Chances are you don’t know. Probably don’t care. Or maybe you’re just wondering, “Who the fuck is this?” Well, this the fuck is Barry Smoler, a sentence fragment that truly illustrates the importance of a comma. For instance, say I’d written: “This, the fuck, is Barry Smoler," in which case you’d read what many of us have thought on at least one occasion or more. Regardless, all Strunk and White nonsense aside, come along and enjoy as Rick Kosick takes you into the professional world of Barry Smoler, a boy who began as a grunt in Dickhouse and eventually grew up to be a producing man for GORILLA FLICKS.
Rick: Who are you, what is your job title, and what does it entail?
Barry: My name is Barry Smoler. I’m a co-executive producer on Swerved, and my job is to fix shit, interface with all the different departments, and make sure we have a good time.
How did you get involved with Gorilla Flicks?
My first experience ever was in 2003. I’d just moved back to California from New York, where I'd interned with MTV, and I got a call for Wildboyz. I interviewed with Guch and a bunch of the production people and they realized I had no idea what LA was about, like maybe he’s not the best researcher or guy to do runs because he’s going to get fucking lost. But then I got a call the next day for an interview where I sat across the table from Tremaine and Cliver. I’m not sure if they asked me a single question. They just sat there and I had no clue what was going on. Maybe I was there for an interview—it was one of my first job interviews—so fuck, here we are now.
Is working for Tremaine everything it’s cracked up to be?
I love working for Jeff. You know, it’s an interesting place to work; you become friends with everybody really fast. At times you even lose sight of your job because it’s so fun, but the more you care the harder you work. I love the friendship and you can’t get away from that. Working there is awesome and you can do whatever you want… punch him in the face, get peed on, all the fun stuff.
Is it true that all you have to do is throw Tremaine a banana on set and he’s happy?
No, I don’t know if you have to throw him a banana… you’ve got to point out shiny things, point out birds. Sparkling water seems to be a new thing.
How many shows have you worked on with Jeff now? What’s been your favorite?
I did Wildboyz, three of the movies, Nitro Circus, Loiter Squad, Swerved, and some other stuff. I’m very lucky to have been somewhat gainfully employed for almost 12 years now by these guys and I’m super appreciative. My favorite one is Wildboyz—hands down.
What was the sketchiest situation you got into working on Wildboyz?
There was some legit heart of darkness stuff happening during our trip to Indonesia, like going up river in Borneo for an hour and a half right at sundown in these long canoes with all the gear piled into them. It was dark and just super sketchy, bobbing and weaving through these rotted out trees sticking out of the water, current everywhere. Then when we went to go measure the “world’s largest snake,” that was another weird heart of darkness thing. There was a bunch of small, one-story, tin roof buildings that formed a courtyard, and when we walked into the big open area it looked like hell in a cell. There’s a giant snake in this wrestling cage, there’s all these full-size dogs barking and monkeys on chains screaming back and forth—like you realize all these dogs that look like golden retrievers are food—and the snake wranglers’ hands were all bandaged up and wrapped up in plastic bags.
Another "heart of darkness" moment from the Indonesia trip that Barry neglected to mention.
Also, the “Running of the Bulls” in Mexico, when we went to that little town and that dude got rag-dolled. There was a moment at the end where all the crew was back and we were like, “Where’s Rick?” I was like, “Fuck. I’ll go look for him.” So we went back out, thinking you were in the running of the bulls still, and I found myself trapped between the two bulls in this little village and one of them picked up a trailer and spun it around like a pizza. I was like, “Goddamn….” Bulls are possibly the craziest.
That day was one of the scariest ever.
That was gnarly, but it’s exciting, I mean participating in stuff like that… you get your adrenalin up. I can sit at a desk for approximately a half hour before I get too stir crazy and want to go do something slightly less productive.
I’ve worked with you on a few different TV shows and it seems you always get picked to do the test before we shoot the gag. How does that always happen?
I’m an easy target and I definitely put up a fight. Everybody loves to play the game, it’s so much fun to do this stuff… I just don’t love to be on camera. I’m fucking horrible for it, but if I can still participate in the fun stuff I’ll take the hit.
Barry takes a hit from The Miz and contrary to his belief looks surprisingly good when caught on camera.
Let’s switch gears and talk about the second season of Swerved. How is this season different from the first one?
We got to shoot with WWE Superstars—that’s the difference. Season 1 we tried to prank the Superstars, which on paper and in theory sounds awesome: big guys, perfect marks for stuff, they’re usually in a controlled environment so we could get them. But we tried and it just didn’t work. They don’t have the best sense of humor about themselves. What they do is very serious and they tend to take it that way, regardless how goofy their character is or what your opinion of wrestling is. Season 2 was so much better. We got the full cooperation of WWE, we got to take to Superstars and use them as accomplices. Anytime you can talk to those guys ahead of time, or get the people that are going to execute the prank to help write the creative, it becomes collaborative and you get these homerun pranks because they know exactly what to do. If you write pranks to your talent it’s fucking gold. So it was fun. And I grew up being a WWE fan, so it was pretty exciting to finally see behind the curtain.
So you’re really into watching this make believe world?
When I was growing up all through elementary school and into high school, yeah, I was watching WWE with a group of friends. It was fun. And then it just fell off because I was paying attention to girls. But once I started this show all that knowledge came right back to be super helpful.
What was your favorite prank on Season 2?
I loved the NXT Day with Willie. It was a soft prank in the sense of how we just threw a random out to fuck with super fans. That was my sweet spot with just the right amount of evil and being able to explode a prank that big with that many marks is great. I also really loved the one with The Miz locked out of a venue. I know, at first on paper it seems like a rehash of something we did before, but man, it was so much fun. I was the driver of his car on that one and every time Miz got back in the car he was so excited. That’s another one where if you have the right kind of talent to get excited about a prank it works like gangbusters. He killed it. Perfect mark on that one too with the security guy.
So you’re saying the success rate on Season 2 was better than the first?
Oh yeah. I feel like we weren’t having to sweep up the cutting room floor and glue the bits back together. We had more options. Everything played longer and a lot funnier. Plus, the Superstars had a good time, which always makes everybody look good and everything was really fun. Creatively our writing can be subpar, but if you get the right person you can really make it shine.
Who are some of the favorite Superstars and Divas that you worked with on Swerved?
Come on, man, you know the answer to that. Paige is by far my favorite. She’s just a piece of shit awesome person. She fits right in with our group and on set she always had a good time. New Day were awesome. I wanted New Day every day. They were perfect for stuff like this. If you gave New Day and Paige the show to run, they could have their own great time. But we’d already worked with them on Season 1 and we knew they were great. The new people we had this season, like Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, they were awesome and I think they were the standouts. We didn’t know very much them going in and they just knocked it out of the park. R-Truth, Mark Henry, and then we finally got the fucking Holy Grail of working with Seth Rollins and Randy Orton—you know, some top tier talent that were definitely not wanting to work with us on Season 1, and they had a blast. So if we provide the right shit, man, it’s so much fun to see them be mean to kids. They played right into it and they were awesome.
If Swerved comes back for a third season do you think we can push it even further?
Of course. If everybody is on board and wants to go bigger and better, we can do it. We’ll go as mean and fun as people are willing to come along with us.
Is there anyone you would like to work with in the WWE camp that we haven’t yet?
The Undertaker would be fucking awesome, you know. Just look at that dude. I would love to get Rick Flair involved in a prank. I know we had an unsuccessful thing with him, but we knew we were just going to blow him up. Triple H helped us out big time on the NXT shoot. Any of the top tiers would be awesome. It would be so unexpected of them, because they’re on such pedestal. When you see them in the ring, they look like god, but to get them to work on a prank in such an intimate environment with the hidden camera stuff, it’s always super fun.
Do you think we ever have a chance of working with The Rock?
I think we have a better chance of getting The Rock than we do with The Undertaker or Stone Cold and anyone else. The Rock probably has the best sense of humor out of all these guys and understands the social media shit all these millennials do. If he smells what we’re cooking, I think we’re good.
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