Almost everyone on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" plays some version of themselves. So too with the surly, motor-mouthed Leon Black, the breakout role brought to life by J.B. Smoove, a New York-bred aspiring hip hop dancer turned comedian, (who originally went by the name Jerry Brooks). With another "Curb" season under his belt, Smoove is now at work on his own video-sharing comedy website and an envelope-pushing feature alongside Jonah Hill. Here he talks about houseguest etiquette, Larry David's secret playboy status and ushering in a "Ruckus Revolution."
HuffPost: You've created quite a few catch-phrases. Are any planned out?
Smoove: These are off the dome. Most of the stuff is in the moment. Like, "Get in that ass." "Get in that ass" is something that just came out my mouth you know what I mean?
HuffPost: What about "The Ruckus"?
Smoove: It's like the chicken come before the egg, you know what I mean? The Ruckus was actually introduced by the Wu Tang...So Leon uses The Ruckus as some sort of zen and he applied his philosophies to the term The Ruckus. Thereby which, The Ruckus became The Ruckus that is now.
Huffpost: Tell me about theruckus.com.
Smoove: There's a Ruckus Revolution happening right now. [The site is] a community that's going to be built with people from all over the country who actually have funny video or have something funny to say...I'm going to be blogging with people, I'm going to be doing video with people, we’re going to have winners who are actually going to be able to come here or I’ll come to them and we’ll shoot a funny video together. This is a movement to me.
Huffpost: Does Larry know about your site?
Smoove: Larry knows about everything I do.
Huffpost: Do you guys hang out?
Smoove: We don't hang out a lot but we do a lot of events together. He's a charitable guy, he invites me to a lot of charity events; Larry has a lot of bigwig friends. They always use the word 'bigwig' but I get there and nobody got no f-cking wig on, what the f-ck is that all about? Where the goddamn wigs at?
Huffpost: Do you think there's going to be another season?
Smoove: I think Larry's going to do two more seasons, that's my gauge, he’s going to make it an even hundred episodes. A hundred always looks good in a box.
Huffpost: Do you give Larry dating advice?
Smoove: You have to give the man dating advice. Truth be told, I think Larry is a playboy on the side. I think Larry has a swagger that nobody knows about...he's got to have a little swagger, when you're rich and loaded like that you gotta have a swagger. The same swagger it takes to do business is the same swagger it takes to get a piece of ass, you understand what I'm trying to tell you?
Huffpost: People come up to Susie and they ask her to yell at them. What do people ask you to do?
Smoove: I get people flagging me down to leave a message on their voicemail or do their outgoing message or to call a buddy of theirs who's sick...people are touched by it. I've had people tell me, hey man, you make my Sundays. It’s a lot of guys who are just like Leon who are living day to day and they love his outspokenness, they love it.
Huffpost: You're the house guest in "Curb" but do you like being a guest in your life?
Smoove: I wouldn't want to be someone's roommate, that's for sure. You can't do certain things, you can't leave the bathroom door open...you can't put your feet on the couch, you can't hide stuff in the couch. When you by yourself, you can run out of toilet tissue and you'll figure sh-t out. You can actually go to McDonalds and take a whole lot of napkins and sh-t, put it on the back of the toilet seat. I went to a dude's house this one time he had the whole McDonald's dispenser on the back of his toilet, that's a real dude.
Huffpost: So you would never do what Jeff did at Larry's?
Smoove: You don’t ejaculate on somebody's f-cking blanket, you don't do that sh-t. Ejaculate is sacred. You don't want it out in the open like that, you do it in something. Between some cushions on a couch, a hole in the mattress...
Huffpost: You're in "The Sitter." How was it working with Jonah?
Smoove: He's awesome. I admired his work and the cool thing is about it is I got a chance to work with him. There's a wish list I have that I’ve been marking off.
Huffpost: Who's left on the list?
Smoove: Denzel’s on that list...there's a lot of people on that list who are not even around anymore who I'm still going to leave on the list because I plan on working with them in heaven some day. You know, Peter Seller's on that damn list...I want to do a action movie, too. I want to do a damn action movie, goes on that damn list. I want to kick somebody in the f-cking face.
Huffpost: So tonight's Friday, do you have any plans?
Smoove: My life is gardening, cleaning around the house and power washing. I power wash everything: my wife, the mailman with the f-cking mail, power wash his ass, f-ck my mail up, I don’t care.