Three words sum up Charlie Murphy’s weekend
Utah performances: money
well spent. ---
Anyone who didn’t go see Murphy at Wiseguys in West Valley City this weekend missed
a helluva show. Nearly all four shows sold out, and the audiences were
extremely responsive—not only to Murphy, but to the openers as well.
The host was Timm Thorn, whose ability to hold his own as a
middle-aged white guy representing Utah
against a crowd eager to see Murphy was quite impressive. His routine pulled
the best of his well-known (to Wiseguys regulars anyway) bits about being in
his mid-40s, and the ridiculousness of white kids from Utah who pretend to be gangsta. He earned a
steady stream of laughs from the entire crowd, and provided an excellent set-up
for the night. Featured comic Paul Farmer—aka Freez Luv, from New York—has been
opening for Murphy for quite a while, so his style is very much in sync with the
headliner’s. His presence was strong and confident, and he was so funny
that I would have been completely satisfied paying the $25 just to see him.
But then, Murphy came on stage, and the place went wild. His
act was refined, and his timing was perfect. He never lost his momentum, or the
crowd's attention. One of the employees at Wiseguys made the mistake of taking
a picture of Murphy toward the end of his final show, and after that there was
no stopping the barrage of flashes that followed from an otherwise
perfectly-behaved audience.