Bob, Bucks, and Babs

Ok, here we go. I had some friends in town this weekend. Well really just a couple of friends who brought friends with them. Anyway, it was a guy’s weekend, and I was an honorary guy. At least until Saturday when they broke up with me so they could go do guy things and I could go see Barbra Streisand.

Bob
Friday night I went with the guys to go see a comedy show. The Comedy Festival was in town (think Billy, Whoopi and Robin) and this place was a zoo. After eating dinner at The Pink Taco (Yeah, the name is icky, but the food is good if you can get past it). We headed over to Cesar's for the show. It was with Bob Saget and friends. This guy is just not funny. He talks about being the dad on Full House and that’s about it. He is incredibly foul and he repeats himself over and over again. He was only on for maybe 10-15 minutes at the beginning, thank goodness. The rest of the time he served as emcee for the other comedians.

As a special guest, Craig Ferguson, who was performing at the Orleans, stopped by for about a 10 minute set. Honestly? I didn’t think he was that funny either. Now I was starting to get worried. Was it me or are these people just not funny? Luckily, after that the next few comics were much better. I wish I could remember who they were, because they were names I didn’t recognize. Oh, except I just remembered one: Jim Norton. I think he was the last guy on and he was pretty funny. There was also one woman in the line up who was pretty funny too. Since the show didn’t even start until 1am, I don’t think I can be blamed for not remembering much of the details.

Bucks
The OSU- Michigan game was on Saturday. At first, the guys said we were all going to watch the game at the Hooters hotel. Ugh. Needless to say, I was talking my time getting ready the next morning. Before I left to head back to the Strip, I got a call saying that the only thing big about Hooters was well, the hooters. The TV screens were pretty small, so they guys wanted to go somewhere else. They decided on the ESPN Zone at New York New York. It was unbelievable. I mean I knew it was going to be crowded, but it was unreal. There was a sea of red and not a lot of blue and gold. Clearly a strong presence for OSU. We ended up standing for the entire game, but that was ok. Lots of chanting going on, lots of commentary. Most of the guys are theater geeks, so hearing them discuss the football game was really weird. I thought it would be even funnier if they did it using Shakespearian English, but decided to keep that comment to myself. Anyway, Go Bucks!!!

Babs
After the game, it was time for me to end guy’s weekend. They decided to head across the street to go check out the new Bond movie and I went home to go get changed for my concert. Barbra was fantastic. My seat was terrible, but I didn’t care. She was so funny and warm. It took me a while to realize why she looked a little strange. I realized that she hasn’t had any work done on her face. She is actually aging naturally. It’s weird to see a 60 year old that doesn’t look like a 40 year old. Good for her, I say. She is never more beautiful to me than when she is singing a song. Her voice was still pretty good, although she wasn’t going for many high notes. She also had Teleprompters, which she mentioned using as a crutch in case she forgot something since she has such bad stage fright. Yes, she still did the President Bush skit, and yes, it was funny. I suppose I can see why people might be upset because she skewers him pretty good, but you really have to admire the actor pulling this off. He is incredible. After he left the stage, she showed a picture of him with the real “Dubya” and talked about how the 2 men knew each other and respected each other, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. It was funny.

She played for about 2 and a half hours, although she did also give herself a 20-minute intermission. I thought she was kidding. Nope. She left, the lights came on and there we sat for 20 minutes. Il Divo is touring with her. I don’t like them. Pop-Opera? Yuck. Who needs to hear an Italian version of Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart? I was a little confused at first seeing these 4 men dressed alike on the stage. I wondered when they were going to start stripping. Turns out Il Divo doesn’t mean “Chippendales" in Italian. Oh well. Luckily, they didn’t get a lot of stage time.

Before I left, I did finally cave and go get a T-shirt and a coffee mug. The T-shirt is a picture of her head when she wore the giant white bejeweled turban from Funny Girl. Really, it’s a terrible shot, but so over the top, I couldn’t resist. There was a bunch of artwork in the lobby that you could pay to have one of the photographers take your picture next to. I skipped that one. I saw only one celebrity, although I heard there were others there. Rosie O’Donnell sat in the front row. The older woman in front of me with binoculars confirmed this for me. Seriously, I was sitting in the rafters. I had a carabiner attached to my waist in case I fell. No wonder my ticket was so expensive. The fine print said I had also purchased extra life insurance. There were also "Tips and Tricks" for beating altitude sickness.