“I think the more balls, the better,” Thede says of the recurring sketch.
“All these women of color getting nominated, it just feels really good.
And the writers, of course.”
Bob the Drag Queen on ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’.HBO
The series, just renewed for a fourth season, takes a whacky, satirical look at Black life.
And in its latest season, Black death.
Category is: snatching trophies and burying bodies.
Dancers paying their final respect (?) during the Funeral Ball on ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’.HBO
ROBIN THEDE:Ashley Nicole Black created theBasic Ballfirst season.
Of course, Bob the Drag Queen came in and just, I mean, made it epic.
Then, of course, dealing with all the archetypes that you find at Black funerals, right?
It was so fun.
And Bob, I was just like, “Let me have him with the jokes.”
He’s so great.
Do you remember any jokes that may have not made the final cut?
I mean, there was a joke about doing a drive-by at the funeral that we left in.
I think we’re good."
And because we shoot on location, we just don’t have a lot of time.
Which is very obviously celebratory of the LGBTQ community.
But we wanted to confirm that you didn’t tip it before Bob got up.
Then right when the cameras turn around, we’re right into the Funeral Ball.
So yeah, it was really a testament to the production design and our director for making that happen.
But it wasn’t easy.
Now that we have had two balls, is there a third to complete the trifecta, the trilogy?
Listen, we’ll have to see.
I think the more balls, the better.
But no, I think there’s always room.
I think there’s always room for more balls.
Who has just two balls?
you’re able to’t just do that.
No, I think there’s always room for this.
I think there’s so many things in the Black community that can be celebrated in this way.
The thing about our show is that we want to celebrate our idiosyncrasies and celebrate our silliness.
Which is what ballroom culture is in so many ways.
So honestly there could be endless iterations of the sketch, which I really love.
Is there anything else that you want the fans to know about this particular sketch?
Any Easter eggs or anything?
Everything except for my wig and my hat.
But yeah, I think it takes a lot of people to come in and really create that sketch.
All of our dancers, we have all these incredible dancers from Jamari from the House of Balmain.
We have all these amazing dancers who came fromLegendary, who came from the ball scene.
It’s all part of our culture.
So that’s really important to us.
And it’s like, “Wow, well, you didn’t cast people from that community.”
I know it’s just a silly sketch, but all that stuff matters to us.
