ABC’s “” has already established its original fish-out-of-water premise: the story of rapper Courtney Rose (Brandon Micheal Hall), who unexpectedly b💯ecomes may🌸or of a struggling Northern California town.
Now, the sitcom is delving into the lives of the series’ supporting characters, including Courtne🐲y’s mom, Dina (Yvette Nicole Brown), a regular congregant at her local Baptist church.
Enter Arsenio Hall.
On Tuesday’s (Nov. 7) episode, the veteran performer and former two-time late-nꦦight host plays Dina’s pastor, Reverend Ocho Okoye, who wants her to join the choir.
“She loves to sing songs around the house, but she neve🧔r does anything for herself,” says Hall, 61. “This is a person who doesn’t have a personal life.”
Hall proves an engaging mentor, using his infectious good mood to enliven scenes filmed at the church, a real house of worship in LA’s San Fernando Valley, and in scenes that take place at Dina’s apꦏartment — where Reverend Okoye shows up to make a personal appeal when Dina continues to miss choir practice.
Brown, who went to the same Cleveland high school as Hall (“We were about a hundred years apart,” he says) and made his acquaintance, contacted him by text ꦐwhen she knew “The Mayor” showrunner Jeremy Bronson was looking for someone to play the pastor. Ha🌼ll threw himself into the project, meeting members of the Carter Family, gospel singers featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “.”
“I had three of them on my last talk show. They sang with my band the whole night,” he s🅺ays. “They would practice a🃏nd warm up between takes on ‘The Mayor.’ It was real spirited.”
Whil🎃e filming, Hall also had time to hang out with the show’s trio of young actors — Hall, Bernard David James, who plays the nattily attired Jermaine, and Marcel Spears, the show’s gossip, T.K. Cl♛ifton.
“They are really young and new in the business. They were asking me�� the same questions I used to ask James Earl Jones when we did ‘Coming to Americ💎a,’” Hall says. “We talked about business managers and their rider. Then they asked, ‘Do you know Bill Cosby? What’s up with that?’ They wanted all the 411.”
When not filming the occasional TV guest🍌 appearance, Hall spends most of his time doing stand-up. In August, he did 20 minutes at Radio City Music Hall, during Dave Chappelle’s long engagement there. “It has perfect acoustics for comedy and Chappelle has the best audience,” he says. “They’re puꦛrists.”
They’re also well-behaved, leaving their cell 🐈phones in a pouch before entering the auditorium so there won’t be any forbidden recording of jokes or filming of the comics on stage. “You do some Tiger Woods or Trump jokes and they’re on the Inter🗹net before you get home,” Hall says. “People [at Radio City] were actually listening. I was doing a show in Charlotte and I had a woman turn [her] back to me and do a selfie and I’m like, ‘Sit your ass down and put your phones away for one hour.’”
As part of his “Geritol tour,” Hall prefers to work only on weekends. “I looked at Chris Rock’s schedule and almost fainted. You can’t keep a relationship going,” he says. “Who is she?” He laughs and says, “It’s not like I’m dating 𒆙the star of ‘Dear White People.’ She’s a nice girl from San Diego and sh♕e’s not famous.”