“Necessity,” joked Bashir Salahuddin, about his path to screenwriting. “We wanted to be in entertainment. We were both in sketch comedy groups, but we were hitting this weird sketch comedy glass ceiling. He was always the co-pilot. I was always the chef,” he joked. “Even the sketches that don’t have a chef, I end up playing the chef.”
“This is about superheroes. Why am I the cook?” added Diallo Riddle. The duo quickly realized not only would they not get to star in the skits, but they wouldn’t really get to make the type of comedy they wanted to make unless they wrote it themselves. “We wanted to do stuff that made us laugh.”
The duo felt like there had not been a “boisterous black sketch comedy show in LA” since Keenen Ivory Wayans’ In Living Color (1990-1994). “We had goofy sketches, like Malcolm X doing stand-up and then we started doing some video and viral stuff. That was how David Alan Grier and Jimmy Fallon found us, and helped us get our WGA cards.”
Diallo Riddle
One of their first paychecks actually came from Bernie Mac. “I believe he gave us $750,” said Riddle, “which at the time felt like we were millionaires. That buys a lot of wigs and make-up,” he added, as they put all of their money back into the business.
Eventually, the writers landed jobs on shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Maya Rudolph Show, Maya & Marty, The Last O.G., with Co-Creator credits for the new sketch comedy show South Side and Sherman’s Showcase.
The Comedy Tool Belt
Today, it would appear that comedy performers should know stand-up, improv, sketch comedy, and be able to write, edit, shoot, and market themselves online. “Everyone is different,” said Riddle about today’s comedian.
“Some people are great at one thing, like they’re an amazing actor and someone sees them and they advance. But there’s a new crop of people who are convincing on camera, capable of writing the story they want to make, and have a producer head on their shoulders. It is much harder to write a script and ask people to read it. It might be great and you might get terrible notes, but we’ve been most successful when we’ve written a script and then gone out and shot a sizzle reel.”
With a sizzle, the writers can better showcase their tone, their voice, and their big picture idea, which trumps a black-and-white script alone. “With South Side and Sherman’s Showcase, we wrote scripts we believed in and went out and shot the best five minutes.”
“It can be hard for the executives on the other side of the table to understand your vision, especially if it’s not the language or the subject matter that they’re used to,” he said.
Writing Partnerships
Bashir said it’s also a good idea to know your strengths within the collaboration. “I still write with people I’ve been writing with for 20 years. We have one friend who is a good camera person, others who are good at lights, one who doesn’t mind doing the shopping at Costco, and we just all got together.”
Bashir Salahuddin
“You gotta get with your friends. Get with your circle. Get with like-minded people who are as hungry as you are. It’s a marathon. Those relationships are going to be so important. Some people [switch career paths], others get better at what they do. Now you have a friend who can take you from short films to big movies. You never know. Invest in your peers.”
In terms of finding a group of like-minded peers, the writer would advise joining local theaters, looking for people with similar comedic approaches. “Who is making you laugh?” asked Riddle. “There was a guy in my Groundlings class and he was so funny. When a job to play Tiffany Haddish’s white husband came down to [Ryan Gaul] and a well-known actor, I said choose Ryan. He was just funny.”
“Do open mics. Take the classes. Then, when it’s time to form Voltron, [gather your tribe]. Shout out to all the Voltron fans out there,” said Riddle. “You’ll form a better group when nobody is famous than when you’re knocking on someone’s door who already has it all.”
Doing Your Reps
Bashir said that the classes don’t always feel like they’re paying off, but they do provide “reps.” He added, “If you go to a basketball camp, the best part is just playing the game, getting comfortable, so you’re not just sitting around playing video games. I can say I got my SAG card because of a play I did, where I met a casting director for The Drew Carey Show, so you never know.”
Continuing their reps on shows like Jimmy Fallon and Maya & Marty, the writers always wanted to make their own series. “We were going to do a show in [Riddle’s] hometown of Atlanta, but that didn’t work out, so then we decided to do a show in my hometown of Chicago,” said Bashir.
The series South Side details the friendship of a pair of recent community college graduates who wish to be entrepreneurs in Chicago’s South Side. The idea came from a friend who worked at a Rent-A-Center, which is a furniture and electronics rental company, who deliver these items to customers.
Chandra Russell, E. Faye-Butler & Lil Rel Howery. Photo by Jean Whiteside/ HBO Max
“That’s a funny idea. If we do a show about a Rent-A-Center type place, that allows us to go all over Chicago. It could move like The Simpsons, where anybody could be the star of an episode, and it could make South Side Chicago like a small town, where everybody just ran into everybody a lot.”
In the sizzle reel, they had to present the tone of this show and this world, which they turned in with the script. “It also allowed us to figure this out, so by the time we showed it to [the executives], the idea was quite clear.”
World Building South Side
“I think world building is the essence of some of the best comic books,” said Bashir. “You can tell we like comics, but with world building, it also alludes to much more depth and complexity. There are so many more characters I want to know more about. The Simpsons was the first to do that on television. Like, who the fuck is Disco Stu? I want to know more. That happens in the writer’s room.”
The creators don’t walk into the writer’s room with the intention to expand the world. Instead, they start with a simple question: who has a funny idea for an episode? From this simple approach, the team then expands upon the idea to build out the episode and then the season.
“Then, someone else might say, we can use this character or reference this character from season one. You sort of retro-build it. You start with this, then add pieces, and figure out what makes the best stories.” This also leads to fans of the show getting more out of rewatchability because there’s so much going on.
Torrey Hanson, Quincy Young. Photo by Jean Whiteside/ HBO Max
In one example, a fan pointed out that multiple characters in season two are wearing the same shirt. “We’re glad they pointed that out. It’s not a limited wardrobe budget, but an entirely intentional idea. We meant to do that and there is going to be an episode that explains that in season three.”
With eagle eye fans like this, it’s important for all of the writers to be very well versed in the show itself, the history, the background, and so on. “We love when fans see a deep cut that’s just there for the hawk-eyed viewers. We love having a well written script, but you also want to be ready to toss out improv jokes.”
No Hug-It-Out Episodes
The writers said that there are mini arcs throughout the series, but it’s also written in a way where you could pick up halfway through season two and still enjoy the show. The overall key, however, is to make the show funny, every single episode.
“It’s an episodic, hard comedy. It’s not a dramedy. We’re never going to do a hug-it-out episode. Look, you get enough tough news and poignancy from everywhere else in the universe,” said Riddle. “This can just be a belly laugh where you can tune out and enjoy.”
Kareme Young. Photo by Jean Whiteside/ HBO Max
As for these moments of pathos in other shows, the writers said this often comes from the network itself. “Some push this because they feel like they can give a suggestion to make the show more of all things and expand the audience. It’s also a shortcut to Emmy talk. I don’t think you have to make something less funny in an attempt to win an award. We don’t need the schmuck-bait.”
In terms of advice for writers, the duo would encourage originality. “When you do something original, you’re the key master. When executives come to say what about this, what about that, you can say it doesn’t fit the vision because you have the vision. Stick to your guns and make something original. And I say that knowing getting something original is way harder, but it’s worth it. I’ve never regretted any big swings I’ve taken in life.”
This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here.
