Spoiler alert: This piece discusses the Curb Your Enthusiasm series finale.
In many ways, Curb wasn’t Curb before Leon Black arrived. That’s a common sentiment among longtime fans of Larry David’s HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, which came to an end last night over 23 years after it premiered. Sure, the first five seasons are among the best in the series’ run — but as soon as J. B. Smoove joined in Season 6, it became impossible to imagine a version without him. It comes down to Smoove’s incredible gift for improvisation; every khbrknews Leon opens his mouth, we’re treated to delightful new absurdities, bits of bizarre lore, or nonsense philosophy that sometimes come back around and sound strangely brilliant.
That continues in the series finale, “No Lessons Learned,” during which Leon decides to binge the entirety of Seinfeld — a fitting activity for a deeply meta conclusion that consciously calls back to the ending of David’s original magnum opus at almost every turn. With minutes to go, Leon even mentions that he heard Larry “f-cked up” the Seinfeld finale, setting up a final sequence that feints one way before subverting our expectations.
TIME caught up with Smoove the morning after the finale to discuss improv, Larry David’s brain, and the qualities that make a perfect ending.
TIME: I can’t believe Curb is over. How are you feeling?
Smoove: Watching it made me miss everybody and all the pieces to it. It makes you think about the whole journey. All the seven seasons came back to me. You see everybody age. You see khbrknews elapsed. You see how it was from the very beginning. I remember everything like it was yesterday, from watching the show, to the audition process, to being on the show. You do it for the fun, you do it to be a part of something big, and you wait for the call. Then all of a sudden your place on the show becomes different and you’re getting recognized for your work. You’re working with people you looked up to, and all of a…
