Even scaled back, Brady’s show rocks; Tempest Storm plots her comeback

By John Katsilometes

Saturday, June 19, 2010 | 10:31 a.m.

Saturday's note parade, starring Wayne Brady, Tempest Storm and a collection of print advertisements:

A lean and mean return

• You have to feel for this woman, who said her name was Robin and who somehow clambered onstage to join Wayne Brady for Friday night's "Making it Up" performance at the Venetian.

This woman ... she was just a wee bit besotted, put it that way. She might have been the great-granddaughter of Foster Brooks. Whatever, when Brady took the stage to explain how improv comedy is an audience-participation practice, she shouted, "Door number three!" A reference to Brady's role as host of "Let's Make a Deal," I deduce.

"We do hear that a lot," Brady responded, having already said not to yell such familiar terms as "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" at him to ignite his improvisational genius.

Later in the show, Brady and sidekick Jonathan Mangum — who gets better every time I see him — asked for a volunteer from the audience to climb onstage and serve as the subject for an on-the-spot song to be sung by Brady. Robin bolted up. Brady eyed her for a moment, his brain pinwheeling, then said, "OK, I'll take ya."

As Robin rocked blithely on a black bar stool, Brady and Magnum took off on a medley of classic hits sung to a drunken theme. "Roxanne, you don't have volunteer this way! Roxanne, you don't have to get so drunk tonight!" was one segment. Mangum sang a take of, "Hotel California," subbing in, "Welcome to the MD 20/20!" Brady pantomimed tumbling forward while holding a flask of vodka and — whoops! — drinking it down before spilling it across the stage.

"I love you!" Robin said as she swayed. The audience couldn't be sure if she was in on the joke. Many of them covered their eyes and shook their heads, but it was a truly inspired piece of comedy that was unscripted and drawn directly from Brady's rapid-response comic mind. Most improv comics would have steered clear of this wildcard of a subject, but not Brady, who even walked Robin back to her seat.

I'd walked in wondering what show I'd see. Brady's act has been stripped from a full band and backing dancers to just him, Mangum, a percussionist and keyboardist. There is a lot of unused territory on the Venetian Showroom stage, but soon you feel it doesn't matter.

Brady had taken a hiatus to protect his voice from overuse after hosting "Let's Make a Deal" and the demanding stage show, but has returned to make up those shows and fulfill his contracted commitment to the hotel through July 5. He still sings great (in his own voice and as Elvis and Mick Jagger), and sings a lot. Absent is the show-closing "Single Ladies" number with Brady appearing in a gold lame dress with a series of backing dancers. Still, Brady's singular talent makes the show a unique experience each time out. I've seen it four times; other than the structure of how bits are assembled, no two performances have been alike.

There's a strong possibility Brady won't be back in residence at the Venetian after the July 5 performance. He's not exactly performing cartwheels at the idea of returning to a regular live show on the Strip — he's planning a run in "Rent" at the Hollywood Bowl in August and another album of children's songs this year. And "Let's Make a Deal," being taped in L.A., alone is a full-time job. Whatever happens, he has been immortalized as a wax statue at Madame Tussaud's, which was unveiled this week.

Not to sound trite, but see him before he takes off. He's one of a kind.

Tempest on the mend

Tempest Storm is performing five acts a day, a busy schedule even for her. But these are not strip routines for the 82-year-old burlesque queen. She's undergoing rigorous physical therapy at Sunrise Hospital, where she has been admitted since falling onstage at the Burlesque Hall of Fame reunion show on June 4 at the Plaza.

"I'm moving all the time," Storm said during a phone interview Friday afternoon. "I don't stay in bed. There's no time for anything but therapy and sleep."

Storm broke her left hip after falling backward in the final performance of the night in a three-hour reunion production at the Plaza Showroom. She's due to be out of the hospital June 25.

A Las Vegas resident, Storm says she still plans to research the film "Burlesque," which stars Cher (in her return to feature-film acting), Christina Aguilera and Las Vegas' Julianne Hough. Hough plays a redhead from George named ... Georgia, oddly enough. Storm also is a redhead from Georgia, and Aguilera's role as a cocktail-waitress-turned-burlesque-star named Ali Rose also reminds of Storm.

"We could have a problem if they are using my life story without consulting me about it," Storm said. Of her recovery from her fractured him she said, "It's traumatic, but I'll be OK. I'm already thinking about what to do for an encore next year."

Mob Museum makes use of its scratch

The $300,000 grand awarded by the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial to the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (or the Mob Museum, as it is known on the streets) will be used specifically on the structure itself.

Mob Museum curators Dennis and Kathy Barrie have said the old building itself, the famous site of the 1950 Kefauver Hearings, is one of the more important attractions in the project. In 1933 it was dedicated as the city's first federal building, and a rare historic structure in Las Vegas that has survived implosion.

Zander-Mitchell summit

Beatles guru Dennis Mitchell has canned a great interview with Cheap Trick vocalist Robin Zander for this weekend's installment of "Breakfast With the Beatles," Mitchell's long-running Beatles radio show. Cheap Trick is performing its amazing "Sgt. Pepper Live" production at Paris Las Vegas.

Says Zander:

"We thought we were the biggest guns on the planet, right after Budokan. Then we met Geoff Emerick and George Martin, and we shrunk back down to our normal size."

And, "George Martin was the only producer I ever met that had perfect pitch. He could tell you what key the phone rings in."

And, "When we first agreed to do the Sgt. Pepper shows at Hollywood Bowl, we rehearsed more in a two-week period than we had in our whole career."

The show airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays, and again at 5 p.m. Sunday on

KVGQ (The Q) 106.9-FM. You can also catch it at BeatlesRadioShow.com

Ads from the past — light 'em up

A friend passed along a set of old print advertisements the other day. Amazing what sort of imagery was used to sell such products as cigarettes and computers. I, for one, will smoke only the brand of cigarettes favored by my physician. Or Santa. Check out the gallery accompanying this blog. Funny stuff.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.