Charlie Sheen Opens the Circus But His Tent Collapses Amid Boos

[Teh One Who Knocks]

by Ken Baker - E! Online




Charlie Sheen debuted his highly hyped "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not An Option" tour at Detroit's Fox Theatre on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd that went from giving the star standing ovations to showering him with boos and finally crying "refund!"

So was it a winning performance? Not so much.

Things began inauspiciously. Comedian Kirk Fox came on at 8:10 pm to warm up the boisterous crowd, most of whom spent a lot of time booing the poor guy.

A few minutes later, Charlie came out and tried to save Fox by kissing him Jimmy Kimmel-style, saying: "Celebrate this man. I'll be right back, I promise." But as it turned out, that may have been the high point of the evening.

Charlie returned to start the show around nine, bringing out goddesses Nat and Bree in "Winning" T-shirts and had them make out. (OK, maybe that was the high point.) Later, the goddesses burned one of his trademark Two and a Half Men shirts. The show quickly devolved into a pastiche of movie clips (Jaws, Dirty Harry, Platoon, etc.), odd skits and erratic pronouncements.



Delivering a long, rambling faux-Presidential address, his "Manny-Fest-Oh," Sheen seemed to lose the crowd, and about 20 minutes into his address the boos began raining down in earnest.

The next set piece on the video screen was "Stalker Vids," a collection of random news clips, fan-generated videos referencing drugs and an animation of the "Call of Duty" video being played to Sheen voiceovers. "Winning!" All set to drum-and-bass music thumping.

After that, Charlie came down to sit in the front row to watch a short film titled "RPG" (Rocket Propelled Grenade). "It's about redemption," Sheen explained.

But about 5 minutes into it, the boos drowned out the film too.

So Sheen came out, played catch with a former baseball player, and apologized. "OK, so RPG is a bomb. Whatever! Tonight is an experiment."

And after a few more skits and bits, the crowd really began to turn on Sheen, shouting insults amid the steady chorus of boos.

Sheen finally snapped, "Park your voices for one second and pay attention to the man you paid to see. Tell the guy next to you to stop booing because he's ruining it for the rest of ya."

Sheen, clearly flustered, went off script and told the crowd he was "calling an audible" and changed course. But the crowd's reception didn't improve as a rapper performed before introducing a video by Snoop Dogg of Sheen's new song, "Winning." But by then Sheen had even lost most of his diehard fans. And when it ended at 10:10 pm, the house lights came up without explanation or announcement and the show was over.

"I'm not impressed. I was expecting more because of all the hype," concert-goer Tricia Price told E! News after the show. "Big train wreck."

"I felt bad for him," said her husband Don Price. "It was so bad I wanted to run up there and rescue him."

The sold-out show was the first of 22 he is scheduled to perform across the U.S. and Canada over the next month. Former Korn guitarist Rob Patterson provided musical interludes on guitar.

The 4,700-seat theatre was officially sold out, with hundreds of fans paying up to $575 for a backstage meet-and-greet package. Tickets ranged from $35 in the balcony to about $80 for premium seats. Sheen had announced on his website that he would be donating $1 from every ticket to sold to the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake Relief Fund. So at least the show did someone some good.

The warlock now heads to Chicago for a Sunday night show, with the tour scheduled to continue until May 3 in Seattle.

Postscript
More than 15 minutes after the show inexplicably ended (ushers were literally vacuuming carpets), Charlie came back out on stage!

He greeted the approximately 500 remaining fans and took pics for two minutes. "Thank you all!" he said and then abruptly walked off. He seemed subdued and bummed out as security scrambled to get him off.

[Hal-9000]

When fans feel sorry or embarrassed for someone they paid to see....it musta sucked

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I feel a cancellation of the tour coming up

[Godfather]

Ohhh man he's gotta cancel, I'd be pissed if I'd paid money for tickets to this after hearing the first show bombed so hard


Then again, I wouldn't ever buy tickets so it's hard to put myself in those shoes

[DemonGeminiX]

Maybe he should've just let Nat and Bree give the entire show.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

So does this mean Charlie is actually a troll and not a warlock?

[DemonGeminiX]

I think it means what he thought would be an entertaining tour actually sucks really hard.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Charlie Sheen's "Torpedo of Truth" Round 2: "I Won!"
by Ken Baker - E! Online




After bombing in Detroit, it would seem Charlie Sheen found his frantic footing again after staying up until 4:30 in the morning reworking the show, he tells E! News.

"I just got back to basics," Sheen tells us. "Gotta go with what got you to the dance and give the people what they want. On the bus someone said, 'You know, we could just keep driving to L.A.' I said, 'F-ck that. That's what losers do. I won.' "

So what did the Chicago crowd experience that the Detroit crowd didn't?

Charlie, sitting in a chair, just talking. Which was the idea he apparently came up with in the wee hours of the morning between Detroit and Chicago. Sheen sat onstage with only a pack of cigarettes and his friend/tour coproducer Joey Scoleri interviewing him.

The show, which began 20 minutes late, started with Sheen receiving a standing ovation from the crowd along with chants of "Detroit sucks!" He then stood before the sold-out audience and read them a letter:

"Dear f--king awesome Chicago," he began, the paper shaking in his right hand. "I'm a veteran of a disturbing odyssey that at times had me questioning the very nature of my soul." Sheen, alluding to the disaster in Detroit, proclaimed he was back and stronger than ever.

Scoleri told the crowd he was going to ask Charlie "all the sh-t you guys wanna know." Instead of videos, rappers and opening acts, Sheen's show was as raw as it gets, much to the delight of the ticket-buyers. Among topics covered during the sit-down:

Marriage: "Marriage for me sucked," Sheen said. "I'm 0-for-3." He then called Denise Richards "the kidnapper" and spoke very bluntly about the night in March the cops raided his house, saying, "Nice try, bitch. I got those kids back didn't I? She sent 9,000 cops to my house looking for drugs and guns. They found one gun from 1848."

His Aspen domestic violence arrest: "I don't know if we can get into that," he said, keeping mum. "There's legal sh-t happening with that. Aspen f--king sucks."

On CBS: "I didn't walk away from sh-t. I got fired. That's not f--king cool. They didn't give a f--k that I was hammered for eight years. But as soon as I spoke back and said, 'F--k you, you're a creep…' I'm not knocking Two and a Half Men. I'm talking about the weirdos who run it. If they hired me back I'd do it again."

On AA: "I just stopped. I don't believe in all your fiction, all your bullsh-t. I got tired of losing. I said, 'F--k all this. It's time for winning.' "

How to be a goddess: After ripping off his shirt and bringing the crowd to its feet, a blonde in the front row shouted that she wanted to be one of his goddesses. "You have to be f--king me. Start there. The rest is up to you!" But apparently Sheen is wary of more than two ladies at a time. "I tried a third. I did. You can't keep an eye on the third one," he complained. "I have two eyes. I have two goddesses. I'm not bipolar. I'm bi-winning." Soon after, the goddesses were paraded out for a photo op.

On paying for sex: "So much f--king easier. Plus, I ran out of sh-t to buy."

The Plaza Debacle: "Here's what really sucks: I never f--ked her! And that's the f--king truth. You owe me a watch and some f--king love. That's what TMZ won't f--king tell you. Trolls, Music, and Zombies that's what it f--king stands for."

Well, the fans certainly got what they paid for: an in-depth and uncensored look inside Charlie's brain. Afterward, Sheen told fans, "I'm having the best time of my life. Unlike that death sentence that was Detroit."

The show ended with a standing ovation. After the show, Charlie was congratulated on his comeback. "Comeback? That would mean I was down," he responded with a smile.

[DemonGeminiX]

People in Chicago must be very easily entertained.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Well, RBP lives there, so there ya go

[Godfather]

I thought he'd cancel the tour for sure I wonder how many people are selling their tickets on craigslist for a third what they paid

[Joebob034]

Classy as always Chicago

[PorkChopSandwiches]

WINNING!!!!

[Noilly Pratt]

What were the people expecting? I figured it'd be a manic all-over-the=place thing. To those with tix - "a fool and his money..." etc!

[Goofy]

People in Chicago must be very easily entertained.

Well, RBP lives there, so there ya go

*snigger*