Paul Scheer Spills The Beans On That Crazy ‘Black Monday’ Season 3 Finale

Showtime’s Black Monday started out as a dark comedy about the events leading up to the titular stock market crash in 1987, and since closing out its first season with that financial catastrophe, creators David Caspe and Jordan Cahan have continued marching their characters through the late ’80s. Closeted Blair (Andrew Rannells) entered politics as a candidate for the increasingly doctrinaire GOP. His wife, denim heiress Tiff (Casey Wilson), bounced back from his scandals with the help of a Christian TV network. Dawn (Regina Hall) remade The Jammer Group, the testosterone-laden finance shop in which she got her start, as a bastion for Wall Street women. And Mo (Don Cheadle) turned his attention to making a quick buck off a savings and loan.

In its just-ended third season — warning: spoilers ahead! — Black Monday also became a murder mystery: starting with an assassination attempt on Blair, the bodies of the leads’ former associates have been hitting the floor (or, in the case of Horatio Sanz’s spectacularly unfortunate Wayne, exploding). The finale has now revealed the murderer’s identity: Corky Harris (June Diane Raphael), widow of Roger (Tuc Watkins), who died by suicide in the second season after his affair with Blair hit the press.

On the eve of the season finale, I spoke with Paul Scheer, who plays formerly closeted trader/blackmail victim/sometime beachside coke dealer Keith. And since Scheer happens to be Raphael’s husband in real life, the scene in which Keith finds himself in mortal danger from Corky has an extra layer of potential danger. “Luckily I did not have to kill my wife,” Scheer notes. “That doesn’t seem like good karma.”

DECIDER: We’ve arrived at the moment the season’s been building toward: the murderer unmasked! I spent most of the season thinking it was Werner [Thomas Barbusca, who played Blair’s intern].

PAUL SCHEER: I think David and Jordan really wanted to create something that feels like a Knives Out, or a Clue, over the course of the season. So there were some red herrings.

On 9-1-1, the Fox show—

I’m familiar!

Then you know there was an arc where Maddie is in mortal danger from her estranged husband, who was played by her real husband, Brian Hallisay. Now you can add that to the list of things you and Jennifer Love Hewitt have in common!

Finally, it all comes together. Luckily I did not have to kill my wife; technically I just had to watch her die. I will say this: to watch her best friend kill her with a sword — now it makes me a little bit more suspect of Casey. I know she has it within her, so as June’s husband, I have to watch out for that.

You’ve worked with June in a lot of situations. I don’t think this is one you’ve found yourselves in before, where her character was threatening to kill yours.

No, I don’t think so. I did a show called NTSF:SD:SUV, which was very 24-based. And I think at one point she might have been brainwashed. I don’t think she tried to kill me.

How did you prepare for that together?
What was really challenging for June was to make it convincing, and delivering the exposition dump of all exposition dumps. There was constant rewriting and tweaking this three-page monologue. So I did my husbandly duty of being her offstage reader at home. Maybe this is a scoop: there was talk of having Lenny or Larry [Leighman, both played by Ken Marino] do one or two of the murders. I think the show has always been very good at being malleable about what makes most sense, all the way back to Season 1, where my character was scripted to die.

When David and Jordan delivered this monologue for June, I think she felt the weight of it. “I’m coming into a show, and I have to stick the ending, because we’re building to this moment.”

I don’t think I knew that Keith was supposed to die in Season 1.

I had just come off of a show, and David and Jordan were like, “Hey, we have this part that we think would be really awesome for you. It’s this guy, he’s living a double life, and at the end of the season he betrays Mo, and then kills himself to save Dawn. We envision the advertising to be the four of you on a poster, so you would never think that one of you four would die, and then you would die, and it would be great.” Michael Keaton, at one point, was going to be the lead on Lost, and he was going to die at the end of the first episode. I love all that stuff, so I was like, “Count me in.” But then as I started working on the show, by Episode 8 I was like, “I don’t want to leave.” David and Jordan and I, we had these lunches, and we’d be like, “It’s a bummer.” We talked for a long time: “All right, how could Keith come back in Season 2?” There was an idea of Keith being like a Ghost of Christmas Past to Blair at one point. We had all these ideas, and then I believe one night one of them just jumped up in bed like, “Oh, wait a second, we have it.” They were able to draw the line to Jammer [Bruce Dern], but we were struggling with that for a long time.

In a show like this, where it’s sometimes only barely tethered to reality and your character is making the worst possible decisions all the time, how do you keep a handle on Keith’s humanity?

Not to be too actor-y about it, but I look at everything and think, “How can I make this feel real?” I don’t want to make a decision that I don’t understand. I’m sure I’m incredibly annoying to David and Jordan. We are a bunch of characters who backstab each other, so you have to figure out where the love is, too. They do actually love each other. They do actually trust each other, and you have to imbue that into the scenes. Don, Regina, Andrew, and I are always having those conversations: “But why am I saying that? Why am I doing that?” And even if it’s a look, or a glance, or a moment, or a word, at least that lets us go forward.

As of the finale, Black Monday has officially arrived at 1990. Are there any ’90s events or trends that you would especially love the show to incorporate, since it’s had so much fun with the ’80s?

One of the things I love about the show is that they embrace the less-expected touchstones of the ’80s. Thanks to our amazing costume designer and our production designer, we don’t have everyone playing with a Rubik’s Cube, but we do get into Nintendo and the Duck Hunt guns.

So, wow, what are the pop culture trends of the ’90s? Wouldn’t be funny if you find out these characters were behind Milli Vanilli, in some way? It’s the beginning of grunge, gangsta rap. That’s an interesting world for us to be in, this straddling the line between real and fake, because the ’80s is a lot about being fake. So where do these characters end up? I don’t think we’re going to end up in New York, and I don’t think that we’re going to end up in finance. I think there’s a lot of fun stuff to explore. What are the ways that you can get money? Beanie babies, Tamagotchi, all these ways of taking advantage of people legally.

The early internet. too.

Yes, exactly.

Any time Keith gets to do anything other than finance, he seems so happy. Whether it’s selling drugs on the beach, or running this fake wedding.

To me, I feel like that’s going to be fun because I would hope that in the ’90s, out of New York, out of the finance world, he can be a little different. Does he get a little bit more power? Is he the person who has some better connections? That’s what I love about this show: the constantly changing power dynamics.

You had shows come out all through 2020, even in the most locked-down phases of lockdown, because you did so much voice-over. Was it thrilling to be back on a set for Season 3 of Black Monday, or would you tape everything at home if you could?

The way that people picked up what they were supposed to do was crazy. I built a recording studio here at home. I have a Twitch thing that I have been doing. And I did a whole talk show for Marvel out of my house. I was recording Star Trek: Lower Decks in my closet. But my first moment back on set was on The Goldbergs. I was really excited because I’m a huge fan of that show, but it was nerve-wracking because they were one of the first shows back. June and I did the episode together; I think they took us as a package deal because they were like, “They’re in the same house, so the chances that they’ll bring COVID are low.” I was so freaked out on that set, but I realized you can still have fun. They created an amazingly safe environment. Thankfully, Black Monday started when vaccines started coming out. I’d had my first shot by the time we had started shooting. I think we all went in like, “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” and then we realized, once we were on set and felt safe, we were able to bring everything that we wanted to do back to the forefront.

One more thing about this season of Black Monday: when we were shooting the last two episodes in the cabin, we were in a valley in Calabasas. No one had cell phone service. And it’s so rare nowadays to be on set and no one can be on their phones. It was so much fun to be with this group of people after these eight weeks. We hung out and talked. It made this experience truly next-level. Regardless of whether or not we get picked up — which I hope we do — it was a great way to end the season, and to end my time with these amazing people.

Like going to camp together.

It was really great. I’ve done shows now for three, four seasons, seven seasons, whatever, and a cast really is like a fine wine: it gets better with age, because you really start to trust each other and know each other.

I have to ask about Nailed It!. Most of the time when comedians go on the show it’s to be guest judges. You went on to be a contestant, and you told CinemaBlend at the time that it was the most nerve-wracking thing you’ve ever done. Is that still true, or has another experience in your life surpassed it professionally?

COVID precautions aren’t easy, but you tell me to put on my mask, you tell me where to get tested, and that’s it. it’s not that stressful. On Nailed It!, they’ve got a clock running. And that clock is not tampered with. It is a real game show. You have to sign things. There are rules in place. I’ve never cooked with a timer on me. I made dinner on Sunday and I got stressed out about that: “I need to make sure that the fish is coming out at the same time as the corn.” You’re trying to make it all work, but no one can tell me, “Stop, and then we have to eat what you have.” Watching that clock count down — even though it’s Nailed It!, everyone’s there trying to be the best. And so, yes, it was nerve-wracking! I’m used to “take, cut, let’s do another take.” There were no cuts. There was no break.

Are there other reality shows you would consider appearing on?

There are shows that I would love to do, but not that I would want you to watch me do. Floor Is Lava? Put me in, I don’t need to be on TV for that. I would love to do The Amazing Race. I love a show called Awake. It’s on Netflix. They make people stay up for 24 hours, and then compete in the dumbest tasks.

Those are the things that I’m always fascinated by: no skills, just how can you get through this thing? I don’t want to be on So You Think You Can Dance. That takes talent. Wipeout looks amazing. I want to run these courses. I want to try Double Dare. I’m yelling at these kids from my couch to this day. “Come on, put your hand up the nose, it’s right there!” Legends of the Hidden Temple: now that’s a show I want to be on.

I thought you might say Holey Moley!

Oh my God, Holey Moley, yes, 100% I’ll be on Holey Moley. [Co-host] Rob [Riggle] and I are good buddies, and I hear all the stories about Holey Moley. It’s great.

Readers will also know you from your podcast, How Did This Get Made? Since Decider is focused on streaming movies and TV, what was the last How Did This Get Made?-worthy the title you streamed at home?

Our latest episode is on F9, which just came out on video on demand on Friday. That is a great one.

Conversely, on Unspooled, my other podcast, we are trying to find the 100 best movies of all time. I am loving what we’re doing right now: a summer movie special. Every week is a different giant summer blockbuster picked by our audience. The first three out of the gate are Jurassic Park, Men In Black, and Back to the Future, and they’ve been so much fun to watch. We also took a bunch out of the back catalog: Jaws, Toy Story, The Sixth Sense, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars. We want people to hearken back to the summers of our past.

Writer, editor, and snack enthusiast Tara Ariano was the co-founder of Television Without Pity, Fametracker, and Previously.TV. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great and Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place), and the co-author with Sarah D. Bunting of A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code (Abrams 2020). She has also contributed to New York, the New YorkTimes Magazine, Collider, Vanity Fair, Slate, Mel Magazine, Vulture, Salon, and The Awl, among many others. She lives in Austin.

Watch Black Monday on Showtime