At around 9 p.m. Saturday night, the Laugh Factory in Long Beach had a line outside, which wrapped around the building and down the street. Hundreds of people had flocked to the comedy club to see KROQ’s Ralph Garman and filmmaker Kevin Smith perform their hugely popular podcast “Hollywood Babble-On” live.
The podcast is usually performed every Saturday night at the John Lovitz Theater in the Universal Studios City Walk in Hollywood. This was the first time the duo had taken the show to Long Beach.
“You realize we do this show every f*cking week like 30 minutes away from here,” Smith said in response to the crowd’s huge response when they walked on stage. “I guess we’re going to have to come to Long Beach more often.”
Garman, who was battling a head cold, was still able to do his classic impressions of Al Pacino, David Bowie and others, most likely due to the mass amount of Jack Daniels he was drinking during the show. He performed a song as David Bowie to console a man who was about to get a vasectomy, during which Smith did a ridiculous dance that quickly got out of control.
Smith was of course under the influence in a different way than Garman, having smoked a strain of marijuana called “Girl Scout Cookies,” which he assured the crowd “did not taste or smell like Thin Mints.”
Smith and Garman cycled through their usual segments, including “Tinseltown Stiffs,” “Hollywood Helpers,” “Shoutouts” and “Headlines.” Since the show wasn’t in their usual venue, Smith was in charge of playing all the audio clips and jingles, which he did to varying success. Watching him fumble with the Macbook while doing his crazy dance moves was an added bonus for the Long Beach crowd.
Garman and Smith are at their best when they are interacting with the crowd. Even though the video that played before the show asked the crowd to keep quiet, a drunken woman on the second story yelled “Turn up the speakers!” repeatedly during the show. After asking the house to turn up the sound, Garman turned to Smith and whispered, “I feel sorry for her husband or boyfriend.”
The combination of a drunken angry impressionist and a laid-back stoner goofball is what makes Hollywood Babble-On so entertaining. The show mainly involves Garman grumpily responding to the weeks’ showbusiness news while Smith eggs him on and giggles like a schoolgirl. It’s a format that’s immature, off-the-wall and absolutely hysterical, and will definitely please both fans of Smith’s smart yet profane films and Garman’s showbiz beat segments on KROQ’s “Kevin and Bean” morning show.
After seeing the strong reaction from the Long Beach crowd, Smith vowed to try to make it out to Long Beach at least once a month. If this happens, it is sure to become a must-see show for fans of comedy in the area.