LVW Col: How Danny Got His Groove Back

I admit it; I never thought I'd write this column. But it's nice when something turns out better than expected, right? Here's this week's Strip Sense piece.

How Danny Got His Groove Back
By STEVE FRIESS

This column was supposed to be an examination of the three major impressionist acts opening here within a fortnight of one another. I expected to praise Wannabe Danny Gans Gordie Brown for his vigor and Replacement Danny Gans Terry Fator for his efforts to remain fresh and relevant, and that arc would lead me back to my long-standing complaint about the Real Danny Gans, which is that he had lost his vigor and his material had gone offensively stale.

And so, for my research, I ran out to catch Brown’s opening night at the Golden Nugget last Thursday, I got Fator, moving into Gans’ former space at the Mirage this month, on the phone for an interview on Friday, and then on Friday night I spent $95 a seat to sit in the balcony for Gans’ reemergence at Wynn Las Vegas.

Except something very odd happened at Wynn. Danny Gans, the brunt of my jokes and my ire for several years now, made me laugh. A lot. He also made a nearly two-hour show zip by without my ever checking my watch, which is a considerable accomplishment. And, much more importantly to me, he made the friend I brought along with me—a woman who has been crying on and off for two weeks because her 18-year-old just shipped off to Air Force boot camp—smile so much that she briefly forgot her grief and worry for a little while even after we walked out.

Not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, I left the showroom thoroughly disoriented.

Read the rest HERE