Every night in Las Vegas, at 9 p.m., the V Theatre in Planet Hollywood hosts the Las Vegas Live Comedy Club.
Before entering the theatre, while you are lining up to collect your tickets, make sure that you look up. Although Planet Hollywood is inside, the dome shaped ceiling is painted like a pure blue sky with clouds, giving you the illusion that you are still outside. This incredible sky, mixed with the Planet Hollywood air conditioning, makes the lining up experience unusually enjoyable and picturesque. That being said, I recommend you either purchase the tickets in advance, or show up an hour early for the show, so that you are not tight for time.
Once you collect your tickets and enter the V Theatre, if you are early, you have the option to sit down in the V Theatre Lounge, and relax until the show is ready to start. The lounge is equip with comfortable chairs, and a bar, so you can purchase a drink to consume before, during, and after you watch the show
When the show is close to starting, you are ushered into the stage area. The space in intimate, with no more than 8 rows of chairs, that span across the entire room. At the front of the room is the stage, with a microphone and chair placed in the middle. To the back of the stage are televisions mounted on the wall showing music videos, which are accompanied by tunes blasting through the speakers.
I attended the show on the 20th of July, 2016. The audience spanned a variety of ages: from young adults, to the elderly – and they were all from a variety of different backgrounds, States, and even countries.
The lights then went down, to signify the beginning of the show, and 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’ song started playing on the TVs and loudspeakers – the old school classic put the attendees in a playful state of mind
There are T-Shirts available for purchase from the show, and 5% of the proceeds go towards children with arthritis, aptly linked to the fact that the headlining act, Edwin San Juan, suffers from this illness. The shirts are titled ‘Socially Acceptable’ – which is more than fitting to describe the entire show: every single act told jokes that were walking that thin line between socially acceptable, and downright offensive; each comedian hovered over that fine line, sometimes teetering dangerously over the edge, but always able to reign it back in.
Opening the show, the host – a self-proclaimed heavyset Asian man – started his set declaring that ‘no one wants to sleep with an Asian man’. This set the tone for the entire show, the comedians told very self-deprecating jokes about their race, and then moved onto highlighting comedic stereotypes of other ethnicities, subtly or overtly bashing each group of people.
The next comedian to grace the stage was Manfred Hein. He is a 26-year-old with long hair, a baseball cap, and a stoner vibe. His set focused on how he came from a small town, his age, and the fact that he suffers the misfortune of being mistaken for a girl when he is around people who are inebriated.
Following Manfred was the featured comedian, Joe Caliz, who placed runner up in the 2014 World Series of Comedy. His style of humor is very similar to that of the English comedian, Frankie Boyle. His jokes were dark, straight-faced, and highly racy – however if you appreciate humor with wit and intelligence Joe Caliz is the comedian for you. The topic of joke spanned from Transvestites, to same-sex relationships, to Jews. Of all the comedians, he was the one who seemed to push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable the most.
Finally, the headliner, Edwin San Juan came to the stage. He has appeared on shows such as Showtime, and Comedy Central – and he is also currently a permanent feature of the Las Vegas Live Comedy Club show. Like many of the other comedians, he mocked numerous types of ethnic groups, including his own, which is Pilipino. He joked about how his race pronounces ‘F’ sounds as ‘P’s. For example, ‘Fuck You’ sounds like ‘Puck You’ – which led to him creating a new T-Shirt with the logo ‘What The Puck?’, that he sells at the end of the show. One of his final, and perhaps the best, joke he told was the story of how he was caught by the police when he was high, and the entire experience was filmed by TruTV. The live reenactment of this event was truly hilarious.
As the show ended, and the audience stood up to leave, their descent was halted by a clip that began to play on the TV monitors. It was the part of the TruTV episode when San Juan was getting arrested. Already this clip was funny, but when the audience could see how accurately Edwin recreated this occurrence, the clip was downright hysterical. Once this clip came to completion, so did the show, and the audience left the room feeling utterly satisfied.
When you leave the show, you have the option to purchase the previously mentioned T-Shirts, and you are also able to take a photo with Edwin San Juan for free.
If you get easily offended, the Las Vegas Live Comedy Club is probably not the event for you, but if you go into the show with the understanding that the comedians are often just trying to shock you, and take every joke lightheartedly, then you will find the show highly entertaining. The V Theatre is a great space, and the ticket prices are extremely reasonable.
Should you wish to attend the Las Vegas Live Comedy Club at the V Theatre, follow this link: https://www.vtheaterboxoffice.com/las-vegas-shows/live-las-vegas-comedy
And if you would like to see some of the TruTV clip of Edwin San Juan getting arrested, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhfSuA0Mk7