Actor-Comedian Byron Bowers Goes Deep on Comedy, Characters and Cars
It’s about 8:15 in the morning on a warm, midsummer Friday about 40 miles north-northeast of the Hollywood TMZ, as I try to keep pace with the brown Porsche 911 in front of me.
We are winding through the back canyons of Angeles Crest Highway in Angeles National Forest on the way to Newcomb’s Ranch for the Good Vibes Breakfast Club. I pick up the walkie-talkie in the front seat of the Hyundai Elantra N — the tricked-out sport version of the brand’s sedan — and radio over, “Don’t wait for me, keep going.”
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Moments later, the brown 911 — delightfully called “Rolling Coffee Bean” by its owner, actor and comedian Byron Bowers — speeds off through the straightaways and esses of Little Tujunga Canyon until it’s a smudge in the distance.
Good Vibes Breakfast Club isn’t a car meet and it’s not a car show; it’s a place where people who love cars can spend a morning drinking coffee, discussing their rides and — in a town where you need to be always on — let down their guard and just be a member of a car-loving community.
I first got to know Bowers from cars and seeing him at automotive events around Los Angeles, but nowadays, it’s hard not to know who Bowers is, from his years as a stand-up comedian and on to his 2022 FX special Byron Bowers: Spiritual N***a, directed by Alma Har’el. (When asked why he named it that, Bowers replies, half jokingly, “because people like you can’t say it”) As an actor, he’s had roles as Meldrick Honey in The Chi, Percy in Honey Boy and Rome in Concrete Cowboy. And now, portraying Slappy Johnson in the Natalie Portman-led Apple TV+ series Lady in the Lake (created by Har’el), Bowers, playing an unemployed husband who takes a stand-up comedy gig, has come into his own.
“I started going to car meets in 2011 and then I just faded away, but I just came back hard with the 911,” says Bowers, who is a consulting producer on Lady in the Lake, “It was during the pandemic, when all you could do was drive and when I showed up at Good Vibes, everyone knew who I was.”
Good Vibes — and the words ring true — is the brainchild of Jay Ryan and wife Nicole (who recently passed away after a long illness). It’s a car community unlike any other. The outpouring of love and compassion for Jay and Nicole, is an extension of that community. “I felt a part of the community right away,” says actor Phil Morris, best known from his portrayal of Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld. “I knew people who were already going, and then they introduced me to Jay and Nicole, who were instrumental in this community. I’m in a situation where people know me mainly from Seinfeld — and they’re huge Seinfeld fans — so they were just thrilled to have me up there and they were so welcoming and supportive.”
Bowers has always had a love for cars, perhaps it’s his engineering mindset — he graduated with an engineering degree from Southern Polytechnic State University — and Bowers loves to tinker. “An important rule for me as far as automobiles is: I can’t drive stock. I’m going to change something. My 911 has custom modifications to improve handling. It has some internal interior updates as well as some external cosmetic updates to make the car look timeless.”
Talking with Bowers and watching his work, it’s hard not to wonder if he’s a dramatic actor with some comedy chops or a comedian who goes super duper deep.
When asked how he views himself, Bowers, after a long pause, replies: “As a storyteller. I think that’s part of the problem that the game has with me. I ease tension — if you want to put it spiritually — I create tension and then I release the tension. That’s what I’m good at doing. Think if dualism was a person. So if it’s light, I’m gonna make it dark, and if it’s dark, I’m gonna make it light. That’s why I think I struggle in comedy sometimes, because I’m gonna go dark with it.”
Bowers, who has been working as a stand-up since 2005 and moved to Los Angeles in 2008, started out as a more traditional comedian and over the years and segued into a comedy-as-catharsis form of storytelling, touching on everything from mental health issues and schizophrenia to family dynamics, drug abuse and race in America — all the while keeping it really funny.
When asked how his audience has changed over this year, Bowers says, “I think it is people who have accepted life. Went through some type of traumatic experience, right? And they ain’t afraid to laugh at those things.” Bowers still regularly does stand-up — you can catch him keeping his comedy sense sharp at West Hollywood’s Comedy Store — and plans to tour, “but now it’s about which story do I want to tell.”
Bowers, who has worked with directors Steven Soderbergh and Olivier Assayas and creatives like Lena Waithe and Donald Glover, says his transition wasn’t always easy. “Some of the biggest things that helped me transition to the acting side is meeting those who saw more in me than the powers to be. Like meeting [casting director] Carmen Cuba, who played a critical role in my transition into dramatic acting: her trusting me to knock out any of the roles she fights for me out of the park. People have to not only believe in you but also be willing to fight for you, and you must knock it out of the park.”
Har’el, who Bowers started dating a few years before he filmed Honey Boy, was a part of his transformation. “Dating a filmmaker gives me access to an education on show business outside of comedy.” said Bowers, “Hollywood sometimes tries to lock me into a box and when I don’t fit, they like to cast you aside. That’s why Alma created Slappy, who wasn’t in the Lady in the Lake book. Alma wrote that part specifically for me to play to display all of my talents. Comedy and drama and storytelling.”
I asked Bowers how he put together the stand-up scenes from the perspective of the 1960s set period piece as Slappy Johnson, “It was only supposed to be one minute and they shot that and yelled ‘Cut, let’s do it again’,” explains Bowers in his deep southern drawl. “But when the extras came in — you know how jokes are, like once you hit, it’s like the rug has been pulled out from under you and you have to keep going. So I’m now tagging it now right, and they go harder and harder and they just keep laughing, and then that’s how I ended up being like 20 minutes.”
I’m reminded of the story as I leave Good Vibes and glance out my car window and see Bowers, surrounded by a group of fellow car lovers, laughing as if there is no tomorrow.
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