JB Smoove on a possible 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' spin-off
Larry David's freeloading, endlessly profane roommate Leon Black may well be TV's single funniest character...
From Rolling Stone:
Larry David’s freeloading, endlessly profane roommate Leon Black may well be TV’s single funniest character. Leon, played by comedian JB Smoove, arrived in season six of Curb Your Enthusiasm after Larry took in a family who lost their home in Hurricane Katrina. Their cousin Leon lived in L.A., but he took refuge with the Davids anyway- and stayed after his family moved out. Since then, Smoove and David have become one of the greatest comedy duos in recent memory. Brian Hiatt spoke with Smoove about his first audition with David, working with Michael Richards and more.
I heard about your audition. You made Larry laugh without doing anything. What do you remember about that?
I had no idea you had to improv directly with Larry David – had no idea. I said, “Oh, shit! All right! Let’s do this shit Larry!” I walked up to Larry’s face I said, “Larry, let’s do this shit, we’re gonna improv, right Larry? Let’s improv, baby!” I said, “I don’t know, man, I’m about to fuck around and slap you in the face, man. ‘Cause its improv, right, so don’t take it hard if I slap you in the face.”
And he just stared at me and then said, “OK, let’s start the scene.” And so the scene was gonna start out with me sitting down, so I walked across the room and sat in the chair and just sat there, looking at him. I gave him the Leon-quick-of-the-head look. You know, that little turn to the head like my eyebrows go up, cause I got this thing with my forehead where one side of my head, like one side of my forehead gets wrinkled up, right? I’m like The Rock. Have you ever seen The Rock do his little eyebrow? My shit is more pronounced.
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