Louie Anderson

The main reason that I chose the Excalibur for my play today (see post below) was that I had scored from http://showtickets4locals.com/ a free ticket to see Louie Anderson at 7:00, so I played some before and some after the show.

I have liked Louie Anderson for a long, long time. I actually remember his first appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This is the first time I've seen him perform in person.

He was charming and funny. It seems clear that he has, now, decades of material that he can call on and mix and match as the spirit moves him. Surprisingly, I think this detracts from the show. Things aren't as sharply timed and they don't flow from one subject to another as smoothly as when he had it all prepared as an integral whole. On the other hand, he did a fair amount of interaction with the audience, and it showed off his spontaneous wit. He made some very, very funny material from just asking audience members the obvious name, where you're from, and what do you do questions. For example, he learned that one guy worked at the While Sands Missile Testing Range testing the Patriot missiles. Anderson asked him, "Can I give you some coordinates? There's this poodle next door that barks all night."

I had another of my occasional semi-insomniac nights last night, so I was feeling pretty sleepy, which probably lessened my capacity to enjoy the show. It was certainly true that everybody else around me was laughing a lot more than I was. I didn't hate the show by any means, but found it just pleasant and mildly amusing for the most part, rather than fall-out-of-your-chair hilarious.

Anderson is a known commodity. You pretty much know the kind of material he does, as well as his favorite subjects (his childhood and parents, big family, being fat, Vegas), and that's exactly what you get. That makes this whole mini-review not particularly helpful, because you undoubtedly already know whether you're going to like him or not, based on his large body of past work.

Me? I like the guy, and would go again if given the chance.