Posts Tagged ‘criss angel’

Holly Madison, Josh Strickland and Shoshana Bean will star in the sequel to Peepshow, "Threesome." Not really. (Photo by Erik Kabik | RETNA | erikkabik.com

Things you should know about Peepshow, the topless revue now playing at the CHI showroom inside Planet Hollywood:

• Despite the top-billing, advertising face time and press coverage given to Holly Madison, who replaced Kelly Monaco’s role in the show, the real star of Peepshow is Shoshana Bean, formerly of Broadway’s Wicked, currently occupying the lead singing/dancing role abandoned by former Spice Girl Mel B. Shoshana is funny, charming, spunky, cute and can sing the hell out of anything.
• Though the show’s title and sometimes-topless cast of dancing beauties would lead you to believe good ol’ fashioned boobies are the draw of the show (and, specifically, the artificial ones supported by Madison’s tiny frame), the surprising truth is that the singers steal the show. At least for me, they did. Led by Bean, a few non-stripping female singers, male lead Josh Strickland and the occasional topless rapping hottie belt out tunes with such chutzpah you’d swear you just hear a subway train rumble past.
• Aside from a few slow spots (notably the opening number featuring the show’s eponymous theme song), the 80-minute production buzzes by quickly with mercurial energy. It balances well the erotic, the humorous and the silly. A particularly creative number involves three nearly-nude women inside a giant glass vat filled with “milk”; another features a particularly buff dude performing slippery antics on a suspended cable above a bathtub.
• As with almost every other striptease-type show I’ve seen, an “audience participation” segment breaks up the bouncing bosoms of the show with some well-placed light comedy. I put that in quotes though because, like many “volunteer” situations, the audience participants are plants. I don’t have a problem with that practice, it’s entertaining, and I like comedy. Just sayin’.
• The biggest disappointment? Madison. I said it. Holly Madison is adorable. She is down-to-earth, unassuming and very considerate. The character she plays should be perfect: An innocent, shy girl looking for love. But Madison is completely uncomfortable on stage. Actually, you can tell she’s even a bit awkward in front of the camera, too, but that’s a discussion for another time. Madison distractingly plays with her hair, tugs at her robe and stumbles around for most of her limited appearances in the show. And when it’s time for her to come out of her shell, after being prodded by Bean’s character and seduced by buff bathtub guy, the excitement over her spotlight performance has nothing to do with her dancing or acting — it’s more like an elevated sigh of relief that FINALLY, HOLLY IS NAKED. But the odd thing is, despite her Barbie looks and perfectly crafted breasts, Madison is just not sexy. Especially not in comparison to the caramel beauty who rocked the hell out of “Brickhouse” or the cat-like redhead who practically made love to a car. No, Madison tries hard to shashay and work her fluffy, white boa, but especially put next to the professional entertainers surrounding her, she comes off looking as if she’s the lucky hottie drawn out of the crowd at random to join the cast on stage for one night.
• Given the last point, Peepshow still ain’t bad. It’s naughty enough to work well for a bachelor (or bachelorette) party, but polished enough for a guilt-free date night. And I didn’t fall asleep during the first 20 minutes, unlike a certain show starring Madison’s ex-boyfriend Criss Angel.

No, not Ice T too! Criss Angel infected him with THE DOUCHINESS!! (Photo courtesy Tom Rutan)

As a new article reminds us everyday, you cannot be truly somebody in the world today unless you use Twitter, the micro-blogging service that allows users to post status updates of no more than 140 characters for all the world (or, in some cases, selected people) to see. Even more so than other forms of social media, Twitter has proven the great equalizer, allowing fans of TV, literature and movies to interact (somewhat) directly with their favorite actors and writers, enabling journalists and publicists to seamlessly connect and, of course, providing one more moving target for viral marketers and spammers.

You often see people post their daily “tweets,” or Twitter postings, on their blogs/journals/whatever, but typically reading those is akin to catching only one side of a phone conversation – it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. That’s kind of useless, annoying and honestly, a bit lazy (in my annoying and judgmental opinion).

But yesterday, a pretty funny exchange went down between myself and a few pals on Twitter, including writer Cynthia Moon Reed and my friend Mike, for whom you may recall I failed on national television. Cindi “re-tweeted” a post that illusionist Criss Angel, star of the terrible new Cirque du Soleil show, Believe, blasted Monday afternoon on Twitter: “Group of girls stops me for an autograph and one asks me when Motley Crue is getting back together. How would I know?”

And hence began the nonsense. Here’s the ensuing Twitter conversation, actually cleaned up and arranged for readability:

pjperez: Either a) they mistook crissangel for Tommy Lee or b) they assumed all douchebags hang out in a Clubhouse of Douche.

cmoonreed: Either way, I think it’s pretty damn funny that crissangel’s complaint seems to lack any spark of self-recognition or irony.

pjperez: He wouldn’t recognize irony if it was dressed as a giant man-eating rabbit and bit off his head.

cmoonreed: I actually thought that “Clubhouse of Douche” was the name of the bar in the Luxor.

pjperez: That’s actually R&R Partners’ new slogan for the LVCVA: “Las Vegas: The Clubhouse of Douche.”

cmoonreed: But a giant man-eating rabbit IS the plot of Mindfreak [pretty sure she meant "Believe" here]. And this LVCVA thing could totally be legit. I no longer know what is real.

pjperez: That is the magic of Vegas: Anything is possible. That you can beLIEve.

cmoonreed: If I BELIEVE in @crissangel do I get a free Max Factor makeover? Or perhaps a free drink at the new bar at the Luxor?

mikeyvegas is awaiting a future of open hostility from Mr. Mindfreak for pjperez/cmoonreed. No worries, I’ve got your backs, yo! Max Factor be DAMNED!

cmoonreed: I’m dying to know what his method of attack would be.

pjperez: What, is crissangel going to smear eyeliner all over cmoonreed and my faces? Or maybe throw a Playboy Bunny at us?

cmoonreed: I hope he uses magic!

Oh, Twitter, where would we smear Criss Angel without you?