Being a personal assistant for “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David might seem like a precarious position.
Eli Leonard, 30, who has worked on the show for nearly six years, had some worries when he got the job, thinking he could be fired if he made a wrong move.
“I was sweating through my clothes even talking to him,” Leonard told the Journal. “He’s actually a really nice guy. To see him come into the office every day, work hard and have that drive, was inspiring. I mean, he’s done it all already. He doesn’t need to work. Seeing that makes you want to push yourself and see what you can do.”
Leonard, who has been a personal assistant for David during filming, and has been a production assistant for the show, said he would often be cracked up watching David, JB Smoove, and Susie Essman. Smoove, who plays Leon, and Essman, who plays Susie, would sometimes laugh along with David, Leonard said, adding that he didn’t have to worry that he’d make a noise and ruin a take.
While he enjoyed his work behind the camera, Leonard hadn’t seriously considered stand-up until he met comedian Elon Gold.
Gold, who has appeared on “Curb” as the Head of Hulu, is a successful stand-up comic. Leonard had thought about trying stand-up, but hadn’t made the leap. Gold told him it was time to jump
“I’d always wanted to do it and I had been working in improv, sketch and every type of comedy besides it,” Leonard said. “The real push came from Elon, who was getting on me to start doing stand-up. He had me for Shabbos and put me on his ‘My Funny Quarantine’ show. He took me under his wing and gave me gigs opening for him. He just put me into pressure situations. I guess that’s how you do it.”
It did not go well, at first.
Leonard recalled one early show at a kosher winery in Los Angeles. A bearded 80-year-old man who looked like a rabbinical sage was among many in the audience not laughing.
“I had no material,” Leonard said. “I turned to this guy, and said ‘Hey Rashi, is it time for me to get off stage?’ He nodded. I said ‘I will get off stage only if it is unanimous and everyone claps. There was an uproar of applause.”
David famously once walked off stage during a stand-up gig when he looked at the audience and didn’t feel a connection.
“I wanted to do the same thing after a few minutes, the audience just didn’t get me,” Leonard said. “But I couldn’t do that to Elon.”
He said Gold encouraged him and explained that most comedians bomb at the beginning. Over time, Leonard improved. While he learned a lot from being on the “Curb’ set, performing stand-up requires repetition and trial and error. Gold gave him helpful suggestions of how to read an audience.
Leonard said that being Jewish is an inseparable part of his identity and said when he gave a D’var Torah at his bar mitzvah, he made jokes about his brothers.
He’s performed his one-man show “Good Showbiz” in Los Angeles and New York City and added that he was proud of his performance at the Chosen Comedy Festival that took place in February at The Orpheum Theatre.
Was he nervous?
“Even if I’m performing for five people, I’m nervous.” -Eli Leonard
“Even if I’m performing for five people, I’m nervous,” he said.
Leonard is excited to perform at Opening Night for The Chosen Comedy Festival Kartrite Hotel in theCatskills (once known as the “Borscht Belt”) on July 29. The show will be headlined by Gold and includes Talia Reese, Eli Lebowicz, and Olga Namer and Elon Altman. The main event is August 8 at the Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn, hosted by Gold and Modi (Rosenfeld) and features Jeff Ross, Ari Shaffir, Jessica Kirson, the Hasidic folk/soul band Zusha, and others. The shows are produced by Stand Up NY.
Leonard said he is trying to soak up knowledge and experience with every show. He said most don’t realize the amount of work required to make an amazing TV show or to be a stand-up comic who can get consistent laughs.
What’s Leonard’s best joke?
“I think I’ll save that for the audience,” he said.
