April 10 - 16, 2022 BY JAY BOBBIN
Pete Holmes OF ‘HOW WE ROLL’ ON CBS
Courtney B. Vance stars in “61st Street,” premiering Sunday on AMC.
You’ve often played fictionalized versions of yourself, so how is it for you to play another real person – namely, pro bowler Tom Smallwood – in “How We Roll”?
With “Crashing,” I wrote it with other writers and was acting in it, and it was sort of like managing a baseball team. With this, it’s like I’m only playing baseball. That’s all I have to do. I’m just l saying to myself, “How hard can I hit this ball?” If a joke is great, you just want to hit it hard as you can. I’ve never just been an actor before, and for the first time in my career, I can just laugh with the other actors. I was always so envious of that. You do get more of the camaraderie if, when they yell “Cut!,” you don’t have to go to a meeting to discuss what belt a character is wearing three episodes down the line. That’s literally what’s you’re doing when you’re producing a show. Do you like doing a more traditional kind of sitcom?
I was raised with this kind of show. I remember working with Conan (O’Brien), and he loved the original “Batman” series. I never knew what my sort of first love was in that sense, and it turned out that it was these (traditional comedy) shows. I went into this with a good attitude, and I thought I would like it, but I didn’t think I would love it. And it turns out that I really love it. To be able to do it literally is a dream come true. You’re working on “How We Roll” with veteran comedy director Mark Cendrowski (“The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon ”). How has that collaboration been going?
I’ve been like, “What would I do without you?,” and the answer is that I wouldn’t be nearly as good. He’s like a second brain that’s thinking about my character and the episode as a whole, and he’s got so much energy and passion, it’s almost unfair. If I’m ever complimented for this show, I’ll know in the back of my mind that it has a lot to do with him.
‘61st Street’ is a setting for potential peril
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