Armando Iannucci, Larry David, Jason Alexander and Kevin Smith Join ‘Veep’ Table Read for Harris-Walz (Exclusive)
Veep‘s election fundraiser reunion has booked some special guests.
Joining the cast and writers of HBO’s iconic political comedy for a live table read event on Sunday are Veep creator Armando Iannucci, along with Larry David, Jason Alexander and Kevin Smith.
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“We’re so thrilled to have Armando, the creator of Veep, joining us,” Veep‘s showrunner David Mandel tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And I am so excited to have my old boss Larry David along with Jason Alexander. It’s kind of like a mini-Seinfeld reunion stuffed inside a Veep reunion. Like a turducken.”
Of the filmmaker of such classic franchises as Jay and Silent Bob and Mallrats, Mandel adds, “Kevin Smith is the biggest Veep fan I know and his movies have always been as wonderfully foul as Veep, so it’s a perfect combination to have him as part of our table read!”
Mandel, who was a writer on Seinfeld for three seasons (and on Smith’s Clerks: The Animated Series for ABC), took over as showrunner on HBO’s Veep in season five from Iannucci. The political comedy, which signed off in 2019 after seven seasons, has only gotten more relevant in recent years.
After President Joe Biden dropped his 2024 re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee this summer, Iannucci reached out to Mandel and star Julia Louis-Dreyfus to reconnect amid Veep‘s resurgence (series viewership jumped 350 percent on Max and clips of Louis-Dreyfus’ formidable female politician, Selina Meyer, were going viral). Mandel and star Louis-Dreyfus were gathering the troops to brainstorm fundraising ideas for what would become the Harris and Tim Walz ticket, and Ianucci was on board.
The result of their brainstorming is Sunday’s virtual table read, presented by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, of one of those viral episodes — season three’s “Crate,” which aired in 2015, when then-Vice President Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus) finds out the current POTUS is stepping down, elevating her to the Oval Office.
The live event — happening at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT — is being hosted by Stephen Colbert and will feature the award-winning ensemble of Louis-Dreyfus, Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Sam Richardson, Matt Walsh, Gary Cole, Sarah Rutherland, Clea DuVall and Sufe Bradshaw, along with previously announced special guests Kumail Nanjiani and Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Tickets are available here.
“Larry David hates joining things and participating, so we are honored that he is joining us and participating in the Veep Reunion for Wisconsin as a special guest,” adds Louis-Dreyfus, who also hosted a panel during the week of the Democratic National Convention with the country’s eight Democratic governors. “I am guessing he will never let me forget that I asked him to do it. And I’m now on the hook for some favor for him, which I’m already regretting.”
For the 2020 election, the Veep crew and WisDems hosted an entire cast reunion that raised more than $500,000, followed by a crossover event with The West Wing cast in 2022 for the high-stakes midterm elections.
“Our grassroots supporters power our statewide organizing, and it’s that organizing strength that helps us elect Democrats and chart a new way forward in Wisconsin,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler in a statement when announcing the 2024 table read. “Events like this celebrate our long-time supporters and let us reach even further to the people who will fuel our work to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, Tammy Baldwin, and Democrats across Wisconsin this November.”
The Colbert-hosted event also comes as the Late Show host has been caught in a war of words with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. After Trump called him “not funny,” “boring” and called on CBS to end his contract in a Truth Social post earlier this week — which was shared by Mandel on X to promote the Veep event — Colbert replied on his show, “[Trump’s] clearly upset because I called him boring. And I called him boring because I knew it would upset him. Which it did, because he’s so predictable, which is ultimately what makes him kind of boring.”
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