Ben Schwartz is one of the busiest men in comedy. But he doesn’t let it show
Ben Schwartz is sitting in the green room at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre with his shoes off, looking relaxed. The writer-actor-director-improvisor comedian appears to be far more zen than a man who spent the last two weeks traveling between Brazil, London, Los Angeles and soon New York City promoting his titular role in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” should be. Schwartz also recently announced North American and Australian tour dates for his improv show “Ben Schwartz and Friends,” and his long-gestating comedy script “DNA” starring Sam Rockwell finally found a director in Jorma Taccone.
“I do like being busy,” Schwartz says. “I like being in projects that make me feel happy and inspired.”
For Schwartz, the volume of work hasn’t changed. Even when starting at the bottom rung of entertainment, Schwartz was taking on as many experiences as he could. Schwartz was a page at CBS in 2003, doing audience loading for “Late Night with David Letterman.” He also worked as an intern at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York — an improv institution whose founding members include Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh and Adam McKay — where he was paid with free improv classes in exchange for ushering and taking out the trash.
“My favorite thing was staying in the audience after I let in the people,” Schwartz explained about working at the “ASSSSCAT” UCB shows that often feature high-profile celebrity guest monologists. “I just watched the audience watch [them] come out and lose their f— mind.”
Schwartz left New York for Los Angeles and he remembers the exact day: Jan. 11, 2009.
“I have a picture of me in New York in my parents’ house with my best friend and it was snowing outside,” Schwartz says. “When I landed it was sunny and I was near a pool the exact same day in January. I have those pictures back to back on my cellphone still.”
Soon after moving to L.A., Schwartz experienced a series of successes in entertainment that most people work their whole lives to achieve. He was cast in the lead of a film, a TV show, and got a job writing for the 2009 Oscars (which he won an Emmy for). Within a year he had his first appearance on “Parks & Recreation” as the fan favorite character Jean-Ralphio.
While the TV show and film were never released, Schwartz experienced another stroke of luck in his involvement in the early online comedy scene. He began to appear on College Humor and was an early guest of the “Comedy Bang! Bang!” podcast in 2009.
Schwartz makes it clear he was not making money during that time. He worked as a freelance joke writer for Weekend Update on “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with David Letterman” but was only paid for the jokes that made it to air, a total of 23 between both shows.
“The money I would get would basically pay for the fax machine,” he says.
While talking to Schwartz, it’s hard not to get sidetracked. The comedian is constantly curious and frequently turns the interview back around on the interviewer. The best way to see Schwartz’s effect in action is through his interviews with Larry King from 2017 to 2020. The two have the rapport of an experienced comedy pairing: Larry King’s straight man to Schwartz’s rambunctious troublemaker. When I bring up King, Schwartz doesn’t skip a beat, “I miss him so much.”
Schwartz claims his curiosity serves an ulterior motive: “I love learning about people and I’m not as comfortable talking about myself.” But when I get Schwartz talking about improv, his passion bubbles over.
“It’s like music. You could feel when the chorus is coming is usually the game of the scene. And then you’re back to the verse and chorus and bridge,” Schwartz says in a way befitting the son of a music teacher.
Schwartz has been fighting the long fight for improv. His hour-long improv show with Thomas Middleditch — “Middleditch and Schwartz” — was one of the first improv shows performed at the Largo theater in 2015. Three shows were later filmed and put onto Netflix in 2020 under the same name. The show’s premise involves Schwartz and his fellow improvisers developing an hour-long narrative show out of the stories from a few audience members.
After rebranding the show as “Ben Schwartz and Friends” and beginning to perform with a cast of three other improvisers, he has gone on to sell out venues like Radio City and the Sydney Opera House. But Schwartz always comes home to the Largo, where he’s garnered a dedicated fanbase that consistently packs the 280-seat venue.
Fifteen years after first performing at UCB on Franklin, Schwartz’s homecoming to the venue is also a chance to celebrate all the comedians he performed with. His first improv troupe included a young Donald Glover. Now he tours and performs with regulars like Gil Ozeri, Drew Tarver, Colton Dunn, Jess Mckenna and Katie Dippold.
Schwartz describes being purposeful in assembling his crew. Improv can get a bad rap — which Schwartz himself can admit to. His improv teams are a mix of different character archetypes (a straight man, a character player, etc.) but also purposefully diverse in genders, races and sexualities. “I didn’t want it to be four white guys, which sometimes in improv happens often.”
While Schwartz says he doesn’t exactly see himself as leading the crusade toward giving improv a better reputation than being the butt of stand-up comedians’ jokes, he’s proud that “Middleditch and Schwartz” and his tour show have given a rare platform for most people to understand longform improv.
“Not everybody comes to UCB. Only 90 people fit here. Not everyone comes to Largo. So I think that’s why we’re always the punching bag.” Schwartz continues, “We can point to [ourselves] who have been doing it for 20 years and aren’t horrible, and be like ‘Hey, these [are] people who really put the time into the craft.’”
But Schwartz’s love of improv seems to come from a place of childlike wonder. His original UCB improv show “Snowpants” — where Schwartz and crew bring someone on stage who has never done improv before — gets its name from Schwartz’s love of jumping into snow with snow pants on as a kid. He wanted to build a show that emulated that same feeling of excitement.
At 43, Schwartz could be at the precipice of taking his career in a defined direction. When asked about the possibility of settling into the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog for the long run, continuing the legacy of voice actors who become forever linked to their characters, Schwartz is open to staying with the hedgehog — as long as it’s for film.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that I am very much a voiceover actor and have been for a very long time,” Schwartz says.
Meanwhile, Schwartz is still dreaming. After years of stalled film projects, his script “DNA” is close to going into production. Schwartz eagerly gives me the “scoop” that the film has been in development since at least 2016.
Schwartz doesn’t give up on his projects, no matter how long they lie dormant. “This is how long it takes to make a movie,” he explains. “I have a TV show set up right now that I wrote the first 10 pages of 11 years ago. And it’s in active development now and is the closest it’s ever been to get made.”
What’s remarkable about Schwartz’s projects is how rooted they are in his early comedy endeavors. He’s sharing clips of his 2016 Funny or Die sketch series “The Earliest Show” on his social media to gauge interest in reviving the project. He continues to appear on “Comedy Bang! Bang!” and was featured on a recent episode of the series “Make Some Noise” on Dropout — a redeveloped media company from the people behind College Humor. There’s no sense any medium in Schwartz’s career was a stepping stone; he’s always been doing what he enjoys most.
Schwartz lists three original bucket list items for his career: voice a character on “The Simpsons,” be a guest on Letterman, and host “SNL.” Only the last one remains.
“I’m built for that, I started at sketch [comedy],” he says. “It’d be a dream.”
Not a lot of artists have so many dreams come true. But Schwartz has a way of pulling people in. Before he performed “Ben Schwartz and Friends” at Radio City in 2023, Schwartz says 50 to 60 people stopped him on the streets of New York to tell him how excited they were about the show. And while he says he has a few moments where he felt famous, that experience transcended them all.
“It felt like New York had my back,” he says. “People were proud of me, which is a weird thing to say about people you don’t know, but that was a very special day.”
It’s no wonder strangers feel supportive of Schwartz. I asked him if he feels like he has a comedic persona. Onstage Schwartz is curious — he leans into the crowd to ask questions of the audience. And while he’s searching for a show in his questions, sometimes he gets sidetracked with sparks of genuine interest.
“That is absolutely me. I’m not changing who I am at all for that,” Schwartz says. “I want it to feel like we’re all just people in a room hanging out.”
And that’s the trick of one of the busiest men in comedy. Whether it’s a press tour, developing film and TV projects, or standing onstage in front of thousands, Schwartz never feels like his mind is somewhere else. He is enthusiastic for every moment; the same kid jumping into the snow. The only difference is how many people are joining him in the plunge.
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