JB Smoove: That's How I Dooz It (2012) Online

Like many, I know Smoove through Curb where he plays a very outlandish and energetic character; it was enjoying him in these snippets that made me check out his first filmed standup special. With a rather deliberately written and spoken title, Smoove opens the show with his own theme music, rewinding it (and himself) because of how much he loves it, and then acting out the various extreme things that the music makes him want to do. It is a high- energy start to the show but the overuse of the word 'dooz' and the hyper-expressive acting out did make me think he was just overplaying it a bit.

This feeling continues through the show because he is very physical and constantly dropping slang like dooz, calling people 'playboy', and swearing a lot. Such antics tend to replace content and there are jokes that go on too long due to his acting them out several times. That said, when he has invention and randomness in there, such delivery is very funny – particularly as he goes with the joke the whole way – whether it be a joke about police brutality leading to cooking tips, shadow puppet shows and ultimately a swan behind bars; this is one example but there are quite a few where his energy carries the audience to very silly and funny places, and these bits are very good. As I say, at times the material isn't there and it just feels he is acting up in a rather obvious manner just for the sake of keeping the energy in the room.

His act is pretty crude but where he has this invention and determination in the material, it does work well; it is just where he has little else but noise and energy that he gets a bit exposed and feels like he is falling back on swearing and such to carry him through. Worth a look if you like him though, because there is enough clever nonsense in here to carry you through the periods where there isn't.