Las Vegas Christmas 2014 - Criss Angel's Believe

Moving right along with my goal to see a new show every trip to Vegas, we bought discount tickets to Criss Angel's Believe at the Tix-4-Tonight booth. It was the day after Christmas and quite frankly, Vegas was a ghost town, making it easy to find good seats for most shows. 

I donned my leather jacket and we headed to the Luxor for Believe. Thinking that alcohol might be necessary to enjoy the show ( hey, we saw David Copperfield earlier in the year and he was dreadful), we got a giant margarita.

Big Mistake. Huge.

My bladder was absolutely bursting for the entire performance and there was no easy way to exit the theatre from our seats. Life lesson = no major consumption of liquids before a live performance.

PLOT - Believe is written and directed by magician Criss Angel, but it is also a co-production with Cirque Du Soleil. I've seen many Cirque Du Soleil shows and truthfully, I'm not a big fan. I often catch myself working on my grocery lists during the shows. Luckily, in Believe, the Cirque parts are limited to a few creepy and comedic characters. They are secondary, with Angel and his female assistant, the stars of the show. 

The ambiance begins as soon as you enter the theatre. The lobby is filled with props, including a large display of Angel's motorcycles. If you're quiet, you can hear Angel whispering phrases as you walk near the motorcycles. Make sure to arrive early or leave time after the performance to take a close look at the lobby, there is so much to see.

The stage is quite elaborate and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland or something concocted by Tim Burton. It's whimsical and slightly eerie. There is an old-fashioned music box on stage that plays a discordant melody. 

Angel performs several tricks, the most impressive is one where he just appears in the middle of the audience, within a row of seats. I was left mystified. He also has an audience member pick a motorcycle from the lobby and he has it appear on stage, with his assistant sitting on top. This is definitely more of a magic show, than a cirque show. Although there are the cirque characters, the show does not have an overriding story or theme. About fifteen minutes of the show is dedicated to Angel showing clips from his childhood and various televised stunts. I've never seen any of his shows, but this caught my interest, especially the one where he cuts people in half on Mind Freak. I know they're illusions, but I'm baffled by how he does it!

LIKE - Angel makes the show. The impression that I had of him going into the show, based on other people in the media making fun of him and his overall image, is that he is completely full of himself. The vibe that he gave off during the show was completely the opposite. He seemed humble, happy to be performing and like he is a genuinely nice guy. He has fun on stage and it made me have fun in the audience. Most of his tricks were mind blowing and I left the show feeling dazzled. I even enjoyed the cirque characters.

DISLIKE - My only complaint is that there were not enough tricks. If he had added two or three more tricks and removed some of the unnecessary cirque clown action, then I would have walked out of the show feeling completely happy. Believe could have stayed the same length, just with more magic.

RECOMMEND - Yes, absolutely! If you're a magic fan, you won't be disappointed. This isn't the best representation of a Cirque Du Soleil show ( see Love, it's brilliant), but if you've seen other Cirque shows and want something new, give Criss Angel's Believe a chance. It's a worthy contender in the plethora of vegas shows competing for your vacation time and money.

Book Review - Angelo E. Volandes, M.D.'s The Conversation

A few weeks ago, I read an article regarding Doctor Angelo Volandes's book, The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan for End-of Life Care and I bumped it to the top of my TBR pile. 

PLOT - In his non-fiction book, Volandes explains how years of working with terminally ill patients, plus personal experience with his own father, have made him realize the need for patients to create an end-of-life plan for themselves, while they are still healthy and competent to make their wishes known. Volandes noticed that this was a topic that everyone, including doctors, want to avoid, creating issues where patients do not understand their options or their wishes are ignored. As part of his efforts to communicate this issue, Volandes spent years creating a video to show patients their options for end-of-life care. In The Conversation, Volandes recounts the experiences with a variety of patients and their families, which led him to push people to open the dialogue.

LIKE - The Conversation is an important book and although it's not an easy topic, everyone should discuss their end-of-life wishes with family, friends and doctors. In recent years, I've been  in charge of the medical decisions for both my mom and aunt as they were dying. This was so, so tough and honestly, even though I knew their wishes on paper, we never had a real conversation about it. I had to make some decisions, without knowing what their exact wishes would have been. Having that important conversation was just too difficult to have. 

What I liked most about The Conversation, is that Volandes never pushes one idea. He recognizes that end-of-life decisions are different for everyone and that it can be based on a number of issues, like family, culture, religion, and even a patients own fears. One patient was a young mother dying of advanced cancer and she wanted the doctors to do everything possible to keep her alive, so that she might make it to one more Easter with her family. Other patients would rather have pain management, than aggressive treatment, picking a potentially shorter life with better quality, over the need to be kept alive at all costs. The main message of the book was a greater need to understand the options and for patients to have the power to choose the best option for them.

The title of the book includes the words "revolutionary plan"...this is a bit tongue and cheek, as the revolutionary aspect of it, is simply the shift in perspective, getting people to open the dialogue. There is nothing that changes having to die or the types of options that we have at the end, it is a revolution in the way that we communicate. 

DISLIKE - The book was very short. The personal stories of the patients were so interesting, that Volandes could have included more. In an effort to drive home his important message, there was repetitiveness in the book, especially with the appendix section, which is filled with tips on how to have the conversation. This information was more than clear throughout the book and it was repetitious at the end. However, I can forgive the repetition, as the message is so important.

RECOMMEND - Yes! Everyone needs to read this book and have those conversations. My own life was plagued with doubt and stress, after family members died and I was left feeling like I may have not followed their wishes. I wish that I could go back in time and have that discussion with them, get clarity. Even if you don't want to read this book, check out Volandes' website and watch his video. Take control of your health and care desires. 

http://www.acpdecisions.org/about/

Las Vegas Christmas 2014 - Gordie Brown

When we checked-in at the Golden Nugget, we noticed tons of advertisements for Gordie Brown, an impressionist and singer, who is the hotel's headline performer. We didn't have plans for Christmas Day and Brown was performing with tickets still available, so we decided to go for it.

This is the best deal that we have ever had in Vegas. The tickets, a drink at the show and a buffet dinner, were $34.99 each. We were even given the best seats at the show and we were able to use the buffet passes for the special Christmas champagne dinner. The buffet was actually pretty good and we were made to think that it had special holiday offerings that were not normally available. Our server was very liberal with pouring the bubbly!

We ate in the afternoon, hours before the evening performance. Each table at the buffet had a Gordie Brown placemat. The advertising for the show is impossible to escape.

We picked tickets for the early show and we made our way to The Gordie Brown Showroom, about half an hour prior to the start, so that we would have enough time to enjoy our drink before the show. The drinks here are strong and large, another way that they exceeded my expectations based on the low cost.

We were not seated in the front row. However, I think that we had the best seats in the house. We were in the exact center of the front row of the back section. The theatre is fairly small and this meant that we were approximately eight rows back, but that we had the aisle in front of us, so we had that extra leg room. 

The set is simple, just Brown and his band on a blank stage. Brown does a few things with props, like a hat, but mostly, it's just him. The ninety-odd minute show is a mix of his impressions ( often done with singing) and him telling jokes. Admittedly, the jokes are hit and miss. Some of them were corny and some were in poor taste. By poor taste, I mean that he brought up stuff like the Bill Cosby scandal. The audience actually groaned with the Cosby joke, no laughs. A lot of the jokes were very modern, TMZ/Celebrity gossip, that went over the heads of many of the mostly older audience members. We are middle-aged and we were definitely among the youngest audience members. I did laugh a few times, but not as much as I should have for the effort that he was putting forth.

The jokes were really an unnecessary part of the show and unfortunately, they undermined Brown's talent. Seriously, this guy is very talented. His impressions were spot on and not only that, he has a fantastic singing voice. I was genuinely wowed by his talent. I think if he kept the show classy and skipped a majority of the jokes, the show would be first-rate. Outside of the realm of this particular show, I'd definitely pay to see him sing in a band with original music. If he isn't already, he should be pursuing a singing career. I left the show thinking that Brown is better than this show allows him to be.

That said, with the buffet/show package, the price is a steal and definitely worth doing if you're looking for shows in Las Vegas.