J.B. Smoove Discusses How He Got His Role On 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'

BOSTON (CBS) -- "Curb is back, baby!"

Those were the words of J.B. Smoove, the actor and comedian best known for his role in Larry David's HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm." With the news coming out Tuesday that "Curb" will come out of hiatus and return for a ninth season, Smoove joined Toucher & Rich on Wednesday and confirmed that -- of course -- Leon will be returning as well.

"Of course I'm going to be on it. I wouldn't let Larry go ... that's like flying without wings and riding a bike with no training wheels," he said. "You gotta have Leon there."

With "Curb" in the news so much, the conversation naturally centered on the hit show. Smoove talked about how he got his shot with David, an opportunity that came shortly after "Saturday Night Live" didn't bring him back as a writer/performer.

"I was just home one day and I was watching 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' one day, and I literally went from working at SNL to being on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' in like a month-and-a-half. It was so crazy, the transition from being on SNL as a writer to being on 'Curb,'" he said. "I was watching 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and my fiancee at the time, who is now my wife, I told her, I said I love this show and I would love to be on this show one day. And she actually said, 'You're gonna be on that show one day, because you say the craziest stuff all the time. You'd be perfect for that show.'"

Smoove said he was in Los Angeles to attend the funeral for a friend who had passed away, and at that time, he just happened to get the chance to audition for the show. He thought the audition would just be recorded on camera to be reviewed at a later time, but to his surprise, there was Larry David in the middle of the room ready to improv with Smoove.

"I walked in the room, Larry's in the middle of the room, which kind of shocked me because I didn't know I was going to improv directly with Larry," he said. "So I walked in the room, and the rest is kind of like history, man. We had such a great time. We hit it off from the very beginning. We had laugh breaks. There was one moment where Larry just walked away and went into the corner and had to come back, because it was that fun and that funny."

RELATED: How 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Cleared A Man Charged With Murder

Smoove said the audition consisted of two situations, one of which ended up in the famous blanket stain scene.

"We just hit it off, man. It really was a match made in heaven, because a lot of my standup is improv. And it was my favorite show, and I knew I could improv in my standup and movies and TV for a long time, so it was kind of a great fit," he said. "And it's always great to come from left field when they're not familiar with you and you can come in there and do what you want to do and come from a different angle and do something different. And I'm happy I made the right choice, as far as being an actor, the right choice in how I thought they wanted the character. But I heard a year or two later from a friend that Larry said they didn't know who Leon was until I walked in the room. Which is kind of what an audition is for, you want to see who's out there, who's new, who's different.

"So I was happy, man. It definitely was a show that expanded my demographics and opened me up to a new audience."

The guys also talked with Smoove about his history at SNL. Listen to the full interview below! And check out J.B. in Boston at the Wilbur on June 24.