EXCLUSIVE: How Jeremy Piven is Using Stand-Up Comedy to Grieve the Loss of His Mother After Her Tragic Passing Earlier This Year
Jeremy Piven has found a new love in stand-up comedy.
Sept. 22 2025, Published 5:35 p.m. ET
Actor Jeremy Piven is using laughter as the best medicine, as he continues to mourn the loss of his mother earlier this year.
In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, the star with over 100 film and television credits detailed his decision to return to his live theater days while touring the country with a new stand-up comedy act.
The actor, who recently lost his mother at 94, is now focusing on stand-up comedy.
Piven is probably best known as the sly and sarcastic Hollywood agent Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage. The 60-year-old won three consecutive Emmys for the role, and can barely step outside without someone yelling his character's catchphrase "LLOYD!" at him.
The TV show, however, has now pivoted away from film and toward one of his earliest loves – live performances – something that came from his theater-loving mother, Joyce, who passed away in January at age 94.
Speaking exclusively with RadarOnline.com, Piven said his new career as a traveling stand-up comic is actually helping him heal.
"When you’re on the road and you’re ordering breakfast and, you know, you’re crying and trying to gain some clarity, it’s always good to just take a beat, tell a joke, start laughing and then shake it off," he said.
"Because grieving isn’t for sissies. It’s a part of that, and it's good to just break through that and have a laugh."
Comedic Inspirations
Piven said comedy helps the grieving process.
Piven likens his comedy style to greats like Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. His jokes run the gamut from personal stories on sets to impressions and even some original characters.
His tour is taking him from New York, New York, to West Palm Beach, Florida, to Irvine, California, and points in between. He has dates already booked out through May of next year.
And the Grosse Pointe Blank actor says every time he takes the stage, his mother is never far from his thoughts.
"I talk about her in my show," Piven said. "So I take her up on stage with me wherever I go.
"She loved a good laugh. She was very funny."
A Mother's Love
Piven got his love of theater from his mother.
Piven's love of live theater came from his mother. Back in the early 1970s, Joyce and her late husband, Byrne Piven, co-founded the Piven Theatre Workshop, which trained everyone from John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Kate Walsh, Lili Taylor, and Aidan Quinn.
Twenty years earlier, the married couple were founding members of the improv-heavy Playwrights Theatre Club, headed up by Paul Sills, who went on to create The Second City in 1959.
Joyce's teaching methods and secret acting tips were captured in the book she and Byrne co-wrote in 2012, In the Studio With Joyce Piven.
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Touching Tribute
He is a three-time Emmy winner for his work on 'Entourage.'
When Joyce died earlier this year, Piven shared a heartfelt tribute to her on Instagram, along with several photos of the two together.
"Yes, she’s my mother, but she was an incredible human being," he penned. "Acting teacher to so many of us who genuinely enjoyed the evolution of her students. Taught us to respect the space we occupy when we perform, instilled the integrity of the work, and how lucky we are to get it.
"When we would run lines together (until the end) she would enter into the character and do whatever accent was needed."
He continued: "She was graceful until her last breath. Always the teacher… We don’t know how long we have here in this human form, but I can tell you that we lost a good one. She’s dancing with my father. Be good to each other."
