On this year’s March Madness trip we had an interesting cast of characters. Myself, “44”, and Hollywood are the core members of this annual trip. We really enjoy analyzing the teams, watching all of the games and betting too many of them. It’s a trip that we really immerse ourselves into the action.
Unfortunately this year we added some different guys to the mix and the results were mixed at best. The group was all over the map with one of the guys coming off of a divorce and looking to make up for lost time. We had another guy who just wanted to golf and really nothing else. And then we had this guy Mike (Moose) who fancied himself as a Vegas pro since he had been a couple of times before. Now normally this would have been a great thing. 44 and I welcome the opportunity to have someone added to the mix that can fill in the gaps in the itinerary. The problem is that there were none. We had the rooms and meals more than covered so there was really no need to do anything else. But that’s not what happened.
So Moose had his heart set on seeing Danny Gans. He was told by a good buddy that this guy was amazing. He basically browbeat the group into seeing the “Entertainer of the Year”, but what year or even what decade no one knows. Well we headed over to the Mirage and decided to give it a shot since Moose already plunked down the money for the show on his Visa.
Now I have to say, Danny has talent. He can do a lot of impersonations and his show basically is one long impersonation. The only issue is that his entire set is geared toward the blue-hair crowd. When you are still doing George Burns and Joan Rivers bits, then you know you are anything but contemporary. It is a variety show so there is some singing (Simon Cowell would kick this guy’s ass not only for his terrible singing but for stealing his tight black t-shirt look!), some ventriloquism, and of course impersonations. The show just didn’t have any flow and the transitions between bits were just not there.
Basically this is an “old” Vegas style show, much in the same vain as Wayne Newton (note: We have seen him too and it was just sad. Please don’t spend that money either!). Thankfully Moose sat on the end of our row and couldn’t hear or see anything that was being said by us. We were dying. I actually left to go to the bathroom about halfway through and I debated even coming back. Well I did come back, but I stood in the entryway with the usher who was in love with Danny. It was a little eerie.
So there you have it. A show with no real flow with a guy who has some talent but is far from the most entertaining show you could see on any given night on the strip. Personally I would recommend any Cirque du Soleil show over this one in a heartbeat, but you might want to have subject matter for constant jokes over the course of your trip. If that’s the case than it’s Dan-tastic!