L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
‘Curb’ Misses the Larry-Cheryl Marriage
T E L EVISION
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
A FEW WEEKS AGO, before
the start of the 11th season of
“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” some
Jewish Philadelphians made
an interesting point about the
show. In an Oct. 14 Jewish
Exponent story, they argued
that “Curb” has had two
distinct periods.

Before Larry David’s split
from his show wife Cheryl,
played by Cheryl Hines, and
aft er. Larry and Cheryl broke
up aft er a season six episode
in 2007; David brushed off
his wife’s fearful call from a
turbulent airplane because he
had to deal with the TiVo guy.

(Very 2007.)
Th e locals said that, when
Larry was married to Cheryl,
the show revolved more
around their married world of
friends and social occasions.

Post-Cheryl, “Curb” has
focused on Larry and Leon,
played by J.B. Smoove, and
Larry’s general misdeeds out
in the world.

Some thought the shift
made the show funnier.

Others didn’t.

But regardless of where they
came down, their larger point
was hard to unsee during the
fi rst two episodes of the new
season. Whereas Larry used to be a
ridiculous character grounded
in a specifi c, married world,
he’s now a loose cannon
unmoored from any sense
of normalcy. Several seasons
into this dynamic, it’s harder
to suspend one’s disbelief as a
viewer. In 2021, “Curb” feels like
watching the Larry David
caricature that America knows
so well. It doesn’t, however, feel
like watching a real character.

Th e balance between the two
used to make “Curb” feel at
least somewhat real.

Yet this doesn’t take away
too much from the show’s
humor. It’s certainly funnier and
more shocking to watch a real
person pick fi ghts with people
over awkward social conven-
tions. But it’s still funny to
watch the Larry David carica-
ture do it, too.

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JEWISH EXPONENT
Th e fi rst episode of the new
season, “Th e Five-Foot Fence,”
aired on Oct. 24 and revolved
around a classic “Curb” set
piece: a funeral for the still-
living actor and comedian
Albert Brooks.

Brooks, like most “Curb”
celebrities, played an exagger-
ated version of himself. He
wanted to host his own funeral
to hear people say nice things
about him while he was still
living. Larry, of course, mocks the
bit and off ends Brooks. Th ere’s
also a 10 out of 10 cameo
from Don Draper himself: the
actor Jon Hamm, who totally
commits to the funeral bit.

When Hamm opens his
eulogy to Brooks with the
Yiddish word tsuris, meaning
trouble or distress, you know
that’s what’s coming. And it
does, in the form of a hilarious,
topical COVID joke that will
take you back to the lockdown
days of March 2020.

Th e rest of the episode
features a classic Larry-Susie
fight over whether Susie
“plopped” on the couch,
forcing Larry to spill wine, a
commentary on how walking
into a glass door makes you
look unattractive, a shakedown
of Larry by a local restaurant
owner and a deeply uncom-
fortable dispute over money.

It all works, and it will make
you crack up from your seat on
your couch.

Th e same is true of season 11,
episode two, “Angel Muffi n,”
which aired on Oct. 31.

Th at one centers on maybe
the most vintage “Curb” bit
there is: Larry and his best
friend/manager Jeff , played by
Jeff Garlin, doing ignorant and
moronic things together.

Larry picks a fi ght with a
Netfl ix executive, with whom
he’s developing a show, over
an automatic toilet seat in the
building’s bathroom that won’t
stay up. And Jeff recommends
a dentist to Larry so Larry can
help him get intel on one of the
Larry David, star of “Curb Your
Enthusiasm” Photo by Kevork S. Djansezian/Getty
Images via JTA.org
offi ce’s assistants.

Jeff slept with the woman
and paid for her abortion. But
he believes she’s sticking him
up by asking for more money
to deal with “complications.”
David and Garlin having
trivial conversations and
getting into dumb shenanigans
remains the underrated heart-
beat of the show’s schtick. Like
the bits in the fi rst episode, it
still works, too.

It remains diffi cult to get
through a “Curb” scene without
laughing and then enunciating
“Oh my God!” And for a few
seasons post-Cheryl, Larry
being alone was a breath of
fresh comedic air.

He became pals with the
hilarious Leon; he brought the
“Seinfeld” crew back together
for a reunion in a failed
attempt to cast Cheryl and
win her back; he had relations
with a Palestinian woman who
hated Jews; he went to New
York City; competed for a love
interest with Rosie O’Donnell;
and turned Bill Buckner, the
Boston Red Sox fi rst baseman
who blew the 1986 World
Series, into a momentary
comedic sensation.

But the novelty has worn
off . Now, “Curb” is just Larry
schtick. We have reached the
point where the legend stands
above the show, instead of
making it great. ●
jsaff ren@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0740 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Philly Faces: Eli Robbins
P H I LLY FACES
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
WHEN ELI ROBBINS moved
to Philadelphia in 2014, his
fi rst job was designing animal
habitats for local zoos.

Aft er receiving a bachelor’s
degree in architectural studies
and a minor in studio arts at
the University of Pittsburgh,
the Hershey native moved to
Portland, Oregon, where he
earned a master’s in architec-
ture from the University of
Oregon. During his time at design
firms in New York after
graduate school, Robbins, 32,
honed a passion for experi-
ence design, combining
software and architecture
to build digital and physical
user-friendly spaces, such as
animal habitats, museums and
offi ce spaces.

A 2021 Tribe12 alum,
Robbins recently launched
Civio Studio, a design agency
with a focus on creating acces-
sible spaces and technologies,
infl uenced by Robbins’ own
experience being paralyzed in
early 2020.

When did you come up with
the idea for Civio Studio?
I mean, it really came from
my own lived experience. In
the beginning of 2020, early
February, I was diagnosed with
Guillain-Barré syndrome.

What was your experience with
Guillain-Barré syndrome?
I was working at a design
company called Primer Design.

When I was working there,
I started having a series of
very unusual symptoms that
happened very rapidly and kept
piling on.

It started with a numbness in
my mouth and then a tingling
in my hands, and just kind of
a powering down. Over the
course of fi ve days, I became
paralyzed. Long story short, I was in the
accessibility on a much deeper
level. Th at pushed me into
two directions: One direction
was developing a product; I’ve
always wanted to teach myself
how to become a [user experi-
ence] designer, and I also
realized that I wanted to start
my own design agency. So that
pushed me into starting Civio
Studio. And the other thing that
Eli Robbins in his hometown of
Hershey happened was I started to
Photo by Rachel Robbins
develop this web app called
civio.io, which was really trying
hospital for a couple of months. to solve problems that I had
I was barely able to do anything; when discharged from rehab.

I couldn’t even really hold my
phone. But it was a slow process What problems were those?
Once you get discharged,
of getting out of that and, fortu-
you’re just sort of on your own,
nately, it’s treatable.

and it’s really up to you to get the
How did your experience with devices you need, to make all of
GBS impact the development your appointments, to fi gure out
how to exist in your home that
of Civio?
When you go through you previously existed in as a
something like this, a signif-
icant life experience, it kind
of makes you refl ect on what’s
important. I wanted to refocus the work
that I was doing on work that
had meaning — down this path
of really trying to understand
tight-knit group of people.

I was really involved in
[United Synagogue Youth] and
became the regional president
for the eastern Pennsylvania
region. Th ere’s a whole position
on the board of USY for
repairing the world. So, that
was always a fundamental
understanding I had, that a part
of fundamentally being Jewish
is thinking about, “How do we
repair the world?”
My father was a physician; he
passed away in April. [Tikkun
olam] was his whole life. He was
a corneal surgeon. And I think
about just how many eyes he
helped see. He’s also the son of
a Holocaust survivor. Th at was
something that was a funda-
mental part of our family’s view
of the world, our Jewishness. ●
How has your Jewish upbring
and values impacted your
desire to create accessible
spaces and designs?
Th ere weren’t a lot of Jews
that I grew up near. We call
ourselves “ATJH” — all the Jews srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
in Hershey — which was a really 215-832-0741
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JEWISHEXPONENT.COM more able-bodied person.

And one small part of that
problem is getting the actual
assistive technologies and the
medical equipment — these are
all the things that you need
to start living independently
again. For some people that
might be in a wheelchair; it
could be a walker, canes; it could
be soft ware if you’re blind. It
can be any number of things,
but there isn’t a very stream-
lined process from leaving
rehab to acquiring those things.

Th at was the problem I’m trying
to solve with civio.io.

JEWISH EXPONENT
10/19/21 3:45 PM
NOVEMBER 4, 2021
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