CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM Boss Talks Pulling Off Lin-Manuel Miranda Surprise Cameo

Fans of CURB OF YOUR ENTHUSIASM received a wonderful surprise on last Sunday night's episode, which featured a cameo by Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the show's executive producer, Jeff Schaffer explains how the HBO comedy kept the appearance a secret and reveals how they pulled off a mini production of HAMILTON!

"Lin was totally in when we pitched him, and he was so happy to play a different version of himself," says Schaffer. "The real Lin is fun and brilliant and has all the talent to one day make it big - if he ever gets a break. (Laughs.) He's one of the most fun people you can ever work with. And this version of Lin is very happy to get in Larry's persnickety sandbox and get dirty. This version is just killing Larry but with a smile, and is so graciously condescending to Larry. There is a line after he has completely taken over the entire meeting and direction of the play and he says to Larry, "Go sit back down over there, you're doing great." Larry has done nothing. He hasn't let Larry do a thing at all. He's such a brilliant improviser. He was having a great time with Larry and it shows, and you're going to see more of their incredible dynamic next week."

During the episode, Miranda free-styles a few bars of a potential song for David's "Fatwa!: The Musical." "We didn't want to put a lot of pressure on Lin when he was coming in, we wrote up some versions for Lin to do," explains the exec. "Lin wisely said, "You know what, I think I'll just freestyle it." And he did, and every take was different and brilliant. It was like watching someone dunk. You just sit back and go, "Well, I'll never be able to do that." Lin just verbally dunked on us."

Although the fictional Larry David ends up falling asleep during a HAMILTON performance, Schaffer assures fans that the real life Larry David is a huge fan of the musical. "The real Larry David has seen Hamilton three times and hasn't fallen asleep even once! I saw it with him for his second time, and I can say that he was 100 percent engaged the entire time. His head never drifted onto my shoulder," he jokes.

Asked how the show managed to film the HAMILTON performance scene, he shares, "We were able to film the cast in the afternoon before a show. It's movie magic! We shot facing away from the stage first with our own extras, because we can make them sign NDAs. Then the Hamilton cast came in and we shot the other way with them. They were all very, very excited to be on Curb. I don't think they realized how excited we were to sit there and watch Hamilton! They were performing and then we started to ask them to do a little more, like SCREAM from the stage. They were totally into it. Hamilton was very, very generous to let us shoot a little bit of their performance."

He continues, "We got to see little bits of two songs, a bit of "Alexander Hamilton" and then 30 seconds of the battle of "Yorktown." The first time we did that, there was a little bit of confusion about who was going to tell the cast to stop. I was directing but there was someone in charge of the cast and the musicians kept playing, so the cast kept singing. We we're all watching and really enjoying it thinking, "We can't use this but I'm really glad we get to see the entire battle of 'Yorktown!'" The thing about shooting performances is that it's actually very easy because the cast does it the same brilliant way every time. It's actually the exact opposite of how we shoot Curb, where every take is like a live sporting event."

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