Demascus is currently streaming on Tubi and people are surprised by this Sci-fi comedy. That Hashtag Show was lucky enough to sit down with showrunner Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm. He penned Demascus, a wild science fiction journey through the multiverse with Okieriete Onaodowan, Janet Hubert, Caleb Eberhardt, Shakira Ja’nai Paye and Martin Lawrence. It turns out the germ of this idea grew out of a play he wrote at Julliard.
“So the way the Julliard program is sort of set up is that each playwright brings in a brand new play each week,” Chisholm told us. “And so my week was coming up, I didn’t have a play, and so I wrote down this argument discussion I was having with my fiance at the time. And so I made us characters.”
He continued, “She was Naomi, I was Demascus, and then I wrote some of our friends into it and I wrote this short little story about this guy dealing with depression after the election, and it was well-received and even had a little production in St. Louis at one point, but it’s just like this one x play this one-off. And it felt complete, but I wasn’t done with the characters because I really liked them.”
At it’s core, Demascus is an examination of what it means to be a Black man in the world. How does that identity shift, how does it remain rooted in culture and family despite various stressors? Can you build a foundation when there’s nothing solid keeping it tethered down? All very big topics for a comedy show to be tackling.
Demascus on Tubi examines identity through humor
Despite those serious moments, the humor of the sci-fi trappings always shines through. Chisholm demonstrates a bit of observational awareness about the tandem horrors of modern life and its beauty. Often in the same breath! It’s a bit of a tightrope to walk, but don’t you dare peg him as a “comedic writer.” He’s just thinking about how people talk and move through the world, which happens with a bit of a smirk sometimes.
“It’s interesting because I don’t consider myself a comedic writer. I just write, and I know that feels strange, but I don’t write to be funny,” Chisholm laughed with me. “I think if I sat down, I’m like, let’s write something funny. It’s going to be terrible. I try to write the truth of people. I try to write people how I hear people talking. I hear comedy in the way people talk, but just sort of the way I approach life is everything is funny until it’s not.”
“And so it’s sort of inherently, I try to capture the true comedy of scenarios. I’m not trying to write jokes. And so I think when I write jokes, those are not good,” the showrunner added. “But yeah, I think that there’s just sort of a spirit of comedy throughout all of it. It’s like, what else can you do? You have to laugh at these things or go crazy or something.”
Demascus is currently streaming on Tubi!
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