Gordie Brown

Not many comedians can say they've been the preluding act to a world-class entertainer's North American tour (Celine Dion). Neither can they boast a multi-faceted personality, who can lend himself to pretty much any aspect of live entertainment. Musician? You got it. Comedian? Hold onto your sides. Caricaturist? Celebrities request him for portraiture! So just who is this 'jack of all trades', who bears more than a little resemblance (in that tall, swarthy debonair kind of way) to David Copperfield, and is said to have given Danny Gans some food for thought?

Enter one Gordie Brown; the multi-talented impresario, music obsessive and budding actor, taking improvisational comedy to a whole new level at the Golden Nugget – the award-winning resort putting “downtown” Fremont Street back on the map. Fremont Street has suffered in recent years, at the hands of ambitious new developments concentrated around the 'Strip'. With it's palace-like facade, and oozing uptown glamor, the Golden Nugget represents one of the remaining resorts to have defied downturn predictions – now hosting some of the biggest acts in Sin City to boot. To Gordie, the 'Nugget' represents his grass-roots launch in Vegas, having started out here in 2004. He briefly moved onto the 'Strip', headlining at both the Venetian and Planet Hollywood, but the Golden Nugget called him home in 2008 - where he has headlined ever since!

Canadian-born Gordie is no stranger to the limelight, although his early forays into the comedy niche were somewhat different to his present model. Now an avid caricaturist of celebrity personas; Gordie started out as a political cartoonist for Canadian capital newspaper: the Ottawa Sunday Herald. His humor tended to be playfully satirical, and not always altogether on-topic – much like his impressions. One of the most remembered (which is consistently requested to this day) is his imitation of Arnold Schwarzenegger, yet his revisiting to the well-worn skit is brief – nowadays woven into a bit, which encompasses a back and forth between Robert DeNiro, Jim Carrey and Tom Cruise during “Celebrity Golf”.

If the extent of Gordie's aptitude for impersonation, is not evident enough during his conversational gags between George W. Bush and Forrest Gump, he certainly exemplifies his superior capacity for imitation with the musical stand-up wound into the show. Warming up his fellow Canadians (of which there always seem to be a percentage in the audience) with his peeping tom ad-lib on Gordon Lightfoot; Brown quickly transitions into a five-minute slack-jawed Randy Travis skit - “is he a ventriloquist, or a singer?” It's a well-known fact that Randy Travis seems to air his lungs, without opening his mouth – a habit which Brown touches upon with the comedic retrospective - “even Milli Vanilli moved their lips”!

Packing over forty impersonations into just over 90 minutes; Gordie Brown rarely stops for refreshment or repetition. That being said, the show's running doesn't seem to alienate audiences, and nor is it just focused on the fortunate front row. Brown engages his audience with several “getting to know you” intervals between gags, often tying their location of origin into a Presidential, or country singer skit. What this guy doesn't know about the grass roots of country singers, isn't worth knowing!

The Gordie Brown mega-ride rarely pauses prior to descending into musical revelry, switching between Billy Ray Cyrus' marijuana medley “Achy Breaky Heart” (Brown alters the lyrics to suit) and a bumbling Ozzy Osbourne, complaining about losing his memory. Impromptu revisits to old favorites from his tour, such as the Michael Bolton “song-stealer” bit, Michael Jackson performing the moon-walk whilst high and the Elvis reprise – an act that fueled the propulsion from Harrah's in Reno, to prime space on the 'Strip'.

If there's one thing to be said for Gordie Brown (when comparing him to 'other' Las Vegas based impressionists), it's that he is no marquee chaser. He enjoyed a year at The Venetian with his name emblazoned across bill-boards, and emphatically embraced his stint at Planet Hollywood – but for Gordie, the Golden Nugget is a step back from the glitter-gulch, stripping away the spectacle and the (seemingly) unnecessary competition that critics seemed to create between he and Danny Gans. The real spectacle is the nightly show that (much like it's headliner) defies the pretentiousness and serves up a mean dose of childishness. Be warned though, your evening will be propelled with more G-Force and energy, than the Stratosphere roller-coaster!