His road to stardom wasn’t all the time Smoove.
When J.B. Smoove got the decision in 2006 that he landed “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” he had just left a “horrible” standup gig outside of Pittsburgh where he stayed within the “worst” motel he had ever seen.
“To the purpose where I laid down in my clothes and my coat, that’s how dirty it was,” Smoove, 56, who’s acting at Town Hall in Midtown on Nov. 11 as a part of the Latest York Comedy Festival, “I said, ‘Something’s gotta be coming.’”
The comic, whose real name is Jerry Angelo Brooks, joined the series in its sixth season, and showrunner Larry David immediately sensed their chemistry.
“Even our first week working together, he said, ‘It feels as if we’ve been working together for years,’” he explained.
When he joined the forged, he didn’t know any of the actors personally, despite the fact that some worked within the standup and comedy worlds. Nevertheless, he quickly got here to the belief that they were all such close friends that he couldn’t discern if their on-set fighting was real.
“I’ve literally been on set and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re gonna kill one another.’ At some point, Larry even threatened to call 911, that’s how bad it was,” he said, laughing.
The Mount Vernon native chalked it as much as fate that he had taken his first and only improv class in 1992, on the Improv in Hell’s Kitchen, which shuttered per week later.
“It was like in some way I used to be presupposed to get that little tool … under my belt,” he said of how the category foreshadowed “Curb.” “Fifteen years later, I’m going for an audition for … an improv show.”
Before joining the HBO show in 2007, he worked as a author on “Saturday Night Live” for 3 seasons — after losing a forged position to Kenan Thompson and Finesse Mitchell.
The SNL writing gig was like “trying out for the cheerleading team each week. … They’ll pick the sketches they need and so they’ll post them within the hallway on a wall.”
On the time, he was living in Jersey City together with his wife, singer Shahidah Omar, commuting to Manhattan daily.
“There have been times where you’re writing your sketches and the sun would come up at 5 or 6 within the morning,” he recalled. “You’d get within the automobile service, go home, take a three-hour nap, stand up, run back to the PATH train.”
The multi-talented performer, who won an Emmy Award in 2021 for his role on the TV series “Mapleworth Murders,” has come a great distance from his humble beginnings.
Growing up within the projects, he credits the Boys and Girls Club of Mount Vernon, where he now serves on the board of directors with fellow alum Denzel Washington, for helping to shape him.
“Coming from a small city of Mount Vernon, a city that has its troubles like several other city, that was a spot we could go,” he said. “It was a shelter for us.”
From a young age, he knew he loved to make people laugh. “My grandma used to call me, “Completely satisfied Jack,” he said. “In all my photos, I had the most important smile on the planet. There’s this one particular photo of me, you’d think the corners of my mouth would touch my ear.”
That innate ability to entertain continued at Mount Vernon High School, where he said he “got lucky” with some “really funny, funny friends.”
“I used to be a great student, but I used to be a hallway clown … in between classes, on the technique to classes, man, we might walk fast and pull stuff in front of our next class,” he explained.
Smoove, who now splits his time between L.A. and Brooklyn, is currently filming Season 12 of “Curb,” and has witnessed moments from the show playing out in real life.
“I’ve seen people chat and cut,” he said. “They’ll walk to the front of the road and confer with someone … and all of the sudden, they’re within the front of the road.”
He’s also had some “Curb” encounters that were too close for comfort.
“Otherwise you go to a toilet … there’s 10 urinals wide open and someone gets within the urinal right next to you,” he said. “All these rattling urinals, why did they arrive next to me?”
His road to stardom wasn’t all the time Smoove.
When J.B. Smoove got the decision in 2006 that he landed “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” he had just left a “horrible” standup gig outside of Pittsburgh where he stayed within the “worst” motel he had ever seen.
“To the purpose where I laid down in my clothes and my coat, that’s how dirty it was,” Smoove, 56, who’s acting at Town Hall in Midtown on Nov. 11 as a part of the Latest York Comedy Festival, “I said, ‘Something’s gotta be coming.’”
The comic, whose real name is Jerry Angelo Brooks, joined the series in its sixth season, and showrunner Larry David immediately sensed their chemistry.
“Even our first week working together, he said, ‘It feels as if we’ve been working together for years,’” he explained.
When he joined the forged, he didn’t know any of the actors personally, despite the fact that some worked within the standup and comedy worlds. Nevertheless, he quickly got here to the belief that they were all such close friends that he couldn’t discern if their on-set fighting was real.
“I’ve literally been on set and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re gonna kill one another.’ At some point, Larry even threatened to call 911, that’s how bad it was,” he said, laughing.
The Mount Vernon native chalked it as much as fate that he had taken his first and only improv class in 1992, on the Improv in Hell’s Kitchen, which shuttered per week later.
“It was like in some way I used to be presupposed to get that little tool … under my belt,” he said of how the category foreshadowed “Curb.” “Fifteen years later, I’m going for an audition for … an improv show.”
Before joining the HBO show in 2007, he worked as a author on “Saturday Night Live” for 3 seasons — after losing a forged position to Kenan Thompson and Finesse Mitchell.
The SNL writing gig was like “trying out for the cheerleading team each week. … They’ll pick the sketches they need and so they’ll post them within the hallway on a wall.”
On the time, he was living in Jersey City together with his wife, singer Shahidah Omar, commuting to Manhattan daily.
“There have been times where you’re writing your sketches and the sun would come up at 5 or 6 within the morning,” he recalled. “You’d get within the automobile service, go home, take a three-hour nap, stand up, run back to the PATH train.”
The multi-talented performer, who won an Emmy Award in 2021 for his role on the TV series “Mapleworth Murders,” has come a great distance from his humble beginnings.
Growing up within the projects, he credits the Boys and Girls Club of Mount Vernon, where he now serves on the board of directors with fellow alum Denzel Washington, for helping to shape him.
“Coming from a small city of Mount Vernon, a city that has its troubles like several other city, that was a spot we could go,” he said. “It was a shelter for us.”
From a young age, he knew he loved to make people laugh. “My grandma used to call me, “Completely satisfied Jack,” he said. “In all my photos, I had the most important smile on the planet. There’s this one particular photo of me, you’d think the corners of my mouth would touch my ear.”
That innate ability to entertain continued at Mount Vernon High School, where he said he “got lucky” with some “really funny, funny friends.”
“I used to be a great student, but I used to be a hallway clown … in between classes, on the technique to classes, man, we might walk fast and pull stuff in front of our next class,” he explained.
Smoove, who now splits his time between L.A. and Brooklyn, is currently filming Season 12 of “Curb,” and has witnessed moments from the show playing out in real life.
“I’ve seen people chat and cut,” he said. “They’ll walk to the front of the road and confer with someone … and all of the sudden, they’re within the front of the road.”
He’s also had some “Curb” encounters that were too close for comfort.
“Otherwise you go to a toilet … there’s 10 urinals wide open and someone gets within the urinal right next to you,” he said. “All these rattling urinals, why did they arrive next to me?”
