Beyond ‘Curb’ appeal
The polka music goes down, the lights come up and Jeff Garlin, comedian, executive producer and co-star of HBO’s hit series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” takes the stage. He’s got plenty to talk about, but first he wants to take care of some business.
“I’m thinking of moving this show to Friday nights at 10,” he tells the audience. It’s a Sunday night and the crowd sits quietly. This is a stand-up comedy show and they’re just here to listen, right?
Not getting the feedback he wants, Garlin polls the people in the front rows. It quickly becomes clear that the majority would prefer the show to stay right where it is. Garlin concedes, then smiles. “I’m a man of the people,” he says.
This is the loose style of “Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter,” his weekly show at the ImprovOlympic West in Hollywood.
Part stand-up showcase, part improv bull session, the “Combo Platter” feels like the back room of a comedy club brought to the stage -- a place where Garlin and his rotating lineup of comedian friends get together to tease, gossip and share stories.
After first appearing in individual sets, Garlin’s two guests each week -- they’ve included Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Laura Kightlinger and other headliner-level comedians -- return to the stage and join their host to discuss a topic or topics suggested by the audience. They take turns at the microphone, riffing off one another and following their mouths down any path they can think of. The show is structured, but the material isn’t.
The audience suggestion of “Italian beef,” for example, prompts Garlin and his guests for this evening, Tim Bagley and Odenkirk, to reminisce about past trips to Italy, which quickly turns to stories of the worst commercial auditions they’ve been on.
Garlin admits that he hates to audition for commercials but probably would take any commercial if he were guaranteed the part. “I’d even do a commercial for Hitler’s tuna if I were asked,” he says.
“Good Hitler’s Tuna,” Odenkirk suggests from the sidelines. Garlin steps away from the microphone and Odenkirk takes over, speculating on the possibility of a man named Hitler, who urges his friends to get the word out that he’s “the good Hitler.” Bagley builds on it from there and around it goes.
The show’s structure is Garlin’s idea, combining traditional improvisational techniques with his off-the-cuff style of comedy. Honesty is encouraged over glibness and content over attitude.
“As a viewer, I like to see things, whether it’s a movie or music or whatever, that feels real to me,” Garlin says. “I think the stand-up that’s performed on this show comes from a very real place, a human place.”
Garlin, not surprisingly, is a master of the form. Claiming to rarely prepare for the show, he waits for the pressure of the spotlight to jog his memory. He spent part of one evening on stage going through the notes he’d written to himself on his Palm Pilot. That he makes day-to-day life consistently entertaining is testament to Garlin’s talent and the way he’s been able to keep the show fresh after performing it for 14 years. Created during his days in training at the Second City improv troupe in Chicago, the show’s format has remained virtually unchanged from its first appearance.
Although he’s done it before in venues around Los Angeles, the “Combo Platter’s” latest run, which started at the Improv- Olympic last April, coincides with Garlin’s hottest streak in Hollywood. “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the unscripted series that showcases his improv skills in the role of Jeff Greene, Larry David’s long-suffering agent, caught on with critics and viewers in its third season. He just wrapped shooting on “Daddy Day Care,” a big-screen comedy for next summer in which he co-stars with Eddie Murphy.
Garlin’s exposure on big and small screens should be doing wonders for the “Combo Platter’s” attendance. Yes, the show regularly plays to a packed house, but in a bizarre bit of backward audience migration, it appears that the live show is adding viewers to the TV show. When Garlin asks audience members if they watch “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” only about half applaud on any given night.
Many are like Adam Ohler, 22, who had never watched “Curb Your Enthusiasm” before seeing Garlin’s show. “I just showed up randomly,” Ohler says. “I really liked the show, and then the week after, I realized, hey, that guy’s on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’ ”
Ohler told his friends, and now he and a group attend as often as they can. They join a growing number of regular attendees who are thankful that Garlin makes sure the show is free.
No matter how many movie, TV or Good Hitler Tuna commercial offers come his way, Garlin plans to continue the show. It was there before the fame and it’s his bit of undisturbed artistic expression, although he dismisses any lofty aims: “I’m not Baron von Artist. I just don’t want to be boring.”
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Garlin’s showcase
Where: ImprovOlympic West, 6366 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.
When: Sundays at 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free. 21 or older.
Featured comics: Bob Odenkirk and Laura Silverman this Sunday.
Info: (323) 962-7560.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
A sampling of ‘Combo Platter’
JEFF GARLIN: “I don’t want to be famous. I’m 40 and married. Fame does nothing for me. I’m not going to have sex with anybody. Including my wife.”
BOB ODENKIRK: “Italian beef is tasty but wet. You don’t want your sandwich wet. I don’t think I’m going off the deep end here.”
PATTON OSWALT: “I’ve taken a turn in bachelorhood. I prefer to be alone. If I want to see [a movie] and I’m on my way, I can change my mind without speaking.”
LAURA KRAFT: “I go to Canter’s and love the corned beef sandwich. Why don’t they make corned beef gum? You can drive and chew it and blow corned beef bubbles.”