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The Backstory Behind Willie Geist's Hilarious Cameo on Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Sunday TODAY host showed off his improv skills in an episode.
Sunday TODAY host Willie Geist showed off his acting chops when he made a cameo as himself on the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
During Geist's hilarious appearance, he used his interviewing skills to interrogate Larry David, trying to decipher if David is in a disgruntled state or not.
When Geist appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show on March 24, he discussed the process of filming the scene.
''There's no script. I'm not an actor, it was super fun,'' he told Kelly Clarkson.
He also talked about how is role in the episode came to be.
''I was trying to get Larry David to come on the show,'' Geist said, referring to Sunday TODAY. "And we were sort of talking to his publicist, and I was in the backyard one day and my phone rang. And it was a Beverly Hills number. And I said 'This will be interesting.'''
Lo and behold, the number was Larry David, telling Geist that he decided he wasn't going to make an appearance on Sunday TODAY. (At least he was polite enough to call!) However, the comedian had a splendid idea: Geist could come on as a guest on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
''So he invited me to come do this part, to which I immediately agreed, the hardcore negotiator that I am,'' he said.
''It is true that there's not really a script,'' Geist added. ''It was a marvel to watch him and his team just sort of huddle up and come up with jokes, and just [to] see them now, all these months later on TV. It was wild. Surreal.''
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Larry David on TODAY
Meanwhile, when Carson Daly, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie were discussing Geist's Curb cameo on TODAY, they showed a clip of David teasing Kotb and Guthrie, alluding to the possibility that they may be featured in the newest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
''We shot a whole scene that never made it. It was hilarious,'' Kotb said.
''Then, he cut us. He enjoyed cutting us. He tried to tease us. 'Y'all are in it.' You never know with Larry,'' Guthrie said.
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That appearance happened shortly before the viral moment in which David throttled Elmo on TODAY. David appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers a few days later to explain his decision behind the attack, expressing little remorse.
"Elmo was talking, I was waiting to be interviewed. He was going on about mental health and I had to listen to every word," David recalled. ''I was going, 'Oh, my God I don't think I can take another second of this!' So I got off my chair, I approached him, and I throttled him!"
