Take “Toys R Me,” a 2012 Funny or Die sketch that starred Reddick because the authoritarian. supervisor of a mom-and-pop toy store. After delivering a drill sergeant-like briefing, Reddick’s character proceeds to prowl the shop in search of any imperfection.
“Know the [expletive] toys and show them some [expletive] respect!” he growls to one employee before pushing an unsatisfactory Bakugan display to the ground. When an employee explains away her long bathroom break by saying she’s on her period, Reddick’s manager sniffs the air, narrows his eyes and menacingly retorts: “No you are not.”
“Lance Reddick has no worry of the absurd,” said Luke Barnett, who starred with Reddick in the 2020 comedy film “Faith Based.” The actor and screenwriter even wrote Reddick’s role with him in mind after watching “Toys R Me.”
“He commits to no matter he is doing,” he stated.
Reddick tended to stay true to form when dabbling in comedy, playing serious figures in silly scenarios. In the 2012 College Humor sketch “Nice Try, IHOP,” he portrayed what might have been a parody of his stone-faced cop from “The Wire,” Cedric Daniels, now hellbent on thwarting businesses that had moved into former IHOP restaurants.
“I’m right here to reveal the scumbags behind it, one IHOP at a time,” he says with righteous indignation, sporting suspenders and rolled-up sleeves. Speaking to a business owner in a dim interrogation room, he asks: “When you get up within the center of the evening, on their own along with your guilt, do you hear the cries of folks hungry for delicious blintzes?”
Last year, he guest starred in the Season 3 finale of HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” as a father whose disgust at two tarantulas in his dining room is mistaken for detest at his gay daughter’s coming out. In an Instagram post Friday, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” creator and star Robin Thede wrote that Reddick “saved me laughing each time we spoke.”
Reddick wasn’t above dabbling within the really ridiculous. When he appeared on a 2013 episode of “The Eric Andre Show,” a satirical Adult Swim talk show known for throwing off its guests with non-sequiturs and demeaning questions, Reddick wholeheartedly committed to the bit.
First, he punched a gap in Andre’s desk—deadpanning, “You want a brand new desk”—and stormed offstage. Moments later, he came back dressed as an amalgamation of LeVar Burton’s roles as an enslaved person in “Roots” and space engineer in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” With Shackles on his wrists, a visor over his eyes and a Starfleet insignia on his bare chest, Reddick embarked on a bombastic, profanity-laced rant.
“The slam-the-desk thing was just spontaneous,” Reddick said on SiriusXM’s “Jim and Sam Show” in 2019. “I’m a bit of a clown, so I love that kind of stuff. My background is traditional theatre, not sketch comedy, so I’m always a little nervous about being asked spontaneously to improvise. But generally … if part of me just says, ‘F— it’ and just kind of jumps off, I’m fine.”
In “Faith Based,” Reddick portrayed a pastor whose adopted son (performed by Barnett, the screenwriter) makes a Christian sci-fi movie as a get-rich-quick scheme. On the second day of taking pictures, Barnett recalled, he and his collaborators got here up with the thought for a number of actors—together with Reddick—to put on skintight green-screen fits.
Barnett stated he hid from Reddick “out of fear of his reaction.” But 5 minutes later, he heard Reddick laughing from the opposite room earlier than gleefully rising in his costume.
“The same way he would commit to Shakespeare, he committed to playing a goofy pastor wearing a green-screen suit,” Barnett stated. “So it was really fun to write silly, absurd lines and scenarios that he could be in, knowing that he would treat them as if this were a prestige drama.”
Reddick’s comedic sensibility was one of many traits that did not all the time come by means of in his main roles. Devoted to his modest Instagram fan base, the Baltimore native would mug to the digicam as his many canines howled within the background, or play a piano piece from his album, “Contemplations and Remembrances.” In a publish final summer season, he slouched on a settee whereas taking part in “Destiny 2,” a large multiplayer recreation by which he voiced Commander Zavala. Since Reddick’s dying, Destiny gamers have been staging in-game vigils for the actor by gathering their avatars round his character and bowing in tribute.
“He was just the most down-to-earth person,” Barnett stated. “He was the best.”