A Black Lady Sketch Show is blacker than ever as season four returns with three new players joining the cast. The Emmy-Award-winning series saw the exit of original player, Ashley Nicole Black, who is a writer on the Emmy-Award-winning AppleTV+ series Ted Lasso and will serve as a writer and producer on AppleTV+’s upcoming series, Bad Monkey.
This departure made way for Tamara Jade, Angel Laketa Moore, and DaMya Gurley to show off their comedic chops with the cast. Baller Alert was able to speak with the cast during the FYC pink carpet ceremony and caught up with Robin Thede, who reflected on the viral moment she shared with Whoopi Goldberg during her appearance on The View.
“Sometimes you don’t know what your impact is,” she began.
“We’ve been making three or four seasons in a pandemic, so we don’t get out to see the people as much as we did in season one. It’s exciting for us this season to get out and talk to people about it. As far as telling Whoopi what she meant to me, and having her mirror back what I mean for the next generation – I felt it connected with people because they felt how real that was.”
VERZUZ gets some huge love in the upcoming season in one of their skits, and Thede shares her VERZUZ comedy matchup, choosing Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy as her dream match.
Of course, we had to speak with Gabrielle Dennis, who currently has three shows on air including The Upshaws and The Big Door Prize. The actress shares with Baller Alert on why range is so important to her.
“For me, it is very important because you train in all of the range,” she said.
“You studied those lines and you’ve done the work so to have the opportunity to go in my actor belt and do what I do in such a wide variety of projects is a blessing I never take lightly. I do hope Jamie Foxx gets better, as he has been one of the people I looked up to and aspire as an actor because he was never pigeonholed – he’s been able to do sketch comedy, sitcoms, stand-up, film, as well as make music so it gave me that permission to do the same.”
Dennis always gets candid about her stance between her The Game character Janay and Melanie Barnett, played by Tia Mowry, after the show has gone viral yet again with the stans choosing sides. The actress tells Baller Alert while she was Team Melanie in the beginning and towards the end, she feels the character got herself into a bit of a mess throughout.
“[Melanie] got a little messy,” she laughed.
“I had this conversation recently after being dragged on social media [laughs], about if I would even advise my friend if she were Melanie to stay in that situation over and over again. That relationship between Malenie and Derwin was real life toxic [laughs]. I feel like a lot of people will go back and rewatch the show, realizing they were rooting for the wrong things because we were younger then and didn’t know anything about no love. In the end, Melanie and Derwin did all the things with marriage and love while Janay scurried off to New York with her man and her baby.”
When asked if she would ever consider returning to the series for its recent reboot, she said she would “entertain” the idea.
We also caught up with Skye Townsend, who is returning for her second season as a main character (third overall), who opens up about wanting to share the screen with her father, the legendary Robert Townsend.
“I would love to share the screen with him,” she said.
“A lot of people don’t know this but he is my best friend, like we spend almost everyday together and I respect the game so much because of him so it has to be the right project. He is trying to compete with me so he better keep it cute [laughs]. I look at him and he’s Black legacy and greatness personified so whatever we do together, it has to be great.”
When asked if her father watches the show, she said he watches with her and gives her honest, constructive feedback.
“He watches with him, and he gives me the real,” she laughed.
“He’ll watch and say how he saw I was pushing back in some scenes, or I pushed hard in other scenes, tighten up there, and I look at him like can he just laugh [giggles]. He’ll tell me his favorite characters and even have me do the voice sometimes. One of his favorites is Marquita from the bank and Omarion’s wife, LaDonna.”
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