SIN CITY
These guys are still up to their tactics of representing lower prices than they have. On the strip a fellow was passing out complimentary passes, but when folks got to the theater, they found out that the "one drink plus tax and box office fees" meant that it cost $15 for this free show.
It is not that this is a bad price, only that it feels sleazy.
On the way out I asked Vanessa,
"What does it cost to come to the show with these long complimentary passes?"
And she went into such a carney spiel about how they had to cover the box office expenses and the taxes and on and on, comparing it to Groupon, until I finally interrupted her.
"So What does it COST to go to the show with these tickets?"
I think my tone and eye contact got through to her.
"Fifteen dollars."
"And then do I have to buy a drink?"
"No that is included."
I think I paid $20 for the show with drink on Groupon. I can only drink red wine or water. The wine was very sad and the worst I have had on the trip to Vegas anywhere.
I don't think that is outrageous pricing, but it is more than I paid for any other comedy or similar show. I think I am done with Sin City.
They had the same host I saw last time and one comic along with the Burlesque.
I loved the comic but could not rise to the others. However, I think that is really more about my mood than about the show.
In most comedy shows there is a funny host and two comics.
There is no question that the $12 show at Bally's was a better deal. Here they had three comics and no bullshite.
LVC
After the Mentalist, we were allowed to stand in line and see the LVC comedy show for free.
I did not laugh much.
In all fairness I was tired and the themes were pretty raw and not my style. A Mississippi comic cracked on his own culture and on being fat. Perhaps some of the jokes were a bit clever, but his delivery was very weak. I saw him again at the LA comedy Club at Bally's later in the week doing the same material, and he seemed better.
The second comic was a Black guy who also seemed just a bit over the edge. He exploited racial stereotypes of the Black family, including the idea that no Dad lives with his baby Momma.
The headline did have very good delivery, but his themes again were all sexual and all about the inadequacy of marriage.
I'm not offended by any of this, but I do get bored.
Wild Bill says I just see too much comedy and that other tourists who see one show when they come don't get as jaded as I get.
And I was overtired.
And our free seats were in a small section quite a ways from the stage and set off at an angle. No comic actually played to us, and it was so isolated that the woman behind me talked and a young boy of about 13 lay down on three seats and went to sleep while his mother texted and nearly blinded me with the cell phone.
So I was overtired and annoyed.
I don't quite understand why folks would bring two preteens to a raw comedy show and not walk out, but one of the funniest things was to see this youngster who was supposedly being corrupted by the constant Fuuuk and sexual material (including references to shaved vaginas and sex with sheep) fell asleep. Doesn't that add argument to my impression that this was pretty boring.
I don't quite understand the fascination with the word Fuuuk in comedy. Are we to assume the audience has not heard this word? Does it never lose its power? Perhaps I am jaded having taught in the inner city for so long where it was the most common adjective.
One of my lessons in language was to attack it as a word that eliminated more exact and powerful vocabulary. And shite as well. Both are crutch words and preclude the learning of precise new vocabulary.
I tired to get the students to see that the real problem was not so much the disrespect shown (all teens love to disrespect adults whether with these words or "whatever") but that overuse encouraged habits of weak modification.
One of my colleagues had a great lesson on the word in which she showed that could work in a sentence as almost any part of speech, including the obscure gerund. Kids hearing their teacher use the work were perhaps for the first time amused by grammar.
She was asked to stop by administration.
Yeah. Like those inner city kids who had all been kicked out of regular highs school needed to be protected from such vocabulary so that it could be seen as totally in their power and the shock value would be enhanced so that they had even more reason to choose it.
In most cases telling a teacher "Fuuuk you" in any context was grounds for being sent to the office and perhaps sent home for the day. Who invented this punishment for inner city kids must have been raised somewhere I never taught because it was no punishment for most of my students to be sent out on the streets for a day rather than having to study.
I did something very different. I wanted to take away the power of the speaker, especially the power of his audience. So my answer was the same one I learned in the Air Force.
"Sorry, no time for romance, I've got to teach," and then perhaps "but thanks for the offer" or " sorry, you are not my type"
Students then laughed at the student using the word and the speaker lost his/her audience, lost the power of the word, and also lost immediate suspension for a day. In inner city classrooms it won over the audience and often, if fukk had just had been said in a moment of frustration got a chuckle out of the speaker.
And when I was challenged, I could again tell them to think about what they were saying and what the words meant and to choose a way to complain that would give them real respect.
I suppose nowadays I'd be in the principal's office.
Well, to get back to the comedy. If all it takes to get a laugh is the word "fuuuk" then I could have just stayed in my classroom and not bothered with comedy shows. There was no ticket charge for those years of improved standup. In fact, I got paid for the pleasure of the show.
RIVIERA
I know you think of this casino as downscale, but the comedy is upscale and cheaper than the others with no added fees and no hassle over drinks. They even say that in their advertisements in the Vegas magazines. "No other additional charges." Clearly this slaps Sin City in the face.
And you can buy a drink at a reasonable price. Merlot was $6 for a full cup as opposed the the half cup at Sin City for $9. Beer was the same. Wild Bill had 2 for 1 coupons for drinks along with his free coupons for the show (he stayed at the Riviera) and so for $7 (with tip) we each had a drink.
The red wine at Sin City tasted almost too terrible to drink. Riviera's was fine. It is not the upscale wine I had when the brother-in-law picked malbec at the Capital Grill, but it was as good as anything I get in the casinos.
Plus, there was not bait and switch on tickets, no confusion as to what was free, no added drink minimum. There are two free tickets in the American Casino Guide. I don't think you will be disappointed. It is a sleeping bargain. Groupon and such sites also have periodic sales.
John Bizarre was playing again. I must have seen this fellow 6 times and much of his material is used over again, but his energy, body and facial expressions, energy, and clever spins on common happenings was more entertaining than the other comics. A second comic was also very good, good timing, good twists. Fuuuk certainly must have been said, but it was not the main attempt at humor.
The club is comfortable and nice. The people are easy and accommodating.
I don't get the idea when I go that the club is trying to squeeze me.
These guys are still up to their tactics of representing lower prices than they have. On the strip a fellow was passing out complimentary passes, but when folks got to the theater, they found out that the "one drink plus tax and box office fees" meant that it cost $15 for this free show.
It is not that this is a bad price, only that it feels sleazy.
On the way out I asked Vanessa,
"What does it cost to come to the show with these long complimentary passes?"
And she went into such a carney spiel about how they had to cover the box office expenses and the taxes and on and on, comparing it to Groupon, until I finally interrupted her.
"So What does it COST to go to the show with these tickets?"
I think my tone and eye contact got through to her.
"Fifteen dollars."
"And then do I have to buy a drink?"
"No that is included."
I think I paid $20 for the show with drink on Groupon. I can only drink red wine or water. The wine was very sad and the worst I have had on the trip to Vegas anywhere.
I don't think that is outrageous pricing, but it is more than I paid for any other comedy or similar show. I think I am done with Sin City.
They had the same host I saw last time and one comic along with the Burlesque.
I loved the comic but could not rise to the others. However, I think that is really more about my mood than about the show.
In most comedy shows there is a funny host and two comics.
There is no question that the $12 show at Bally's was a better deal. Here they had three comics and no bullshite.
LVC
After the Mentalist, we were allowed to stand in line and see the LVC comedy show for free.
I did not laugh much.
In all fairness I was tired and the themes were pretty raw and not my style. A Mississippi comic cracked on his own culture and on being fat. Perhaps some of the jokes were a bit clever, but his delivery was very weak. I saw him again at the LA comedy Club at Bally's later in the week doing the same material, and he seemed better.
The second comic was a Black guy who also seemed just a bit over the edge. He exploited racial stereotypes of the Black family, including the idea that no Dad lives with his baby Momma.
The headline did have very good delivery, but his themes again were all sexual and all about the inadequacy of marriage.
I'm not offended by any of this, but I do get bored.
Wild Bill says I just see too much comedy and that other tourists who see one show when they come don't get as jaded as I get.
And I was overtired.
And our free seats were in a small section quite a ways from the stage and set off at an angle. No comic actually played to us, and it was so isolated that the woman behind me talked and a young boy of about 13 lay down on three seats and went to sleep while his mother texted and nearly blinded me with the cell phone.
So I was overtired and annoyed.
I don't quite understand why folks would bring two preteens to a raw comedy show and not walk out, but one of the funniest things was to see this youngster who was supposedly being corrupted by the constant Fuuuk and sexual material (including references to shaved vaginas and sex with sheep) fell asleep. Doesn't that add argument to my impression that this was pretty boring.
I don't quite understand the fascination with the word Fuuuk in comedy. Are we to assume the audience has not heard this word? Does it never lose its power? Perhaps I am jaded having taught in the inner city for so long where it was the most common adjective.
One of my lessons in language was to attack it as a word that eliminated more exact and powerful vocabulary. And shite as well. Both are crutch words and preclude the learning of precise new vocabulary.
I tired to get the students to see that the real problem was not so much the disrespect shown (all teens love to disrespect adults whether with these words or "whatever") but that overuse encouraged habits of weak modification.
One of my colleagues had a great lesson on the word in which she showed that could work in a sentence as almost any part of speech, including the obscure gerund. Kids hearing their teacher use the work were perhaps for the first time amused by grammar.
She was asked to stop by administration.
Yeah. Like those inner city kids who had all been kicked out of regular highs school needed to be protected from such vocabulary so that it could be seen as totally in their power and the shock value would be enhanced so that they had even more reason to choose it.
In most cases telling a teacher "Fuuuk you" in any context was grounds for being sent to the office and perhaps sent home for the day. Who invented this punishment for inner city kids must have been raised somewhere I never taught because it was no punishment for most of my students to be sent out on the streets for a day rather than having to study.
I did something very different. I wanted to take away the power of the speaker, especially the power of his audience. So my answer was the same one I learned in the Air Force.
"Sorry, no time for romance, I've got to teach," and then perhaps "but thanks for the offer" or " sorry, you are not my type"
Students then laughed at the student using the word and the speaker lost his/her audience, lost the power of the word, and also lost immediate suspension for a day. In inner city classrooms it won over the audience and often, if fukk had just had been said in a moment of frustration got a chuckle out of the speaker.
And when I was challenged, I could again tell them to think about what they were saying and what the words meant and to choose a way to complain that would give them real respect.
I suppose nowadays I'd be in the principal's office.
Well, to get back to the comedy. If all it takes to get a laugh is the word "fuuuk" then I could have just stayed in my classroom and not bothered with comedy shows. There was no ticket charge for those years of improved standup. In fact, I got paid for the pleasure of the show.
RIVIERA
I know you think of this casino as downscale, but the comedy is upscale and cheaper than the others with no added fees and no hassle over drinks. They even say that in their advertisements in the Vegas magazines. "No other additional charges." Clearly this slaps Sin City in the face.
And you can buy a drink at a reasonable price. Merlot was $6 for a full cup as opposed the the half cup at Sin City for $9. Beer was the same. Wild Bill had 2 for 1 coupons for drinks along with his free coupons for the show (he stayed at the Riviera) and so for $7 (with tip) we each had a drink.
The red wine at Sin City tasted almost too terrible to drink. Riviera's was fine. It is not the upscale wine I had when the brother-in-law picked malbec at the Capital Grill, but it was as good as anything I get in the casinos.
Plus, there was not bait and switch on tickets, no confusion as to what was free, no added drink minimum. There are two free tickets in the American Casino Guide. I don't think you will be disappointed. It is a sleeping bargain. Groupon and such sites also have periodic sales.
John Bizarre was playing again. I must have seen this fellow 6 times and much of his material is used over again, but his energy, body and facial expressions, energy, and clever spins on common happenings was more entertaining than the other comics. A second comic was also very good, good timing, good twists. Fuuuk certainly must have been said, but it was not the main attempt at humor.
The club is comfortable and nice. The people are easy and accommodating.
I don't get the idea when I go that the club is trying to squeeze me.
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