For
$60 total I saw Rich Little's show and then the usual Laugh Factory
comics. Booking them back to back was just perfect. I did not get
at all weary until perhaps the last seven minutes. I got the tickets
at the Half Priced store.
It
also was grand that when I was weary, I could just walk across the
street to Excalibur and head to my room.
RICH
LITTLE
Rich
Little and Gordie Brown have a good bit in common, but for me Rich is
more talented and relevant. Younger people might night know the
celebrities he imitated, but they are very well known to me.
He
framed his show with a brief story of his life and illustrated a bit
with his original charcoal sketches of the celebrities. I did not
think his art was very good. It interpreted the people too much.
But there were also clips from old shows: Jack Benny, Ed Sullivan,
Lucy, Judy Garland, Johnny Carson, and these intersected with the
impressions. During the course of the show he did Jack Benny, Carol
Channing, Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn. John Wayne, Bill Clinton,
Nixon, Reagan, Jim Stewart, Andy Rooney, Paul Lynn, Dean Martin,
Frank Sinatra, George Burns, Ed Sullivan, Jack Lemmon, Walter Mathau,
Willie Nelson and others. Woven in were actual stories from his life
working with these people, good video clips, some great one line
jokes and some interesting perspectives.
It
was a grand show.
His
conservative politics and love of Ronald Reagan is very different
from mine. Otherwise, I had no emotional reservations. I felt very
relieved to be presented with Turner Classic Movie greats who I have
experienced and could recognize.
He
sang a bit at times. Once he sang “The Man That Got Away” and
did an updated version of when Judy Garland asked him to move from
one person to another.
Jokes
I can remember included:
Andy
Rooney asking why Asteroids are in space, but hemroids are in the
Ass.
George
Burns talking to Gracie about her visit to a parage and wearing a fox
hat because she claimed George told her to.
The
converstation was about a strange place she was going for the tupee.
George
asks, “Where the fucks that?”
She
hears, “Wear the fox hat.”
John
Wayne bathes in ice water.
His
wife bathes in milk.
“Is
it pasturized,” he asks.
She
answers, “No just over my tits.”
Rich
said that after four marriages he hated lawyers. One day he walked
into a bar after a particularly hard and costly meeting.
He
shouted, “All lawyers are assholes.”
“I
resent that,” said a man sitting near him at the bar.
“Are
you a lawyer?”
“No
I'm an asshole.”
Jack
Lemmon berates Mathau for making love to his wife the night before
and leaving the windows open so Lemmon could see everything.
“The
jokes on you, “ Mathau retorts. “ I was not even home last
night.”
He
told a story of meeting Andy Rooney in a bookstore where Rooney
sarcastically asked why, if casinos had a lot of money, they just
didn't hire the real people.
He
showed a clip of Paul Lynn being disgusted with an
impression.He mentioned this movie that did not do well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_on_a_Rooftop
Most of the impressions were just as good as they were decades ago. A few I thought were off a bit.
Most of the impressions were just as good as they were decades ago. A few I thought were off a bit.
He
looked strange in a very dark tupee. And of course at his age of 77
he did not do as many physical antics. He used props like glasses or
a hat or in Willie Nelson's case a set of braids.
I
liked this Laugh Factory theater. It was small and intimate. The
bar was Dean and Jerry themed with clips playing of the two of them
and posters of their movies. There was even one album cover of a
record Jerry made called I think “Just Sings”
People
came up for their own drinks, so there were not waitresses getting in
the way of the view.
THREE
COMICS
The
second show featured Jamie Leesa, Rick Delea, and Danny Villepondo.
I liked all of them, but Jamie was clearly the best of the bunch.
He
engaged the audience in an easy way and could improv off their
responses. He did a lot with his marriage and children. I liked his
reason for going to Vegas. “Tired of sitting home with my morals”
And
somehow aspiring not to win the gold, but to be happy with foil was
very funny.
He
said that his wife assured him that she would not want to change him
and that she was sure he could adapt to the new rules.
It
wasn't Steven Wright brilliant, but it was good just the same.
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