It all started with a podcast. For both Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams, a chance work meeting led to the latter appearing on the former’s Web-chat extension of her blog Blaria (“black Daria“). Cut to three years later: The duo have their own hit podcast 2 Dope Queens, appear in sold out theaters around the country and have managed to finagle one of stand-up comedy’s holy grails – a four-special deal with HBO – that launches February 2nd.
“It was kind of like fate,” Robinson says over the phone. In July 2014, she was a background actor on a Daily Show shoot about black hair in the military; Williams was the cast member doing the field piece. They hit it off during downtime on set, which led Robinson to ask if the correspondent would mind recording a Blaria appearance. “I [recorded the podcast] out of my crummy one-bedroom apartment that had a mold issue in my bathroom ceiling,” she recalls. “I said [to Jessica,] ‘You should come…
