1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in comedy and/or writing?

I watched Shorties Watching Shorties on Comedy Central as a kid and that was pretty much how I got introduced to a bunch of different stand up comedians. Chappelle Show is what got me into sketch comedy. I had wanted to do comedy in college but I went to Williams in the middle of the Berkshire mountains so there wasn't much opportunity. I didn't start writing and performing comedy until no place would hire me out of college so I figured I might as well do something at night when I'm not job hunting and luckily it's been working out. 

2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?

There were as series of blackface incidents in a row in 2019 from Justin Trudeau to Ralph Northam and some of his subordinates in Virginia that made blackface be more top of mind for me. In addition to that there's always just random stories of various people from sheriffs to college kids doing blackface, which is something you think people would recognize as being Not Good at this point (or at least not take pictures). All of their excuses were pretty funny to me so I tried to think of the most absurd excuse which is that they literally cannot stop doing blackface like it's an addiction. 

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most? 

A pretty big challenge was getting a white actor who cares about the future of their career to say yes to this sketch that had a huge chance of going very, very wrong. The best part of the process is the original "a-ha" moment when you have the premise. I can see it all in my head of what I want to happen. The hardest part is actually putting in the work of finding locations, casting, etc.

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I really liked The Invisible Man. Elisabeth Moss kills it in that movie and it was extremely tense. The directing was amazing too. It's very easy to make a movie like that where you literally cannot see the villain incredibly boring but the fact they managed to make looking at shots of empty chairs and kitchen's scary is very impressive. 

5) What’s next for you? 

I'm starting to work on longer form content like tv and film. I'm very excited for films like Parasite, Snowpiercer, Us, and Sorry To Bother You and other very class-conscious films being created and well received as that's a big focus of a lot of my writing. I'm also constantly adding to my stand up set. Though a lot of my plans are  pretty much on hold until this pandemic is over. I guess that's what's next. Trying to stay healthy.

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