Cedric Yarbrough of RENO911! talks about the new season
Erica Tiffany
After a season-ending explosion, RENO911!, season six picked up by not addressing the death of a cast member, but returned to the show’s comedic hijinks. Cedric Yarbrough, Deputy Jones, discusses what he thinks about the new season.Q: What can we expect from season six of RENO911!?
A: I guess I shouldn’t reveal who died, or who is away, or whatever happened in the season finale, you’ll have to tune in for that, but there is really funny **** this season. There are two new guys and they’re really funny cats. Joe Lo Trugilio plays Frank Rizzo. He’s a New York kinda guy who’s been through the ropes and is now in Reno.
Ian Roberts plays Sgt. Decklin. He’s Jonesy’s superiorland there’s a rivalry there. I’m wondering how did I get passed over for the job? In the time of Obama, black people are supposed to rise!
These guys are great improvisers and I hope the audience accepts them. It’s kind of weird to bring in new guys after five successful seasons, but the show works well on the element of surprise. It’s like a cartoon. It’s like, I can’t believe they said that, I can’t believe she’s eating that, or I can’t believe they’re nude again.
Q: How much of RENO911! is improvised?
A: I would say about 90 percent. It’s extremely in-house and a very organic show. We don’t have a team of writers, we just have Tom, Ben and Carrie and they come up with stuff and we also pitch ideas.
It’s a lot more satisfying because when the audience is enjoying the show I know that it’s coming from me.
I want to see “Two and a Half Men” improvised. Not to take anything from their type of show, but not a lot of people can do what we do. It can be pretty intimidating. So I give Kudos to our guest stars. We ask a lot of them and what they produce comes from their own brains. Carmen Electra, who guest stars this season, loves me. She definitely has an impressive resume and it was fun working with her.
Q: What other projects are you currently working on?
A: I recently did a film called “Black Dynamite” and it got accepted at Sundance. It looks like a movie that was made in 1974 and you just never saw it. We’re all in afros and bad colors. Sony bought it and hopefully it will be released by the end of the summer. I think the college audience will really like it.
I’ve also been doing some stand up with Garcia from the show, we’ve been doing a mini comedy tour, we’ll try to get out to Phoenix.
