There, I said it.

Yes, I am a little surprised.

Maybe it was low expectations, maybe nothing could have made my day worse, I don’t know … but I thought Danny Gans put on a good show.

After homeboy (and vehement Gans-hater) Troy warned the world about the show, I thought Gans was going to pull out an Uzi and fire randomly into the crowd.

To be honest, the taste of hot lead passing my tonsils on its way to making grey matter abstract art on the wall behind me would have been a sweet respite after my week so far.

That didn’t happen, though.

Instead, Danny Gans did a solid, fun, 100 minute show.  He sang, did impressions, and did some comedy routines.

I was always confused about exactly what Danny Gans was, but I finally figured out.

He’s an entertainer.

That’s really the only way to describe him, and I suppose that’s why he is called “Entertainer of the Year”.

He does a whole mix of things that, on the whole, are quite entertaining.

About 70% of the show was music.   Music from all generations.  From Nat King Cole to Boz Skaggs to Rod Steward to Creed … they played 20 second clips of songs and Danny sang along in his best impression of the lead singer.

I thought his Rod Steward was arguably the best Stewart impression I have ever heard.  He sounds more like 80’s Rod Stewart than Rod could probably pull off himself.

The rest of the show entailed movie scene re-enactment,  stand-up comedy, and some unique indescribable things such as twelve different “people” singing the twelve days of Christmas.

Obviously, there were varying degrees of “accuracy” in his impressions, but given the sheer amount of impressions he does, they were pretty damn good.

The only impression I can do is Apu from the Simpsons … and it’s not very good.  I can’t imagine doing 1,000 different people with any level of believability.

As he cycled through music from the 40’s through the 90’s, different parts of the crowd reacted in line with their generation.

When he hit a really old tune, the geezers would clap along, when he hit a 70’s tune, the 40-50 year old crowd would stand, clap, and sing along.

He did Johnny Carson and Jeff Foxworthy stand-up routines that were actually pretty damn funny.

It wasn’t all bland geriatric stuff either.

“If someone yells hoedown and your girlfriend hits the floor, you might be a redneck.”

Half of the blue hairs didn’t get it, but I thought it was funny, and he did enough Carson stuff to keep the oxygen tank brigade engaged.

There were a lot of 60+ year old people at the show, but I think the material is suitable for any age.  There is plenty of new stuff (Austin Powers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc) that the whippersnapper will identify with.

Is he the best individual singer, comedian or impressionist on the planet?

Well, that’s all a matter of opinion, but I don’t think any of the answers matter.

Did you have a good time?

That’s the only question that matters.

The people all around me were singing along with big smiles on their faces and laughing heartily for much of the show,  and it was obvious that they were being entertained … and that is entirely the point.

Nobody sat there, rubbed their chin, raised their eyebrow, and said “Hmmm, I believe his DeNiro was half an octave off.”  They just watched with anticipation of what was coming next.  If you didn’t like a particular impression or song, it wasn’t a major problem, because 20 seconds later he launched into another one.

The only negative in my opinion was the show encore where he did “I’m Proud to Be an American” as the audience stood up and hooped and hollered to words like “freedom” like a bunch of trained seals.   That part was a bit cheesy and contrived.  He didn’t need to plug into the dopey “Patriotism” angle for gratuitous applause … because he had already gotten a (well-deserved IMHO) standing ovation at what we thought was the end of the show.

Lots of people work the Patriotism angle, and I always hate it.  We have more people involuntarily confined to cages (both in numbers and as a percentage) than any other country on the face of the earth … including Communist China, North Korea, Russia, and Saddam’s Iraq.  Call me silly, but sticking people in locked cages in unprecedented numbers is the antithesis of “Freedom”.  I just don’t buy any of the patriotic horseshit.  I was born here by complete random selection.  I had no say in the matter, and I don’t derive a source of “pride” for popping out of my mother’s loins within a particular geopolitical boundary.  As far as Industrialized nations go … I don’t think we are better or worse than any other.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that I wasn’t born in some third-world hellhole like Bangladesh or Rwanda … but would my life be drastically different or would I have less “freedoms” had I been born in Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, The Netherlands or Switzerland?

Probably not.

Trade me to the Canadians tomorrow … I wouldn’t care less.  (although I doubt they would want me)

I personally see patriotism as a religion and a psychological opiate … if not an outright cult.   Patriotism is all about mind control and social engineering, and one of these days I’d like to be able to go to a show where the performers don’t use it to milk gratuitous applause.

Other than the final 2 minutes … I really did enjoy the performance.

When people heard that I was going to see Gans, I think they were waiting for me to come back with snide comments about the show, but other than the Patriotic ploy, I don’t have any.

Given his appeal to mainstream audiences, and overall entertainment value of the show, I now understand why he has been headlining in Vegas for so long.

I know I am going to catch flak for saying it, but I have to be honest … I really liked the show.

The show exceeded my expectation, and I would personally recommend it to anyone who wants to see a bona-fide “Vegas Headliner”.