Deborah Vance-beehive, get up! The comedy in a comedy TV series, Trickstook home the award for Best Comedy Series and closed out the night at the 2024 Emmy Awards. Tricks co-creator Paul W. Downs called for more roles featuring people over 60 as he thanked the cast and crew, while Lucia Aniello emphasized the power of comedy to “bridge gaps.”

“Let’s brace ourselves, I might get emotional,” said Downs, who also plays Jimmy LuSaque, Deborah and Ava’s manager on the series. “We’re so lucky to be living our dream and doing television, and we couldn’t do it without our Tricks family, all of our writers, all of our cast, all of our crew who make our dreams come true. Literally.”

“When we pitched this show about two women, one of whom was over 60, we didn’t know if we were going to sell it,” Downs said, before thanking the show’s production companies. “About 20 percent of our population is over 60 (years old), and there are only 3 percent of those characters on television. I’d like to see more of that, because even though I’m a great young supporting actor, I really want to be a great old leading man.”

Lucia Aniello, co-creator of the show, took the microphone amid applause to emphasize the importance of comedy and how it can speak truth to power. “Comedy is so important, that’s obvious to us, but we think it can bridge the gap. If you laugh with someone, you have something in common with them,” Aniello said. “So support comedy. It speaks truth to power. It really does.”

“Support the local comedian and we can start filming the next season in five days,” she added.

The reunification of the Schitt’s Creek Catherine O’Hara presented the award, along with co-hosts Dan and Eugene Levy and Annie Murphy. Tricks beat other nominees Abbott Elementary School, What we do in the shadows, Reservation Dogs, Only murders in the building, Palm RoyaleAnd Curb your enthusiasmLast year, The Bear won the prize, while Ted Lasso had won the trophy the year before.

Tricks charts the career of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a former stand-up comedian and talk show host whose long-running Las Vegas casino residency is canceled. In an attempt to revive her act, Vance’s agent hires a downright annoying and egotistical young comedy writer named Ava Daniels to help rejuvenate her act. The two immediately can’t stand each other, but when they find themselves in a work stream, they soon realize the other might be just what they need to survive in showbiz.

Earlier that evening, Downs, Aniello and Jen Statsky won the award for Outstanding Screenplay for a Comedy Series for an episode of the show.