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Movie:		7.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		4.0
Score:		7.0

Writer(s):	Sinbad
Starring:	Sinbad
Genre:	Comedy
Release Date:	February 23, 2010

List Price:	DVD - $9.49
Amazon:

What starts as just another stand-up routine from an established comedian turns into a Q&A session for women with men-troubles and ends with an impromptu jam session. It's been awhile since Sinbad hit the tour circuit, but if his Where U Been? DVD is any indicator, he hasn't lost that quality that made him funny and highly accessible to audiences everywhere. You might scoff and think Sinbad is just that villainous, misunderstood mailman from Jingle All the Way – but the man started like so many funny men before him: on the stand-up circuit. Where U Been? all at once reintroduces Sinbad to audiences while answering the titular question, which I couldn't help but ask myself.

Family. Divorce. A break for sanity. Pick one, but they're all equally true. While his career was rolling along, other parts of his life broke down. So he stepped away from the stage. He's back now though. As you may have noticed. Or maybe not. At least until this DVD.

The man rose through the ranks for a reason. He's funny. He is. As a stand-up comedy snob of sorts, I had a certain level of, not necessarily disdain, but reluctance to embracing him as anything more than a cheap laugh. That's all that was expected of the DVD, a laugh or two here and there, but not a steady stream of comedy. Sinbad's Where U Been? is one of the better routines I've found on DVD in recent memory.

From the perspective of subject matter, there's nothing special in the topics Sinbad goes after. On one hand, it makes Where U Been? Very nondescript in that vast sea of stand-up comedy for people to choose from. The differences between men and women? Who hasn't covered that? Being famous? Every comedian who ever gets anywhere goes after that one. The one place where Sinbad goes off the beaten path is when he discusses some of the painful bouts of his hiatus from the spotlight – though even finding laughs in private lives is a common comedian staple. This commonality doesn't lessen a routine, it just makes them all the more memorable when the comedian is able to imbue it with something special and raise it above the norm. Sinbad does it well, for the most part.

When Sinbad starts taking questions from the audience the fun really starts moving. At times it's like watching a social experiment. “Do any men here [insert problem with their significant other]?” Sinbad will ask. All the single man laugh, hoot, etc. But the married men chuckle nervously as the woman next to them chortle enthusiastically – at both Sinbad and the timidity of their man's reaction. He makes the realizations as funny as they are somewhat shameful. “Ladies, do you have any questions about your man you need answered?” Someone always shouts a question back. Sinbad becomes a Dear Abby figure with a sense of humor. His audience eats up each response.

Where the routine ends up almost comes out of the blue. True, it opens with Sinbad going all Animal on the drums in the opening number. So when Sinbad takes up some tunes in the final third of his act, it's a unique spin on typical stand-up comedy. He throws a few jokes in between each song, but it really is all about the music to close it out. Where U Been? isn't your typical stand-up routine, but there's nothing wrong with that. And, for a comedian coming back from total obscurity since the late 90s like Sinbad, the more memorable that first new routine the better.

DVD Bonus Features

Someone gave Sinbad a camera and asked him to show us around backstage. He does so with the expected level of “we need an extra feature” enthusiasm cracking wise with some stagehands. There are a few comic gems in the mix, but overall it's a very ho-hum extra.