The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-23)

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2021

Enthusiasm” returns to HBO for
its 11th season on Sunday. The
show, which last aired toward the
beginning of the coronavirus pan-
demic, jokingly acknowledges in
its trailer that while the world has
changed much amid a tumultu-
ous time, David’s character —
awkward, idiosyncratic and re-
pugnant — has not. Neither has
Smoove’s character, even if the
comedian’s profile is climbing.
“Every day with J.B. on set is
Christmas because we get to sit
there and unwrap all of these
presents that he gives us,” said
Jeff Schaffer, the show’s executive
producer. “He deserves all the
success he has because he’s
earned it.”
Smoove, whose real name is
Jerry Angelo Brooks, recognized
early in life that being offbeat and
unconventional, and telling sto-
ries injected with humor and
profanity, allowed him to connect
with people in a lasting way.
“If you can laugh at it, then you
can remember it. If you overthink
it, you can’t remember it,”
Smoove said. “You’ll be like,
‘What did that guy say?’ You can’t
remember anything they said be-
cause it’s too deep. But if it’s
related to a joke? You can retell a
joke any time.”
Years before he found stardom,
Smoove was not unlike the char-
acter he’d eventually play: unem-
ployed and directionless. He had

J.B. SMOOVE FROM C1 recurring roles on “Cedric The
Entertainer Presents” and “Ev-
erybody Hates Chris” until the
shows were canceled, and he
found parts in early 2000s films
like “Pootie Tang” and “Mr.
Deeds.” His contract at “Saturday
Night Live,” where he was a writer
for three years, was not renewed
after the 2006 season. He ended
up firing his agents, wondering
whether he was meant to catch a
big break. Then, while in Los
Angeles for a friend’s funeral,
Smoove got an unexpected call
for an audition for “Curb Your
Enthusiasm,” a show that his
wife, Shahidah Omar, had pre-
dicted he’d be on one day.
When Schaffer developed the
Blacks, a displaced New Orleans
family taken in by David’s charac-
ter following a hurricane, he had
no intention of casting someone
for the long term. That changed
the moment Smoove entered the
room.
“He walked in as Leon, sat in a
chair, sort of reclined and looked
at Larry, and had the part before
he opened his mouth,” Schaffer
told The Post. “The way he just
looked at Larry, we were laugh-
ing.”
What made Smoove an easy fit
in a show of comedic workhorses,
Schaffer said, was the instant
chemistry he had with David,
another former SNL writer.
Smoove attributed their bond to a
Jedi-like ability for improv and
riffing.

“I knew I belonged there,” Smoove said. “Even after our first day together working on the show, we were in-between scenes and Larry said, ‘It feels as though we’ve been working together for years.’ I said, ‘You know what, Larry? We have. Somehow, our spirits have met somewhere before, and somehow we have met

in this time period.’” His presence was noticed im- mediately in the show’s sixth season, when David’s character re- counted to Black how he had slunk out of a doctor’s office after a white supremacist called him antisemitic and homophobic slurs without pushback. Black did not console David’s character or

ask him how he was feeling, but instead demanded in a rant that his neurotic friend tear that big- ot’s life to shreds the next time he sees him. “Get in that a--, Larry!” Black repeatedly exclaims. Smoove would take improv wit h David to a higher level, often dropping in nuggets about

Black’s unknown origin story in the process. In the ninth season, for instance, Black mentions to a baffled David the many things he’s done while constipated, including running a 5K race, winning a hot dog-eating contest and shooting an adult film. Moments like these are why Conan O’Brien, Smoove’s friend, said on his pod- cast that the Black character is Smoove with extra layers of BS. Co-star Richard Lewis, a comedy legend, touted the “Curb” star to the Ringer as “one of the funniest comedians and comedic actors of my lifetime” and a “genius.” At the heart of his rise, one that includes a recurring role in Mar- vel’s latest Spider-Man movie saga, is his relationship with Da- vid. And although Smoove’s dance card is full nowadays, he maintains he wants to keep playing Black for as long as his friend wants to continue the show. “Part of me can’t help but think that Larry is [keeping ‘Curb’ going] as a grudge or something ’cause I told Larry when he took five years off, ‘Larry, if your a-- don’t come back, spin me off! Spin Leon’s a-- of f!” Smoove said, joking that his character would do quite well with his own show if and when David decides to call it quits. “Every time I say it, Larry laughs, telling me he was gonna hold off.... The people have spoken, Larry! The people have spo ken!’” [email protected]

‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’s’ co-star has an Emmy. Now he needs a bigger shelf.

JOHN P. JOHNSON/ HBO J.B. Smoove and Larry David do wh at they were born to do in Season 11 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

opened the program, was less straightforward, but this was de- liberate. Strips of fabric hung down like pillars, cutting the visual space into segments. They partially obscured the excellent musicians on drums, guitar and organ, as well as the mesmerizing vocalist and bassist Meshell Nde- geocello. The effect was disorienting. Ndegeocello’s voice was electrify- ing, but her words were often fragmented. The dancers emerged one by one, moving backward as if in a world gone wrong. They spun in slow arcs to a syncopated beat, in unceasing ripples of action. But through this eerie, tilted waltz, there were flashes of the real world. At one point the dancers knelt, arms clasped behind their backs, evok- ing images of arrest and humilia- tion. At other points, they raised fists or hurled themselves into space, or collapsed. As the full company finally came together onstage, the agitation grew. Per- haps Brown had a world without humanity and mercy in mind, where grace is hidden: At the end, Ndegeocello sang forcefully of death, repeating phrases about

DANCE REVIEW FROM C1 killing love. It felt like a warning. The evening included a work in progress, “The Equality of Night and Day: First Glimpse.” It is meant to complete the trilogy started with “Grace” and “Mercy,” with an original piano score by Jason Moran, the Kennedy Cen- ter’s jazz director, and spoken text recorded by activist Angela Davis. In its unfinished state, “Equali- ty” seems the most firmly grounded in current events of the three works, with Davis speaking persuasively about the growth of conservatism, excessive incarcer- ation rates of young Black men and the disastrous consequences. Brown, 55, suffered a mild stroke in April before finishing the work, but he attended Thursday’s performance in a wheelchair and was recognized with a spotlight and a salute from his dancers during their bows. It was a poi- gnant and deeply moving moment, and yet another reminder of the potency of the themes in his works, where compassion ri ngs loudest of all. [email protected]

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence Through Saturday at the Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Ron K. Brown has bodies

flying and hearts soaring

CHRISTOPHER GEORGE/KENNEDY CENTER The Ronald K. Brown/Evidence dance company performs “The Equality of Night and Day” at the Kennedy Cent er.

strict pandemic-era protocols:
Attendees were required to show
proof of vaccination and a nega-
tive coronavirus test within the
past 72 hours.
In part, such precautions were
a prerequisite for attracting tal-
ent — this year’s celebrity guests
included actors Dakota Johnson
(there with her partner, Chris
Martin) and Ann Dowd, and
filmmakers Kenneth Branagh,
Paolo Sorrentino and Sean Baker
— but also for reassuring festival
regulars eager to get back to a
semblance of normalcy. “We
wanted everyone to feel comfort-
able and safe,” said Executive Di-
rector Susan Koch. “That was re-
ally a top priority.”
That included capping ad-
vance-pass sales and capacity at
screenings, which took place in
the Salamander’s main ballroom
as well as the nearby Hill School
and Middleburg Community
Center. But those limitations did
not extend to the program,
which featured 34 films, only one
fewer than two years ago.
Nor did pandemic-era stric-
tures have an effect on quality:
Koch and Connie White, Middle-
burg’s astute and tireless head
programmer, managed to score
many of this year’s hottest
awards contenders, including
“King Richard,” Branagh’s tender
coming-of-age memoir “Belfast,”
Fran Kranz’s searing chamber
piece “Mass,” Pablo Larrain ’s
Princess Diana biopic “Spencer,”
Mike Mills’s uncle-nephew road
picture “C’mon, C’mon,” Rebecca
Hall’s period drama “Passing,”
Jane Campion’s 1920s western
“The Power of the Dog,” Maggie
Gyllenhaal’s impressive directo-
rial debut “The Lost Daughter,”
and Joe Wright’s daring adapta-
tion of the stage musical “Cyra-
no,” featuring Peter Dinklage in a
breathtaking performance as the
title character.
This year’s program featured
several films that were made
over the past year and a half,
many of them — as in the case of

HORNADAY FROM C1

Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket,” which received an ensemble cast award — the product of directors dust- ing off old projects and deciding the time was right to make them. “We’d been in national lockdown for nearly four months when on the 28th of June 2020 I received the latest draft [of Erica Schmidt’s script], which I’d been developing for two years,” Wright said in a video introduction to “Cyrano.” He recalled immedi- ately telling one of the film’s pro- ducers, “It’s ready, we have to do this now .” Four months later, he gathered his crew and cast — which included Haley Bennett, Ben Mendelsohn and Kelvin Harrison Jr. — in Noto, Italy, where most of the filming took place. “In times of crisis, we as story- tellers have a responsibility to gather our community, large or small, around the proverbial campfire, and try to help them heal,” Wright continued. “On that June day in 2020, as we sat in

isolation, it seemed to me that what we needed most was simple human connection.” The interregnum posed by covid also clearly gave artists time to allow deep-seated memo- ries to float to the surface, and to sit with what emerged: No soon- er had Middleburg audiences seen Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” a largely autobiographical serio-comedy set in his native Naples, than they were watching Pedro Almodóvar’s magnificent “Parallel Mothers,” a delicious melodrama plumbing the depths of personal and political his- tories — followed by Branagh’s “Belfast,” a largely autobiographical serio-comedy set in his native northern Ireland. “I listened,” Branagh said while introducing the film, ex- plaining how he started the proj- ect after ruminating about it for 50 years. “And I wrote down what I heard.” In “Belfast,” Branagh revisits his childhood in the early 1960s,

when sectarian violence between Irish Unionists and Republicans spilled into his once-safe-and-se- cure street. “I guess you’d call it staring into the silence,” he ob- served during a post-screening Q&A, recalling how he allowed himself to hear the sounds and voices of his youth that pervade the film. “In my case, it was while I was walking the dog at the beginning of lockdown and looking up at the sky and thinking, ‘There are no planes, that’s why it’s quiet.’ I was hearing bird songs I’d never heard before, and all these other sounds came in.” Other emotions were at play as well, he added. “What I’d reen- tered in lockdown was... this other lockdown I had experienced, where the same thing had kicked in instantly — this deep, all-prevailing sense of being un- settled. The ground beneath our feet had shifted.... It just seemed important to try to value and appreciate that with which you have been blessed to be part of and to have experienced, and to perhaps not only revisit it but try to understand, and hope that the act of sharing it would bring the possibility of bringing other people understanding as well.” “Belfast” wound up winning Middleburg’s audience award, along with the documentary “The Rescue,” about the 12 boys who were trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. It was a fitting culmination of a festival that, for all its celebratory spirit, was tinged with a shared sense of reflection, personal reckoning and a new sense of priorities. “I think we’ve all been through a profound time, some of it more difficult for some than others,” said Koch, who added that the past year and a half “maybe gave filmmakers the time to think about what was most important, and to make that film.... It al- most afforded them the time to say, ‘If I’m going to do something, I’m going to make something that’s really important to me.’ ” [email protected]

ANN HORNADAY

Branagh’s ‘Belfast,’ other films reflect on the past

ROB YOUNGSON / FOCUS FEATURES Jamie Dornan, left, and Caitriona Balfe star in “Belfast,” the winner of the audience award at the Middleburg Film Festival.

THEATRE

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Awaken your senses with beautiful imagery,music, dance and poetry in this captivating kaleidoscope of transcendent traditions from around the world. The award-winning musical duo ofTomTeasley and Chao Tian will performapropulsive new soundscape powered byacross-cultural fusion of percussion.

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MUSIC-CONCERTS

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St John’sEpiscopal Church Norwood Parish 6701 WisconsinAvenue Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-654-7767

Jeremy Filsell will perform works by Robert Hebble, Francis Pott, Marcel Dupré, Nico Muhly,Gerry Hancock, and Stephen Paulus. The event will be live-streamed on St. John’sYouTube page; and by Zoom invitation available in advance: http://www.potomacago.com. PipeSpectacular is an annual event hosted by three local chapters of the American Guild of Organists:Potomac Chapter,DCChapter and NorthernVirginia Chapter.

Sat, Oct 23, 2021 4:00pm

PipeSpectacular Jeremy Filsell, guest organist

The Guide to the Lively Arts appears: • Sunday in Arts & Style. deadline: Tues., 12 noon

**- Monday in Style. deadline: Friday, 12 noon • Tuesday in Style. deadline: Mon., 12 noon • Wednesday in Style. deadline: Tues., 12 noon

Thursday in Style. deadline: Wed., 12 noon • Friday in Weekend. deadline: Tues., 12 noon • Saturday in Style. deadline: Friday, 12 noon
For information about advertising, call: Raymond Boyer 202-334-4174 or Nicole Giddens 202-334-4351
To reach a representative, call: 202-334-7006 | [email protected]** 21-0135

The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-23)

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