Interview by: Josephine Clarke, Guest Writer
Welcome to the Mess Fest Interview Series! In the days leading up to Mess Fest, we will be sharing interviews with many great comedic minds across the festival. Today, Josephine speaks with Lazarus Howell and Sierra Reynolds about creating comedy for Black audiences, combining improv and dramaturgy in sketch, and making radical thought funnier than dystopia.
Can you provide your name and what you’re doing in Mess Fest?
Lazarus: Hello my name is Lazarus Howell (he/him). I’m doing a lot of things but I’m leading only four things. I’m doing an all-Black sketch show, Black Stardust 3023. I’m doing an improvised D&D show, Adventures of Fates and Fellows. I’m doing a stand-up show called Sons of the Funk with Savaughn [McClaine]. And I’m doing a special. And that’s all I’m leading; I’m doing much more in terms of Final Fiddler Fight, I’m also in the Black Improv group, I’m also in Chip Chats, I’m also in the City-Wide improv show. I believe that is it.
Sierra: I’m Sierra Reynolds. I’m a fourth-year Theatre Arts student with a concentration in directing and for our Mess Fest show, Black Stardust 3023, I’m in the director role, which is what I did last year for Mess Fest as well so it’s pretty exciting to be returning to Mess Fest in the same role, working with a lot of the same members of the team.
So what we are talking about is Black Stardust 3023. So could you give a pitch on what that is?
Sierra: I think Black Stardust 3023 is our way of bringing Afrofuturism to The Theatre School, to the Comedy Arts community, and beginning to examine what Black people will look like in the future, and coming at it in a more comedic and positive way. I think that a lot of times there can be cynicism towards looking to the future now, but hopefully allowing Black people to share the space and share their vision of what the future will look like and helping that come to light on stage will help bring positive energy towards looking towards the future.
Lazarus: I’m here to do it because people like it. So let’s do it again. The last one we did was just an idea. I chose a title and was like “alright let’s do it.” I think this one came with the idea of “let’s do it” with a more entwined theme. I, myself, am not too big a fan of sketch for sketch ‘cause I, myself, don’t really like sketch the most. But I’ll do it because we’re an all-Black sketch show and I like what that represents and what that shows in terms of representation. That’s why we did it, you know? Because it had to be done. It was what must be done.
You mentioned an intertwined theme. Can you go into more detail about what that is? What makes this sketch show different from other sketch shows?
Lazarus: Well you know it’s fun and cool to have a theme. Black comedy, or having a Black audience, isn’t a monolith so you could do anything. I remember previous to this quarter with Black Stardust we did a sketch show “Look Shawty a Ghost” where the theme was Black horror. The idea of theme, I think, should be explored more in sketch because how boring is it to have a regular sketch show and have it be just a place for people to laugh rather than a place for people to show ideas? That’s what I tried to do specifically for Black Stardust 3023. The show is about the future and how Black people see the future and how they want the future and the general aesthetics of science fiction and space and whatnot.
"The show is about the future and how Black people see the future."
Sierra: Beyond having an all-Black cast and crew, I think this show is unique in the way that it is looking towards the future. We tried to look at a lot of different aspects of the future, not just through one avenue of just “this is what comedy in the future should look like” or “this is just what Black people in the future would look like” but “this is what our world would look like” and how it is shaped by Black people. So I think that’s really interesting, not just examining Black people’s role in the future but finding a place for everyone. I also think that, in the actual process of putting this show together it’s been more playful and there’s been a lot of room for crazy creative ideas because the concept is so out there. I also think that Lazarus has done a great job of bringing in some actual dramaturgical material for us to stem from as well. We’ve done a lot of work looking at what Black futurism looks like, what Afrofuturism looks like, and how we can bring that to the stage. Not necessarily in the nitty-gritty of the costumes and all that, but in the energy and how we can encapsulate the future and our enthusiasm for that. I think this mixing of a loose, improv based rehearsal room and the dramaturgy packets and material we are going through is really unique, at least for any sketch show that I’ve done so far.
What was the process like for this show?
Lazarus: The process was challenging. Mainly because my team never had this challenge before of really thinking critically about what kind of future we want. Many people are afraid of the future. Many people don’t want to think about it and just want to live in the moment. Especially because when we think about the future it’s so easy to go the dystopia route. I think that’s the easiest route, especially for comedy, cause it’s like “what if Jeff Bezos was God?”
Sierra: It’s important to do the opposite because it shows what comedy can do. It’s not just about pointing out the negative and what we can rant over but showing what we can all look forward to or what we should all be working towards in a more lighthearted way than typical social activism on stage can come across.
Lazarus: It’s hard to make radical thought funnier than dystopia. I think dystopia is just funnier sometimes than radical thought. But we put together a great show with lots of great moments. Lots of great times.
Sierra: It’s been a lot of fun. Because we’re doing this for the second year in a row now it’s pretty casual because we are all pretty comfortable with each other. We have more Comedy Arts students in the room this year as well, so it’s been nice letting the very few Black Comedy Arts students we have within the Theatre School take a strong creative lead on this project. They’ve been writing most of the sketches, whereas last year we brought in playwrights and actors to do some work as well. But this is being heavily led by our actual Comedy Arts students so that’s a lot of fun. And also in general I think it’s become a really tight-knit group because we are all playing off of each other’s ideas and bringing them into the room, throwing out ideas and being very playful with each run, which I think is helpful with a sketch show when you want to bring a more lively energy into the space and not making it seem so rehearsed.
How does this show intersect with your personal aesthetic? Is this the kind of work you want to do?
Lazarus: I like doing stuff where I can pinpoint specifics. Especially sketch versus standup. Me doing standup, I can’t really grasp the Black audience and I’d say I’m not really for specifically the Black audience. This sketch show IS specifically for the Black audience, it’s something I can create for the Black audience and I really enjoy creating things where I know who to market for. That’s another reason I like creating themes around things, so I can organize it in a way where I can say, “hey this is a spooky show so we can do it in October” when you know people want to see something spooky in October. This show is about Black people. I know that there are Black people who want to see Black people’s stuff.
Sierra: I’ve had a great time working with Lazarus and Savaughn and Kyndall in putting together this sketch show and all the others we’ve done so far. I think this is my third or fourth–I think fourth–Black sketch show that we’ve done at The Theatre School so far. I feel veteraned into it now as I’m in my senior year. I think it wasn’t something that I had a super strong inclination towards when I first came to TTS, but since becoming closer with the Comedy Arts students and getting to know their work more it’s definitely something I’m more accustomed to and definitely something I would consider working in outside of school now because I feel I’ve had so much experience in it and, honestly, I’ve had a great time doing it. It’s definitely something that going beyond TTS I’m looking more into rather than just directing straight plays, as I was thinking before.
What do you hope audiences get from this show? What do you hope audiences take away?
Lazarus: “Wow! That was so cool!” You know, “that was funny”, “that was cool”, “that was so cool I want to see it again!”
Sierra: I think, for me, the show is really going to open everyone’s minds of how Black people are going to fit into the future and how they can shape what our future is going to look like. And help Black people especially see themselves in our future. I think, a lot of times, we don't create enough art or talk about enough what Black people are going to be in the future or what that is going to look like. We’re sort of harbored in the past and what happened then. So I think this is a more fun, optimistic chance for our audience to get a gauge of what’s going to be possible.
Anything you want to add?
Sierra: I want to shout out Lazarus, Savaughn and Kyndall again because they’ve done a lot of really hard work and I think the Comedy Arts program definitely has something to be proud of with those three.
Lazarus: The show is amazing. Whatever you see at Mess Fest, there is an even bigger picture. There is a bigger thing happening outside. And I have a superstar cast. We’re gonna make magic. Scratch that–we’re gonna make history.
Black Stardust: 3023 performs 1/11 and 1/13 at 9:00pm in the Big Annoyance Theater and features Marlee Feacher, Lazarus Howell, Savaughn McClaine, Taliyah Rashelle, Sierra Reynolds, and Kyndall Taylor.
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