Sunday, October 01, 2006

Howie Mandel I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore

I caught Howie Mandel's 60 minute show several years ago at the Las Vegas Hilton and was thoroughly disturbed by him.

I thought he would present a prepared show including demonstrating some of the characters he is so well known for. I thought he would be funny. I like him when I saw him many times before on television.

I saw no prepared show at all. He talked to a drunk audience primarily to an aircraft wing assembler probably from Boeing. The highlight was something he asked her whether she knew if the wings fell off of any aircraft she worked on. Howie Mandel thoroughly wasted my time for 60 minutes.

I paid for at least two hundred different live professional entertainment performances over the years and I have never been disappointed until I attended Howie Mandel's show. Most of the other shows I felt that the performances beat my expectations. Most were thrilling. I cannot understand why he would not do his prepared show. He had to have one. I understand professional license that whatever he does is "artistic". But I felt he took the low road and cheated most of us in the theatre.

I was squirming in my seat, getting more aggravated as he continued the banter. Suddenly he stopped in exactly 60 minutes, thanked the audience, and left the stage. I was dumbfounded. If I wanted to talk with drunks I could head to almost any bar and listened for free.

It never happened to me before but any future performer will get about ten minutes to be off the track of a prepared performance and then I'll stand up and yell out to get on track and do your planned performance or give me my money back.

I don't know how often he talks to the drunks in the audience for the entire 60 minute show or that this was an exception. It was the first time I saw him with his shaved head and black clothes...he said it was in preparation for a movie or something. Maybe he does a quality act, I did not get to witness one. Maybe he had an off night.

Well. I am no longer a fan of Howie Mandel and will not pay again to see his live performance and will never even watch his game show for free. In fact I get sick to my stomach whenever I see him doing a cameo appearance on other TV shows.

What do you think? Have you paid for professional entertainment that was really lousy and off track? What did you do? Are you going to let anyone get away with it again?