Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Frank Caliendo: Kathy Griffin for straight guys

Frank Caliendo

Leila Navidi

Frank Caliendo performs Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at the Monte Carlo.

Does Las Vegas really need another celebrity impressionist? When the impersonator is Frank Caliendo, the answer is a surprising and emphatic yes. Surprising, because judging from Caliendo’s posters and ads, we’re in for a gallery of crusty middle-aged white men, most of them past their sell-by date.

Calendar

Frank Caliendo
Monday, Tuesday, Friday. Saturday.
9:30 p.m., $49-$85.
Monte Carlo
730-7777

But Caliendo, who does a late-ish show four nights a week in magician Lance Burton’s plush showroom at the Monte Carlo, is sharp and smart with his gang of graying geezers, the standout stand-up on the Strip.

Halfway through his act, it struck me that Caliendo is kind of Kathy Griffin for straight guys: Where Griffin’s shtick is tattling on celebrity misbehavior, Caliendo mines the dudes’ portion of the pop-culture continuum, taking off on familiar sports figures and politicians and entertainers like John Madden, Mike Tyson and Charles Barkley.

And George W. Bush: “I miss having a president who always looked like he was looking directly into the sun,” says Caliendo, who amusingly imagines what Bush might be up to right now: Taking a bubble bath? Singing Duran Duran karaoke?

I guess we can laugh about it now.

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