Wayne Brady at the Venetian Resort and Casino

Note To Wayne Brady: Come Back Soon & A Note About Roseanne Barr
Wayne Brady at The Venetian Resort and Casino until July 1 

Wayne Brady is amazing. He's funny, gifted, very personable and - most of all - very smart. This intelligence informs everything he does onstage at The Venetian Resort and Casino. 

His show, called "Makin' **it Up," careens from one topic to the next, from one improv bit to another. The audience is very involved (but no one who doesn't volunteer is brought onstage) and the sense is of being at a party. 

With a band, four singer/dancers and the very talented Jonathan Mangum as his foil, Brady seemingly can do it all. While the majority of the show is the improv we've seen on "Whose Line Is It Anyway," there is a fair amount of singing and, even, some dancing. 

He  and Mangum do one routine several times, in the style of Shakespeare, an action movie, a comedy movie, a kung-fu film and the play "Rent," and each time it is funny and fresh. 

Brady does improvisational music in the style of Creed, Nirvana, Elvis and Prince. And it is, to me, telling that his band laughs along, seemingly as surprised at what comes out of this man's mind as we are. 

In the end, Brady pays tribute to two of his inspirations, Sammy Davis, Jr. and JAmes Brown. His version of Davis doing "Birth of the Blues" is haunting and exact and his JAmes Brown is raucous and spot on. This is his encore and he lets it rip. It is perfect. 

Wayne Brady is a singer, comic, actor, dancer - he's an entertainer. And people like him are too few. If you can't see him before the end of the month, see him when you can.  

Roseanne Barr, on the other hand, was a major disappointment. In fact, we went to see her because we like her and were eager to spread the word. But her show was a huge disappointment and I hesitated for weeks before writing this. But she's ending her run at New York New York Hotel and Casino this weekend and we'd hope that if she returns it's with a better show. 

We were eager to see her - this groundbreaking woman who was right on target when she began. Maybe, when she won the lottery on her show and the show jumped the shark, she did, too.  

Here, she just wasn't funny. She walked through the act, doing much of what she'd done on her recent HBO special. She didn't connect with the audience and her singing - well, better not go there. 

Roseanne Barr is a funny woman. Just couldn't tell it from this act. We're hoping that this was a temporary aberration and look forward to seeing her again. 

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