‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’s’ Emmy-nominated production designers Cindy Chao and Michele Yu share set secrets from the Robin Thede-created show.
When “A Black Lady Sketch Show” production designers Cindy Chao and Michele Yu sat down to determine which episode of the comedy series they’d submit for Emmy consideration, they kept one key factor in mind.
“We partially pick which episode to submit based on the title,” Yu tells Variety, laughing over Zoom as she and Chao explain their process. “It’s a fantasy to have a very serious person onstage announcing these titles.”
The episode Chao and Yu landed on was Season 4’s fifth half-hour, “Peek-a-boob, Your Titty’s Out,” which features the prehistoric drama of “The Real Housewives of B.C.”; recurring character Cousin Curtis manning a hotel front desk before being sucked into the season’s interstitial sketch; and a “Family Matters”-style sitcom spoof where the episode title is uttered as a quippy jab from series regular Gabrielle Dennis to creator/star Robin Thede.
More seriously, the duo chose the episode because it demonstrated their work in an array of different environments — a mix of location shoots and built sets. For example, the opening sketch, “Why You Ain’t Say Nothing,” was shot on an existing sitcom set, while “Frock of Shit” was filmed in a (haunted) house and “The Real Housewives of B.C.” took place in a Southern California cave. The episode also displayed the skills of their creative collaborators, from the show’s director Bridget Stokes and DP Kevin Atkinson to the costume, hair and makeup departments and other below-the-line crew.
“The ‘Real Housewives’ sketch comes together because of the group effort,” Yu explains. “We wanted to pick sketches that fire on all cylinders and that episode really does.”
Though “A Black Lady Sketch Show” will not return for a fifth season, this experience has been a defining one in their careers, beyond awards potential.
“I’ve never been on a crew that laughed so much. It was an honest, true joy,” Chao says. “Even when shit hit the fan, we were able to come together and talk things through. It was so special to have that relationship, that trust and that support.”
Yu’s great takeaway was learning “the importance of creating work that reflects your values, work you can be proud of at the end of the day — not just how good it looks visually, but what it’s bringing into the world. She adds: “I was going to say, there’s not going to be anything like it ever again, but the hope is that there will be because it opened the doors.”
Read on as the artisans detail set secrets from the Emmy-nominated episode:
Thede and Dennis are paired with guest stars Quincy Isaiah and Sam Richardson for this sitcom spoof about hesitating to intervene in a friend’s bad relationship. The sketch wasn’t originally conceived to take place on a sitcom set, but ended up that way thanks to a couple of turns in development.
“That was so fun to lean into because, for most of our sets, we aim for realism,” Yu says. “We play it straight so that the comedy can be big against it. So it was fun to play with this very manicured, intentionally-designed space.”
While the primary action takes place in the living room, Chao points out the kitchen in the background. “That was used for another set. We do that a lot,” she adds. With nearly 50 sketches in a season, the crew would get creative and find multiple ways to use the same location, without reusing the exact same set.
In this fast-fashion takedown, ladies preparing for the royal feast in 1800s London learn a lesson about throwing cash at Lady Shein (Skye Townsend) without trying on the garment first.
Not only does this sketch feature a bubblegum pink-wigged Gina Torres (who laments the demise of her “hot girl summer” after receiving a subpar gown), but there’s also a hidden cameo by Thede.
“It’s out of focus in the background, but it’s a hand-painted portrait of me from the 2021 Emmys with a little Welsh corgi,” Thede told Variety, crowning the artwork her favorite Easter egg from the season. “The amount of detail is insane.”
The idea for the custom artwork came during the brainstorming session for another sketch in the episode. “We were pitching what kind of paintings we could use and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it was a portrait of Robin and her dream dog?’” Chao recalls. “Michele spent the weekend painting it.”
It’d been a while since Yu had the opportunity to put paintbrush to canvas, so she’d jumped at the chance instead of commissioning the art. But she did have one small nagging thought.
