CraveOnline: The other side of that is that maybe some comedians enter a phase where they’re doing more drama and they’re ashamed to be funny. Have you ever dealt with people, right or wrong, trying to move comedy or looking down on their comedic side?
J.B. Smoove: I haven’t met anyone who looks down on it but I think that it would have to have both. You would have to have both. Even if you do a dramatic role, you are still the person that is telling [the story]. Even though you’re not telling jokes, you still are that same person. You have to maintain that dude. That dude got you here. Standup is just another vehicle. It’s just a vehicle you’re driving to get to a certain destination. Standup is the car you want to get in, and it has to start up every time you want to use it.
Even when you park that standup car in the garage for two or three years, you’re going to be able to start that car up because you kept that battery fresh. You kept it full of gas, kept the oil changed and you just have to open that garage door and get in that comedy vehicle and drive it where you want to go. Comedy is just a vehicle and whether you turn down that fork in the road where one fork is going to this amazing comedy project or that right turn is going towards a drama, it doesn’t change anything. You have applied what you do to a certain role. That’s all it is, and you don’t lose one because you are doing a drama or a comedy. You still have the same vehicle you’ve been driving and that vehicle is going to get you through to the destination.
I haven’t done standup regularly in a year and a half. Does that change me? I’m sure you’ve seen me on late night shows. You’ve seen me on different things. I’m still J.B. Doesn’t matter what I’m doing right now. I’ve been in the comedy gym so long, all I’ve got to do is maintain what I’ve already done. That’s all I have to do. I don’t have to be in a gym every day working on my comedy, but I just have to remember my workout.
“[Standup] is just a vehicle you’re driving to get to a certain destination.”
Have you ever walked down the streets with a bodyguard clearing a path for you, like you do for Andre in the movie?
You have to. You just have to. Not on the regular, but in certain situations, on a music festival or comedy festival, I have an assistant who actually has to be there. Whether it’s someone working with the club or someone working with the theater or whatever, you always need that, man.
The only thing about that is when you’re with someone that’s hired or someone that’s not part of your team, it’s different. What I do in Top Five is, not only am I his scheduler, his security, all these things to Andre Allen in this movie, I’m also a friend. I’m one of his friends so I have a different feeling of who this man is. If he has a problem, I’ve got to make sure he gets back on his feet. If he has a relationship coming into his life, I’ve got to make sure that’s the right relationship for him.
You can’t get that from someone you hire. You can’t get someone put a resume or application in and says, “I’m great at scheduling, I’m great at security, I’m great at organization and I also give a damn about you.” That’s never going to be on someone’s application. The care for you thing has to come from a history, has to come from someone being on that journey with you and seeing your ups and seeing you down and seeing you come back and seeing you do amazing things and respect what you do enough to keep you out of the bad elements of whatever is affecting you in your life and your career.
