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Jay Larson, host of Esquire Network's "Best Bars in America," has what many would agree is a fun job. Himself included. "I think that's an understatement ... ," says Larson, a standup comedian by trade who co-hosts with best friend and fellow comic Sean Patton as the hourlong unscripted series returns for its second season Wednesday, April 1. "I mean, it's pretty awesome. I bartended for a long time and I grew up working in restaurants, so to be able to go into a bar and have a seat waiting for you and have people ready to make you the best drinks in the house is a pretty awesome experience." Inspired by Esquire magazine's annual survey of the nation's top watering holes, the series embarks on a cross-country pub crawl this season that takes it to San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Louisville, Ky., and the Southern California coast, taking in establishments with great drinks, atmosphere and/or people. There are also themed episodes on best speakeasies, bar food and games. And sometimes no drinking is occurring, such as when the series hit an oxygen bar in Chicago. "We did that as kind of like a hangover cure," Larson explains, "so I got an IV drip put in me. Sean did the oxygen tank. And we just sat there. It kind of helps rejuvenate you and get you back. "The great thing about the show," he continues, "it's called 'Best Bars in America,' but it's a travel show as well, so when we go to these different cities we don't just go to bars but we'll go experience the food. In Boston, we got to go to Fenway Park and go to the ballpark. In different cities, we'll go to different places. ... We'll go and get a taste of everything that's really going on in the city and how it relates to the best bars and drinking and what not." Keeping in mind, of course, that "Best" is a subjective term. "I think there might be a strong argument that every bar is the best bar in America," Larson says, "because of one thing and that's booze. But we try to go out there and find the hole-in-the-wall places or the places that have been around the longest. You know, everything has a uniqueness to it." BY GEORGE DICKIE LARSON takes it all in on Esquire's 'Best Bars in America' What book are you currently reading? "I am reading ... 'The Warrior Ethos' (by) Steve Pressfield." What did you have for dinner last night? "Last night I cooked at home. I made bison steak and a kale salad." What is your next project? "I have kind of a lot of projects. I do other things in comedy, obviously standup, so I'm on the road." When was the last vacation you took, where and why? "Well, we've got a baby now. The last vacation, my wife and I took the baby up to Sonoma, stayed on a vineyard up there, ate some good food, drank some great wine. We stayed at the Benziger Winery because we went up there for the show. Great winery in Glen Ellen, and we stayed there for a couple of days and then we stayed right in the town square in Sonoma for one night at a hotel." If there's one thing you need as a con artist, it's focus. The movie titled "Focus" has that to a certain degree, though it loses some as it heads for the finish line. Still, there's considerable compensation in a typically winning performance by Will Smith, and also in an impressive turn by Margot Robbie (best-known previously for her work in "The Wolf of Wall Street"). Smith plays a scammer who's well aware of when he's being scammed himself, so Robbie's character doesn't get nearly as far as she expects to when she targets him as a potential mark. What she gets from him instead is an extensive tutorial in helping her fleece bigger game – specifically in New Orleans, the site of an imminent football championship. Those in town for the big game provide the duo and some other cohorts with what's known as a "target-rich environment," and there's fun of the nature that's also been supplied by such films as "The Sting" and "Entrapment" in seeing how rip-offs are arranged and executed through ultimately precise teamwork. Writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ("Crazy Stupid Love") don't stop there, though – and that's part of the problem with "Focus." Instead of giving the New Orleans story a coda, they build a whole other tale onto it, relocating the major players to Buenos Aires in a plot involving a revolutionary fuel for race cars. It's hard not to admire filmmakers for overreaching, even if the attempted reach fails, but "Focus" would have been better if it had been kept simpler. The added material does give time to such good performers as Gerald McRaney (and it's a pleasure to see the television veteran get a chunky feature-film role) and Rodrigo Santoro, but the core of "Focus" really is Smith and Robbie. Take the focus off them, and you're running a risk. What's especially fun about their work together is that they're such a good match, with Smith the familiar screen veteran and Robbie a newcomer who's his confident match. And with as confident as he is, that is no small matter. If you keep your focus on them, "Focus" hits its aim well enough. BY JAY BOBBIN Will Smith puts the 'Focus' on con games Page 8 March 30 - April 5, 2015

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