“I met with a guy and he gave me a show that was terrible,” began Chris Redd. “I went back to my talented friends who don’t do terrible comedy and said, ‘We should make a version of this.’ We kept jamming on that shit and there were four different versions, but it eventually became Bust Down.”

Redd is known for his work on Saturday Night Live, Popstar, and Joker. His talented friends include Sam Jay (SNL, Pause with Sam Jay), Langston Kerman (South Side, Insecure), and Jak Knight (Big Mouth, Black-ish).

The show they created is called Bust Down, a Peacock original that follows four casino employees in a dead-end job in middle America who want to find self-worth within their bad ideas.

“This show, in a beautiful way, has also tracked our evolution as artists,” said Langston. “What would have been the show, years ago, would have been real bad. And now it’s pretty good.”

Combining comedy styles from shows like South Side, SNL, Big Mouth, and everything in between the writers found their own unique tone with Bust Down.

In this interview, the writer-performers talk about finding voice, misconceptions of comedy, the importance of story, their initial pitch for the show, and advice for writers trying to break in today.

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