Through Our Lenses: Robin Thede
Variety’s Angelique Jackson begins a new segment of “Through Our Lenses” by sitting down and interviewing Robin Thede. As a writer, comedian, and creator of A Black Lady Sketch Show, Robin discusses how her perspective as a Black woman has shaped her comedy career and outlook as a creator and showrunner.
“We shot two seasons now during a global pandemic, and season 2 was, like, really restrictive, right. Everybody was in face masks and shields, and we couldn’t have kids and dogs and crowds. And yet we made a five-time Emmy-nominated and an Emmy-winning season.”
Angelique starts the interview by asking Robin to describe season 3 of her show, A Black Lady Sketch Show. In a few words, Robin describes the season to be “epic” and “huge.” According to her, season 3 will include over forty celebrity guests such as Wanda Sykes, Raven-Symoné, David Alan Grier, and Vanessa Williams. As to how the show will be “huge,” Robin announced some improvements have been made for season 3. These improvements include creating larger sets, more complex stunts and choreography being implemented, and the production of more original music. Angelique references a sketch where the setting is under the White House to which Robin states that there will be a continuation of that sketch.
“Now it’s (the show) just kind of this mecca where a lot of Black lady writers, you know, want to be. Rightfully so, and I want to hire as many as I can.”
Angelique then inquires about the writers for A Black Lady Sketch. She asks Robin what it’s like to work in a writer’s room full of Black women and how this atmosphere allowed Robin to tell a story that people couldn’t normally tell. Robin claims that she and her writers value authenticity above anything else. This means that for Robin, if viewers watch the show and don’t understand what is happening, then the sketch isn’t authentic. She reveals that season 3 had an almost entirely new writing team, mostly comprised of women of color. Robin tries to set an environment where writers can create grounded experiences for Black women, but in a reality where anything could happen. As stated by Robin to her writers, “you’re welcome here to be exactly who you are!”
“For me, even if my parents were down or they were struggling financially or when we didn’t have enough to eat or whatever, I knew I could make them laugh. And that was my gift.”
After hearing about Robin’s passionate work done throughout the show, she inquires Robin about the moment when she discovered her love for comedy. Robin claims that she started making people laugh at an early age. As a child, Robin was shy and had a stutter that prevented her from feeling comfortable talking until age four. She grew up poor in a trailer park in Iowa. Whenever her parents were feeling down, she would always do her best to make them laugh. It was those moments that made Robin realize that she was at her happiest when making people laugh. This existential self-discovery led her to fully pursue the comedy industry to the point where she and her college sketch comedy group were scouted by Second City. Her time in Second City provided her with a scholarship and experience working with comedy in Los Angeles.
“I wasn’t greedy. It wasn’t like I came in and said I need a hundred million dollars to make this sketch show, like it wasn’t like that…It was the minimum I needed to make it look as great as it does.”
Angelique moves on to ask Robin about a situation where she turned a “no” response into a “yes.” Robin says that A Black Lady Sketch Show is a prime example of that happening. Robin reveals that initially, she pitched the idea for the show to a network she had a great relationship with. However, the network denied her request, citing an issue with the necessary funds needed to start the show. Robin wasn’t discouraged. Being an experienced comedian, Robin knew the kind of time and funding required to create the show, so she pitched her reviewed plan to HBO and explained every detail. HBO soon greenlit the show for its first six episodes. For Robin, she believed HBO was the place where her sketch comedy show would thrive.
Robin explains that the “no” was about the money not being what she initially needed. She needed to make the desired funding at half of the total amount. When someone tells you “no,” if you can turn that into a “not there” at the time, then it is no longer a failure, nor is it a rejection. She admitted that her career opened up when she made things less about herself and more about building projects and products that would catapult other people into successful careers. Robin believes that by doing this, she was also catapulted into a fulfilling career.
“I think the biggest disservice we could have done is to try to compete with, like, white-male-dominated sketch shows. Right? If we were trying to make what they make, it just wouldn’t have made sense.”
When asked about the comedic success of the sketch comedy themes, Robin believes that each sketch needs to have something ring true to the audience. If not, the idea won’t make it to the final script. Robin circles back to authenticity being key to the success of the show. She states that writers who make an effort to define their authentic selves through writing authentic stories give them the chance to play a wide variety of characters who can do anything. Relevancy and current themes are key in Robin’s sketches. Robin also reveals that she will never make a slave sketch because it isn’t funny to her, nor is it appropriate to bring up that shared trauma. However, she does make clear that she won’t stop others from attempting, only reiterating that she won’t.
“You find yourself when you lose yourself in service of others.”
Angelique closes the interview by asking Robin how she would define herself and her view of the reception and reactions to A Black Lady Sketch Comedy. In short, Robin defines herself as being someone who is “teachable.” What she means is that throughout her journey, she has learned to not make things all about her but, instead, look for how she could be of service to others. Robin begins to reminisce about a time when she traveled to France for a week in between shooting seasons 1 and 2. One day during her trip, she was approached by an American Black woman who revealed herself to be a fan of Robin’s and started excitably talking with her. For her, the show is successful because it wasn’t created to become famous but to leave a legacy and open a door for future generations.