J.B. Smoove is known for many things — his swagger, comedy, and his always-hilarious improv skills.
Yes, J.B. Smoove can riff and rap at a rapid-fire pace, and audiences can see it for themselves this weekend.
Known for his six season-long improvisational performance as Leon Black on Larry David’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm‘, as well as his writing on ‘Saturday Night Live’, J.B. Smoove hits the stage at XCite Center at Parx Casino this Saturday.
The actor/comedian recently sat down with Metro to talk his roots on ‘SNL’, improv, and being a part of the cult classic ‘Curb.’
You’re played out-of-control characters with improv, and you’ve won awards for your well-thought-out scripts at ‘SNL’. Do the two ever meet? Is writing a backbone of your improv work?
You need to have a concept. You need to have a mind that attaches itself to anything and everything. You have to be able to communicate with people. You have to be a salesman. People have to like your a*s. To take your good or bad advice, your audience has to like you…. Writing is an extension of that. Even if I didn’t write it down, in my brain, I’m writing it – I’m rewriting it,
Improv is a different animal, but you’re writing in your head, instead of your computer. You’re writing based on instinct. My style of stand-up comedy is me writing on stage as I’m going through it. I’m feeding off the audience. If I get you to laugh at any premise I start on stage, you’re riding with me. You’ll go on that journey until I get to the punchline the thing that punches you in the throat. If you’ve seen me in the past, you might know my style and know that I make some hard lefts, so my premise has to be and stay strong.
You mentioned having to sell your material. Did being an actual salesman back-in-the-day help you on stage?
Salesmen sell product. Right now, my product is myself. That goes back to you liking me in order to sell you. I have to make you smile the minute I walk onstage. I gotta be charismatic, have heart and soul, be attentive to you, and I have to know my product… I’m going to make it that you retell my jokes at some point in your life. When I sold, I made you know that I cared about your home. You’re right, I used to sell fire extinguishers. Door-to-door. After I introduced myself and got you to know me as a person, I had to scare the sh*t out of you.
Since we’re heading into Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary season this month, anything you can say about that gig?
I ain’t gonna lie – that job at ‘SNL’ is a beast. Originally, I went for casting, and it was me, Finesse Mitchell and Keenan Thompson as the three guys left at the last audition. Lorne Michaels called me and said they chose Finesse and Keenan, but he liked me, and I asked if I would come in as a writer. I wasn’t a writer, per se… I was a stand-up. I had been on sketch shows like Cedric the Entertainer’s on Fox. But I thought about my career, and asked myself where I wanted to be.
I knew that ‘SNL’ would look great on my resume, so I wrote there for three seasons, did a few characters and the warm-up monologues. I used to run downstairs and do the Conan O’Brien show. I got 4 separate checks (laughs). That’s the New York hustle – get one job, create three more. I was considered the king of the pitch at ‘SNL’, too. It was not easy. I only got some of the things I pitched on air, but I could work my way through the cast members. And it was fulfilling. I loved the pace of live TV. I would do it all again, ‘SNL’. ‘SNL’ was about planting seeds.
These were seeds that you had in your pocket since your start, though.
That was based on me having started taking improv classes in 1990, 1991. When I first did stand-up, I wanted to learn what my style would be on stage. I figured that I would take what I did naturally with my friends, and apply that to a career, I kept those tools in my toolbox for every – and when I got to ‘Curb’, I was already ready. In my brain, I was on that show before I ever got on it. I knew that animal, the pace, the thicker skin. I would still be myself, while being any other character or doing stand-up.
In ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’, you make all of your decisions on the spot — going for, or against Larry — which is not something you see in an antagonist-protagonist relationship.
In improv, there is no wrong or right. I only say what I think Leon Black would say in that moment. If it’s an opposite decision, so be it. Maybe I gotta fix his a*s, maybe he could’ve done better. No matter what decision I’m making in the moment, I’m choosing the one that is funnier… I let Leon Black be Leon Black, and I let J.B. Smoove be J.B. Smoove.
J.B. Smoove hits the stage at Parx Casino on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. For information and tickets, visit parxcasino.com/bensalem
