“You laugh everyday,” admits “The Ms. Pat Show” director Mary Lou Belli. In our recent webchat she adds, “The smartest people I’ve ever worked with are comedy writers. You can’t parody something unless you can see the macro version of the world and find the humor in it.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“The Ms. Pat Show” is the multi-cam BET+ sitcom based on the comedy and life of comedian Ms. Pat. The star of the show had not done much acting before the series. Belli says, “Good actors always share one commonality and it is their authenticity. Pat brings that to the screen so naturally. Now we’re in the fourth season, she knows she can do it.”
Belli has received her third straight Comedy directing Emmy nomination for the series, and it’s the only multi-cam contender this year. The director explains, “The laughs are not canned. We are recording the people who are watching it. It’s great for me because if they don’t laugh, we know they have to tweak something”
The episode she is nominated for directing was the season 4 premiere “I’m the Pappi.” In the episode, the family is managing a teen pregnancy while stuck in a blizzard. Belli states, “We are telling universal stories. All families have challenges. Who doesn’t know a teenager who got pregnant in high school? We think about taking care of people and how far you go if it’s going to impact your life in a big way. And of course, from a physical standpoint, we delivered a baby in front of a live studio audience. We showed the live birth! This was crazy and it was funny.”
The beginning of the episode also pays a lovely homage to old black and white sitcoms. To prepare for the scene, Belli reveals, “I said, ‘Pat I want you to think of this duster as a magic wand, and I want you to float like a fairy.’ It could have gone either way, but she heard the music and was inspired and just literally, in that black and white frilly dress, floats through the scene.”
Belli reflects, “Directors need to learn to listen and watch and give that little pearl. As soon as you see that little thing in the actor’s eyes, even if you are in the middle of a sentence, walk out and start rolling. Tap into that piece of inspiration they are feeling.”
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