After getting a really good deal on tickets, I headed over to see Roseanne Barr’s Show at NYNY last night.

The show is in Rita Rudner’s old digs. The Roller Coaster … I mean the Cabaret Theater.

Yes, the roller coaster still rumbles overhead throughout the show, but it wasn’t as bad last night as it was when I saw Rita’s show. It only went by about 10 times throughout the whole show, as opposed to every 60 second for Rita’s.

So I was familiar with this place and fully expecting it.

I actually scored some pretty good seats. 5th row from the stage, about 10 seats right of center.

It is no secret that I am not a big fan of “one person and a microphone” comedy shows. I prefer to watch the HBO Comedy specials while sitting on the couch in my underwear while scratching my balls. I have never gotten more out of a “person with a mic” comedy show than I have gotten from TV.

But hey, if I can get a deal, I’ll see anything.

So I marched into the theater, fully clothed, hands off nuts. I had low expectations due to the nature of the show, but Roseanne is an American success story. From standup in dive clubs to one of the most popular TV show actresses of the 90’s. It would be cool just to see the lady in person.

And I have to tell you, the show wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Roseanne has no problem with profanity. Which I appreciate. Comedians who have some moral thing against saying “fuck” just annoy me for some reason. It’s comedy. Say what you want for crying out loud.

Roseanne had no problem “working blue”. And I like blue humor more than I like … uh, pink(?) humor.

Before the show, they had cards in the seats. Everyone was supposed to write down questions, and Rosanne would “psychically” answer them at the end of the show. I filled out the card.

The start of the show was a little unusual.

There was a guy who used to cater food at the Rosanne show. He is now a singer with a new CD. And he does three songs before Roseanne comes out. Barry White, Earth Wind and Fire, and an original song. This guy is going to be on the Tonight Show within the next three months (according to him), but I can’t for the life of me remember his name.

He does a 10-15 minute set. He is a very good singer, and he got a good response from the audience … I just wasn’t expecting it. I eventually clapped along to the singer. Why not …

Anyway, the singer finished and introduced Roseanne, and she came out in a white/floral/sequined moo-moo. The audience, including me, applauded pretty loudly when she came out.

Then she started talking in that shrill, nasal voice … and it immediately took you back to just about every Roseanne episode you have ever seen. That is a seriously unique voice.

She went into her routine, which was actually pretty good. Unlike some comedians with scripted acts, her act was fairly fresh and topical. She talked about Paris Hilton going to jail, and urged the judge to throw the mother in jail as well (for having that bitch in the first place).

She poked some good-natured fun at David Hasselhoff, and said that she often ate Wendy’s hamburgers the same way … and she wasn’t even drunk.

Much of the humor was self-deprecating. Poking fun at her weight, her family, and her marriage to Tom Arnold (the Tom Arnold jokes got the biggest reaction from the audience). She even apologized to everyone in the audience for unleashing him on society.

Of course, the obligatory female comedian “men suck” material was addressed. Luckily that part was short as I rate it behind only “white men speak in a high pitched voice and can’t dance” staple of overused comedy shticks.

She did about 30 minutes of mostly fresh and funny stand-up, and then went to the audience question cards.

This was probably the best part of the show. She would read the questions, make the audience member who wrote it raise his/her hand, and then answer it. This required talent, as it required a good deal of improv … and an unscripted routine means that you are seeing a unique show, instead of the exact same show every night. I appreciated this. This type of audience interaction was something I could not have gotten from watching an HBO special in my underwear.

Most of the “psychic audience question routine” was very funny. She never read my question … which didn’t surprise me. I think I am offensive even by Roseanne standards.

Anyway, after the interactive part of the show, Roseanne stripped off the moo-moo, tap danced, and did a rousing rendition of the Vegas standard song “My Way” … while wearing only a corset, stockings, and tennis shoes. Of course, she completely changed the words of the song … and Rosanne was scantily dressed. Kind of like a double-barreled audio/visual perceptual disturbance. But that was the point.

There were a couple of drawbacks. First, the show started at 8pm, but was over at 9:00pm. Including the singer. Roseanne was only on stage for about 45 minutes, which is an unusually short set for a Vegas headliner.

The other thing was that the people seated in my immediate area where assholes. The lady to my immediate right brought her daughter, who looked to be about 16. Neither this lady, nor her daughter, laughed, applauded, or did anything the whole show. The mother looked offended a couple of times, and the daughter didn’t get a damn thing that was being said on stage. It was like they thought they were going to see “Barney on Ice” and accidentally entered the wrong venue.

Then, when the show was over, the guy behind me yelled “What a waste of an hour!”

I don’t super-enjoy every show I see, but I never make such bellicose proclamations in the venue. It’s just an asshole-ish thing to do.

Luckily, a good 90% of the people in the audience DID enjoy the show, I was just unfortunate to be in the asshat section. I guess they group us all together.

All-in-all, it was a pretty good stand up comedy show and I was glad that I went.