A Human Cartoon
Larry Smith is a road warrior that has remarkable stories. The Comedy Green Room should do an article on Larry.
-- Bill Davern
I usually do a one-hour interview before writing The Comedy Spotlight. With Larry the interview went two days and 5 hours in total. But it felt like 5 minutes. Mr. Larry Smith is a very entertaining interview.
-- David Reuben
Larry Smith is a true entertainer with an infectious personality and is a human cartoon.
-- David Green
The author, David Reuben, has know Larry Smith since 1984 in the early days of our careers at the original famed Yuk Yuk’s in Yorkville in Toronto ON Canada. Over the years we have lost touch as our as careers went in different directions.
Larry Smith was born in Hamilton ON Canada to mother Joyce and Father Earl on February 9, 1966. Larry says, “Mom was 19 yrs. old, and dad was 24 yrs. old.” His sister Barbara came a year later, and brother David soon followed and robbed Larry of having his own room.
As a youngster, Larry first performed for friends and family at age three and at age five he was on the famous children’s TV show “Romper Room” on CHCH television in Hamilton ON. Larry states. Romper Room taught me that showbiz was a job as I got to see behind the curtain.” Mom Joyce remembered; Larry was a happy go lucky child who loved to entertain at the family campfires and spent a lot of time with Grandpa Burley who was quite the character.”
Job or not, Larry Smith was enamored with show business and his first hero was Jerry Lewis. He would watch Jerry Lewis movies and the famous Muscular Dystrophy Telethon every Labour Day Weekend. “I even held a Muscular Dystrophy CARNIVAL with a Kit ordered from “WKBW’s Rocketship 7 Show” Thinking Jerry Lewis might show up!”
Mom Joyce was the catalyst for young Larry’s stand-up comedy career; “I was sick, staying up late with mom, and this was the early 1970’s so I was watching the only thing on at that time of night, THE TONIGHT SHOW. It was after Carson's monologue, we saw various acrobats that I’m sure were very impressive, but the next act changed my life. From behind the curtain, all by himself came Tommy Dreesen, I’m 55 and have remembered his name, and that part of his routine was about how girls carried their books in high school.”
Young Larry asked his Mom,” Is that his job?” “And he does it all by himself? No directors? Writers? Actors? Just him getting the laughs?” Joyce answered “YES” to all these questions and Larry Smith found his life’s work.
Stand-Up Comedy is Larry Smith’s Core and everything else he has created has come from and because of stand-up comedy. Comedy is Larry’s calling, “Just me a joint and a room of people…. A man by himself in front of the crowd emoting for laughs! A pure Beautiful thing! Because everything I do stems from stand-up.”
Larry Smith is a talent artist who has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. There was never a shortage of paper in the smith household, Larry’s Grandma Burley worked a printing company. Cartooning has been incorporated into Larry’s stage shows, charity shows, and children’s shows.
At age nine Santa gave Larry a ventriloquist dummy that he named Mr. Jingles. Larry and Mr. Jingles got paid gigs from 9 to 13 years old. They did small luncheons and camp outs in front of five hundred people, opening for other (Actual) Pro performers, Larry started doing Impressions without Mr. Jingles at the end of his set. At thirteen he ditched Mr. Jingles because “I did all the work, and everybody wanted to talk to the puppet after the shows. So, I started writing a stand-up act, to go with the impressions.”
For fifteen years, Larry toured across Canada and the USA with the “Chris & Larry Show.” They were featured on the Club 54 television show. Eventually the partnership ended just like Martin & Lewis.
After Chris & Larry, he continued to tour as a headliner across Canada and the USA. He has done radio, television, and developed a children’s show called “Deputy Doodle.” As Larry says, “put me on a stage, does not matter where and I am happy.”
Covid has been at time for Mr. Larry Smith to venture into online shows, create more cartoons and plan his next live stand-up show. It has also made Larry more aware of how important his charity work is; “we are comedians, we spread joy! Plus, Jerry Lewis taught me that, hell he made me put on a CARNIVAL.”
Mr. Larry Smith has been performing since he was three years old. This comedy warrior has been on the road for thirty-seven years. He has worked with major Canadian and USA comedy and music stars including for Sam Kinison, Gilbert Gottfried (Club Dates), Rita Coolidge (Thunder Bay Civic Center), Ian Thomas, Northern Pikes, Blue Rodeo (On The Shaw Festival Stage).
Television and radio taught Larry to not force the bits and just be yourself, answer honestly, and the funny will come. Let’s not forget, Romper Room. Club 54, and Cooking with Comics. “THE best T.V. I ever did, that I can actually relaxed and laugh watching, is the episode I did of Ben Guyatts “Cooking With Comics.”
Larry Smith continues to work hard on his craft, hoping to do more shows increasing his exposure on YouTube and getting a whole new generation of fans for his stand-up and cartoons.
To find out more about Mr. Larry Smith visit https://larrysmithcomedy.wixsite.com/home/comedian
Mention you found about Roy Daye on www.thecomedygreenroom.com