|
 One
of the strip's hardest working, multi-talented people is
Wayne Brady; who does a show called Making It Up at the
Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. And he actually makes up
things used in his show. He sings, dances, does sketch
and improv comedy in his 90 minute show. Known from his
appearances on the TV show, "Whose Line is it anyway?"
with Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops and Colin
Mochrie; his standout comedy brought him an award for
Primetime Emmy Outstanding Individual Performance in a
Variety, Musical or Comedy series. Using information
gathered from the audience, he makes things up off the
top of his head. His sidekick, Jonathon Mangum, helps
him form a skit or often a mini rock opera that deals
with a person's life. They then move on to making a
movie scene, from a plot suggested by the audience;
which is very funny to the audience and its turns almost
hysterical when they begin yelling out movie styles,
like westerns, horrors and the like.
One sketch involves the audience as they are the props,
another called Forward/Reverse has Mangum and Brady
becoming a TiVo with stops, starts, reverses and slow
motion creating a routine that has the crowd in
stitches. With a wonderful voice, Wayne sings songs from
James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr. and Luther Vandross.
Perhaps the funniest skits involve his making up new
lyrics to familiar songs; like With or Without you
becoming Feels So Wrong, or Can't help falling love into
I've been thinking about tacos. His mastery of imitation
has surprise many as he sounds like Prince, Mick Jagger
and Justin Timberlake.
But it is really the audience and their participation
that decides how great the show will be. Using their
suggestions, stories and other participants views has
lifted his style of comedy to a new height and it is
this that makes or breaks his shows. He promises a good
old fashioned variety show in the beginning and his
talents bring it on home. His versatility and many
talents make the show great and his sense of timing,
camaraderie and friendliness make sure that each show is
a success.
Wayne has appeared in other shows on television
including 30 Rock, Dirt, the Dave Chappelle Show,
Everybody hates Chris and How I met Your Mother. He also
had his own syndicated variety talk show for two years
and he is hosting the Fox show, "Don't Forget the
Lyrics". His voice was used in a new animated feature
called "Foodfight" and he has starred in feature films
such as the List and Roll Bounce. In 2008, he released
an album called A Long Time Coming and his cover song
for the album A Change is Gonna Come get him a Grammy
nomination. It is obvious that this young man is quite
talented and well worth watching his show in Vegas. He
started his whole career in Orlando, Florida performing
in local theaters.
This is the kind of variety show that delights people of
all ages, and to make it even more interesting, you are
part of the show, if you want to be. Before the show,
the audience is asked to write things down relating to a
musical artist or song and Wayne gets it on. At some
parts, he uses audience members to become props on stage
and act like a swinging door or as if you were walking
on a treadmill and then he uses the humor seen or heard
develops into part of the show. It involves the audience
and thrills them to no end when they realize the results
that Wayne has gotten from them and the audience. This
is the true nature of a hardworking authentic artist
with great abilities and talent.
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Videos of Wayne
Brady at The Venetican |
Pictures of
Wayne Brady at The Venetian |
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