That's How He Dooz It

JB Smoove lets you see him sweat to get across stand-up material, with great success

By Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief

In JB Smoove’s new Comedy Central special “That's How I Dooz It,” out on DVD and download on April 3, the comedian best known as Leon on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” pours physical energy and sweat equity into stand-up pieces, successfully selling his material.

Smoove takes an idea like making the police chase you when they have to run with all their gear on their belt, and demonstrates that by drumming his microphone against his belt buckle as he runs in place. Then he amplifies the idea, asking what it might be like if an office worker had all their gear – computers, staplers, scanners, etc. – on their belt. Running again, with the noise Smoove creates, he exaggerates it further for effect.

In another part of the show, Smoove employs that physical energy again, imagining going to the gym to train to steal and a white guy on the next treadmill trying to ask him questions. Smoove also performs something like a pro wrestling body slam on a chair in another bit, and vocalizes these scenes energetically for effect.

Smoove also can take this into more surreal realms, starting by wondering why movies never show a penis – even in King Kong where the animal is naked. So Smoove plays the monster himself, dangling the microphone between his legs as he climbs a piece of the set, and on his way up attaching a Barbie doll to the mike for a capper.

“That’s How I Dooz It” is an hour that can’t help but make you laugh, and the smaller hall and audience where it was filmed – along with close-ups and tight editing -- contribute to making Smoove’s physicality jump off the screen, more than it might have if he was filmed statically in a more cavernous hall.

For another look at Smoove, see a review of a live 2008 performance at Comix.