Can a childhood memento bring good luck and inspiration decades into the future? For comedy writer Alrinthea Carter, who’s held onto her MC Hammer doll from the 1980s, the answer is an emphatic yes. In this episode, Carter discusses her pop culture favorites from the 80s and 90s, what MC Hammer meant to her then (and now), why the doll has pride of place on her talisman shelf (along with a Prince candle), and how she makes sure the doll never gets lost during a move. Take a stroll down memory lane to learn about how Carter’s storytelling prowess was nurtured early on by the stories she told about MC Hammer and her Barbie dolls while acting as a “little kid showrunner” and how that active play and MC Hammer’s artistic example helped lead to her future career as an Emmy-nominated writer on shows like Yo Gabba GabbaLand! and A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Click on “Transcript” on the top right to read an auto-generated transcript of this episode.
About our guest:
Alrinthea Carter is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer (Yo Gabba GabbaLand!, A Black Lady Sketch Show), photographer, and improviser based in Los Angeles, CA. She has studied improv and sketch comedy on stages across the country, including Alchemy Comedy Theater, The Second City, and The Pack Theater, and currently serves on the Board of Improv Utopia. When not writing or making up stuff on stage, she is an obsessive plant mom and Kitchen DJ. Her patron saint is and will always be Prince.
Blog: alrintheacarter.com
Instagram: @alrinthea
Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. If you like the podcast, we’d greatly appreciate if you’d leave a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts and tell your friends about it to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers
For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.
