Two of the top impressionists in the country are now a stone's throw from each other on the Strip. Not that any stones are going to be thrown by the two entertainers. No need for professional jealousy here.
If Las Vegas is big enough for five Cirque du Soleil productions, it surely can cope with a pair of impressionists. Veteran Danny Gans has been packing his theater at the Mirage for the past six years. Newcomer Gordie Brown moved into his new digs at the Venetian - across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Mirage - about two weeks ago.
While Gans has a long head start on Brown, the former political cartoonist from Montreal is loaded with talent, energy and charisma and should have no difficulty in becoming a favorite on the Strip. Brown was the headliner at the Golden Nugget for two years before moving to the Venetian. Even though both do impressions, sing and clown around, their acts are different enough that fans can enjoy both without a sense of deja vu.
Gans is the more adept at impressions, doing such painstaking recreations of celebrities that your eyes may pop out in amazement. And he is a good vocalist. His show is a tightly run ship, less given to spontaneity than Brown's.
Brown is looser, going with the flow of the crowd and with the events of the evening. If a mistake is made, he takes it and it becomes part of the show. With Brown, you rarely see the exact same show twice, although there are certain bits that have followed him from downtown to uptown - the Willie Nelson-Julio Iglesias duet and the Randy Travis number.
He is an excellent impressionist, but his focus is clearly more on the comedy than on the exact representation of a celebrity. A few of the impressions are off the mark . His conversation between Ozzy Osbourne and Bob Dylan is hysterical.
Brown does many of the standard impressions - Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, James Stewart, John Wayne, Michael Jackson and Elvis - and many not so standard, such as Tracy Chapman singing a depressing version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and comedian Chris Rock. If you had to label the two, Gans would be the impressionist-comedian; Brown would be the comedian-impressionist. Brown is relentless in his fast-paced performance.
From the moment the curtain parts, he's moving and trying to wring every bit of humor out of every gag. If a piece doesn't work, don't worry because he's moved onto something else before you even realized it didn't work. There is not a more energetic performer on the Strip, nor one more eager to entertain his fans.
He sings (quite well), dances, plays the guitar and pulls the fans into the show with his personality. Brown is a thoroughly likable performer, in the vein of Clint Holmes and magicians Lance Burton and Mac King. But more important, an evening with Brown is an evening well spent, one you can tell your friends about.
Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.
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