 The
Brady Bunch at the Venetian
He sings,
he acts, he dances and does comedy and improv and can rightfully
claim to be a “triple-threat” (even a quadruple-threat)
in the entertainment industry. He’s won Emmys, hosted his
own talk show, been a guest on numerous TV shows and appeared in
movies though he will most likely be remembered for his unique brand
of improvisational comedy on the hit TV show, “Whose Line
Is It Anyway?”
Wayne
Brady, Making It Up, is long overdue and obviously made such an
impression during his limited engagement early this year that he’s
signed on till mid-2008. He shares the showroom with Gordie Brown,
and the night we were there, the place was packed. We checked with
the ticket booth if this was a standard occurrence and he confirmed
that, yes, there’s always a line for his show; surely a welcome
addition to the already stellar entertainment line-up at The Venetian
with Gordie Brown, Phantom and The Blue Man Group.
We had
excellent seats – second row, front and center; close enough
to see every facial tic and reaction, but far enough not to get
called on stage. Though, I have to add, this show did not want for
volunteers; every time audience participation was required (and
it was a lot), a sea of hands materialized.
Like
a nightcap, we smoothly eased into start of the show. There was
no flashy number, simply Wayne Brady, singing Gnarls’ Barkley’s
“Crazy.” He was aided by a four-piece band, two back-up
singers and four dancers. Of all of them, the band provided the
most during the course of the show, while the singers and dancers,
though talented, were more a bonus than a requirement. Maybe because
Wayne Brady is a lean, mean, one-man-show machine. If he could play
four instruments while singing and dancing, then he probably wouldn’t
need the band, either.
 But
I digress. The first surprising thing was that the man could sing…
really sing. Not the jokey singing he does on “Whose Line…”
but actually doing covers of other performer’s hits, and doing
them quite well. Right then, I was more than happy to sit through
an entire evening of singing, minus the comedy and improv, which
I’m not a really big fan of, anyway. But that was just the
warmer, and to be fair, I knew that people were expecting to see
the Wayne of “Whose Line” (i.e. improvisational comedy)
rather than Wayne, the singer and dancer.
The
show is based on the Vegas productions of old – a little bit
of singing, a little bit of dancing, a little bit of comedy, a smattering
of impersonations, some audience banter – well, you get the
picture. He does all of this and more – for he also does improv,
impersonations and comedy. Why more? Because I don’t think
you would ever get any of the Rat Pack to spoof Elvis, or each other.
I also feel that you get the best results when’s he’s
doing all three at the same time. As in the case of his first improv
sketch where he brought someone from the audience onto the stage.
He then did a mini-interview of sorts and asked their name, job,
types of music, etc. During our evening, it was a lady by the name
of Jennifer who was a loans processor for an insurance company,
who happened to like rap music, etc. What happens next is truly
amazing, at least to me and I’m sure, to everyone else in
the audience; he then proceeds to sing/rap an entire song about
Jennifer, her job, and the rest. This goes on during the rest of
the show when he makes up lyrics to popular songs, a sketch which
he calls “Celebrity Idols,” at the same time aping the
original performer’s style. He was dead-on with his Justin
Timberlake impersonation (and improv) of “SexyBack”
though of course with slightly twisted lyrics, he called it “Love
Hurts, Love Gone Wrong, The Herpes Mix;” come to think of
it, his version of Prince’s “Purple Rain” was
also spot-on, the same with his Mick Jagger impersonation.
 Another
hilarious improvisational sketch is what he calls “Moving
Body,” where he’s aided by two volunteers who are supposed
to control his movements, while he does improv based on a character
that the audience throws-out. Again, in our case, it was a karate
master and chef. Priceless. You can tell this is pure improv and
not at all staged because you find that at times, he catches himself
in such a ridiculous situation that he can barely control his laughter.
The band members and back-up singers are also caught off-guard and
more often than not, laugh along with the audience. It helps that
Brady seems to have a genuine rapport established with the audience
and he connects with them on more than a superficial level. I don’t
believe I’ve laughed this long and hard in a really long time.
More
improvisational sketches are done throughout the 75-minute show,
the finale of which is his musical tribute to Luther Vandross, Sammy
Davis, Jr and James Brown.
Is this
show worth it? Yes, every penny and more – and I’m not
making that up.
-Rachel
M. Sugay
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