Since we’re headlining at Big Al’s this month a the Orleans (and since we didn’t have a show on Sunday night), we managed to jiggle a few connections and get comped into Don Rickles at the Orleans Showroom last night.
Rickles.
That’s right. We saw Don Rickles. We know that thousands of people have seen Rickles over his 63 years, but we haven’t seen him yet! And we think it is incumbent upon every standup comic to see as many of the masters as he/she can.
And what made it twelve times cooler was seeing him in Vegas! With a full orchestra! And a packed house!
It’s been quite a year for us– we saw Shecky Greene at the Southpoint in April on his birthday weekend. And now we saw Rickles!
We dig the mid-century caricature that loomed over the stage before showtime. (We’re pretty sure it’s mid-century since he’s depicted as having hair!)
The kind of comedy that Rickles purveys (and that Greene purveys) is going to die with them. It’s “a little song, a little dance” and no one– NO one– is keeping the tradition up. We’re not insisting for a minute that anyone should incorporate the soft-shoe into his act. We watch these guys do what they do and we know that no one will carry on the tradition. So we are nostalgic (“A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past”) and as we watch, we understand that what we’re witnessing will not be around– except via video or film.
Rickles was rickety. But his enthusiasm for performing is not dampened. His interaction with the band (especially the musical director who acted as his ultimate straight man) was hysterical. And it was a joy to watch him deliver some of his more pointed lines– such confidence and such a raucous response from the audience!
It was a thrill to see the legend after having grown up watching him on the small screen.
He’s coming back in March.