team Supreme. Alright,
(03:44):
can you pause that? Welcome boss, Welcome boss to the
other stage. Yeah, welcome. Welcome is not rock Kim So anyway, Um,
if you're not familiar with the show or in our
far right, we have the one and only president of
the Sugar Network, Sugar Steve Buck. I missed the theme
(04:12):
song exactly. And then um on our far left over
here on the stage, of course, our organizer, our our
mother are everything. Give it up a lot year, Lady
John Yeah, to my direct left. If you have kids
(04:33):
that still watch Sesame Street, this is basically I mean,
you're much more than that. Thanks. Hamilton's No, I mean
you're you're damn near and egot, you're so are you anyway?
Well combined, we're kind of an guy. We are. Let's
(04:53):
take it. Yeah, Okay, so together, lazis and gentlemen, give
it up for now. Yeah, day now, all right, this
is a long The best part of so Quick, Paul,
(05:18):
whose theme song is the best yours is actually I'll
take it. Moving on, of course, we have to give
a shout out to so hard of this show, which
is Fontigelo, who is not here. He's working hard on
this Little Brother documents. He's also afraid of Covidielo. He
(05:39):
also has a lot left North Carolina, and he's been
you know, he's been doing Little Brother shows now and then,
so that's true. That's all ready to get out of
the house. Ladies and gentlemen, Please welcome our steam guests.
One of my favorite shows on television. Now. The last
time you were on the show, um of course you
were promoting in your BT talk show right and now
(06:05):
I think Black Lady Sketch Shows Black. I'm sorry of
Black Lady Sketch Show is one of my favorite shows
of all time. Please welcome Robin thee. Robin, I have
no theme song. You couldn't play some meg or something. No.
I was going to you know, I was, I was.
(06:27):
I was half ascided. I'm sorry, and I appreciate people
say about you everything. Yeah, I do. Have you actually
flew in just to just to do this right back out? Yes,
very busy person. I feel very touched. I did it
for you. Thank you, ya, I really did it for y'all.
(06:48):
Thank you. Somebody yell we love you. That's never happened
to me. I'm a rock star. They might not have
been yelling at me. To be fair, well, you were
telling me that you're going back because you Yes, it's weird.
I guess if you're a show runner, you don't get
a summer because you have to prepare your next So
when do you get time off? I don't. I'm still
(07:09):
doing stuff for marketing for season three and promoting for
Emmy's that we hope to be nominated for. Congratulations for you,
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, we're starting. We're going right into
season four. So I'm so excited. We're gonna We're gonna
get started right away. So as a fan of the show,
(07:30):
and I'm glad I caught it. Did everybody just get
an amber alert? Hold on, is that not the craziest
ship that ever happened? That's that was bad ship, Silver Suzuki? Right,
huh huh, okay, okay, sorry continue, Wait what does happen?
So my everything everyone just vibrated, correct, and everyone just
got an amber alert and it says Silver Suzuki XL seven.
(07:53):
Everybody in this audience just got the same. Man, why
don't you get it? What's wrong with you? That's what
I don't want to know. Is it because have a
flip phone? Or it might be I was born in
the seventies. It says a lot about you. So this
is this is what I want to know, you know,
I started studying like when the pandemic started. Season one
(08:15):
was you know where I fell into the rabbit hole.
And of course season two and season three, I've watched
each episode maybe like ten times each and there's so
many meta hidden jokes inside of each episode. It's almost
like you're seeing it for the first time, blinking you
missed it. Can you walk us through how you get inspiration?
(08:38):
Because I feel like you're covering everything that I've not
seen television cover as far as like black comedy is concerned, Yeah,
I think without giving away all the secret sauce. I
think for us it was like we didn't want to
give y'all we were gonna have something called a Black
Lady sketch out. We wanted to give you layers and
wanted people to feel seen. We wanted to like create
(08:59):
something that was cinematically the most beautiful sketch show ever.
We wanted to have black women look good and all
light like it was just important. So so in order
to do that, we wanted to really layer the show
so it wasn't just a funny character. There were also
crossover elements between sketches because I knew have y'all seen
(09:20):
season three, okay, perfect, perfect, So spoilers for anybody who hasn't,
But y'all seem to be good. So we I knew
what was going to happen in the finale, and I
knew that the women over these three seasons, it wasn't
really the end of the world. It's the end of
the world. Is we all know it? Because what world
would have elected dr had also presidentent Um they've seen it.
(09:43):
You haven't seen the finale, okay, I didn't see the
final Yeah. Oh, all rights are in this audience. Every listen.
Here's the thing, and I admitted this in the book
I have thanks mom show. Oh yes, yes, people have
(10:09):
been watching my career while no. I was saying that
whenever I watch any series, especially in streaming, it's something
about the penultimate episode, in the final episode, I won't
watch it until I know that season four is ready. Okay,
So anyway, I would thank you. Oh Rob, I've been
waiting for that moment. So you're gonna get it spoiled.
(10:31):
I'm so sorry, But but I knew that the world
was going to be the end of the world. Storyline
was gonna be wrapped up. Um, so we could kind
of start something new in season four. So the layers,
without getting into the spoilers, are really important to me
because I wanted the characters to start to meet. As
you saw what happened in the finale. I won't tell
you who, but they all start, they start to meet.
(10:51):
The world starts to kind of fold in on itself
to create new possibilities for these women now that they're evolved.
So there's a story within a story. But then this
sches you start to realize if you look in the background,
it's like, oh, that Patti LaBelle poster from all my
own season one is in a sketch. Season three isn't
what if I'm three? In season three and like, stuff
is like starting. Two characters are starting to meet, things
(11:12):
are starting to happen. So I knew if we could
do that, we could create this Black Lady multiverse with
these characters that you guys, Black multi Verse, Black Lady Multiverse,
And so I'm excited for you guys to see now
what can happen with them because you know that any
of them can interact, like Dr Hadassa can meet you know,
(11:33):
the Coral Reeves, like Chris can meet Trinity or whatever. Right,
So it's exciting just asking for a friend. What's the
sign for black Lady multiverse? There is it's black Lady. Yeah, okay,
a black Lady multiverse. I love that. Moving on the
(11:54):
signers that the Roos big Nigs have always been legendary.
Can I ask you yo? I know, set he's like
more than the root because when you put your body
in its next level. But let me let me ask
this general Black Ladies guest show question because I always
want to notice as a watcher, how much are the
ladies that we see that are a part of the
(12:15):
show involved in the writing. And if they're not, like
how much? Say, how does that go? How does that
that labor of work? I know there are other people
we don't see in the background, but the ladies that
we do see are Emmy nominated writers. Yes, um yeah,
so Ashley Nicole Black wrote on seasons one and two.
She's amazing, She's so sick. Um. But that's it. That's
(12:38):
the only person who's written besides me, So yeah, Quinta
sky Lady. None of them wrote. But but that's not
to take away from their creative collaborations. I was gonna
say the improv must be improv is crazy. They also
bring the looks how they want their characters to look.
They design that piece by piece with all of our
black lady glam departments, so no gaps are people. She
(13:01):
from Philly and she I thought she was from Philly. Oh,
sometimes you get it out like the people I like
to Ohio and DC. Yeah, she kind of lived on
my other hometown. Why am I telling all her business?
A right? So what happened was when she was like
watching tennis. So if I were a betting man, when
I when I go tonight to watch the Finality, which
(13:21):
I will, which I've spoiled. I'm assuming that Quinta makes
a return to the show. Correct, I didn't say that.
I'm assuming though, right? Why would you assume that because
he's wearing hair? I don't know. Does she make him
return to the shower. We're gonna tell him. They're not
gonna tell my motherfucking people. They're not gonna tell you
because Quest Love is quest Love Supreme is the only
podcast in which everyone actually hates the hose. That's not true.
(13:48):
How happy are we for Quinta? This woman is killing?
Are we proud? Oh? No? That pretty Philly's very hard.
Robin the Supreme, Now I gotta I got enough to do.
So yeah, so that's what I want to know. As
(14:10):
far as the crafting, does it start with like out
of a dream like, Oh we should do blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah, like when you did the
hair sketch that was the cold open for season three?
The product? Yes, So is there just uh sort of
a think board on Yeah, I'm going on. Here's how
(14:31):
the SNL like they'll have our our show is very interesting.
So we only have like seven writers and they write everything.
So they come in. They come in with a pitch
that has a beginning, middle, twist, and end. Like they
come in with their raw, their own concepts. Because it
was really important to me that this it's not a
Robin the Sketch show. It's a Black Lady Sketch show.
So it's really important that we have different points of view.
(14:54):
So no, they come in and um, that was actually
a key La Green who wrote that. Um, who's incredible.
She works on Black Monday and a bunch of other shows. Um,
she actually wrote that in season two, but we couldn't
shoot it till season three because we couldn't have a
hundred women running down the street during COVID so um.
So yeah, she just came in and pitches. She was like,
(15:14):
what if, like the movie The Purge, black women had
fifteen minutes to return all their unused hair products and
get a full refund, Like how chaotic would that be?
And I was like, yes, go right that, you know,
But yeah, I gotta give the writer's credit. I write
a lot of the sketches too, but it's it is collaborative.
Like sometimes they'll be like, Okay, I have an idea
(15:35):
it's like Romeo and Juliet, but we're not sure what
to do with it. And I'm like, okay, Ben, let's
put that together with the stand culture sketch and do it.
And I am at pentameter and then you get Roman Julissa.
You know, so we it's very collaborative to now, working
at thirty Rock, I often meet writers who at SNL
getting their feelings if their sketch doesn't make it to
the show, so how are you? Also, do you have
(15:59):
to put the bad guy at the show as the
leader of the show, And yeah, sometimes, but I think
we all kind of know which sketches are rising to
the top. So we'll do like internal table reads and
perform it and you know, critique it. But I think, um,
it's pretty clear by the time we go to our
shooting scripts what's gonna work. Um. But no, they don't
(16:20):
get their feelings hurt because everybody gets sketches on. Because
we have so few writers, everybody gets sketches on. So
do you'll ever get pushed back from HBO? Like, has
there ever been a taboo or no, a taboo? No,
it's HBO. You can do anything. Yeah, but can you
because you're the first Black Lake Country's ask Lovecraft Country? Okay,
(16:43):
well look, don't don't mess. I don't know about that.
It got nineteen nominations, right, but it wasn't there because
he didn't want to continue the person that did it.
I don't know, Robin don't want to be on that
side of I don't want to. I don't want to.
I don't want to get involved. I love that show.
Um yeah, I think for us, no, we really don't
(17:04):
get any pushback. I think it's just like the funniest
stuff rises to the top and they just say, you know,
be true to the show. But we really don't get
a lot of wortchback. There's no real taboo subjects. They've
never said, oh, don't do that. What's the sketches that
y'all I had problems getting through because y'all just been dying.
I just need to know, like, have y'all ever been dying?
Laughing so hard? It has been hard to get And
(17:25):
my mind was I'm going to take it back to
the to the courtroom, but I feel like courtroom wells
is very easy to break. So yeah, I'm messed with
her really bad. Whenever she's in a sketch, She's like,
why are you always with me in every sketch that
I do? And I'm like, I don't know, but I
know it's because I want to mess It looks like
you'll you're challenging her? Are you trying to hold face
(17:47):
like you're sketch every sketch not JUSTSA. All of our casts.
My job is to make them break, but they're so
good they don't. The Last Supper and the Resurrection, like
those Disciple sketches are really hard to get through anything
with like Gabrielle as the head of the Coral Reeves
at Leasta, it's hard to get through um A lot
(18:09):
of them are really hard to get through, to be honest,
especially this season. The improv is crazy, Like the outtakes
are so much longer. We have so much stuff we
couldn't even show you guys because we have a time limit.
Like there's so many jokes that the world will never see.
I have a dream world where like Larry David does
a guest spot on The Black Ladies Squet Show and
it's like Battle of the improvorld. That's one of have
(18:31):
a louder dream world there about twenty thousand. That's like,
can you guys tell her why that would be impossible?
Because it's a Black Lady sketch show and there're no
white people on the Black Lady scut Show never, not one,
not even in the background, not even not even not
even out the art on the walls that Larry correct,
(18:52):
we're black women play all of the characters from season one,
never even in a you're on a wall? Oh my god,
is that what free? Don't look like? That's what the
finale is saying, like, when you live in this book whatever,
you have to watch a finale, But when you live
in this world and you get involved to your and
you get to enter into this world where we are
(19:15):
free of the gays of anyone else. And to me,
that's Mecca, that's heaven. That's so yeah, because isn't that
amazing And it's not. I'm sorry, well, I know it's
not at the exclusion of anyone else. It's just at
the celebration of us. I'm like, if I have a
chance to create something on HBO, like, let me create
(19:36):
this dream scenario. I think it frees up the comedy too, right,
because I don't want to do a Karen sketch or
microaggression sketch, Like I don't want to do that. I'm
not saying they don't have value. We don't do that
because you gotta you gotta caster. Well, because I don't
want to re traumatize us. I want you to have
thirty minutes of joy, like I want you to, oh
(19:57):
my god, joy. No white Jewish guys at all, I'm sorry.
They probably pay a bill or something, but not even
like the biggest white Jewish guy, Larry David. Nope, not
even him. Um so where I know that for a
lot of sketch comedians, Uh, they're Mecca is second City
(20:20):
or like in Chicago or citizens Yeah, right, was it
you see you CEB if you are black, Like, is
there what's the version of them? No, there's not my show.
But no, I think because I did Second City in
IOH and I've done some shows at UCB, but um no,
(20:42):
they're not. Actually just joined the advisory board for Second
City because I think we need to do better and
we need to invite us in legitimately, not us in
to be tokens in a class. We need to legitimately
have experiences that are authentic and that teach us how
to hone our comedy, not how to do somebody else's comedy,
how to do hours. So yeah, no, I think I
(21:02):
think we're gonna We're gonna try some things to help
out the school that raised me. And you know, I
think we got a long way to go, but we're
definitely working at it because you know, like I live
in a world where everyone's always improving, and like with music,
I can handle it, but with words, I can't handle it.
(21:24):
And I feel like the person that's at on a
you know, double dutching that can't get inside the roop,
Like I'm constantly like, well you saw me the moment
music was playing, I floundered I couldn't even rhyme with
my own last name. But I think, yeah, I think
the answer is always yes, yes, yes, it's yes and no.
But but but you know what's interesting, But um, we don't.
(21:47):
It's not that hard. It's not like an improv school
on our set. It's like we're just trying to make
a funny show. So wherever we go, we'll just follow,
like you know, Gabrielle in those in the Resurrection sketch
us specially but the Last Supper, just because I mentioned that,
when she comes in the scene as Mary, we know
she's just gonna be chaos. So she plays Mary Magdalen,
and we've made her this like mean girl to these
(22:08):
other women who aren't invited to any of the disciple events,
and she is, um, she's just so like we know
when she comes in, it's just gonna be a mess.
She's gonna do what's scripted, but everything else is gonna
go out of the window. So we just follow each other.
Really well, I think for us, it's not necessarily us
in but it's just follow where they take you, and
(22:30):
anybody can move the story along, but as long as
we all go together, So I think that's what you
see on the screen, especially in season three. How many
people have reached out to you about like getting on
the show or like I know that you added Sky
to the faster celebrity guests. Oh not even celebrity guests.
(22:53):
That's what mean regular people, because I want to know
my my way of doing it, because I just be
talking to you every six months. So well, you know
what's funny for the core cast because we really don't.
I don't know what just happened over um No, for
the corecast, we don't really change it that much. I
(23:16):
mean we add Takeaway each season one or two, maybe
I guess, but people don't really approach me for that.
They tagged me mostly and like people's TikTok's. But I'm like,
here's the thing. If you can't do a hundred impressions
and characters, like I don't know what. Yeah, we've all
in three seasons, those of us who have been there
since day one have played over a hundred characters in
(23:37):
eighteen episodes. So it's like, if you don't have that
kind of depth and range, then people don't. Really, it's
way more celebrities pitching than people trying to be regulars
in the cast. It's a hard job. It's a hard job.
You know. Other sketch shows have big, big cast, but
like we're a small, scrappy show. We play all the characters,
believe it or not. I think a lot of people
watch it with Gabrielle, was like, did not know she
(23:59):
had all that? It is crazy? All like wait from
the game, she's killing it and the old spite. I
was like, wait, who is this person? No, y'all sleep beautiful.
It was beautiful. I mean y'all not sleeping, but the
people listening to the podcast, you'll sleeping on Gabrielle. She's
so versatile, she's so incredible, Like people like, oh, I
(24:20):
just knew here on the game and I didn't like her,
and it's like, okay, but this one. So I met her.
She actually beat me out for a sketch show on
Showtime when that Damon Waynes was doing back in the day.
This is like fifteen years ago, and I remember being
at the audition. We were like the last two and
she got it and I heard her in the room
and I was like, ship, she needs to get that.
(24:41):
She's really good. So no. I used to watch her
doing stand up back in the day. I used to
watch her doing sketch like she can mimic any singer,
and because we can't afford to do that a lot
on the show, she doesn't really get to use it.
But I'm gonna try to do it more next season.
But she can mimic any singer living or gone, never
a female singer. She's incredible. She's she has an ear
(25:06):
for musical mime, which is incredible. And then she's just
got a ton of characters. You throw anything her way,
She's like, I'll figure it out. She played a character
named Steve in the sketch called Escrow Download like this
dude that just like had an accent, but it was
every accent. She wasn't supposed to play that character, was
supposed to be a guest star, and we table read
it and she just started doing this character and I
(25:27):
was like, well that's you now, Like it's just she
just like, we'll grab these roles we never intended to
be as funny, you know, we wanted them to be funny,
but the way she takes it to the nth degree
is just crazy. They all do that, though, Sky is
really coming into her own. Ashley is a genius. Ashley
and what's the character. At first, see Trinity the Black Woman,
(25:48):
the black woman's superhero. They nobody knows the world's most invisible,
the world's best spike. She's called the invisible Spy because
she's just like a plus size black woman, was not
wearing makeup, so no one acknowledges her. I mean that's
a statement and a half, you know, talk about the
development of that character. So she actually brought that to
(26:10):
us the first season. She was like, Yo, I think
my superpower is being like a plus size black woman
who just blends in because nobody even notices I'm there.
So she's like, I want to make that the world
the cia is best spot. And I was like, that's
fucking genius. So I mean, that's just what she does though.
She just comes up with sketches so easy. She also
came in the room and goes, what did Patty lebill
(26:32):
um every time you get broken up with makes you
sing on my own to you like, she won't leave
until you sing on my own. I was like, yeah,
what about that? Go write it? Why not? She she
came up with black Lady Corn Room. She's amazing. Yeah,
she wrote the first one, I wrote the second one.
But yeah, like those those ladies. The writers are so good,
(26:55):
Like I think a lot of people think the magic
just happens on set, but those scripts are incredible. Whatever
it is, it looks like y'all come together like Vultron. Yeah,
so is there uh for you a dream sketch that
you're reading? Like either for a production cost or we
were like we will you get close to ever executing that? Yes?
(27:19):
I will, and that's all you can say. No, I'm
gonna tell you what it is because I'm campaigning this
season to get Janet Jackson on the show. You came
to the right place. Come on, I was like the
bat phone, So I want you? Can you picture in
thirty seconds? Probably because now never rob it is now?
(27:46):
Never is now I never? You gotta come on a
mirror is now what never? You said you wanted it,
you put it out there, don't put you see y'all
lesson put something in the end show us. Listen, listen,
I'm gonna videotape you. Okay, that's my or are you
gonna FaceTime? He did. I don't want to put it
on the spot, but I will send this to her
and I'll be in the background. You got a cheer
(28:07):
at the the uncomfortable white guy in the background go
hang all right, jan I'm not putting you on the spot,
but this is a pitch. Jannet Jackson. It's Robin Thady
from a Black Lady Sketch show. You are cordially invited
to season four to star the most epic sketch we've
ever done, and the world wants to see it. We
love you and we want to see it. Right, Let's
(28:29):
take care of you. We got you, Jannet, let see us. Okay,
all right, I'm gonna sending that to her and then
she can do whatever the fuck you want. Rights be like,
I want a white dr herdassa. I'll be like, fine,
I'll coach you on the voice. You literally it's doable.
Oscar Son. I think you would have hit her before
(28:51):
I know. I just said you would have hit There's
three people in the world. You're either giver, a taker,
or a connector. Yeah, I'm a connector, connector connect Nice
to meet you. I'm a connector. That's why you hear
all of us are connect The only time you guys
have ever gotten along ever, I've taken some ship, but
(29:16):
you've always been paid on time. I'm a connector, but
I'm a connector. Yeah, but thank you. I think that
that was awesome. That's what's gonna happen. It's gonna happen, Robin.
I know absolutely. I think she's hilarious. I think she's
such a phenomenal actress. I think she's so funny. You
(29:37):
know the reason why Angela Bassett did the show is
she said, I did it because you asked, and no
one thinks I'm funny. And she got nominated for an
Emmy for Bad Bite. Some more group like she's so dope,
like and she's so dope. She's so supportive. She was
actually the first guest star we booked. We hadn't been
on the air, no one knew what the show was.
(29:57):
She was like, yoh, I like your late night show
and I want to do it. No one thinks that
can be funny. She never these I mean, think about it,
these black women that have been on the show, and
the black men that have been on the show, they
none of them have ever hosted S and L. None
of them ever. And this is no shade to S
and L. It's just like we just didn't have an
outlet for us you know that was that was dedicated
to us. So that's what I want to try to provide. Oh,
we got time, right, let's say questions from the autist?
(30:19):
That so fun? I mean, whatever you say. I feel
like they have something. Oh my god, can we do it?
I'll come out, Greg, I'm not coming to you. Okay,
who got a question? Okay, yeah, all right, you don't
have to go. I like doing this stuff. You can't.
How are you going to get down there yelling? Jump?
(30:45):
I'm a radio girl. I'm a Philly radio girl. Because
all right, you got a question? Which make sure you
introduce yourself to everybody. Hello, guys, I Elizabeth, I'm from Philly.
We love Philly. I have a question for you, Robin.
(31:05):
Could we extend this to possibly a movie? A black
lady movie? I mean, Bob's Burger's got one? Why are
you while we can't? Why are you so mad at Bobs?
We just started watching bobs Burgers. It's been on ten years.
I know. Is that something you'all would watch? Yes? Sure,
(31:26):
why not? I don't know what I'm gonna have time
to do it, but why not? Why not? Alright? I
love that idea? Hey, y'all I'm India. I'm from Texas. Hey.
So my question is, with the show being so amazing,
do you ever have writer's block? Or have you ever
had a sketch come out where it took so long
to produce that you had a prolong or to another
(31:47):
season question. No, we had some sketches we couldn't make
in COVID because they had like kids, or like a
bunch of extras or whatever. But no, we never had
to postponed to another season for any other reason. Do
I ever have writer's block? Always? I'm always thinking of sketches.
My mind just kind of works that way. So then
you don't smoke, drink. You don't smoke or drink. I
(32:07):
don't drink. You're a writer too, Yeah, I mean, look,
writer's what can happen. There's some people that don't believe
in it. But sometimes you just don't feel like doing
a ship, or you just can't get an idea. You
know what you gotta do. Just write a bunch of
bullshit and some of it will be good. Yeah, just
keep typing or taking nap. How many drafts you go
to before a lot? The sketches go through a lot
(32:30):
of drafts, sometimes ten twelve drafts for sure, and then
we continue to punch on set, and then we improvise
and then we've edit different so it's always Yeah. Have
you ever a moment where you are reading one of
your things and you know it's not working and oh god,
trying to But no, they will not laugh at me.
(32:51):
If my ship is wet, they'll be like dead silent.
One of the writer's season two said, I was like,
why did y'all laughing? I'm killing this. This is why
how Keisha got the joke Keisha the Bad State of Comedian.
That's how she happened, because that was me in the
really pitching bad sketches and jokes, because I'm just a
pitch machine. Like I'm one of those people just like right,
(33:13):
like you're just gonna get a hundred ideas and they're
allowed to be honest with you. Yeah, no, you say
yes first. You know people with egos where you have
to laugh at the don't do that, laugh at their
bosses jokes. I never heard. I was about to say
that don't happen here. You know people with egos, But no,
(33:34):
you can't even ego because the audience isn't gonna give
a ship it's not funny. All right, we got another question?
Do you well? Thank you? Thank you question? Yes? No,
no numbers? Oh all right. My name is Rown from Virginia.
My question is very simple. I love the credits to
opening credits that y'all do. Can you explain that because
(33:55):
I feel like they change? But I could be high
and missing ship. I like, I'm sorry, I got open.
My point is like, could you could you talk about
that to me? Because I thought like the layers and
ship like trying to get on the ship. Now you
told me this season to look for and I did
(34:18):
and I couldn't find. I was like, I must be
an idiot because I don't see a difference in like
how obvious are the wait? Do you see the finale? Well,
it's the text. So this year's opening credits, the opening
sequence is exactly the same except for the text on
the screen, and it tells a separate story. But that story,
(34:40):
I'll tell you, Mr. Virginia is a bit of a
red herring. Uh. It's supposed to throw you off the
trail of who's actually mind controlling them by sending you
down this other rabbit hole. Um, but it all dovetails
into this idea that these black women are creating these
characters in this universe, and it's giving you long story
for each of the I can't believe you haven't noticed,
(35:01):
because I know you've seen one through five, six, you'll
be able to see you have to pause it. It
was also kind of a It was also a fun thing, yeah,
for the audience. I wanted you to have to pause
it to read the ongoing story as long as fun
as because I think it's hilarious, and because I think
that I want you all to have to be so
(35:21):
engaged because people like people be like, oh wow, that
was sketch went by so fast, and I'm like, I
want you to have to actively, like have to pause
and like really digest it. And I want you to
get in the vibe of doing that for the sketches
because they'll be so much more rich if you do that.
Is there an easter egg from one to or three
that is so deep and funny that no one has
(35:44):
come back to you yet with. I mean there's ship
that you would really have to pause it to see.
In this sketch called It's getting a heist in here,
it's a museum high sketch kind of like Oceans eleven.
In the cases it's a Rhanna fashion exhibit and is
a Rihanna diamond but all the fashion in the cases
that they go by our our interstitial outfits from last
(36:06):
year and they're the last supper outfits also in one
of the cases. So it's like showing you that this
world is all starting to dubtail. But the biggest one
is Millstone Coffee. So if you look, Millstone Coffee was
the corporation that plug your ears that Dr Hadaza secretly
owned and used to fund her mind control of the women. Okay, done,
(36:29):
so you'll see Millstone. Batman support group starts with Angela
Bassett pouring a cup of Millstone coffee. Like you see it,
Trinity kicked Nicole buy Or into a case of Millstone boxes.
The no makeup sketch Um is at Millstone. She's just like,
how can I brew up an answer for you? She's
literally selling Millston coffee. Millstone has been there since episode one,
(36:50):
and it culminates as kind of the evil, nefarious UH
corporation in the end of season three. All right, I'm
making good, y'all. What's up y'all? Money is bree Daddy,
I'm coming all away from Miami and the reason I'm
but I'm film fucking filmy, so shout out family, all right?
As an Afro Latino woman, black representation is so important,
(37:14):
but we all know how it is. It could be
hard to represent ourselves as black woman, black women, black man,
non binary, whatever your choice is, how do y'all get past?
How do you get past impostor syndrome? That is not
where I expected that question to go. That I've never
(37:35):
had impostor syndrome. I don't even understand it. Honestly, I
just kind of have reckless confidence and everything I do
like it's just gonna be great. So that's just right.
I don't I'm never like should I be doing this?
What I will tell you is I do know that
there are people just as funny and funnier than me
who could have had this opportunity. So I don't want
(37:56):
to suck it up because I want to keep the
door open for all of us to be able to
do it. That's why I called it a Black Lady
scotch O, not the because I can't represent us all
and I want us to be one of many. Right.
I wanted Amber rough and to go get her late
night show Z way to do what she's doing. All
the Sam Jaz women be doing this, and I think
that we've helped in that. I'm not taking responsibility for
(38:16):
their success, but I'm just saying, like, us being there
season after season is showing the world how funny we
can be. The funniest women in the world to me,
are black women like and you know on the show,
it's so important to us that are aff Latina's sisters,
Gina Torres, Marlon Egra, like all these after Latinos on
the show, Reagan Gomez, like, it's important that that they're there.
It's important that our trans sistors are there. It's important, Like,
(38:37):
it's really important to me because we're not the same,
we're so different, and we have some in this season
coming up. It's really gonna explore a lot of that
in the way we haven't had a chance to. Um,
So I'm really excited about that because we're so rich,
we're so you know, diverce amongst ourselves. Speaking of seasons,
I know this is a very like BBC network thing,
(38:58):
this whole like one season is only four episodes thing,
we have six, thank you very much. Yeah, but that's
what I'm saying, like, why where is the traditional who
decides what an aren't is for the season. As far
as the volume is concerned, like the number of episodes, Oh,
that's determined by HBO. I don't have any saying about that.
(39:19):
But what I will say is, people, I know that
the episodes go by fast. You'll tell me this all
the time, but if you think about it, we're doing
like fifty short films, like it really is denser than
most tell I know that doesn't help because the show
goes by fast, but we're on location. We don't shoot
on a stage. We got new characters, were like reinventing
(39:39):
a sitcom every day, twice a day sometimes, So it's
just it takes a while. Like I work on the
show three sixty five days a year. People think I'm like,
you know, just doing six episodes in like three weeks. No,
we shoot for three months, we write for three months,
we prep I post for three months, Like you know,
it takes a long time to make the show. But
so any more episodes, you wouldn't have anytime for yourself. Yeah,
(40:02):
but I don't anyway, So that's fine. What are you
afraid to take a break? Because what I did learn
with the pandemic. No, no, I'm not trying to get deep,
but I'm just saying what I learned in the pandemic
is when you have silence and like the sound of
what we're hearing right now, that's where ideals really come
(40:23):
and that's where the ideas flow in and inspiration. So
for you, if this is all year round, where you
have to now spend the summer months thinking and thinking,
crafting and building and building and then shooting, shooting, shooting,
shooting and then promoting, promoting, promoting and all that, when
(40:44):
I'm never out of ideas, I don't know. I'm do
you take time out just to have nothing happening? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Like I'm definitely like, you know, have three or four
day like a Memorial Day weekend or something like that,
and go somewhere just chill out. But that doesn't really
help me. I know, I know what you mean, but
that doesn't I'm not one of those people. I work
really weird. Like the more should I have going on,
(41:04):
the more creative I am. And I'm not gonna say
that the pandemic I wasn't created, but I don't like
sitting still. I'm not really that person. So I mean,
you know, for me, playing dozens of characters in a
season is like great, that's the stattus quo. Like I
can't imagine being on one show playing one character would
be so bored. So for me, you know what, Also,
you know, this like this is like my seventh sketch
(41:26):
show that I've been on. So it's like I did
shows with David Allan Greer and Damie Fox and Apian
Crockett and everybody, and so for me, it was like
I got to watch all of them have shows that
happened really fast and didn't get second seasons, and I
was like, Okay, I want to take all those lessons
and make this love letter to black women and like
(41:46):
make it really funny and like make history. And I
just don't take it for granted. So taking a break
as far as like the show, like maybe not doing
it one year or whatever, I've thought about it because
sleep is good, but I feel like people need it,
like especially in the pandemic, Like people need it, and
I think that's important, and that's that's like we do,
but we don't never want you to put us before
(42:08):
your own self. No, But it's not because it's sacrifice
your life for us. No, no, no, here's the thing.
I'm very rich, so it's fine, okay, but then this
is the very last question. Then all right, thank you.
Sign you from Cleveland, Ohio. Two part questions. First, have
you thought about a tour around the country where you
can expose new black female talent. Second, what's the advice
(42:29):
for young people who are trying to get in this work? Um, yes,
I have thought about a tour. I wanted to take
my cast around. They're just so insanely busy. They go
to immediately to other shows when they're not shooting this one.
But in terms of showcasing like unknown talent, that's I mean,
that would be dope. I mean we try to get
every year. We try to get folks from like everything
(42:50):
from Angelo Bassett to folks from TikTok and YouTube, and
you'll see them on the show. Like you may not
recognize some of them, but if they're your favorites, you will.
And then um, I just ran into during Bernard was
performing on the other stage and he was so dope. Yeah,
we got him in the sketch this year, and like
people you wouldn't expect to see in sketches. I think
that's really fun. But yeah, I mean a tour would
be great. I don't know when I would do it,
(43:10):
but I have a fine time. We could do it
on the weekends, but um yeah maybe. But also what
advice do I have? My thing is, don't think you're
better than any job, like, especially for young people. There's
a thing that's happening now that I'm seeing where like
people would be like, Okay, cool, I want to come
in as the the CEO of the company, or I
(43:30):
want to come in like and have an overall deal
at a studio, and it's like, we haven't done anything yet. Like,
go be a p A, you know, Go be a
production assistant, Go be a writer's assistant. Don't think you're
better than those things, you know, and just work your
way up. I'm a showrunner, right, so that means I
run the whole show. I manage a multimillion dollar budgets
and on any show that I run, and and I
also write and I acted, you know all this stuff.
(43:52):
So it's a lot of hats to wear. But the
only reason I was prepared to do that is because
I had twenty years in the business doing every job
on so many for shows, So I don't know if
y'all know a lot about where I came from. But
like I was writing for my Gaps and Chris Rock
and Kevin harton all these comedians, like I would be
on the road with comedians. Then I started writing for
award shows and writing like the monologues and the sketches
(44:14):
and the jokes. Then I got um. Then I started
stabbing in rooms as those comedians started selling shows. Then I,
you know, worked my way up to being head. Right,
we should remind people robbing that that story is actually
in the q l S Classic. It is. It is
also the puppeteer version as well there too. But I
say all that to say, not to run down the resume,
(44:35):
but just to say like I've been here a long
time and some people just got to know me yesterday,
you know so, and and I'm and I'm grateful for that.
I'm never better than somebody just now saying. There's probably
people standing here who were like, who is this woman talking?
You know, but now you might go Google. So I
thought they were seeing us. We don't know you have
they're waving to you, right question, well, speaking of you
(45:02):
writing for other comedians will you ever or is it
even a bucket list of yours to try stand up once?
Because that's the thing I was shocked at. I don't
because you've never You told me you never done stand up,
and you yell at me because you're like you're literal
late night show was you standing up telling jokes? So
(45:24):
I guess I did do stand up? No? I mean, look,
I wrote for literally, name your favorite comedian. I wrote
jokes for them, so, you know, being on the road
and watching them do what they do, do you still
feed them now? Like, yeah, sometimes a good idea for you.
Why don't you sometimes? Um? Sometimes, but like I'll reach
out to them because it's just that community. Like when
Wanda was hosted in the Oscars, I was like, yo,
(45:45):
you did some jokes. She was like hit me, you know,
and like, and I didn't because I'm a bad friend.
But um, I just got caught up doing she and not.
I forgot but but but no, it's that kind of
community though, or if they called me, like I'm there,
if Brock calls me, I wanna calls me whoever, I'm there. So,
but will I ever do stand up? I don't think so.
For the same reasons that, like a lot of older
(46:07):
comedians don't really do stand up anymore. I think it's
like you gotta go out and fail for a year
doing that material. And because I never put my ten
years in right now it's a good time. Now, it's
not a good time to start. No ten seconds. No,
(46:28):
I will not be swayed there. This is why I
play the bad comedians like I know where my strengths lie.
I know I'm good at impressions and characters, like I'm
not good at just standing up and being myself. Maybe
that's imposter syndrome for the lady that I don't know.
I know, I just knowing, I don't. I don't like
it twice and almost your uncomfortable. But for what most
(46:48):
stand ups are doing it so they can get a
TV show. I have had multiple television shows. I am multiple.
You got active. You gotta do the TV shows before
you do the stand up in the standard. It would
be hustling backwards, wouldn't it bad? I mean, you should
do what you want to do. Yeah, I have no desire, right, Yeah,
(47:10):
I'm not doing a toxic you know. I think you
know you know why too, Because it's a very solitary life,
and it's a very solitary pursuit. And I like doing
things with other people, and I like supporting us, and
I like showcasing us. And I feel like stand up
would just be showcasing me, which I don't think I'll
take that. Wait before you wrap it up, I gotta
(47:32):
ask you a question, boss, Wait before you wrap it up,
because we don't get moments with quest love at the
Ruth Picknic. Robin. You don't know this, but this is
the only time that he actually leaves like area. This
is really so, can you give us any insight on today,
what you're looking forward to? How was last night? Like,
tell us something, This is the return of the Ruth
Picknic in three years? Yes it is. Um, You know
(47:54):
for me that it's there's the biggest story because the
one thing we didn't talk about yesterday was Yes, it
was our thirty the roots. As you know, it was
our first for me to see you know, two two
friends from high school bust Or on the corner of
(48:15):
South Street. Um, and you tell me, thirty years from
this date, you're going to hit over sixty thou people
in the backyard of the borough that you grew up in.
I mean I came here thirty years ago to see
invoked and arrested development and now it's like this is
my home. So you know, um, for me, it was
(48:38):
a dream. It was a dream playing with Mary as well.
You know she uh definitely gave us feed. She wants
to she wants to make that happen again. So every
time somebody does the Roots picnic, sure did the same
thing right. Every time they do they perform with the Ruts, Robbin,
they always be like, what else we do in Vegas? Yeah, well,
no band is gonna compare obviously. Thank you. By the way,
(49:01):
can you text Mary j Bars while you at it? Also,
she will be good on the show. I wanted them
all on the show. We're gonna get you on in
Sei anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, this is a quest Love Supreme.
I'm paid Bill, thank you. This is Robin Phete, Thank you.
(49:21):
Enjoy the rest of the Roots pick thing, Please be safe,
love one another. What's Love Supreme is a production of
my Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
(49:42):
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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