Cedric Yarbrough – Reno 911!

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Where pick up with Jones in this new season of “Reno 911!”?

A) We pick up years a little later. Maybe twenty to thirty pounds a little later. [laughs] A shorter haircut, but still very strange. He’s still quite weird, as all of them are. They have all kind of been in their own set of arrested development. They are all still working at the Reno Sheriff’s department. It’s just kind of a fun escape…”Bugs Bunny” was only five minutes long. That’s what our new show is with Quibi. They are six or seven minutes long. It’s just enough. We cut out all the filler and just get down to the funny stuff.

Q) What made you want to return to playing this role?

A) What was interesting was just doing the show again. The show is so much fun. I love the cast. We’ve been wanting to do the show for a long time. There was an offer to do the show again a couple years after we let go of it. It seemed too soon and eleven years later there was a real opportunity to do the show that everyone loves, but in a different format. Quibi is the new way of watching the show, but it’s still that fun improvised show that people really loved. Now, with this particular format you can watch it vertically or horizontally. Sometimes if you turn your phone, you’ll watch it from the cop’s point of view or from a cop cam or you’ll see a different perspective completely. So, it’s really kind of fun to see the same scene, but in a different perspective. That’s also very different than what you’d watch on TV.

Q) Kerri Kenney told me there are note cards with a premise that then leads to a punchline. How much of a say do you have with how Jones develops as a character?

A) I don’t have a whole lot to say as far as the trajectory of what the character would go to or do. But I have all the say in what he says, the actual dialogue. There were times in the past where our first seasons we would do much like what we did with this particular one. This one is a little more controlled, I would say. The producers were a little bit more hands on than what we had previously. I think it’s because we’re going into a new territory. If we do a new season the cast will have more of a say in what they want to do per scene and what the characters want to do and what we want to do with the characters. I’m not worried about that. I think our producers (Tom [Lennon], Ben [Garant] and Kerri) have known our show forever. They created the show and we felt really safe in their hands. The whole thing was just to do a fun way to get back to work with each other. I get to work with Wendi [McLendon-Covey] a lot on “The Goldbergs,” but I don’t get to see the rest of the cast very often. Whatever the format was, I was down just to get to hang out with them again. You know, you want to see “The Muppets” back together. You don’t want to see Fozzy Bear hanging out somewhere else. You want to see him with Miss Piggy and Kermit. It’s such a fun way to hang out with each other again.

Q) Was there a cherished character you play that you were hoping to make a reappearance?

A) Not particularly. I was just happy that the cast wanted to and that the cast could. I’m very busy as is Niecy Nash who is working on the show “Claws.” As is Wendi with “The Goldbergs.” So, I was worried that we were all not going to be able to get together and be able to do the show – being in the same room, let alone the same state. Niecy films in New Orleans so I was just ecstatic to be able to be able to work with each other in the same room. Our schedules were very different and our shooting schedules were very different. We shot on the weekends. We shot whenever we could just so we could have them all in the same scenes. I was excited that we got our original cast together, but we also have fun, great guest stars. Tim Allen gets to play with us. We have Weird Al Yankovic. Patton Oswalt comes back. Toby Huss and the great Jim Rash play with us again. So, all of your fun characters from the series previously are with us in this rendition.

Q) Were you hoping to share a scene with someone then that you don’t see on a regular basis?

A) I just wanted to work with everyone. It was just a good opportunity to get people in the world together and do the show. We have done this show since 2000. That was the first time we did the show. We shot the pilot in 2000 for FOX and they didn’t particularly want the show. And it was sold to Comedy Central three years later. So, I’ve known these guys for many years. Our first episode aired in 2003 – seventeen years ago. So, I’ve known these guys for a lot of my time being here in Los Angeles. It’s just great to see everyone again. It was weird getting in those costumes and figuring out can we do this again? Can we improvise again? Can we capture lightning in a bottle the way that we did before? Comedy is very precious, especially improvised comedy. Can you reenact something that you guys did twenty years ago? And will the audience like it? Will they care? Will they want to see it? And I’m very ecstatic for people to see this. I’ve got a chance to see twelve episodes and we’re definitely back. It sounds funnier because people have now aged and have life experience. But I really am ecstatic for the fans to see it.

Q) Will we be seeing Dangle continue to pass overt gestures towards Jones?

A) Yeah, there is always weird, strange innuendo. There are weird opportunities for him to sexually harass at the workplace. [laughs] There is a particular scene…I don’t want to give it away, but let’s just say that Dangle’s mouth is on Jones in a way that should not happen. It’s not appropriate. [laughs] That’s all I’ll give.

Q) Which of the cast members tends to crack the most when filming?

A) Yes. There is one person that is pretty infamous for breaking. Carlos Alazraqui is breakable. He is enjoying the show way too much. [laughs] So, it’s easy to get him. Wendi is also pretty close. She’s good at getting got. And it’s hard! We say the most outlandish stuff to each other. That’s the mark of knowing you’re doing your job, when you can get your crew and your fellow funny people to laugh. That’s when you know when you’re hitting it. I would say Carlos is definitely the worst. It has the element of the show “Cops” and that’s why we improvise, to make it look fresh and authentic. You get that first reaction. It’s usually the best reaction. The first take is usually the most authentic, most brilliant, the most exciting and the most dangerous. So, you want that first take.

Q) What have been some of your favorite episodes of all time?

A) I’m a big fan of the show. I love watching the show. I haven’t watched it in a while, but when I did watch it some of my favorite stuff, I wasn’t a part of a lot of the times. When fans come up to me and stop me it’s usually about “And the installation is free” episode. People love that episode where Jones has this new voiceover career doing a jingle for this carpet cleaning company. He thought he was being paid two hundred dollars each time the jingle aired and it was just a flat rate of two hundred dollars. So, he had spent money on clothes, a car, a new hot girlfriend and all kinds of stuff. He ends up having a pretty big crash at the end. People seem to love that episode. That and a lot of people love the “TUI” stuff. There is a scene that we shot the first night of shooting “Reno 911!” Wendi and I wrote a sketch about her pulling over a drunk cowboy and her doing choreography, him keeping up with her and doing a drunk alphabet backwards. There were all kinds of stuff and then he outs himself. So many people have talked to me about that scene and I play the drunk cowboy. A lot of people don’t know that I’m the drunk cowboy. People will send it to me and say, “You should do this on ‘Reno 911!’” Well, that is “Reno 911!” That’s me, the drunk cowboy. There are so many scenes from the show from the first six seasons that endure all of these years. But I think a lot of people are going to like some of the subject matter that we deal with now. We deal with cop harassment or people trying to catch police officers doing something wrong on their phones. We also deal with race relations where we realize that we have never shot an unarmed white person before. They are always unarmed people of color. So, we’re on a hunt to try to figure out how to shoot an unarmed white person in Reno. There are a lot of subjects we deal with of this new era and time. “Reno 911!” can adjust to that. It’s forever green. It’s always something you can watch because police officers are always with us. [chuckles]

Q) What makes now the right time to return to “Reno 911!”?

A) We always want to laugh. Now in this time with this pandemic, it’s kind of nice to just laugh at something and this new format is probably not the best way to sell the show. But everyone needs to go to the bathroom. So, you go in and go to the bathroom and you take me with you and you laugh at “Reno.” Get in there. Take me in there when you go to the bathroom. Wash your hands, of course, for twenty seconds. Then, you’ve watched a funny episode of “Reno 911!” and you come out of the bathroom laughing.

Q) What have you personally taken away from your time working on this special series?

A) Well, I was kind of looking at old pictures of us. Little vacation photographs from things the cast would go on or from behind the scenes. We filmed in a working police station and it just made me think about how much I’ve learned about the business about working with people, about the kind of actor I wanted to be, the type of actor that I turned out to be. And a lot of those life lessons I learned on “Reno” I carry with me on shows that I’ve gone on to do. How I treated my crew on “Reno” and making sure I show up on time and I’ve prepared and am always courteous. It’s how I’ve always carried myself with every other show. There is just a lot of lessons I’ve learned on that set that I carry with me still.

Q) You have been a part of a number of incredible TV series and films. What have been some of your favorite projects that you have worked on?

A) That’s a hard question. I’d imagine if you’re a parent and you have several children; how do you pick? I don’t know. Maybe you do have a favorite, but I don’t know how to pick your favorite child. I got in this business because I felt there was nothing else, I was very good at. [laughs] So, I always felt when I was growing up in Minneapolis learning how to be an actor, I always wanted to learn everything. I wanted to learn sketch and improv and voiceover work, singing and dancing and directing and writing. I tried to learn as much as I could but always be employed. My education has really helped me in working in LA. So, I’ve been able to work in different genres and people seem to enjoy it. I’ve had an amazing experience working on “Reno,” but doing “Speechless” was another great, great job to have. People got to see me in a different light and my acting chops in a different light. Doing my current project, “Carol’s Second Act,” and doing a sitcom is definitely different than doing a show like “Reno.” The rhythm and beats are so different than doing that or a show like “Speechless.” Then, I got a chance to work with the great Michael Jai White on the movie Black Dynamite. People talk about that movie and love that film. Then, I went on to do The House with Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell, who are heroes of mine. I got to go toe to toe with them and improvise with them. It was so much fun. Then, I got to work with the great late Bernie Mac on his show, who gave me so much confidence to do what I do. He knew my audition and knew what I was doing that week. I think he also knew a little bit about “Reno 911!” But he loved what I was doing and he encouraged me to keep striving and to follow my own voice. Bring what you believe is funny to any script or to any format is paramount. That’s what is going to pay your bills – having your own perspective and trusting your instincts. That’s what is going to be helpful and that taught me a lot. I could rattle on and on and on, but I’ve got to say that they’ve all been very good to me, the opportunities that I’ve had.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about the upcoming “Reno 911!” return?

A) It’s free right now. You get a 90-day trial. There is no excuse to not get it! Also, I hope that people enjoy it. It was such a cool, fun, weird experience coming back to something that you haven’t’ done in eleven years. I hope that everybody gets that experience. That they get to do something that they loved and then be able to come back to it after some time. I don’t think that is always possible and I certainly didn’t think we’d come back like this. But it really was a fun opportunity and with a little hope maybe we’ll do another season of it.