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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 17 auguSt 2019

Robin Thede looks to build legacy

in HBO sketch comedy show

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. ters in this show," she said. because Robin knew me
AP Entertainment Writer "We've never seen black from my days of sketch
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robin women like this before. ... and stand-up. It's a full-cir-
Thede knew plenty of tal- In a way, this show is a love cle moment. This gave me
ented African-American letter to black women." chills."
female comedians, but Thede became the first fe- Black is an actress-come-
only a few were getting male, African-American dian who won an Emmy
hired on popular TV come- head writer of a late-night Award in 2017 for her writ-
In this Wednesday, July 24, 2019, file photo, Robin Thede, the dy shows such as "Saturday talk show in 2015, with "The ing on TBS' "Full Frontal with
creator, star and executive producer of the HBO comedy series Night Live" and "Mad TV." Nightly Show with Larry Samantha Bee." Brunson
"A Black Lady Sketch Show," poses for a portrait during the 2019 So, Thede decided to cre- Whitmore." She created was a social-media sensa-
Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly ate her own show featuring and executive produced tion before she starred on
Hilton, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
some of the industry's funni- BET's late-night comedy her own Facebook Watch
est black women. The com- series "The Rundown with series, "Quinta vs. Every-
ic-writer-producer-actress is Robin Thede," which was thing," and had recurring
breaking new ground with canceled after one sea- roles on ABC's "Single Par-
her HBO comedy series "A son. ents" and CW's "iZombie."
Black Lady Sketch Show," Shortly after that, Thede Writing for "A Black Lady
which airs Friday nights. pitched the idea for "A Sketch Show," Black said,
The six-episode series of- Black Lady Sketch Show" to gives her freedom to ex-
fers sketches written and HBO. She said the network press herself like never be-
performed by an all-black bought it "within minutes" fore. "As an actor, you are
female cast. It stars Thede, after a dinner with her, Rae beholden to a lot of other
Ashley Nicole Black, Ga- and executives. people's wishes. You get
brielle Dennis and Quinta "I never shot a pilot," she a script, there's a director,
Brunson. Guests, mostly said, adding that the net- and they have an idea of
black women, include An- work's quick approval how they're going to use
gela Bassett, Kelly Row- showed "how confident your body to tell a story,"
land, Marsai Martin, Lena they were in me, the idea, she said. "For me, it just was
Waithe, Patti LaBelle and and the partnership be- never good because I'm a
Natasha Rothwell. tween me and Issa. It's one plus-size black woman. No
"It's a culmination of a life- of those ideas that when one really wanted to tell
long passion for sketch," people hear it, they go, the story where I'm really
said Thede, a co-producer 'Yeah, of course. Why not?' happy. It was always like,
of the series with Issa Rae, It feels like something we've your life is terrible. You're
who also makes an ap- been missing." sad. There's a cake hiding
pearance. "When black Thede said Black, Den- in your fridge. That's every
women do get on sketch nis and Brunson were "no- script I read. The first time I
shows, we really stand out. brainer" choices. They did sketch, I had a chance
But there are only a hand- didn't audition for the roles, to write it. For this show, I
ful of black women who she said, because she al- get to be in charge of the
have ever been on sketch ready knew "what they entire utterance of how I'm
shows. Why not stack the brought to the table." being represented."
deck and put them on all Dennis was a stand-up co- Thede was gratified by
at once on one show?" median early in her career rave reviews after the first
Between each sketch, the before she starred in Netf- episode.
four ladies huddle up inside lix's Marvel's "Luke Cage" "I do everything to leave a
an apartment after a mys- and as Whitney Houston in legacy," she said. "I feel like
terious apocalypse wiped the BET miniseries "The Bob- this is going to be a big part
out the rest of civilization. by Brown Story." of all our legacies. That will
The cast plays more than "No casting director remain true whether one
100 different characters in would've brought me into person watches or 100 mil-
sketches exploring a vari- this based on my body of lion. We hope for the latter.
ety of comedic story lines. work," she said. "I would But I think this is so revolu-
There's an invisible plus-size not have come into some- tionary, because now it ex-
black woman spy, for ex- one's head for sketch. But ists. It's cinematic. It's beau-
ample, and sketches about you know luckily, how God tiful. We feel proud of it.
ashy skin and unexpected places steps and pieces My work is about what we
marriage proposals. things of that nature along leave behind, not what we
That variety is the point, the way, this happened take."q
Thede said.
"I wanted to do a show that
was challenging the views
of black women in com-
edy for a lot of people and
showing we can do any-
thing. We can play men,
women, aliens or whatev-
er we want. It's all sorts of
genres, styles and charac-