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"It's Showtime!" - December 12
'Rehearsal is over. It's show time.'
Welcome to Las Vegas.
Wayne Newton is looking for the next big Las Vegas
entertainer. It can be singing, dancing, or just
entertaining. As a reward, you will receive a year's
headlining at the Las Vegas Hilton, a spot in Wayne's
Vegas show, and a contract worth one...MEEEELION....dollars.
Sounds good? I'd take it.
The contestants get to live in a suite (and I've been in
those suites. They are nice) as they compete against each
other for that one elusive spot. We get a souped up
version of 'Viva Las Vegas' as we see the montages of
Wayne and the contestants - who we'll get to later.
We start, however, of a montage of bizarre auditions. In
that mess was Jeffery and his Neil Diamond impersonation
from American Idol (well, if you try it and don't succeed,
try again so you can fail everywhere, I suppose). Here are
the people who DID make it -
Jacquie - Singer, Guitar Player - This short
African-American woman thinks tha t she can compete with
the rest of them - but she has her doubts and self-esteem
issues. Self-esteem issues and talent shows usually don't
work out too well.
Marla - Stand up comic from NYC - She is also short
(think of a shorter, slimmed down a little Jessica Kirson
from Last Comic Standing), and she's thrilled to be in
Wayne's suite. She wants to see a picture of her in his
suite. Heh.
David - Comic from Boston - He's got the accent and
the derby, as he says that he's out to bring out the
family name. We'll see if he has the chops.
Delisco - Singer/Songwriter/poet - This African
American male has to sing in front of thousands of people.
He says he will win because G-d is on his side. When I
heard that, all I could think of is Simon Cowell - 'G-d
does not want you to win this competition.' If I hear one
more person say that they will win because G-d is on their
side, I am going to retch.
Sarah - Country Singer from Nashville - This blonde
beauty is pursuing her dream because she can touch people.
It's touching...until she tells everyone to call her Sarah
Darling instead of Sarah. Uhhh...you're not a star yet.
Theresa - Singer from California - She's here not
just for attention, but to be a triple threat of Singer,
Actor and Dancer. Does this brunette have the right moves?
Paul - Comedian/Singer/Martial Artist from
Westbury, NY - He is half Asian, half American, part actor
and part whatever you want him to be. The competitors call
him talented and he could be the very early threat.
Joe - Comic from Las Vegas - He is doing this for
his daughter, as the spiky physical comic wants to give
her a better life. AwwwwBarf.
Nathan - Comedy Magician - He says that you can do
anything you want to do - if you work hard enough. The
question is - what price do you want to pay? I have seen
him and he is very very good. I could easily see him at
the end.
Jennifer - Las Vegas singer - She says that to pay
the rent , she has been put in different situations - and
she says that she can be the next entertainer.
After we hear the contestants size up each others, all of
them are invited to the stage, where Elvis and Wayne have
performed. When they get there, a spotlight is shown in
the middle of the audience, where Wayne stands up and
applauds them. As they all ogle Wayne, he congratulates
them all for being the final ten.
Wayne reminds everyone about the prizes explained earlier,
then he tells them all that it's not going to be easy.
Wayne tells them that they will all be competing against
each other - but they will need each other's help to win.
He introduces them to his confidantes - Orchestra Leader
Scotty Alexander and singer Francis Lee. It's the musical
version of George and Carolyn.
He tells them all that it's very important to improvise at
a moment's notice, telling them that the completely
improvised a 90 minute show for the soldiers in Iraq. He
tells them that Sarah, Jennifer, Delisco, David and Joe is
the Red Team and Jacquie, Marla, Theresa, Paul and Nathan
are the black team. The first challenge is to create a
show that will use all of their talents. By the way, they
only get an hour, but Wayne says that they will get help.
With that, the curtain opens and there's a band that will
be playing to help them with their act. More eyes open and
jaws drop when they see what they have to work with. As
usual, the team that does it the best is safe, but someone
from the losing team may be going bye-bye.
After they leave the stage, everyone rushes to grab
costumes and plan the event. Paul wants to do a three
minute improv act, but Nathan wisely tells them that the
objective is for all of their talents to shine. On the
other team, Joe is getting concerned that the music that
he gets isn't going to allow him to do his shtick. Delisco
brings the group together to learn their song, while
Jacquie and Theresa go to learn the song - by themselves,
which annoys the rest of the team.
David decides to play the emcee, which is a smart idea,
especially when it seems like he is taking everyone's
ideas and incorporates it. Jennifer, on the other hand,
accuses him of not listening and she wants him to shut up.
The Black Team is just as chaotic. Marla is very concerned
and she is wondering how she is going to do this. She
admits that she is bad at names - and everyone gives her
the responsibility of the announcer. Uh-oh. With 1 minutes
left before going on, Theresa, who returns with Jacquie,
wants to change the show around. The other members quickly
shut her up, but she is looking frustrated.
Wayne spins a roulette wheel to see who goes first, It
lands on ...DOUBLE ZERO! Only kidding. It lands on Black,
and the black team goes first. Theresa decides to change
songs anyway, and she didn't realize that the other team
needed to know. D'oh. She starts singing even before Wayne
introduces her and she sings 'Let's Give Them Something to
Talk About.' The Red Team, meanwhile, can hear them and
they plan some strategy. Theresa seemed trampy, but she
sounded decent.
Marla comes out and tells everyone to clap for Jacquie -
except that it wasn't Jacquie who performed, it was
Theresa. Oops. To make it worse, she runs a comic routine
that absolutely bombs, using more blue language than what
Jackson Pollack would put in his paintings. When she got
done, she introduced Paul (at least she got his name
right), he did a performance that the audience liked
slightly better - they actually applauded (somewhat) for
it.
Joe thought that Paul did a great job. Nathan, who was
next, did a cute trick with a bowling ball squeezed out of
an easel. Jacquie is next, and she sings 'I'm Every Woman'
by Whitney Houston. She did a decent job, but it didn't
blow me out of the water. During her song, everyone comes
out and sings - or lip syncs, as Marla and Nathan do. Heh.
The Red Team learned from the Black team. For starters,
they got rid of the microphone stand, and by passing the
mike from one person to another, they showed a sense of
unity. After some final talks with the orchestra, they
miss the first cue and the curtain opens up without them
out there. Oops. Dave Starts it off and he has a cute
opening that is much more PG material - and much more
audience friendly.
Dave introduces everyone in the group. Sarah Darling comes
out first and sings a nice rendition of 'Cause you still
love me'. Delisco is next and sings a song completely out
of his element, but covers it well. Sarah also notices
that and sings backup on him so he doesn't screw up the
words - very very smart move.
Next up - Jennifer gets all sultry with Fever. She's not
as strong as Sarah or Delisco, but she does play well with
chairs. During her effort, she calls up Joe and
incorporates him into the act as he gets to do things with
her feathered boa. They finish it with a group effort and
there's no question that the Red Team was much smoother
and stronger than the Black Team. Even the red team
admitted that the black team was better.
Wayne and the judges talk, and this is a very quick
conversation. Citing the pacing and the mike stand as
examples, and after calling everyone pros, Wayne decides
that the red team wins because they were more acting as a
team and the black team were acting like individuals. He
also added that there were no memorable moments from the
black team.
Wayne then goes through each person on the red team. He
tells Jacquie that she didn't let the actions of Theresa
affect her and she was good so she's safe. He said that
Nathan that he tried to keep the group unified, so he's
safe. He says that Paul tried to help out too, and he's
safe. Wayne says that Theresa flip-flopped, which was bad,
but Marla didn't hold the show together and called Theresa
- 'Jacquie', adding that she cared more about herself than
the group.
That leaves Marla. Wayne tells her that there were two
people that didn't make the cut in Stan Mack's Amateur
Hour - himself and Elvis Presley. He says that he will
give her one more chance - if she can entertain him. What
Marla does is less entertaining and more groveling, and
her effort probably wouldn't please Paula Abdul, let alone
Wayne, so Wayne decides to let her go. As Marla leaves,
she says that she thought she gave it her all, but it
wasn't enough.
As a reward, Wayne tells them all that they will be living
at the Las Vegas Hilton - 15,000 Square Feet worth of
Suite for them. They all get to move in - but only the
winning team gets to enjoy the party that will also be
thrown there.
While everyone is celebrating, Marla is still ticked off
that Theresa is still there, but she acknowledges her part
in it as she leaves.
My take? This, surprisingly, was much better than I
thought. If the continue to showcase the talent that the
performers have instead of degrading this to a drama with
a talent element, then they may have something here. Wayne
is very charismatic and I like that despite teams losing,
he complimented people for what they did right - and that
impressed me.
Next week - Emotions run high - and it's only the second
episode. Join us next week as we see who has had enough. | | |
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