Hot off his recent gig as host of TV One’s Way Black When variety/talk show, actor/comedian/rapper Christopher “Kid” Reid recently talked about some of his upcoming television and music projects, including a potential comedy series featuring himself and Christopher “Play” Martin, who made up the popular 1990s rap group Kid ‘n Play, and who starred in the 1990’s House Party movie franchise.
MCN: You hosted Way Black When’s week-long look at the 1990s. What attracted you to the project and do you believe the show` can extend beyond its February run?
Christopher Reid: First and foremost be it the 70s, 80s or 90s, Way Black When featured icons that we all knew and grew up with and could gravitate to — you knew these people as your fake boyfriends or girlfriends growing up, so the show worked on that level.
Secondly, [Way Black When] functioned essentially as a black late night talk show, which we haven’t had in a long time and is needed for our audience. You can do these type of tribute shows a number of certain way, but I don’t think anyone has tried to do it this way. What you do is get a chance to celebrate all these different, iconic figures and luminaries from sports and entertainment and politics in a unique format. Assuming that it does well , it will show that TV One can mount a late night talk show, so presumably if they wanted to keep going they could do it.
MCN: Are you doing anything for TV One beyond Way Black When?
CR: I’m fortunate to have started working with TV One a few years ago as the subject of their first Life After [docu-reality series] which led to Way Black When, but I’m also doing a lot of standup comedy and voiceover stuff. [Christopher “Play” Martin] and I have also done some live performances together in the legends of hip hop tours and we’ll do a bunch more of those. Also he and I just shot a half-hour pilot comedy that might end up on TV One. It’s a really funny, tongue in cheek, 30 Rock-ish kind of deal, and we were really able to have a good time.
MCN: Are you going to do go back into the studio to do any recordings?
CR: That’s a possibility. There might be a song or two that’s out there for Play and myself, but I don’t see us doing a whole CD together. I stay creative on the music tip in different ways like doing theme music for shows – I did the Martin (series) theme and HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher’s theme, so there might be something there for me. If we build it right they’ll come.
