JB Smoove Talks Creativity and Fighting AI Fears, Evan Shapiro Breaks Down the Digital Entertainment Economy at Variety’s Business Managers Breakfast

JB Smoove brought his signature creative swagger and Evan Shapiro broke down the digital entertainment economy during lively conversations held as part of Variety‘s annual Business Managers Breakfast presented by City National Bank.

The event, held Thursday in West Hollywood, hosted Variety’s 2026 Business Managers Elite honorees and recognized Citrin Cooperman’s Arnie Herrmann as Business Manager of the Year. Attendees listened to a keynote conversation with actor, comedian, producer and writer Smoove, as well as a presentation from media analyst Evan Shapiro.

Read below for key takeaways from the breakfast:

City National Bank president and CEO Howard Hammond kicked off the morning.

“You’re a core part of the past of City National Bank,” he told the SRO crowd of business managers. “But more importantly, our future will always be intertwined with entertainment and sports.”

He thanked attendees for their support as clients and “blunt feedback,” and recalled a conversation where Arnie Herrmann said the two things that made his career what it is today were trust and service.

Keynote Conversation with JB Smoove

JB Smoove drives his own vehicle.

The actor, comedian and entrepreneur sat down with Variety executive editor for television Michael Schneider, where he emphasized the importance of taking control.

“I do believe you have to start early and think about where you’re going to end up at. But be open to changing yourself as you go along,” Smoove said. If you don’t, “you are basically in a mental zombie apocalypse” trying to catch up when you finally get hungry for success.

Smoove said he himself has been at least five different people in his lifetime, and credits his comedic senses and thick skin for that flexibility and resilience. “Everything I ever wanted to do, I’m taking a swing in,” he said.

Still, he doesn’t limit himself to only being a comedian. Smoove was a finalist to join the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” but was eventually hired as a writer. It wasn’t something he had done before, but “sometimes you gotta play the long ball for later,” he said. “You prepare for that moment, and I’m great in the moment.”

LISTEN to highlights from the JB Smoove and Evan Shapiro conversations on Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast

The comedian tells people all the time to take an improv class. “You’ll be surprised how that’s going to come in handy when you’re selling real estate, or you’re building a company or you’re a small business owner,” Smoove said. “It helps being able to change gears in the moment.”

Smoove launched comedy-focused creative advertising agency The First Darrin in 2025 with United Entertainment Group CEO Jarrod Moses. With that company, he focuses on creating memorable and daring campaigns.

He also formed Alternate Side Productions and has several projects in the works under that banner. “You got to almost constantly sell yourself, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Smoove said. “I think I’m a great salesman, and when I show up, it’s always 200%.”

Smoove credits his successes — like appearing on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or in two Spider-Man films — to, again, driving his own vehicle. “You gotta make chess moves,” he said.

With his production company and ad agency, Smoove shows his creativity. “If you’re scared of AI, you ain’t shit,” he said. “If you are worried about something that’s coming in, you don’t have faith in the human mind.”

Conversation with Creator and Media Expert Evan Shapiro

Evan Shapiro spoke with Cynthia Littleton, Variety co-Editor in Chief, about his take on the “affinity economy” and its impact on the entertainment industry.

Shapiro calls it the affinity economy, rather than the attention economy. He sees the companies that are successful have a creator mindset and serve the entire consumer.

“Most content does want to be free,” Shapiro said. His research shows that YouTube is at the top for total attention, which he credits to the fact that is free.

Ultimately, though, any major business will be “detrimental” to artists. “It’s not a corporation,” Shapiro said. “It’s not a foundation. It’s not a museum. It’s not a charity. They’re in it to make money.”

One of 2026’s biggest box office successes came in the form of “Obsession,” from YouTuber Curry Barker. “This guy is the new Tarantino,” Shapiro said. “It’s not because he has a massive following. It’s because he knows how to engage fans today.”

The quality of fan engagement and ability to manage that community is essential for artists today. “There’s a reason why The Rock can’t open a movie on his own without Kevin Hart,” Shapiro pointed out.

The box office may seem like it has recovered, Shapiro said, but that is because the ticket price has increased 128% this century. Will there ever be “Seinfeld” and “Friends” level syndication profits flowing in again to creatives and others in Hollywood’s creative community? Shapiro thinks so, but it will be with a different approach. “Hollywood and the traditional media ecosystem are not being disrupted,” he said. “They’re being reinvented.”

Arnie Herrmann Honored as Business Manager of the Year

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress Candice Bergen introduced Arnie Herrmann, following two video messages from two other longtime Herrmann clients, Liam Neeson and Martin Scorsese.

“He’s intelligent, he’s modest, he has a nobility, he behaves himself,” Bergen said of Herrmann. “He’s just someone that you really would appreciate as a friend and as a guy to handle your cash.”

Longtime business manager Arnie Herrmann spoke from the heart as he accepted Variety‘s Business Manager of the Year kudo. Based in New York, Herrmann has nearly 40 of experience as a business manager and joined his current firm of Citrin Cooperman in 2010.

He recalled a colleague asking him during a brief stint at a large accounting firm, “Why keep score if we can play the game?” Herrmann took that advice to heard and left that firm to work for a boutique outfit, where he discovered his love for the business management profession.

Herrmann highlighted how lucky he feels to advise legendary entertainers, trailblazing women journalists, EGOT-winning producers, Michelin Award-winning chefs, music executives and New York City real estate pioneers. He shared a message he received from a longtime (unnamed) client when he told the client that he was nearing retirement.

“You’ve served your firm and your clients so spectacularly with such heart. Now it’s Act Three, the most important, the last one, the one where you’re meant to put everything you’ve learned in Acts One and Two and put it to work so that it’s the richest and most satisfying of all,” Herrmann read from the message. “I never like goodbyes, but it’s not. It’s farewell, and Arnie, if someone deserves farewell, it’s you. So I just wanted to say this again in a form where my voice can’t catch, because you sit up way high in our lives and liability be damned, you are much more to me than a business manager and you have been for so long.”

Herrmann also thanked his longtime clients, Variety, Citrin Cooperman colleagues, City National Bank and his family.

“The Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously once said, ‘He who has a why can bear almost any how,’” Herrmann said. “Now he said this under dire circumstances, but in a much lighter scenario, I can apply it here. If the ‘how’ are the long hours, the missed family time, the missed events, the ‘why’ is my love for you, my family.”