Ghosts of performances past

Okay, so three shows this past weekend, and a few notes.

Let's start with Brian Wilson on Friday night. Just about sold out, a little worried about what he would bring to the table, but backed by a great band, Brian Wilson, founder of the Beach Boys, scored a big hit with his fans. Personally, I thought he sounded a little flat at first, but as the show progressed, he got in a great groove. And his encores went on for about 20-30 minutes. This was a case of an artist and a fan base totally connecting and trusting each other to embrace the performance, even if the trademark voice has lost some of its range. Long time fans are forgiving that way.

Saturday night, it was the Winner's Circle Comedy Tour, which, if it had been called Last Coming Standing Winners, probably would have sold much better, but that's a legal thing and I'll leave it at that. Alonzo Bodden (season three winner) kicked things off and was pretty good, definitely funny. He was followed by Jon Reep (season five winner), who was okay at best -- it seemed his humor didn't go over as well, and I'm not sure if it was because he is a kind of Larry the Cable Guy Lite or if he just wasn't as funny as Alonzo. Jon is best known as "The Hemi Guy" from Dodge commercials and when he mentioned that in the end, not as many people reacted to it as I thought would, which to me means, people don't remember the commercials or DVR really works. Anyway, John Heffron (Season two) closed things out and was the funniest of the three, with his routine focusing mostly on being a hen-pecked husband.

While some vulgarity was used, it was mostly a clean performance, and the comics graciously came out to the lobby after the event and met with the patrons.

Sunday was Engelbert Humperdinck, another warhorse, and I am working only from what others have said here (your reporter had the evening off), but he was in fine voice. A little issue with a longer than expected intermission, which surprised the staff, as the opener went short and this caused some consternation among the crowd. The thing to note here is that we are given the timing information from the act (who also supplied the opener), and when they do not follow protocol, we cannot force them to start earlier, so it was an unfortunate situation but worked out fine in the end with his solid performance.

Next up, here come the dancers of Virsky - set to deliver a high energy performance on Thursday night.