Amena Brown:
Y'all welcome back to a new episode of HER With Amena Brown. And y'all, I just want right now for you to give yourself a special shout out for making it to almost the end of 2021. This is a big deal y'all. Normally when a year would end prior to the pandemic, I would not be like, wow, y'all we made it. But y'all we made it because it's a lot, it's been a lot. So we're here. And one of the things that we did last year to close 2020 that I was like, I think I want to bring this back is we had Kelundra Smith on here, a wonderful and fabulous writer. I always add additional things to your title Kelundra, so I'm going to say what I think it is and then you probably need to come back and be like, what is she talking about and correct me. But whenever I'm telling people about you, I'm like, yes, Kelundra, arts, culture, critic, writer, journalist. I just throw some words together. Am I saying accurate things right now Kelundra, are those accurate words?
Kelundra Smith:
You are saying accurate things, you could say storyteller extraordinaire.
Amena Brown:
That's it, that's my favorite. I the storyteller extraordinaire. Well, y'all welcome Kelundra Smith back to the podcast.
Kelundra Smith:
Thank you all so much, I'm so excited to be back here. I'm a fan of HER With Amena Brown, I'm a fan of Amena. So I'm just thrilled to be back here and for us to be able to talk about the thing that both of us love, which is TV.
Amena Brown:
Ooh, I can't wait, I cannot wait. It's really hard for me Kelundra because sometimes I'm watching TV and literally almost messaged you about some Real Housewives something a couple of weeks ago and was like, "Don't do that because you about to get on a podcast work," and that makes things hard. But I need to really do this throughout the year so that we can start having some little touch points so I can be like, "Are you watching this? What's going on?" So before we get into the TV, Kelundra, I know that you have been up to some wonderful creative projects since the last time we were here. So can you catch the people up on what you've been up to and what you have coming up because I be seeing your name, it'd be some playwriting. It just be a lot of wonderful things. So tell the people what you've been up to.
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, I'm so excited. First of all, when you were talking about the pandemic and us making it, felt that deeply. But what I will also say is that this period of time has allowed me the chance to expand my storytelling possibilities beyond working in marketing and communications, beyond working in journalism and criticism, I'm now adding playwriting onto that slate. I'm super excited because I was accepted into a program called Black Women Speak. It's hosted by the National New Play Network and Horizon Theater here in Atlanta. And that program will develop nine new plays by Southern Black women playwrights. And so I'm thrilled to be a part of that program and to see the work that will emerge from it and to see all of our work travel to stages not just across Atlanta but across hopefully the country and the world.
Kelundra Smith:
So that's one exciting thing that's really happening. The other thing is that next spring I'll have a reading of a play of mine at Kenny Leon's True Colors Theater, and I super thrilled about that. And then I'll also have something next summer that I can't quite say yet but I'll keep the people posted that'll be happening as well. So it's really to me truly been amazing to see what happens when God gives you an idea and you just walk it out because that's really what it is for me. I never intended to write plays, but God gave me an idea and I sat down at the computer. I'm still sitting down at the computer and it's just applying. Discipline and God's will together will take you places you never thought oh.
Amena Brown:
Okay. I didn't know I was going to get a word today during this episode, but I receive it. And one of the things that I have just found really inspiring about watching your journey Kelundra because of course, I am one of those Black women that when I see my Black women friends winning on social media, I am one of those Black women that's in the comments like, "Yes, honey, yes, a face, yes, a play, yes." I just got to do that. And so when I saw the Black Women Speak and I was like, "Oh my gosh, Kelundra, yes." Just to see you next to all of these other amazing women as well, to see you celebrated and to look forward to the work that we're going to get to see, I'm so excited about that.
Amena Brown:
And I think the other thing for me that's so inspiring about it Kelundra is, shout out to any writers that are listening, but I think sometimes ... And I'm sure this could be true for other creative work or for other industries even. But I feel like in writing sometimes it can be easy to become pigeonholed in a way of, oh, write fiction and that's what I do. And to then become afraid to explore other genres of writing where you could still use that same skill but in this different way. And I love that for you that you have this amazing communications and journalism experience and now taking that into the world of playwriting. Does that feel like this wonderful creative challenge for get a chance to do that?
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, it does. It's exciting sometimes to be bad at something before you're good at it. Playwriting opens up a whole nother part of my storytelling brain, so to speak. And it requires just a different way of approaching storytelling because it really has to ... There's structure to it, but then there's also incredible imagination that goes into it. I will never forget when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, and my mother she knew probably around the time I was three or four that I was really good at telling stories and writing and that sort of thing. And she said to me around the time I was 9 or 10, she was like, "Well, if you're going to be a writer, just remember that good writers can write anything."
Kelundra Smith:
And that's what has propelled me, it's like I'm going to learn how to do grant writing well, I'm going to learn how to do poetry, I'm going to learn how to do these different things. And the thing about it that's so awesome is that it always has opportunity to expand. I've never written a novel, but I want to one day. So that'll be the next phase. It's been really excited writing to stumble through it and learn how to get good at it.
Amena Brown:
Yeah. I am right now in the middle of a writing project that involves me writing things that have to be connected to music. And I told a friend of mine I feel so wonderfully creatively challenged, and I love to feel like that, and I also feel out of my depths. At the same time, I feel like, oh, I'm so glad I'm doing this. I love learning new ways to write. You have to have such economy with your words when you're writing in a songwriting mode. So there's half of me that's like, oh yes, I love this, this is so great. And then there's half of me that's like, wait, what am I doing exactly? What's this work y'all? I don't know. I mean, I write a bunch of poems that don't really rhyme, and a song needs to rhyme I think.
Kelundra Smith:
I have a feeling that when we get a chance to hear and see the work that you're doing it's old hat for you. You have a way with the pen that is admirable to me. I don't believe you at all that you're out of your depth of field, I think you're right where you're supposed to be.
Amena Brown:
Well, now that I know we're both doing things that we're learning, I can be messaging you in between like, girl, let me tell you. Because there's a lot of moments to writing in general where you have an idea in your mind even when you know that portion of your craft very well, you have an idea in your mind and you sit down to write and sometimes it takes a lot more drafting than you thought to actually see the idea you imagined. That first draft is like, this is terrible and my idea is brilliant, so something is a gap here between these two things. But as a writer, I think in the genre you're familiar more with writing, you get used to that feeling. When I'm writing something that I'm not as familiar, it's almost like I felt myself freaking. I just remember that I don't know how this cake is supposed to taste exactly. And so we in the kitchen, but I don't know if it's too much vanilla, I don't know what I'm doing here.
Kelundra Smith:
It could be a chocolate cake by the end, this could be a carrot cake by the end, I have no idea.
Amena Brown:
I'm just here.
Kelundra Smith:
As you're saying that, it's like you've been in my head. I'm writing an essay right now. And when you said the idea in my head and what's on the paper are not matching, I feel that way right now with this essay. I just keep looking at this essay like the Google Doc will give me the answers.
Amena Brown:
Please Google Doc, tell me something because things are not coming out like they're supposed to. Well, thankfully today Kelundra we are here to talk about the things that other people have written, which means we can laugh at them and we can celebrate them. And then they don't have anything to do with what we have to put together, bless our hearts today. So I'm excited to have here to go over what has been I believe a wonderful year of TV, I have to say. I still can't tell Kelundra, when we were talking last year this time, we were all going through this period of time where even though we weren't technically on lockdown anymore, we were all pretty much sequestered to our home homes or in our little pods of the people that we knew. So I do feel like I was watching a lot more television in 2020 than I did this year.
Amena Brown:
But I have to say, this year I had more stuff to do, so I was a little more selective. But I still feel like the quality of television, and we will discuss how we're defining quality here in this episode I feel has been really wonderful. So I want to start with this because it has been a wonderful year of the docu-series. And we talked about Tiger King last year, which as of this recording Tiger King 2 is also on its way to us. I want to say to y'all that I'm above it, and I want to say to y'all that I'm not going to do that to my time and that I have scholarly books to read instead. And I would be lying to y'all because I'm going to watch every minute of that when it comes out. You can tell me one or if you couldn't narrow down to one what were some of your favorite docu-series of this year?
Kelundra Smith:
Amena, I too am not above it, but in a worse way than Tiger King. I love what I call the scamumentary, the cultmentary form of docu-series. I don't know what it is in me that loves a good unpacking of a cult or a scam. But I'm here for it every time, I will watch every single one. And so can we talk about LuLaRich on Amazon Prime.
Amena Brown:
Speak about it, speak about it.
Kelundra Smith:
Because I have several questions about how these people got so caught up over these ugly leggings.
Amena Brown:
I've never seen uglier prints in my whole entire life Kelundra. And I'm not going to lie about it because as you know and some of my listeners are familiar with this too that I used to work a lot in very specifically white conservative evangelical environments. And I remember the wave of time that the white women in those environments were like, we live and die upon what is going on with these LuLaRoe leggings. And now that I've had a chance to see actually the prints, I was like, what's happening with these llamas, are we ...
Kelundra Smith:
Cheeseburgers, llamas, sharks. It's like they threw the pasta at the back splash. And whatever they could get digitally printed on a half a piece of fabric, they invent to sell. And then what killed the most is there are women out there who are just like, "LuLaRoe changed my life." And I'm just like, but how? The math does not math right. How are you selling $20 leggings and raking in a six-figure income? Make it make sense. And then as scamumentaries always do, it just explodes when we find out that it's a pyramid scheme. Of course, it is. A pyramid scheme tied up in eugenics. I mean, it really has all the makings.
Amena Brown:
Please, and eugenics, I can't.
Kelundra Smith:
It has the makings of quality entertainment, I was hooked. I watched the whole thing in one sitting. I kid you not Amena, I was supposed to go pick my elderly aunt up and I missed because I was watching LuLaRich.
Amena Brown:
I'm sorry auntie, you got to hold on because I got to find out what happened to these ugly leggings, honey, I got to find out. Wow, I feel I'm just admitting a lot of my guilty pleasures, but I'm a fan of organized crime in general, so I have enjoyed a mafia flick for this reason. And I have enjoyed some corporate greed type of fictional series or documentaries. I'm like, if I'm going to have crime, if I was going to do crime, I'm not going to do crime. But if I was going to do crime, I would get involved in organized crime because I would feel like, why should we be disorganized? If we're going to go ahead and make illegal money, why should we be a mess? You know what I'm saying? And so these types of, to your term, scamumentaries really get in line with you decided you were going to be involved in some organized crime, you were going to go ahead and do an organized scam situation.
Amena Brown:
The people entering from the bottom thought they were coming into something super amazing, but here you are organized and scamming. And I think the particular thing about the LuLaRich documentary that sent me Kelundra was the founders, the founding couple actually agreeing to be interviewed for this. I don't know why that sent me, that was wild. This woman's large amount of hair, we are going to get into some other hair in a minute. But this woman's hair, I was just like, y'all agreed to sit down for something that you knew was going to shade you. Did you think you were going to get your correct story that this scamming, these moldy leggings in the end didn't happen? When the women were like, "I got a package of wet leggings," I was like, "Wait a minute."
Kelundra Smith:
But then sat down in the LuLaRoe dress with the Versace pumps, I was like, shameless, shameless. Just so certain that it was all going to work out, that the feds were not going to come and knock, and maybe did the feds come and knock? I'm so ready for the sequel, they can come with that any day.
Amena Brown:
Okay, ready to see it. And let me give a glimpse for those of you that did not partake of this LuLaRich documentary. And if you just have some time, I hate to say I'm encouraging you, but I am. I want you to watch it because it's fascinating. But LuLaRich is a, two Kelundra's term she introduced us to, it is a scamumentary series about a woman who started a legging, I would say in general clothing or apparel, but was known most for legging business that became this pyramid scheme targeted pretty specifically at white women who were stay-at-home moms or stay-at-home wives to encourage them that they could make extra income. But in the end of course the people making the most money were at the top. And as we see in most pyramid schemes, the people suffering were at the bottom. But you need this in your life. If you want to know why pizza was ever printed on leggings in this situation, you really need to get involved. I'm not going to lie about it.
Kelundra Smith:
That was terrible. Those prints were so terrible. When you mentioned hair though, speaking of another docu-series, are we going to talk about The Way Down?
Amena Brown:
That was going to be my answer to my favorite docu-series, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, which is-
Kelundra Smith:
Another scamumentary.
Amena Brown:
Okay. And here we are in a religious scamumentary in this situation. It was religion and business and fat phobia and weight loss all just decided to come together and be in the same area. And yes, I did sit down in one sitting and also watch this and then got to the end and was like, gasp. Touches one's clavicle, we're going to have a part two of this, there's more updates to this.
Kelundra Smith:
We have two.
Amena Brown:
I need this in my life.
Kelundra Smith:
We have two.
Amena Brown:
If you have not seen in this documentary, The Way Down is about Gwen Shamblin and family, Gwen Shamblin and her family. This to me was this combination of Gwen Shamblin having used spiritual principles, air quotes, to lose weight and initially having this part of the business that connected weight loss to spiritual disciplines. You can already feel the problems coming right here. When we start trying to connect those things, that's about to be a problem. But then somehow at some point Gwen decides I don't need to just have these workshops at other people's churches, I also need to start a church and just try to meld all of this together, meld the weight loss and the preaching and the church attendance, also side note for end the wild ways to discipline your children that bring us into some areas of crime. So first of all, as previously stated, really these two documentaries, if I had another me Kelundra, there's an essay somewhere. There's a think piece somewhere about the connections between these two documentaries, these two stories because still really targeting for the most part the same target groups, right?
Kelundra Smith:
Yes.
Amena Brown:
Still targeting-
Kelundra Smith:
Eugenics and scams, it's eugenics and scams. That's the essay right there. It's these two documentaries prey on educated white women who found themselves unfulfilled by being stay-at-home moms and looking for a purpose and a social outlet outside of being a stay-at-home mom. And it is absolutely wild to me how successful both of these ventures were in preying on these women who truly just wanted a place of belonging and wound up in a scamumentary.
Amena Brown:
Okay, okay. And let me give a special shout out to the Black woman in LuLaRich with her door knockers.
Kelundra Smith:
She retweeted me, did I tell you that?
Amena Brown:
Did she? No, tell me more about this.
Kelundra Smith:
She retweeted me, I was so excited because she was having none of it, she was having none of it. And she retweeted me. I'm going to find the tweet, keep going-
Amena Brown:
I need this in my life because as soon as she showed up and started spilling all the tea, I was like, sis, thank you for being here. And similarly, there was a Black woman who had been a member of Gwen Shamblin's church who was in The Way Down telling all the business in the pointed way that I needed to hear it from her. I don't love to see that these Black women had to be involved in everything that went down in these situations or any of the people unfortunately that were victims of this. But for your entertainment purposes in watching this, there are a couple of people narrating these stories that I just, and I give a special shout out to these two Black women because the Black women in the LuLaRich, the way she was like, "I used to work there, I used to sell them clothes too. And then, and you wouldn't believe ... As soon as I saw the door knockers, I said, honey, you are who I need in my life right now, please.
Kelundra Smith:
The thing about the lady from the LuLaRich scamumentary is that I don't think they messed with her and her money. she didn't seem she had lost not narrowly a coin. I think they knew who to do it to because she didn't seem like her money was bothered. It seemed it was more ethical reasons. When she saw the feds were coming, she was like, "Oh no, I got to go." But she didn't seem like she was so bothered by the financial piece like our sister in The Way Down. It seemed when they started coming for the families, that's when she was like, "Oh no, you got to go." And actually, I misspoke. It was our sister from The Way Down who retweeted me. First of all, she's hilarious because her whole Twitter bio is, yes, that's where you know me from. And I just was like, I'm already here for you.
Amena Brown:
I tell you, I need that on a sweatshirt right now, yes, that's where you know me from.
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, that's where you know me from.
Amena Brown:
And I hate to get involved in my Biggy voice, but if you don't know, now you know, period.
Kelundra Smith:
Now you know.
Kelundra Smith:
You know,
Amena Brown:
Period sis. Oh my gosh, I'm here for that. Let me switch genres here for us, we needed a lot of humor and comedy this year to continue surviving a pandemic because we're still in a pandemic everybody. What was your favorite funny show of 2021? What was one show? This could be a sitcom. We have some sketch comedy, we have some shows that I think were supposed to be dramedies but still landed for me on the funny side of things. What would be one of your favorite funny shows of the year?
Kelundra Smith:
This was probably the hardest thing to choose for me because there have been a lot of good things that have been funny this year. I will say the one I'm going to say out loud is what I love. I really, really deeply enjoyed PAUSE with Sam Jay on HBO Max. But I'm going to give an honorable mention to two other shows, and that's going to be Hacks also on HBO, hilarious.
Amena Brown:
Yes, I celebrate Hacks, it was amazing.
Kelundra Smith:
Yes. And we're also going to give a honorable mention to this little Black adaptation of The Wonder Years, it's too funny.
Amena Brown:
I need to speak about this with you, I need to speak about this Kelundra because I'm not going to lie that when I saw it I was feeling a little bit some type of way. First of all, because I have a lot of nostalgic feelings about the original Wonder Years. And then I was like, why can't we just have a television show with Black people, why does it have to be a re-adaptation? I'm going to have an honest moment that when I saw Lee Daniels name on this I had slight concerns because I haven't been a fan of Empire, and I was not a fan of Star. So I was like, what's about to happen here, guys? I just don't know. I got to say that show, I love it. I love the show, I love the characters.
Amena Brown:
I love the way that it's sort of like if we look at a certain period of history, it's like when we're studying that, whether that's in a class or in even a documentary or something, it's like there are certain parts of that that have to be glossed over sometimes intentionally but sometimes unintentionally just because we can't cover all of the particulars of that time, all of the different of how people actually lived in that moment. And I love about this show the mother, the layers to the mother's character in this new adaptation of The Wonder Years, this very feminist, womanist, sex positive Black woman sitting here in this family in the 60s.
Amena Brown:
I love that because many of us can look at our families and say, "Oh, I had an aunt like that." But you're not reading about my aunt or my cousin or whoever that was in my family, you're not reading about that in your history book. You're reading about the Civil Rights Movement, you're reading about these things that were big historic moments but you're not getting to read about this Black woman who had these porn magazines in the basement of the house. That episode when it was those porn magazines belong to the mother, I live, I live.
Kelundra Smith:
Everything, everything. The original Wonder Years predated me, but I did go back and watch the original Wonder Years when I heard that this new one was coming out. And the original Wonder Years is quite funny, and it's charming, it's lovely. It's so appropriate for the time period and very bold to be reflecting on the 1960s and the 1980s when it did. What I love about this new version though is that it shows how the other half was living, so to speak. It's was a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama.
Kelundra Smith:
And we have little Dean living through school integration and having to adjust to go into a new school after his all Black school has been shut down. We're seeing the burgeoning of the women's rights movement as you were alluding to through the mother. The episode with the mom at work had so much resonance and shows you so much of what women go through in the workplace. How the baseball coach, Dean's baseball coach who is also a friend of the family works at the Department of the Treasury, which that was so hilarious when we learned that's where the mom works. When Dean's like, "Mom didn't do anything important."
Amena Brown:
Not your mom working at the Department of the Treasury bruh.
Kelundra Smith:
But when we see how mom is taking her lunch alone because she's not a part of the boys' club and she can't fraternize with the young white women who are the secretaries, so kind of in this place of isolation. Then there's an episode which I don't want to spoil where they, a recent episode where they go camping. I screamed the whole time because I, Amena, was a girl scout. And I remember my camping trip, and it went something like this camping trip in The Wonder Years. From the raggedy can't get the tent together to the rain, I saw my whole life flash before me in that episode. I think they're doing some really funny and brilliant TV. And the woman who plays the mom in this new version is Saycon Sengbloh, and she is from Atlanta.
Amena Brown:
Yes, ATL ho, we love to see it, yes. We love to see that she did that. I'm here for that show. If y'all aren't watching it, that's a good one. And it's nice to have a feel good show. And I especially love to have a feel good show around this wonderful Black family, I love it.
Kelundra Smith:
And it's opposite of the very adult PAUSE with Sam Jay though, which was my official pick.
Amena Brown:
Tell me more about the show because I have not watched it yet. It's been in my queue forever but I have not watched it yet because I was kind of like, "Am I ready to watch this?" I saw some of the clips and I was like, "Am I ready for this? I don't know." So discuss with me and the people what are the vibes, and what did you love about it?
Kelundra Smith:
Sure. So for people who don't know Sam Jay is a queer Black comedian out of Boston. And if you have not watched her standup special on Netflix-
Amena Brown:
She's hilarious.
Kelundra Smith:
You absolutely should.
Amena Brown:
She's hilarious.
Kelundra Smith:
You are not ready to laugh this hard. But she has a series HBO Max called PAUSE with Sam Jay that is basically her and her homies from the industry in her house the hills having a kick back. And then in each episode they get off on a tangent of talking about some topic. And then we see her exploring these different subjects. And one of the ones that to me was the most pointed was when she really took us inside of stud culture and movements within stud culture, of liberation and things like that. Each episode, she's giving us something like that, whether we're talking about race, whether we're talking about relationships, whether we're talking about work, whether we're talking about sexuality, every episode. But she's just going there in the most hilarious way. And so to me Sam Jay, I think this is her time. She was a writer on SNL and she's been a writer on some other shows. And I love seeing her star rise and I love that she has given us a TV show that's not like anything else I've ever seen. The narrative format of it is so different.
Amena Brown:
Oh, I love it. I feel encouraged to watch it now because I forget at what point I saw about it and then I was like, "Okay, it looks there's going to be some discussions about racism." And I was like, "Am I ready for that? I don't know." But now hearing you discuss this with me, I'm like, "Okay, I need to watch it, I need to watch it," because I think Sam Jay is hilarious.
Kelundra Smith:
She keeps it funny. It's pointed, but it's funny. You're going to laugh out loud more than you're like ooh.
Amena Brown:
I think my choice for a favorite funny show would be Desus & Mero. And let me tell you the saddest times of the year is when Desus & Mero be like, we about to go take a break.
Kelundra Smith:
On hiatus.
Amena Brown:
I be too mad. I be like, I want y'all to be free and kick it with your people, sit at your house and breathe or whatever you do when you're not working, but what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do?
Kelundra Smith:
Also, I share this sentiment.
Amena Brown:
Why do you leave me here? First of all, the different news things that they respond to on the show really be sending me, like be sending me. Some of the people that they have brought to the forefront, this news anchor that they love so much.
Kelundra Smith:
Maurice DuBois.
Amena Brown:
I'm like, I would never even know who Maurice DuBois was, but here we are. I did not grow up anywhere where yerrr was a greeting, and yet here I am. As soon as they come on-
Kelundra Smith:
Yerrr.
Amena Brown:
Okay, okay. I'm going to be scared to say it if I actually go to New York. I'm going to be like, you don't say it when you're there unless you from there, you don't get that. That's a privilege, you don't get to do that. But when I'm at my a house, I do say it and I enjoy it very much. I think they are hilarious. I think watching them sometimes get drunker and drunker during the show and the amount of things that especially, I want to say, especially Mero and the times that Desus's face is looking like, dog, you're really going to ruin this for us at Showtime talking crazy on here? Dog, what are you doing?
Amena Brown:
And then the interviews, the times that people are laughing so hard at them that they can't even answer the questions or promote whatever it was they were supposed to promote. I was like, y'all are all here, y'all got Kelly Rowland laughing so hard. I'm like, is it an album? What was we all here talking about? I can't remember.
Kelundra Smith:
I have no idea what she was selling to this date, she was just gone. But I'm the same way. First of all, nice to look at. Mero is married but Desus is not. And so if he listens to HER With Amena Brown, please slide in my DM.
Amena Brown:
Desus, we know you're listening, it's a DM available for you Desus.
Kelundra Smith:
So they're good to look at. But also the thing about them is that when you were talking about the types of things they respond to, they are not a regurgitation of every other late night show, which I love. Desus & Mero had this one story that was some goats got loose in this neighborhood. And when I say I screamed, I was like, where do y'all even find this? Who is the person that is scouring back doors of the internet to try to find this content for you all to talk about? The stories that they talk about are so funny. But I also love how purposefully, they don't beat you over the head with it. They're in the show saying put on your mask, Black lives matter.
Kelundra Smith:
They also in who they put on the show, in the conversations they have when they stumble and they may say something that may be prejudice, that maybe can be misconstrued as homophobic, they correct each other in a loving way while it's recording. And they don't tell their people to edit it out, they say leave that in. They use their show as a demonstration for how to bring in levity and love into situations, which I really love. But they're doing it in such a subtle way and you're just laughing the whole time. Also shout out to whoever their wardrobe stylist is because when-
Amena Brown:
Look, the kicks. The kicks are so fresh. It's almost upsetting to me the way it's coordinating between the kicks and the jeans or pants, whatever. Mero with the sweatshirt. Who is making sure that Desus's beard glistens like this? That's also upsetting for me. I'm like, is it oil sheen? Tell us the secrets, we don't know.
Kelundra Smith:
Tracy Ellis Ross every time they have her on, she just goes to his beard like this, she just does it. And I'm just like, me too, Tracy, how does it work? Yes, I love me some Desus & Mero. And I agree whenever they go on hiatus, I'm like, listen, I know y'all have lives and families and things, but all also I need you.
Amena Brown:
Okay. Because I don't want to watch nobody else really except for y'all. I'm like, I was trying to respect that this was twice a week, that this was a late night show on twice a week. And I had to just be like, Amena, the people need to have time to breathe and just be black and people of color in America, they don't need to be here five nights a week. I had to give myself a talk, Kelundra, because I'm like, I have to accept, I'm only going to get two nights a week of this, and then y'all go on a long hiatus and things happen in the news that I'm like, where is Desus & Mero to discuss this with me, where y'all at? Y'all just at your house, you on vacation. What you doing, dog, what are we supposed to do during this time?
Kelundra Smith:
I agree. But I will say if you have not on their YouTube channel, if you watch their warmups, which are not aired on the TV.
Amena Brown:
Oh, my wait a minute. See, you about put me on now.
Kelundra Smith:
Get ready to scream. The warmups are fantastic and you hear producer Julia-
Amena Brown:
Oh, I love Julia so much.
Kelundra Smith:
Come on guys.
Amena Brown:
I'm here for it, please. Whenever she's like, "Guys, are we going to?" She has these little questions, and when she laughs, when they make her laugh and you can hear her laughing on there, that gives me a lot of joy as well, lots of joy. Special shout out to Desus & Mero, my favorite late night show. We also just very quickly need to discuss Black Lady Sketch Show because I enjoy this show very much, I enjoyed the first season. And then it was like we went into the second season this year and had a switch up of writers as well as actors, comedians on the show. So I would love to hear your thoughts, what you felt now that we are in the sophomore season of Black Lady Sketch Show. I love everything, I'm here for it.
Kelundra Smith:
First of all, I love Black Lady Sketch Show because I love that it kind of debunks this idea that Black women can't be funny. So often we're depicted as serious and angry and all of these things. That show is silly, there is no serious about it. The way that they do the sketches is just so smart. And they don't try to make it make sense for you. In this second season and even in the first one, we're counting down to some event, we may or may not be in this post apocalyptic world. And then in between, there are these sketches, there's a gang that dresses in pink and has maternity leave policy votes. We have a friend who's the yes queen girl who the whole building's on fire and she's still going, yes, fire extinguisher, yes. Then we have a tired twerk in the club with Miguel. It's just nonsense, and I'm here for all of it. I love A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Amena Brown:
It was so great, it was so great. Shout out to Robin Thede and thank you Robin for letting us know how to say your last name because I had a lot of questions. I was like, I'm not sure. So thank you for that tweet but she was like Theedee. She was like, "Even though y'all want to call me Robin Theed, that's not it." Thank you Robin because I didn't know. But I want to give a shout out to her because I feel when we think about sketch comedy shows, obviously there's this pedestal for SNL. And not that that is not in some ways warranted, but we have known SNL to be an environment that has not been great for Black women, has not been great for Black comedians, just really has not been great for non-white, non-straight writers and comedians in a lot of ways. They have had to be embarrassed into diversifying their writers and comedians.
Amena Brown:
So I want to give a shout out to Robin Thede for being like, "We don't have to keep knocking on a door if you don't want us. It's a table here that we can build for ourselves that we can make these Easter egg sketches full of all this comedy." There are some times they'll do a sketch that I'll be like, "Oh my gosh, that's a Black girl thing, yes." They just put it in there. Like the whole sketch with featuring Omarion, as long as Omarion was in the sketch, I was just like, oh, there's so many things here that are quintessentially Black girl and Black woman that are there without apology and without explanation. And so shout out to Black Lady Sketch Show. If y'all haven't watched it, you need to, it's amazing, it's great.
Amena Brown:
That's how I learned I was basic from season one. I was like, wow, Angela Bassett really had to come and be in a sketch on this show to let me know because I don't be having lashes because I'll be wearing ... I was like, say one more thing that I'm doing. I'm basic? I am basic? I have to own up to it.
Kelundra Smith:
She said, "I don't want to be a bad bitch on tape."
Amena Brown:
When she was like, "I want to wear flats, I want to just not have to wear lashes." I was like, okay, all these things she listed, I literally called my sister and was like, "Am I basic? Did you watch Black Lady Sketch Show, and am I basic?" Am my sister being quiet, which meant basically she was like, yeah, yeah.
Kelundra Smith:
Your sister is fabulous though. I've never seen her not dress to the nines, she would make us all feel basic.
Amena Brown:
Period. I could go somewhere with her where she's wearing a black dress and some chucks but the way the dress is styled and the chucks and her bald head, it's like everywhere we go, I don't care where we were at, we could be in the middle of Walmart and people being like, "Yes sis." I'll just be proud to be standing next to her. I also learned how to dress because she's my sister, thank you. I also, I too, I too. Let's switch gears and talk about favorite drama series, what was your favorite drama series from the year?
Kelundra Smith:
I was surprised that this show became my favorite drama series. But I have to say I'm musing onto a network that I normally never watch. And that is CBS. And I am here for Queen Latifah kicking butt and taking names in The Equalizer.
Amena Brown:
Wow, yes.
Kelundra Smith:
I am here for it. I love this show, I don't know why. It's a girl power sort of thing I think for me where it's like, she's this retired CIA agent who's now using her cronies from the CIA and the dark web to give justice to people who wouldn't be able to access it without being criminalized by the criminal justice system, which is really interesting. It's like most of the people who she's helping are Middle Eastern, Latino, Black. They're folks who if they were to go to the police with this problem they would immediately be under, suspicious themselves, so to speak. But she is the one who they can go to. The whole thing is like, I'm who you go to when you can't call anyone else. And every episode we see these different aspects of society that are not so out of the question of how people are having to interact and engage. And then there's some freaky stuff technologically in there.
Kelundra Smith:
I remember the first episode they dealt with deep fakes and deep fake where somebody made it look this girl had committed a murder. I was like, could this happen to me? I just be walking down the street, living my whole little, best life, could I be on the belt line and then all of a sudden somebody just snap my image and plaster it onto this video as if I'm committing a murder and the next thing you know I'm prison? It's crazy. So I really am loving The Equalizer, I love seeing her kick behind. Also shout out to the wardrobe stylist on that show, but we always know Queen-
Amena Brown:
The way she be dressed, honey.
Kelundra Smith:
Gives us hair, she gives us wardrobe, it's always.
Amena Brown:
The way those curves arrive every time, I just love it. I'm just like, yes, come on hips, yes, Queen, yes.
Kelundra Smith:
Every time. And then Lorraine Toussaint plays her aunt who's helping her raise her daughter.
Amena Brown:
And you know I love Lorraine, yes.
Kelundra Smith:
We love Lorraine. We've been with Lorraine since Any Day Now.
Amena Brown:
Would you please bring up Any Day Now on this, please? Oh, come one. I love that show. She's literally the reason why I was watching Any Day Now. Kelundra, please. And I want to give a special shout out to, okay, this is the thing that I'm not sure if it's specifically Black, if it's specifically Black and Southern. But I have a lot of memories of certain shows I watched with my grandparents or great grandparents. And some of us have these stories even if you didn't grow up in the South, you had a certain time of the year that you maybe went to for the summer or for certain holidays you spent with your grandparents. And I remember watching the original Equalizer with my grandmother, and so seeing this show, I mean, first of all, it's like sometimes of course we get upset about there not being more space for original stories, original ideas that there's being this space made to do these re-adaptations.
Amena Brown:
And I do think sometimes there is something to that that we want to be able to see these original stories also. But sometimes there is some nostalgia to seeing that re-adaptation and to think here I was this little Black girl in North Carolina watching this white man as the Equalizer on the original show at six or seven years old. And now here I am a grown woman getting to see Queen Latifah play that character now is wonderful to me, I love it. That was a great mention there.
Kelundra Smith:
Let me do just a quick honorable mention to Delilah on OWN.
Amena Brown:
Okay, please.
Kelundra Smith:
If you love a good scandalous story, Delilah is for those of us who were here for American Violet and Erin Brockovich. If those two movies they're your speed, you're going to like Delilah on OWN. And then the other one I have to give a quick shout out to is I really still love me some New Amsterdam on NBC. I love a medical drama, I don't know why. Go ahead Amena, I just had to get that in there.
Amena Brown:
No, these are some good honorable mentions, I'm going to lie about it. I chose as my favorite drama series Impeachment on FX. Shout out to producer Monica Lewinsky letting these people know, executive producer Monica Lewinsky letting these people know that she'd done had enough of y'all telling a story and getting to paint yourselves the way you want to. I'm going to executive produce this series. And it's so much tea, I don't know where y'all from. If y'all drink Milo's, I don't know. But down here if you don't make the sweet tea at your own house, you go to the store and you get the gallon of Milo's. That's just how it is down here. And the way Monica pulled up with a truck of Milo's for the people and was just like, "Somebody asked for the tea? I'm going to go ahead and do a series of the tea. Y'all want to know about Linda Tripp, the tea, y'all want to know about Bill Clinton, the tea."
Amena Brown:
I mean, she pulled up with the tea for the people. And I am just enraptured watching this unfold. I wasn't alive when I was actually watching it on the news, I'm really looking like ... This thing really got me, it got me to the point Kelundra ... First of all, I am a person that watches fictional characters and sometimes has the feeling inside that I want to pray for them real quick, I get that involved in the story. And Monica Lewinsky really got me watching Impeachment wanting someone to set up a GoFundMe. She doesn't have money, she's not doing okay in her life. But I'm really like, wow, who's going to support this young girl, who is going to give this young girl the resource to move on after the way they did her? Y'all, I am very involved in this thing that's based on history, and we already know how it turned out. But yo, yo.
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, I'm with you. That dog on Ryan Murphy, the way he knows he has us pulled into this foolishness is that every episode is more than an hour long, and yet we still watch it.
Amena Brown:
I do every time.
Kelundra Smith:
We're sitting there-
Amena Brown:
I'm not going to stop.
Kelundra Smith:
For an hour and a half watching the tea just spill all up and down Pennsylvania Avenue, it's just a mess. There's so many layers of the foolishness. When the whole Lewinsky thing was happening, I was too young to really have any comprehension or memory of it. I remember this happening, I remember the dress, all of that stuff, but I don't remember, remember. I was in elementary school. I find myself watching American Crime Story Impeachment and getting mad. I'm like, I know why people are mad at the Clintons. And then I feel sorry for Hillary because it's just like, dang, she's never going to ever be able to live this down. And then I look at Monica and I'm like, I like that she's having her say, this is genius. If this had happened today versus when it happened, this would've been handled completely differently, we see that 100%. And then also I look at this and I was like ... Linda Tripp, man.
Amena Brown:
Linda. And I'm like, Linda ain't even here for me to be on her social so I can be like ... Linda has since passed on. But I was like, if Linda was still alive, I would've been all up over her Instagram and Twitter like, "What you going to say for yourself sis? What you going to say?"
Kelundra Smith:
She manipulated Monica for her own ... And then she got this reputation of being a whistleblower but it wasn't motivated by justice. It was motivated by her own greed but we don't know because Linda died last year, the rona got her. We say, God, raise the dead. I have questions though. The thing I need to know Amena is so we see a series the president giving her these gifts, were we the American people funding this girl's lifestyle?
Amena Brown:
Were we funding these copies of Walt Whitman, these tote bags.
Kelundra Smith:
But also the apartment she lived in was just fabulous. The math ain't mathing right, as they say. And so I'm like, were we the tax paying American public funding that? I have more questions. I would like a retrial so that I can cross-examine.
Amena Brown:
This is the most recent episode without spoiling. But there's a moment where Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky both have to face a jury for the perjury. I think this was connected to the Paula Jones, which was leading up to the impeachment, but they have to face a jury. And I don't know if this was actually true to history, but in the show there are a lot of Black women in the jury that they're having to talk to. Also want y'all to know that the Southern place that I come from words like jury and horror only have one syllable, and I'm sorry. Y'all be horror, I don't, it's horror. Whore, W-H-O-R-E and H-O-R-R-O-R are the same word and talk to your mama about it.
Amena Brown:
Also jury and jeweler, same, I don't know. Y'all need some Ws, some Rs, talk to your mom about it. There are Black women in the jury giving true and good Black women WTF face especially as Monica is describing the way she was manipulated in the situation. And then when Linda Tripp comes in and Linda's thinking that she's the righteous one. She's like, "I'm the one who's telling all the truth." These Black women are like, "But why did you do that Linda? Why did you say that Linda?" The way they were leaning to the side, I was like, thank you to these Black women actresses in here because we need this very much. So special shout out to Impeachment, I've gotten very involved, I'm very involved.
Amena Brown:
Let me switch gears because we cannot leave this episode, there's two things we cannot leave this episode without talking about. And the first one is Insecure. We need to just have a moment. If you're not familiar with Insecure, Insecure is the Issa Rae created and executive produced, is it a comedy, a comedy, a dramedy.
Kelundra Smith:
It's a comedy.
Amena Brown:
Okay, a comedy series. We are on the fifth season on HBO. We are on the fifth and final season this year. And the way that I feel my feelings about this final season, it's a combination of feelings. I feel so proud of Issa Rae and this empire that she has built. Many of us were following her back when she was making Awkward Black Girl. That was actually my first introduction to her, her YouTube series, Awkward Black Girl. So just seeing her rise and her glow up has just brought me so much joy. And then seeing these characters and actors, some of whom we didn't know at all five seasons ago and seeing them rise and go on into these wonderful places in their career. I feel the sentimentality about that.
Amena Brown:
I feel my feelings about the way they left us in season four and now coming back into season five and they're taking their sweet time because I have a lot of questions that need to be answered. What are your things you just love about Insecure, the things that have made you mad as far as how they be leaving us on these cliffhangers? Let's just have a little old moment to Insecure.
Kelundra Smith:
So I love Insecure because when it came out, it was one of the only comedies that really started to unpack millennial life, you know what I mean? And really kind of explore ... Even though, yes, it is specifically a group of Black millennials, I have plenty of friends who are not Black who are like, "Yes, I see myself in these characters." And I think that that's really a feat for any writer. So shout out to Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore for really crafting these characters that have a universality to them but also a cultural specificity. And they always seem to hit the right note with that somehow. It's the bullseye every time that's such an achievement. I still find myself most drawn to unpacking and loving the friendship between Molly and Issa and watching it evolve and watching it change. Because we've all lived through that how you have somebody who you were so close to and even enmeshed with and then you get older and you grow apart and there's still love there, but it's not this saying.
Kelundra Smith:
Between them, we're seeing this lingering thing of will they get it back, how long will it last? When does the shoe drop? And can they grow and get better together? I love the way they're stringing us along with this. And I think it's so well done. Because it's been so long between season four and now, I forgot just how hilarious and ridiculous Insecure can be sometimes. When Issa is rapping to herself in the mirror and having those moments, I'm just screaming, I'm laughing so hard. And then also shout out to Natasha Rothwell who is really-
Amena Brown:
Big shouts, big shouts. Natasha, I know you listen to HER With Amena Brown, and we need you on here as a guest. I want you to come on here and do she funny episode because you're amazing. Okay, continue.
Kelundra Smith:
She amazing. Natasha Rothwell as Kelly on Insecure is comic genius, I want a Kelly spinoff.
Amena Brown:
Period, period.
Kelundra Smith:
Her whole life in the universe is just so wild. Speaking of which, we didn't really know Natasha Rothwell prior to Insecure. She was around but we didn't know her as a household name. Now, Natasha is everywhere, she's writing everything. I will still never get over, there is an episode I will not give away. I can't remember whether it was the last season or the season before, it just takes place in a diner and it is autumn.
Amena Brown:
Okay, period, period, that's exactly what I was thinking about and I was like-
Kelundra Smith:
Takes place in a dinner.
Amena Brown:
Wow, wow, have never seen anything like that on TV. I watched that episode multiple times just to be like, she really acted this, she really did that.
Kelundra Smith:
She acted the heck out of it. Special shout out to Amanda Seales for playing a character who is nothing like her. Because we forget sometimes that even though Amanda Seales' physical appearance is a stereotype of a character she plays, she herself is nothing like that's. And so to be able to pull off the of the character of Tiffany is really, really awesome. And then I've always been Team Daniel in terms of Issa's men. I like a man who shows up, he's always when you call, always on time to quote our good sister Ashanti.
Amena Brown:
Okay, okay, come on and quote Ashanti today.
Kelundra Smith:
I'm here for it. As we're seeing kind of Nathan and Issa back in each other's lives, I'm like, what's going on?
Amena Brown:
It's not you, you're voting no on that, voting no.
Kelundra Smith:
I don't want to give nothing away. What do you think Amena?
Amena Brown:
First of all, I'm not going to lie about it that I really want her and Lawrence to work out. I'm not going to lie that I still have small amounts of hopes about that. I don't want to spoil how this season is going so far if you have not been watching Insecure. But the way season four ended I was happy with it until the many names that Black Twitter has made up for Condola's character. I was happy with it until Condoleezza announced that she was pregnant. And I was like, oh, this really adds a wrinkle to some things. So I feel like there's a part of me that just feels they kept having an issue of wrong place wrong time, her and Lawrence as far as their lives and where they were at.
Amena Brown:
And having had such a long relationship through a really difficult time that you have in your 20s when you're trying to find yourself and what your work, life, what that purpose in your life is going to be like. And them feeling they could come back to each other because they were coming more into themselves. And then to have this sort of thing that is a blessing but is also a wrench to their relationship, sad. So if that ain't going to be, then I kind of am curious about Nathan just because I felt he brought out this different side of Issa.
Amena Brown:
There's the scene when they were doing the tour through LA and went and did the little skinny dip in the pool together. I was kind of like, look at him, bringing out this little adventurous side, encouraging her to start her block party situation. I might be team Nathan on that but maybe I need to now be texting you on Sundays after these episodes come on because I feel I'm sitting in my house yelling and having a lot of feelings and then not having anyone to speak to about it.
Kelundra Smith:
I audibly yell at the TV when Insecure is on, I'm like, Molly. It's always Molly.
Amena Brown:
I'm like, don't just change your hair, change your life, change your life, it's what we want for you.
Kelundra Smith:
That to be on a t-shirt. That's the t-shirt right there.
Amena Brown:
Don't just change your hair, change your life, okay. Period, poo period. We have so many other things we can talk about about Insecure, but shout out to Insecure, shout out to Yvonne Orji, Jay Ellis.
Kelundra Smith:
Princess Penny.
Amena Brown:
Shout out to Princess Penny, just out to everybody on Insecure, we just appreciate y'all. That's a show that I feel when this is over I'll probably still have times I'll watch back through the whole thing like I do The Office. It's going to live in that sort of feeling, and I love that for them. Let me close our episode by talking about something very important, favorite Real Housewives franchise. My assistant Leigh said that you and I cannot get on here and talk about TV without her hearing from us our favorite Real Housewives franchise. Talk to me Kelundra, tell me the things.
Kelundra Smith:
So let me just say this, I have been a New Jersey diehard for a very long time because if we're going to wade through trash, then let's wade through the trash that fights at a baby's christening because you don't get lower. These people have been to prison, everybody got a lawsuit. New Jersey had me. But then across the country 2,000 miles away, Salt Lake City has come in and our sister Jen, I don't know whether it's Jen Shah or Mary, but my goodness, they have taken it for me, I am here for it. Who knew that in the land of snow and mountains there was so much Versace and so much nonsense. None of the math maths with how they make their money, it just must be that the cost of living in Salt Lake has to be low. We got charges pending against at least two of them. They're all creating LLCs on ink file that don't make no sense at all. It's like, what is this company that your sons have created, Lisa, why are you funneling VIDA TEQUILA money through your children?
Amena Brown:
Because like, you going to put a business on the babies too, sis, what we doing, dog?
Kelundra Smith:
Like what is this skincare product that Whitney claims to have? What is this stripper pole? How come she can't hold a cake?
Amena Brown:
That baby can't hold a cake at all. Bless her little heart, she can't. She can't hold nobody's cake. If it was my birthday, if she was my friend, I would be like, "Let the baker bring the cake in here, I don't want you lifting a cake, period. No, thank you."
Kelundra Smith:
Can you imagine that being your stepmom and she's like 30, I just can't. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, it's just so much filler, so much bow ties, so much designer.
Amena Brown:
Very much plunged.
Kelundra Smith:
But they be dressing, they be dressing. And then I have just questions about our sister Mary, I sent her prayers. Her life don't make any sense to me.
Amena Brown:
At all, at all, no sense-
Kelundra Smith:
I want her to rent up her house because that green carpet is ugly, but we love her.
Amena Brown:
The math is not being arithmetic regarding Mary's money because this grandmother with the churches and the restaurants and there being so much money that the grandmother is like, "You got to marry my husband when I die so that this ..." Then when I look at the church when they had this scene of them in the church, I was like, I don't really see where the money is coming from for you to be dressing the way you dress having this closet like this. It was a perfect combination of casting here on this show to me because I would've been expecting just a cast full of women who were either Mormon or formally Mormon. And the combination of there being some women who are still die hard Mormon, some women who are like, "Was Mormon, but I'm not anymore."
Amena Brown:
Mary is here with her Pentecostal Holiness, whatever she's doing. And then Jen Shah is here just not really connected to either of these religions all that much really. It was the perfect combination bringing those two together. And this season right here just leaving me hanging on is Jen Shah getting arrested on camera. I'm literally watching every week to be like, what's happening? Special shout out to that, I thought it was going to be boring, it's totally been the best.
Kelundra Smith:
No, they have brought the heat. And let me just say that Whitney need to leave Lisa alone. Go find you some business and get out of Lisa's.
Amena Brown:
Wearing me out, I'm worn out.
Kelundra Smith:
I'm worn out by you, it's like, leave Lisa alone. If she's as mean as y'all say she is, it will show on camera, but I haven't seen it yet.
Amena Brown:
I can't. And other people walk up and they be like, "You're the best, Lisa, I'm so glad to know you." And I'm like, I need some proof out here. Like When Real Housewives of Atlanta had the Bolo incident and we had the little camera that was still left in the house after the crew left, y'all need one of those. If this is really Lisa, I need her on that grainy black and white GoPro that y'all left somewhere so that I can be like ... I need to hear the audio even if I don't see the video, I need some proof. My choice, I mean equally Salt Lake City honestly, but I have to give a shout out to Real Housewives of Potomac right now, I have to.
Amena Brown:
And I feel some type of way because Real Housewives of Atlanta was my entry into the franchise, and I never would've thought I would say Salt Lake City and Potomac are better shows than Real Housewives of Atlanta. As of this recording, Real Housewives of Atlanta is in turmoil regarding casting. I think they have just begun filming as of this recording and some new cast members and some old cast members back and somebody getting peaches that didn't have a peach before. And I'm like, y'all really have a lot to prove to me. you could not have told me that Giselle and Candace and Robyn and Karen Huger the Grand Dame, you could not have told me that these characters from Potomac would outshine Real Housewives of Atlanta. I unfortunately live for how Candace cannot control her mouth in these situations. It's like once she hits a level of she done got mad, she can't bring it back.
Amena Brown:
Her husband trying to bring it back and she cussing him out while he's picking her up by the waist to carry her out somewhere. Mia and her husband G are just taking me all the way out. G on brown liquor should never be filmed by anyone. When he got the liquor in him, I was like, are you licking your tongue out at Karen, what are you doing, dog? But I appreciate about Mia and G that when the other ladies try to shade them about how they met or about what Mia was doing that she, whatever she termed what she was doing, she was exotic dancing, she was exotic bartending, whatever she said she was doing. I love how when the people try to shade them that they just own right up to it, it kind of takes the venom out of it that she's like, "Yeah, maybe I was near pole. Well, anyways, I'm here now with my little businesses. So say what you want to say." I live for this every week. Let me tell you something about Wendy Osefo because I don't know what-
Kelundra Smith:
And her fine husband Eddie.
Amena Brown:
I'm not sure what this booty and these titties brought to Wendy, but this is not the same Wendy from before she had these titties and this booty. And look, it ain't no shade, if that baby want to have that booty and them titties, she welcome to have it. But whatever happened to her when she was up under that anesthesia, somebody else came out from that because she be saying she going to be Zen Wen on the TV show but the next scene she is the opposite of Zen Wen. She is turning up on these people and it's such a filthy read. when she read Giselle in one of the most recent episodes that she thought Giselle was, not just thought, when Giselle was talking down her husband, the way she read Giselle, I was like, this is beyond reading Giselle's outfits. If I was Giselle, I really need a moment to myself to contemplate my life, oh my gosh.
Kelundra Smith:
Giselle stay getting read though, she getting read. She get a good read about twice a season. It is, it's true. That light skin tribunal of Robyn, Giselle and Karen-
Amena Brown:
I don't want you to tell me the light skin tribunal.
Kelundra Smith:
Each one of them just be putting the target on their back. They stay getting a healthy read from somebody because, first of all, coming for Eddie is not the answer because we love Eddie. Eddie is a successful doctor, Eddie is fine, hey Eddie. I would've come at Giselle for saying something about Eddie too is what I'm saying. And then Mia and her husband, their math does math right. They don't have to be bothered by the insults. We all know it's a joint chiropractic in every summer, and that's what they own. So they don't have to be bothered by, oh, you met this way or that way because they have receipts.
Amena Brown:
Period, they will get you adjusted. Didn't Mia tell her she would help you get adjusted, please.
Kelundra Smith:
Adjusted, okay. And then Candace stayed digging her own grave. I be trying to feel for Candace, but I can't, it's-
Amena Brown:
She don't make it easy on us, she don't make it easy on us. Even after everything, spoiler alerts if you haven't seen the previous season, but even after everything that happened with her and Monique, I was like, here you go, we in a new season and you starting to use your mouth the same way. And if you're going to use it against Mia, I think Mia is bigger and stronger. You in the ring with Mia, you're going to see what The Rock is cooking, you know what I'm saying? Mia, you don't want that. You little bitty literally this big sis, you don't want it. Mia could really accidentally hit you, and that's all.
Kelundra Smith:
No, Mia's left titty is bigger than Candace.
Amena Brown:
Okay, okay, please, please.
Kelundra Smith:
It's like Candace, calm down, why are you so mad? Also the way Candace comes for people, the vitriol that just comes out of her mouth, that's a learned skill. I don't know where that comes from. Sis need to lay down on a sofa somewhere and work that out.
Amena Brown:
I know it come from, it come from that mama honey. That is from her mama all day long. I was like you have been in therapy trying to get this relationship right with your mama, but you don't realize that lady raised you. That same thing that she hit you with, you do it to other people too. That is her mom all day, that ability to so quickly insult you and insult you at a point that she knows what's going to hurt you like that. I was like, Candace, dog, stop. Even when Chris pulled her out, Chris sat the girl on his lap trying to explain to her these are the reasons why we don't need to respond this way. And she was literally still cussing him to the end. I was like, Candace, please, are we going to go back to the therapist to have some sessions with him on camera so we can see what Natasha Rothwell taught us is growth, are we going to see that?
Kelundra Smith:
Listen, she got to want to change, that's the thing. She got a warning, and I don't think she wants it right now. But she's going to want it at some point, she's going to want it, she is, but it's just not today.
Amena Brown:
I'm going to tell y'all right now-
Kelundra Smith:
She got that ponytail on and that mouth is moving.
Amena Brown:
Period. I'm going to tell y'all right now that I might really have to convince Kelundra to get on IG live with me when it comes to these reunions because the Potomac and the Salt Lake City reunions is about to be so very wild. And I don't know, Kelundra, we might have to work it out because I feel I need to process what I'm seeing here, I feel like other people need to. So we might need to circle back around because when the reunions come, then I'm going to have to have a lot more conversation because I know I saw some clips of Wendy having printed out some tweets on a large poster board.
Kelundra Smith:
On a poster.
Amena Brown:
I'm just like, oh, this is what I need. Kelundra, thank you so much for talking all this TV with me, there was so much good TV. We had to narrow down what we were going to talk to y'all about. But Kelundra, please tell the people how can they follow you, stay connected to you so they can be a part of the other creative things that you're up to?
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, thank you so much. So it's Kelundra Smith, K-E-L-U-N-D-R-A, last name Smith, S-M-I-T-H. And you can find me on my website at kelundra.com, that's K-E-L-U-N-D-R-A, .com. You can also follow me on Instagram at anotherpieceofkay, that's kay with K-A-Y And there's also Twitter at pieceofKay. So Twitter at pieceofkay, Instagram at anotherpieceofkay. And then you can know that all I tweet about is the foolishness we talked about today. All my tweets are about some foolishness I've seen or some foolishness I've done. So for please come and follow and get your life and have some fun on these interwebs.
Amena Brown:
Please. Oh my gosh, y'all go follow, do all the things. Kelundra, I thank you. Maybe we'll have to make a yearly tradition of this. Maybe next year we'll be able to actually be in-person with snacks. We can bring snacks to the HER living room when we talk about 2022 TV. Let's plan on that.
Kelundra Smith:
Yes, I'm here for it, I'm here for this being an annual thing. And I'm here for going live for reunions because let me tell you my reunion tradition is serious. We've got popcorn, we've got Prosecco.
Amena Brown:
Yes, popcorn and Prosecco?
Kelundra Smith:
Yes.
Amena Brown:
I'm ready, honey. Me and Kelundra are going to talk about that offline, we're going to figure out some plans. So y'all be following us on social media in case we try to surprise y'all. Kelundra, thank you so much. HER With Amena Brown is produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network in partnership with iHeartRadio. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.