So say the team behind A Black Lady Sketch Show

Most comedians lucky enough to land a sketch show on TV will hope it makes people laugh. But Lauren Ashley Smith hopes the show she’s just been working on will do nothing less that ‘reframe what people think of comedy’.

For she is the head writer on A Black Lady Sketch Show – the very first show of its type to be made by black women in the history of TV.

Creator Robin Thede said the HBO show ‘feels like a gift not just to black women but comedy lovers.’

Speaking at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, she said black women were so often portrayed as the ‘eye-rolling best friend’ in comedy. ‘But here we have more than 100 different characters; it shows the variety of what black women can be, but written by black women so it’s authentic.’

Ashley Nicole Black,  who also stars and writes the show, added: ‘We got into conversations I’ve never been in before because usually I’m the only black person in the room – certainly the only black women.’

She said that being in a team of black women meant they could get into the specifics of a character, rather than dealing in archetypes.

Fellow writer-performer Qunita Brinson agreed, saying: ‘Most  of my career has been in very white spaces or very male spaces – and I’ve been fine. But when you’re not the only black woman you don’t have to be the representation for everyone.’

Thede added that she wanted to get away from stereotypes – even positive ones such as black women being strong – to create more fully-rounded characters.

‘Oh black women are strong but we’re also flawed and weak and annoying and murderous,’ she said. ‘And we get to explore that. There’s just more to see and that’s going to be refreshing. People never think of back women as being silly - even in comedy we’re aggressive. ‘

Black added that she always found herself being typecast, especially as a larger woman. She said: ‘With this body, at auditions they always say: "Can you be sadder? You’re on a diet, can you be sad?" Every role I’ve been to there’s been a cake in the fridge. 

‘Here I don’t have to open a fridge and look at a cake,  I can write what I want.’

She said that she started her career in the famed Second City improv and sketch outfit, where she could create whatever characters came to mind. 

 ‘But then you get into TV and there are three things you can be; an aunty, a best friend, or you can look at that cake. ‘

And she said of the characters in A Black Lady Sketch Show would allow viewers to see the world through the eyes of a plus-sized woman  ‘and not be made fun of’.

The six episodes required a huge amount of work to be done in a tight timeframe – without any pilot episodes to test the ideas.

Thede said the team wrote hundreds of sketches before whittling them down to the 45 that got made.

‘We hired six women, and started writing in January to be on the air August 2 - that’s insane. on day one everybody had to pitch 30 ideas because we had to turn in first package of scripts within two and a half weeks. Development had to happen very quickly.

 We had to hit the ground running. 

‘Lauren and I we knew we wanted to show as much diversity among black women and show we could do different things; physical comedy, musical comedy, sci-fi, stunts, everything! It looks amazing, it’s the most cinematic sketch show there’s been.’

Gabrielle Dennis, another writer-performer, said despite the speed, care was taken over the personas they were creating. ‘We had 100 characters. Each had their own name, their own fashion decisions. We never repeated a hairstyle!’

Despite its focus on black women, Thede said she hoped it would have a wide appeal.

 ‘We wanted to name this so you know what you’re getting, the table’s already been laid. But I hope the world can relate to this because although it’s specifically cast, it’s universally funny.’

She said she could envisage the format being franchised so there were similar sketch shows for Chinese women or Mexican women, for example, as well as wanting to make more of her own show.

‘Subsequent seasons would be fantastic,’ she said. ‘We’ll do it as long as they’ll have it.’

As for the fundamental change in comedy Smith wants to achieve, she said: ‘I hope viewers think of the person who wrote it. When you think of a writer, usually it’s a white, cis, straight dude in a flannel shirt who looks like his name is Jimmy.’

And she wants people to watch the show and think not that ‘they are a great black writer, great black sketch performer - qualified - but they are a great sketch performer full stop.’

• A Black Lady Sketch Show will premiere on HBO on August 2, although there is no word yet on a UK release.

Published: 27 Jul 2019