The Varnell Hill Show the upcoming Martin spinoff on Paramount+ that follows Varnell Hill, years after his introduction on Martin, is making its way to television soon. Star Tommy Davidson describes the format as one that breaks the fourth wall by design. “It’ll be a TV show about a late night talk show that’s really a late night talk show, but it’s a TV show, too,” he said in an exclusive interview with BLKCinema.com, noting the format doubles as a show within a show, complete with real musical guests.
How did ‘The Varnell Hill Show’ come together?
Davidson traces the project to three long-standing relationships: his own with Martin Lawrence, both DC-bred comedians, and each of theirs with Kid, of Kid ‘n Play. Davidson and Lawrence worked together on Kid ‘n Play’s first music video for “House Party,” and the film that followed, which he says “created billions and billions for Hollywood and opened the door for the world to hip hop.”
The spark came from a phone call. Kid, frustrated by how little Black talent was getting booked on mainstream late night, pitched Davidson directly: “Man, Jimmy Kimmel and the other Jimmy, man, we’re not getting a lot of our talent on there. What are we gonna do, man, because we turn things out. So, what’s gonna be the vehicle? Why don’t you call Martin, ask him to let you do the Varnell Hill show as a late-night talk show?”
Davidson also credited the comedians who came before them, Eddie Murphy, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Robert Townsend and Arsenio Hall, for opening the door that let his generation do the same. Of that lineage, he said, “There’s no you can’t do a culture cancel because we are culture. So, let’s go.”
What’s the tone of ‘The Varnell Hill Show’?
Davidson pointed to In Living Color as a touchstone. “That’s what In Living Color did for our country,” he said. “It made everyone OK with laughing at everyone.” He sees The Varnell Hill Show aiming for a similar effect, adding, “It’s a good time to have a show like this, especially in the kind of social environment we’re in.”
On set, Davidson described the production as a fast-moving “chemistry lab” where actors move between characters, including Lawrence, who plays multiple roles beyond Varnell Hill himself. He called the freedom “the best situation I’ve been in cuz I can dictate and say this, let me try this and let me try that,” adding that on this show, “every experiment is gonna work.”
Davidson compared the chaos of the writers’ room to a smartphone: “Everything you can imagine is in there, and you gotta kind of filter it out and bring your reality out of it.”
He framed the larger goal of the series around identity rather than division: “We’re kind of like a Rubik’s cube that’s kind of getting ourselves in a position to show that color has nothing to do with it. It has to do with ideas and principles and merit and all of those things that we deal with.”
When does ‘The Varnell Hill Show’ premiere?
The Varnell Hill Show premieres Sept. 1 on Paramount+.
Featured image photo credit: Photo: Paramount+
Leave a Reply