San Francisco Comedy Blog

by Chad Lehrman

Comedian and rapper Eric Schwartz (aka Smooth-E) will be in San Francisco November 2nd-5th, headlining the Green Room Comedy Club at Fisherman’s Wharf.

What are your favorite things to do in San Francisco?

I love going to the gay bars. Before you jump to any conclusions, like “I knew it,” let me explain.

My friends are confused. They say, “You’re straight. Why do you go to gay bars?” I’m like, “Dude, they buy you drinks!”

I just assume the role most women do in straight bars. Now, I know how it feels to be treated like a piece of meat: free.

Your songs are very well produced- what is your background in music?

Thanks! I have no formal music training, but I have been a DJ since age 14. I spent my bar mitzvah money on turntables. Most parents want their kids to save it for college, but I knew I had to rock!

I would bring hip-hop records back from Los Angeles to the suburbs of Thousand Oaks where I lived and play them at parties and dances. That is the concept behind “Suburban Homeboy,” the name of my website.

I messed around with drum machines and four-track recorders in high school. I would sell mixtapes and make “pause tapes.” Basically, you would have a double cassette boom box and play one side into the other, using the pause button to halt the recording to catch the specific piece of sound or music you wanted. With that, we could record anything and make it repeat, kind of like a scratch but without the backspin. That was my first experience in sampling sound.

It’s so much easier on the computer! I make most of the music you hear in my show or on my website.

Your comedy is all over the place- musical, physical, religious… is there any type of comedy you won’t do?

I think I will continue to do what interests me on stage. And yes, I have a lot of interests!

I have recently developed an interest in meditation and am experimenting with a new kind of comedy yoga. We heat the room up to 110 degrees and the audience sips its two-drink minimum in down dog pose.

This year’s San Francisco International Comedy Competition just wrapped up- how was your experience winning runner-up in 2004?

The SF Comedy Competition was a very valuable experience in my career. It taught me to do what I do on stage no matter what the circumstances. The contest throws in all kinds of obstacles: exhausting travel, different types of audiences and jealous performers. I was really proud of my experience there because it showed I could relate to a variety of audiences despite some of the greatest pressures.

My favorite moment was the final show at Caesar’s Tahoe. I was first on the lineup, a spot everyone dreads. There was a Jazzercize convention at the hotel that weekend, so I decided to stroll around and take a look at my probable audience for the night. Little did I know I would stumble upon our country’s endangered supply of Jane Fonda lookalikes. They were all wearing these hot pink lycra Jazzercize sportsbras, and looking damn good (for the ’80s).

My closing piece for the night was a strip tease to the “Hokey Pokey.” I began by taking off my shirt and revealing my very own hot pink Jazzercize jersey! The crowd went nuts and I ended up winning first place that night.

What projects are you currently working on outside of stand-up?

My new holiday Heeb-hop album “Kosher Kuts: Hungry For More” is in stores and iTunes now. It includes “Matzah!” which was animated by JibJab.com and aired on “The Tonight Show.” [watch the “Matzah!” video here]

I am on the debut season of Showtime’s “White Boyz in the Hood,” airing now.

I am the narrator for an animal show called “Animal Atlas,” which airs on KGO-TV in San Francisco (www.animalatlas.tv).

Visit Eric online at suburbanhomeboy.com and myspace.com/ericschwartz

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