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January 26, 2023 43 mins

Today is a deep dive episode where we’ll be talking about The Emmys, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and writing for TV with Alrinthea Carter! Alrinthea is an Emmy nominated television writer for her work on HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch show. She's amazing! Follow her @alrinthea

 

Check out our comedy videos @markkendallcomedy

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous News as a production of our heart radio and
cool cool cool Audio. Yeah yeah, yeah, we're amazing and
crazy topics to begin to choose you would now tune
meant ridiculous News with intus their views on working the
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courts to keep us brand up beat journalism, the strange

(00:22):
and the usual stories, and well we gave them. When
it's all about ridiculous news. Everywhere, we told about ridiculous
news over here. Hey, everyone, welcome to Ridiculous News, not
your average news show. We cover stuff you didn't realize
was news from the wild and funny, to the deep
and hidden to the absolutely ridiculous. I'm Mark Kendall. I'm
an Atlanta based comedian builds away from today, but I'm
super excited to talk about the Emmy's Black Ladies Sketch

(00:45):
Show and even more. Today's a special deep dive episode
where our guest is Arenthea Carter and Alrenthia is an amazing,
amazing writer and comedian. Uh She's an Emmy nominated television writer.
Her work on HBO is a Black Lady Scotch Show.
She's also an incredible improv comedian. Uh, and we're just
so thrilled to have her on the show today to

(01:07):
talk about her Emmy's experience, her career writing for television,
and maybe some fun games along the way. So with that, Arenthew, welcome,
So great to have you. I'm so excited to be here.
Thank you, absolutely absolutely so, I'm very excited to start.
This first segment that we do with all of our
guests is called giving them their flowers. So this is
just where I give you a quick compliment and the

(01:29):
only rule is you can't return it. You just you
just gotta accept this compliment, all right, all right? Uh
so uh we first met through the improv world. I
met you in uh in South Carolina, and you were
super talented improviser. And the thing that I really remember
about meeting you was just like your joy for comedy

(01:53):
and for improv and for learning, you know, like just
like you just had like this brilliant mind but also
like a cure is mind, and it just showed up
on stage and the way that you attacked scenes and
your scene work and everything else. And then so seeing
everything that you have done since then, it's so awesome
and absolutely no surprise and so very happy to know
you and thank you for bringing joy to the things

(02:15):
that you do. Oh my god. Yeah, I'm learning and
therapy to thank you. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Just
take the flower. Yeah yeah, absolutely, absolutely, I know what
you mean. It's it's definitely weird when the like not

(02:37):
being able to give it back, but also you're right,
it's good, it's good just to take just take the
taking the flowers, taking the flowers. Yeah, absolutely, And you're great,
You're awesome, So like you deserve these flowers. So our
first segment, Ridiculous News Nibbles. Uh, what I wanted to
do for this one was, you know, we're talking about
your Emmy's experience because you are Emmy now you went
to the Emmys. That is so cool. So uh, to

(02:59):
start that conversation, um are amazing. Researcher Casey pulled an
article from Reader's Digest by Brooke Nelson, and it's an
article of sixteen surprising things that you didn't know about
the Emmy Awards, And so I just kind of wanted
to share some of those facts before going to uele
Anthea to get more about your experience, so quick quick.

(03:20):
So the first Emmy Awards were held on January with
the Hollywood Athletic Club and this apparently was more of
a low key affair compared to what the Emmy's are today.
Uh tickets to tend or five bucks. Uh, And they
only handed out six awards and that was it, um,

(03:41):
which was really interesting. And uh, the very first Emmy
winner was a ventriloquist. Uh. So it was a twenty
year old Shirley Dinsdale who became the first person to
receive an Emmy along with her puppet named Judy Splinters.
And they won an Emmy for her role as a
ventriloquist on a popular variety show at the time. And

(04:04):
so they went on to star in their own children's
show after that. Well, now I want to know the
backstory Judy Splinters because that sounds terrifying. Question. I didn't
look it up, but now I probably will after this
be like, like, who is did she get her own

(04:28):
award to Emmy's like one to right, right, right, that's
a great question, And I don't know, but that's the
that's the right question. Yeah. Yeah. Uh. This next fact
I thought was just just really impressive. So Betty White

(04:50):
received an Emmy nomination in six different decades and end
up winning in four different decades, which is wild, so
over a near eighty year career. So, uh, they want
an Emmy for their hosting appearance on SNL in uh
and and going back decades from there, so a very long,

(05:14):
legendary career of course. And I thought that that was
such a great episode. That's one of my favorite episodes.
It's so good. It's so good. So those are some quick,
you know, like emy facts, But you know, the real
thing that I'm super interested in learning more about is
your Emmy experience, you know, And and I just love

(05:36):
to hear more about it. And I'm happy to start
wherever you'd like to, because I know there's so much
that kind of goes into it. But uh, yeah, I
just like to know, like, what was it like going
to the Emmys? What does that mean? And how how
what was that experience like for you? I mean, it
was very surreal and it's still very surreal because you know,

(05:57):
as someone who is relatively new in the industry, like
I've only been like a professional writer for maybe two years,
it's that's something that you you hear about, like someone
getting an Emmy nomination for their very first show, you know.
And so I was still rounding my head around being
in Hollywood, period, but then you add the Emy to

(06:20):
top of it, It's like this is wild. This is
a dream, but it's a great it's a great dream,
you know, and it's it's one of the situations where
you're like, Okay, I did the work and I worked
really hard to get here, and then things worked out.
Like you're not used to like getting those like things
so quickly, I think anyway. But for me, like the

(06:42):
day the Emmy nominations came out, like I knew they
were coming, I had it on my calendar. I was like,
you know what, I'll pay attention. I'm usually taken too,
like the announcement ceremony, but this time I was. And
it got to the point and it was only like
fifteen minutes. I was like, oh wait, they're not going
to talk about writers in this fifteen minute like video.

(07:03):
You know. They're like, okay, all the dominations are on
the website. So I had to go on to website
and it's like this pdf is Jerry just a matter
of fact, and you search for your show, you're searching
your name and I see my name and I'm like, no,
this is just like the entry form. This is just
like okay, like these are the people who worked for

(07:25):
a black lay skitch. This is not like a nomination,
and so I like closed by. I think I may
have like blacked out for a minute. I closed my laptop,
I got on my peloton bite, I did a full
workout on my peloton just out of avoidance, and I
waited until we got like an email from Robin Deedy,

(07:45):
who's the creator of our show, and she's like, you
guys did it. You're not did it. I'm like, oh what, okay, Okay,
this is real okay, And then like the world found
out and then kind of blew up, you know, like
I don't know, like I guess they announced it to
all the news, like I think like our local whate

(08:06):
our local outlets in Greenville like broke the story before
I even got a chance to like thing about it.
And so I was like, Okay, I haven't wrapped my
head around this yet, and now everybody knows. And for
someone who likes to move in silence, you know, and
just kind of like achieve things and then go to

(08:27):
the next thing, that was like one of those accepting
your flowers things where it's like, oh wow, the whole
world is give me flowers and um. But it was
it was awesome. It was like it was such a
great day. Um. And it was really fun to be
able to, you know, call my parents and tell them
and you know, explain what this all means, and you know,

(08:51):
and explain like going to having a game, to go
to the ceremony, and I, of course, my mom, being
a mom, being well being a black mom in her seventies,
is like, so, do you have the money to go
to the Emmys and like this is not like going
to like the senior like trip to like so I

(09:15):
don't know if I can afford to fly to the
Emmy's from South Carolina, but I'm going so that I mean,
it was great. And my dad, you know, my dad
has been calling me Hollywood for the past two years, um,
ever since I started taking my screenwriting classes. Was like, oh, yeah,
of course you're going to be great at this, so
I'm gonna call you Hollywood forever. And so he was pumped,

(09:39):
and um, it was just yeah, yeah, it was exciting.
And so I took my sister at my date, um,
and she works in TV also at a lot of
people know that um so, my sister works as a
producer in the true crime space. Um so she does
like murder and I do laughter. That's just how things happened.

(10:05):
But yeah, so she was my date and you know,
we got to go together and that was a really
special time for us. But the actual ceremony, um it
was awesome. It was like it was like, imagine an
office Christmas party, but everybody at your Christmas party is famous.

(10:25):
That's what it felt like. I asked who were some
of the most fun people to run into our meet
or see because that sounds so cool. Well, one of
the things are like I knew that RuPaul was going
to be there, right, and I've been a huge fan
of RuPaul since I was like a kid, like a
single bitch, which when RuPaul had was on our Stenio Hall,

(10:49):
That's how long I've loved RuPaul. So we all did
two things that I will always remember. So's he's he's
resenting and uh, we go to like a He's prisoning
an award. I forgot what award it was. But we
go to like a video presentation and our table for
a black lace Kitcho was right behind the little podium

(11:11):
and so while the thing is on. He turns around
and looks at us and he's like, any you girls
got a tissue I need I need to blot And
like all of these women, it's a whole table black women.
We immediately go into our person and I'm like, I've
got it. I almost was the one they got to
get RuPaul a tissue, but someone else and I was like,

(11:35):
like a moment of sisterhood. I feel um with Rupa.
And then like the second one was like he actually
won an award, but he went on stage with his
like purse and I'm like leaving, he's gonna get this
award and he's gonna go and that's exactly what he did.
And he put the like this thing in his back

(11:56):
and it was like and I was like, if I
can like predict my career in like thirty years, I
want to be the person is like, you know what,
I already knew I was gonna win and I want it.
So I want to go to my ranch in Wisconsin
with my husband on my own business. But thanks for
inviting me to your little party, you know what I mean? Yeah,

(12:20):
that's awesome. Um, that's that's so cool that that's such
a great story. And you know, another thing I'm curious
too is like, I imagine that in addition to the ceremony,
there's other things that you do either before or after.
Whether it's like maybe parties or I don't know, you know,
I'm not sure what what What were some aspects of

(12:41):
other things in addition to the ceremony that maybe you
were surprised by or really interested in that other people
may not know about. When when you get to go
to Themmies. Yeah, so there are so there are actually
two different Emmy ceremonies. There's a Creative Art Simmys and
then there's like the I guess they called them the
Primetime Emmys, and that's what you see on TV. And

(13:02):
so with the Creative artsities is mostly like writers and
casting and reality and things like that and so um,
then they blend all of those two shows together. But
all of the parties are the same. So you get
to go I actually got to go to parties after
I had already gone to the Emmys, and so that
was like, okay, all right, I know I know how

(13:24):
to do this. You know, I'm not like a country bumpkin,
but I was like, okay, I'm going to this. No
one likes going to parties where you don't know anybody, right,
but you're happy to go into parties where you one
don't know anybody, and too you've seen them on TV
and so it's like how how long do you stand
by a punch bowl? You know? And for me being

(13:46):
a total nerd, I'm like, I'm like going online and
like what do what does one do with emmy parties?
You know? Um? Yeah? I mean the first party went
to What's for Nominees and so you get to go
and they give you like this really fancy like gold
pen and you get to like kind of mingle with

(14:07):
other nominees in your category. And that was like a
nice like ramp up because it's like real low key.
They had a DJ. It was really fun. And then
uh and I was before them is actually and then
the next party after they actually had the seminary was
ceremony was the party thrown by my agency. So um,

(14:30):
I'm an my agency is as United Talent Agency, shout
out to my agent loop and so they have a
fancy party for all of their clients in California. And
so I got to go to Beverly Hills to this
party and like, I guess i'll uber there, Like yeah,

(14:52):
so I sprayed for those fancy uber It's like a tesla.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to be a problem. I'm
gonna I'm gonna way to you too, luxury, you know.
So I get to this party and it's awesome, and
it's like it feels like a work party, like it's

(15:14):
always like really famous people are really fabulous people. But
they're all like, yeah, yeah, it's just like you know
party and then we worked together blah blah blah. But
everyone's like really nice. So I basically, you know, it's
like all right, well I'm gonna meet everybody I possibly
can because I don't know the next any party. But
I be able to get to UM and so and

(15:36):
I was great. I mean I met like Patton Oswald
and his wife and they were amazing. You know. It
turned out we'd done like the same podcast like a
couple of weeks apart, and so yeah, it's like it's
improv podcast where you are like a character from like
a horror movie. And my horror movie was Children as

(15:57):
a Corn And I was like the chair of like
the reviolation of of Datwin Nebraska, after all of the
events and so yeah, that's I'm going like way down
in Tanta. But like I met Patton Oswall and his wife,
and I met um Sandra Oh, and I met um Usa.

(16:20):
Ray was just like the only time I actually thought
I was gonna cry. And I'm like trying to hold
the ship together and being like I love you since
your YouTube like web series, and we be friends and
she's being really gracious. He's like, of course we couldn't
be friends, like I'm never gonna again, you know, And

(16:42):
then you get it. You're at the bar and you
you I meet this guy from Australia. We're talking about
how awesome Australia is and he's like, well, mat made
you see my wife and it's Sarah Snooked from Succession
and what you And he's like gorgeous of course, and

(17:06):
so I'm like hey, and I don't. I don't really
watched succisions. So I was just like I had no
place just to talk to her. But I was like, hey,
I love your work. There's that. But she was great.
She was running, she was like asking me questions. I
was like, do you really want to know about South Carolina? Okay? Yeah,

(17:33):
So that's all these days. Like I think I was,
like I went into whole experience just with a sense
of wonder and being like a new kid at school
and just like learning about all the different types of
people and what they do and how they're like, what
they're like behind the camera, and you know, everyone was
really was really nice and really like interested in hearing

(17:56):
my story. And you know, a part of it is
like you know, Hollywood, they went know kind of like
what you bring to the table, but they also are like, oh,
you're new, you're not jaded yet. Let me kind of
grab onto you and get some of your hopefulness, you know.
So yeah, we're gonna take a quick break to hear
a word from our sponsor. Ye would amazing and crazy

(18:24):
comics to choose ridiculous news, all right, you'll also we're
back with our amazing special guests rent a car rented.
It was great hearing about your Emmy's experience. That was
so fun, and I wanted to follow up and ask
you some questions about what got you to the Emmys
in the first place, which is your work on a
Black Lady Sketch Show And so similar to how we

(18:45):
started talking about the Emmy is kind of same thing.
I mean, it's just like so much I imagine and
went into getting into that staff, being on that staff,
working on that staff. So what was that experience, like
any any part of that process. I'd just love to
hear about your experience doing that. Yeah, I mean, I

(19:05):
think it was equally magic as magic as being Immy nominated.
For me, I mean, and I think what I've learned
about this industry, it's it's like talent and grit and
then of the right place, right time and doing the
right people. It really is about who you know. But
for me, I started, you know, I was working at

(19:28):
Clumsy University, as you know, and I was thinking, you know,
screenwriting classes at night because mostly because I wanted to
move to l A for Ellet for for improv purposes.
Like I thought, Okay, I want to be an improviser
in a bigger city. But as you also know, you
don't make money doing improv, so you have to have
a job. Feel like, I like writing, I'll do that.

(19:51):
So I took these classes at night. And then when
the quarantine happened and improv was taken away, and I'm
sure you know how that fields, I had to figure
out what normal people do with their weekends, like what
do you like, what do people doing like on Saturday
night when they don't have like two or three shows,
you know. And so I decided to double down and

(20:14):
this like treat learning screenwriting like getting another degree. And
I just took as many classes that I could because
I had the time to do that. Um. And so
in one of those classes, I kept in touch with
a group of women and one of them reached out
to me about a year later. It's like, you know,
Black Lady Sketch Show is accepting sketch packets and I

(20:35):
think you should submit. And I thought, okay, yeah, I
never I honestly thought about me. It was my favorite
show at the time. But I was always thinking, you know,
I'm going to go in a direction of working on
a sitcom, you know, doing like a half hour or
something like that. That was my training was going to
be in. But I started to submit. I was like,
you know, I have nothing to lose. I know how

(20:57):
to write sketches, I know how to be in sketches,
so I'll just do it it. And so I wrote
a sketch packet and you know, I submitted it on
like a Monday or Tuesday, and by Wednesday I got
an email asking for an interview or in Hollywood speak,
a meeting. Okay, I go, I'm talking like I still

(21:18):
like civilian speaking, so a meeting. And so by like
that Thursday, I was on a zoom call was Robin
CD in my little apartment in South Carolina, like trying
not to freak out that Robin Dead is on my
like my my, my, my screen, and she's asking me
about myself and asking me how I heard about the

(21:40):
job because I didn't apply through representation. I didn't have
an agent or anything like that, and so she was like,
how did you find it? So I was like, I'll
have some friends and let me know what I just
said this in it. And she's like, what, like yeah,
and so she's like, I think you're really talented, and
you know, well, you know, she actually said I'm was
a delight, which I still ride on. I'm like, yes,

(22:04):
I'm a delight, and you know the next and she's like,
we'll let you know by Friday either way, and so
I had to go back to my normal life, still
working at Clemson. By the way. Uh, actually after the interview,
I had to go back and meet with students, like
you know, my normal day. And that Friday, I was like, okay,

(22:25):
it's coming today. I really want this job, but I
know it's a long shot. So I was just like, Okay,
well just see how it happens. And I was just
nervous and I got an email. It was I thought
it was gonna be like a call, you know, like
we love you to come work for us. It was.
It was a very dry email from a lawyer saying,

(22:47):
we're allfering you this job. This is how much we're
gonna pay you, and we need to know if you
want to take the job by like six California times.
And so at that point, it gave me like an
hour and a half, Oh my gosh to accept to
accept this job. And so of course, like the Emmys,

(23:08):
I was like I blacked up for a minute. I
was like, Okay, I have to go clean my bathroom,
like completely, I can't. I can't deal with this. Come back,
accept the job, and then I have to call my
boss at home. You know, it goes after hours in
South Carolina. And I love I loved her. She was amazing.
But I called she was like, is everything okay? And

(23:28):
I'm like, yes, So here's what's going five minute explanations
about what I've been doing for the past two years.
I've never told anybody. And this job starts on Monday,
and so I and she's like, oh okay, and I
was like, no, no, you don't understand. Like today it's Friday,
we got Saturday and Sunday. I start this new job

(23:50):
on Monday, which also happened to be Prince's birthday, which
is auspicious. Um yeah you so, so yeah, they're really
They're really supportive, and they were just like they knew
about improv and knew I do comedy. You know, I've
gone to l A and performed. But I don't know
if they were like shocked or not, but they were

(24:10):
really like, oh my god, yeah this is amazing, go
go for it. And so that's how I got my start.
That's such an amazing story. That's so cool. And I
have to follow up questions too. So, um, so you
mentioned you you submitted a sketch packet, and so can
you talk some about like what a sketch packet is
and like what they killed for you. Yeah, so, if

(24:32):
you're gonna submit to any show like X Now or
a Black Lady Sketch show, or even any of the
late night shows you know, like Fallon or The Daily Show.
You have something called a packet, and each show is different.
You know. Some shows may want you to submit five
sketches of your choice, you know, just to kind of

(24:53):
give them a sense of what your voices. Um, and
the Black Lady Sketch was about, the same. So they that, right,
they only allow you to submit like two sketches, and
so I picked my my favorite ones and really like
buckle down and punched up jokes and submit it that.
But what they're looking for is they want to know,
like where your humor is, you know, what you think

(25:17):
is funny, what you think is notable to do a
sketch about. You know, if you're doing a sketch packet
for say the Daily Show, they want to see what
your command is of current events and how you respond
to those current events. Um, a Black Lain Sketch Show
is like, but they want to know what you see
is a it's something worth exploring that it's funny within

(25:41):
a universe where only black people exist, you know, and
so it's mostly centers black women, but some black men
are there. But it's sinners black women, and so you
your comedy has to be able to to live in
that world. And it's not as easy as one may think,
but it's really gratified and so um, that's you know

(26:03):
kind of where That's how my experience was with that.
And I've written other packets from other shows, but this
was the one, the only one. World was like, Oh,
I get to talk about my specific experience and black
woman in comedy and have that you read by somebody
who's also a black woman in a comedy, and it
was fantastic. That is that sounds fantastic for sure? Um,

(26:27):
how would you like, you know, you talk about your
with a packet as an opportunity for you to show
your point of view, show your comedic voice. How would
you describe your comedic voices as a writer, how would
you describe that? Um? For me? And I don't know
if it's colored by just all my years and improv,
but for me, I love absurd, silly comedy. I love

(26:51):
when things go weird. I love like really pushing the
limit of that real one percent weird that we all
learn about in our first level of improv class. I
love existing in that one percent weird and seeing kind
of where how that is affected by just normal everyday life.

(27:13):
And I mean there's the only thing we learned about improv,
Like regular life can be hilarious, but you picked that
one thing that makes it super funny. And that's where
I love to be. I mean, I mean, I'm inspired
by the Muppets and uh they wed Letterman and Coon
O Brian and also silly, like really like all those

(27:34):
silly things that are distilled but really have liked a
sharp eye at kind of capturing a human experience, you know.
So that's that's great. I love that. And um uh
so you know you bring this amazing comedy voice to
a Black Lady Sketch show. You you right for the show?
What what was like the thing that you were most

(27:55):
proud of or enjoyed most uh from that season working
on that on that show. Honestly, I think I'm so
grateful that my first writer's room ever was a writer's
room that was so affirming personally to me. It was
the whole the entire writer's room for a Black Lace
Sketch Show are black ladies. And you're sitting in this

(28:17):
room and if you're in a general writer's room. You're
with these people like twelve hours a day, and so
you've got the talent, but you also have to be
able to get along with like seven other people all
day long and still be funny and create something together.
And so we were able to sit there and be
funny and talk about the funniness of like the world

(28:40):
specifically from our point of view. I mean, where else
than what other job can you talk about relax or
burns for like thirty minutes and try to find a
comedy in that, you know what I mean? And so,
and that's the only you can only do it in
a show like that. And so I think having that
having a black lace skeet show as my foundation showed

(29:02):
me that my viewpoint is powerful and needed and black
women have something to say and have it can be hilarious.
We don't have to be a spirit guide. We don't
have to be like, like, you're awesome, show a magical negro.
Uh we could be well we could it be magical.

(29:24):
You know we have to be the only one. Well,
we could be at natchural and just be silly and
fall down and do prep falls and you know, be
crazy and still have fun, just like white men have
been able to be for years, and so this is
the only show that's allowing black women to do that.
And I don't know, I feel like I could wrap.

(29:45):
I can. I can watch romantic about it all day.
But yeah, I feel like I feel extremely privileged that
that was my first show and it's definitely inspired my
my news shows and everything else I'm working on. We
will be right back with more ridiculous news after this
short break. Yeah, yeah, yeah, confused ridiculous news. All Right, y'all,

(30:16):
We're back with our amazing guests at the card and
we've talked about your incredible Emmy's experience. We talked about
your inspiring time on a Black Lady Scotch show and
your journey as a writer, and you know you alluded
to this a little bit earlier, but you love Prince.
And so for this third segment, I have developed a game.

(30:37):
And by developed a game, I mean like I kind
of have a seed of an idea and then we'll
kind of like improvise it here on the spot. But
basically what I did was I collected some facts about
Prince from crack dot com. Uh and this was an
article by Amanda Man and called the fifteen princess facts
about Prince, and so we're gonna play a game. Uh,

(30:59):
and I'm gonna read what might be a fact about Prince,
and you can say either true, false, or prince. So
true means it's true, False means it's false, and prince
means it's prince. So I guess that lass. That third
meaning can be whatever you want it to be. And
also the stakes are very high, so it's like, if
you win this contest, you get a Ferrari, but if

(31:22):
you lose this contest, you also get a Ferrari. So
it's just like the stakes are super high. Okay, alright, Uh,
so we're gonna start with some Prince facts and we'll
go from there. Um. So here we go. H So,
first one, Uh, Prince is the reason we have warning
labels on c d s. I'll repeat again, Prince is

(31:43):
the reason we have warning labels on CDs. Is that true? False?
Or Prince? It's true? That is true? You're correct, you're correct? Yeah,
and so absolutely so. So this is the So. So
this is the blurb from crack dot com. It says,
all right, so you know those parental advisory explicit content

(32:03):
labels you'd see on c d s back when c
ds existed. It was all because TIPPERA Gore bought her
preteen daughter a copy of Purple Rain before she heard
Darling Nikki. As you said, what she declared the filthiest
song in the world when she lobbied her record companies
for warning labor labels. There's no Grammy better than that. Yeah,

(32:25):
and that's not even his dirtiest song. He literally has
a song called pussy Control. All right, so this is
the next round, all right? Uh? He routinely took over

(32:48):
random hair salons. Is that true? False? Or Prince? Oh,
that's a good one. I feel like that is a
Prince a true great you are correct, according to crack
dot Com. Crack dot Com goes on to say that
when Prince was on the road and needed a follicular refresh,
his personal stylist would just find a salon in town

(33:08):
willing to shut down for a day and black out
their windows to do his hair, which was presumably always
the first one they called. After he was spotted entering
one such salon in the surrounding streets had to be
closed down because fans erupted into a near riot. I
mean that makes sense. I mean I would. I would

(33:29):
probably be there with them. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, um a
friend of the podcast and as a former guest of
the podcast, uh Analysee has an amazing story about seeing
Prince at a hair salon. I won't spoil their story,
but it's it's it's really cool. It's really as a

(33:50):
well as well story. Alright, so we'll do We'll do
one more Prince fact all right? Uh so he was
obsessed with the apocalypse. Is this false or Prince I
would say true. Yes, you are correct, according to correct
dot com. Uh so, this is what crack dot com says.
It says Prince songs tend to be about one of

(34:13):
two or both things sex or armageddon. Things were especially
what I would say is about a number of things.
But this is I'm just reading crack dot com right now.
But things were especially waited towards apocalypse in the early years,
with songs like and Let's Go Crazy that sounded like
they were about partying like it's your last night on Earth,
but actually meaning it way too hard, explicitly referencing Judgment Day,

(34:36):
the Act World, and death. Even Purple Rain is actually
about the end of quote the end of the world
and being with one you love and letting your faith
God guide you through the purple rain, which is blood
in the sky because red and blue equals purple. So
that's I guess one of the interpretations of that song. Uh.
So I thought that was interesting. I did not know.

(34:56):
I mean, I guess, like thinking about those songs, I'm like, oh, yeah,
I guess those are kind of like themes that come up,
but didn't think that yeah, yeah, yeah, which is really
he was wild. I mean I would say like between
I wouldn't even say sex and Armageddon. I would be
like sex and God, and then like you know, I
think for him, like God was sex for a while. Uh.

(35:17):
But yeah, he was interesting, dude. Yeah. Rather, you went
three for three, so congratulations, you win a ferrari uh
and thank you so for much for playing True False
Prince uh the inaugural game. Maybe this game will come
back at some point. But I also wanted to ask
you too. I mean, like Princess such you know, an

(35:37):
intriguing and fascinating artist, and its cool seeing like I
feel like there's so many different ways or entry points
for why you would get why one would be interested
in Prince or what would draw you to him as
an artist, and I just wanted to ask you for yourself,
what is it about Prince where it's like you keep
going back to it? And this may be many things,

(35:59):
but yeah, but I just was I wanted to know. Well,
I think I think the main thing is, you know,
I you know, when Prince was alive at whenever he
would do like something crazy in the news, that would
say like, well, Prince, that's what he wants. And I
think that's that's it is. Like I think Prince teaches
everybody that you can make the art that you want,

(36:23):
you can be the person that you want, you can
be as androgynists as you want and still like following
your vision. Now, so there's there's so many say that
he went too far in in following that vision to
the point where he was like spending like twenty four
hours in the studio writing a song. That is an

(36:44):
extraordinary like level of commitment to that. But I kind
of look at Prince the same way I look at improv.
It's just kind of like it takes away all the
shackles that you have and that what real life tells
you is like this is the box you should be in,
and it gives you a lot of purse of possibilities
for creating and creating art. I mean printed a song,

(37:07):
you know, on the Muppet and the song was actutely ridiculous,
but it was awesome Starfish and coffee, right, yeah, But
you hear like you don't see a lot of people's
musicians that are like have Academy Awards and Grammy Awards, like, Okay,
I'm just gonna write this song about starfish and coffee.

(37:30):
Mabel Surroupan jam like I don't gonna do it, And
I think that's great, And I mean, you know, one
of my favorite stories about Prince is that he was
supposed to open this is when this is before he
while he was recording he was he opened for the
Rolling Stone and he and the revolution that put off

(37:51):
stage like people were like throwing bottles at then because
like his sound wasn't like reaching outside of Minneapolis yet,
and he'd side. I think he was never going to
open for anybody else again. He was going to do
his own shows. And I love that he was able.
I mean, he was pretty young at the time to
be like I'm going to take advantage. I'm going to

(38:11):
take completely control of my image and my sounds and
my boys and just do what I want and and
just bank on it working out and it's gonna be okay.
I'm gonna be a black man for Minneapolis that wears
lazy blouses and purple jacket and it's, dude, what I
want and people are gonna love it. And if they don't, fine,

(38:34):
I at least made music that I like. And I
think that's kind of like how I see improvs, how
I see sketch comedy um and and yeah, yeah, so
I love that, And you know, I think it's so
cool how you draw the connection between you know, your
love of prince and your love of improv. And you know,

(38:54):
how did you initially come across improv? Like how did
you discover that and be like, oh, this is this
is something I really enjoy. Yeah. I think everything major
in my life has been in some sort of happy,
magical accident, just like it means, just like a play
stretch show I took. I you know, when I moved
to Greenville, it was during a time that was like

(39:17):
very tough in my life. I was in this job
where it was like very stressful. I was you know
basically you know, in working with students. You take on
not only their academic issues, you take on their emotional
issues as well, and you take that home with you.
And so you need like somewhere to like express that.
Um And so I actually so I I used to

(39:37):
dj at that there are those times, so I dj A,
you know, I have a lot of layings. I dj
like a benefit for our own housed population in Greenville.
And I had a silent auction and one of the
things the prizes in the South auction was a free
in probably one on one class. I didn't win it.
Someone else wanted and decided to give away and I

(40:01):
was a person that got it. And so yeah, like
I know, I knew like the comedy scene. I knew
a lot of the stand up comedies. I knew a
lot of the improvisers in town. I never really thought
about it, you know, but I took that first class
with my my Everyone remembers their one on one teacher
at or level one teacher. Mine was Wendy, and one

(40:22):
of the first things she said was like, we're just
adults playing for chair man. It's not it's not a
big deal. We're being cats and it's ridiculous. But then
you can go back to your normal life after that.
And I and that was what broke it open for me,
and I fell in love with it immediately. I mean,
and I think I wasn't great at it, and no
one's great at improv starting it. I like the thing.

(40:43):
I'm a genius and I was always good at improv,
so I yeah, and I knew that. I was like,
this is this is what I want to do. I
don't know where this is going to lead and maybe
I'll give me a good uh stories to tell at parties.
But yeah, so but threw my lot in with that.
I love that. That's so cool about like how started

(41:06):
from the DJ and gig silent auction. You get a class,
you start doing the class, and I just love just
seeing how it's all like evolved in and and built
over time. Um, that's that's really cool. That's really cool. Uh. Well,
we're gonna move on to our final segment of the episode,
and it's called the Spring of Inspiring Inspirations. So this

(41:28):
is when we share an inspiring quote to end things
on a positive note. And so given that we were
talking about Prince of this segment, I pulled one of
Prince's many quotes and so this is a quote from
him where he says, to create something from nothing is
one of the greatest feelings. And I would, I don't know,
I wish it upon everybody. It's heaven. And I thought
that that was really the Prince life and and and fun. So, uh,

(41:53):
basically describing I was gonna say, right, for sure, for sure? Yeah,
for sure, for sure. Uh, well, it was, it was.
It was such a pleasure having you on the show.
It was great to get the chance to talk to
you here about some of the things that you've been
up to. For folks that are like, oh man, Arenthia,

(42:13):
I want to follow this person, I want to support them.
Uh what what should they do? How can people follow
and support you? Yeah? So the benefit and sometimes the
pain point of being named Alrinthia's I can't hide it anywhere,
so you can. I'm the only Alrenthia on the entire planet.
I google myself just to make sure every couple of years,

(42:33):
and uh so I am Alrenthia everywhere on social media Instagram, Twitter, um,
uh you can find my website Anthea dot com and
see all of my ramblings, my blog that I I
I abandoned theiry now and then, and you can see
my photography at Southern Filter dot com. So yeah, yeah,

(42:56):
so just google me, guys, and you can find me everywhere. Awesome, awesome,
Well run, Thank you again so much, and listeners, thank
you as always for tuning into Ridiculous News. We know
you have a lot of choices of what to listen to,
so we say this genuinely thank you. And you can
email us at Ridiculous News at iHeart media dot com

(43:16):
and on Facebook and I g allow Ridiculous News, and
you can check out our comedy videos at Mark Kendall Comedy.
Thanks so much, y'all, farewell. Ridiculous News is hosted by

(43:39):
Mark Kendall and Bill Warley. Executive producers are Ben Bolling
and Noel Brown, produced and edited by Terry Harrison. Research
provided by Casey Willis, and theme music by four Eyes
and Dr Delight. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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