Photo: Jeremy Piven
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Actor and comedian Jeremy Piven will stop by the Wilbur on Friday night as part of his stand-up tour.
“The great thing about the Boston crowd is, I’m from Chicago and they remind me of Chicago in the way that you gotta earn their laughs," Piven told WBZ NewsRadio. “If they’re not feeling it they’re gonna let you know.”
Piven, best known for his Emmy-winning role as Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage,” said he’ll cover a wide range of material in his act, including impressions, stories from his life and stories about his time on the show.
Even though the show ran from 2004 to 2011, Piven said he’s gained younger fans as well.
“It’s like 19 to 90 out there,” he said. “There’s a whole new audience, since the pandemic, of these kids, teens [in their] early 20s that have seen Entourage, so its my job to make them all laugh.”
Still, he said he wants to show fans of Entourage who he is outside of the character.
“They wanna let me know they’re Ari Gold. It’s like no, you are Ari Gold, I’m not. I’m a stage actor from Chicago,” he said. “So you get to unpack that, and that’s really fun, and selfishly they get a sense of who I am.”
Piven said he loves the excitement of a live audience, but doing comedy in 2025 can get annoying.
“You gotta be on your toes because the reality is, you walk on stage and they're kinda still on their phone in the front row, and you’re like ‘I’m sorry, are you googling me to see if I’m funny? I’m right here. Put your phone down, let’s go,’” he said.
Along with comedy, Piven is a bit of a drummer. He says he’s gotten behind the drum set a few times during past comedy sets, and has experience playing with some pretty big musicians, including Kid Rock and members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Piven told WBZ NewsRadio about a time when he even was scolded by Kid Rock after playing a charity show with the singer because he messed up during one of the songs.
“He was furious, he was like ‘Do you need a metronome?’” Piven said.
Audience members can expect more stories at the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available here.
WBZ’s Drew Moholland (@DrewWBZ) reports.