Pawn Shop Live!

This show has moved from Golden Nugget to the Riviera. We saw it at the Riviera during it’s first week run. It is shockingly bad. The most shocking thing is that actual Pawn Stars would apparently lend their name to this drivel. The actors are earnest and I felt bad for them but there’s not one funny joke in the show just nervous laughter as the pathetic puns fell flat. Keep in mind this is in front of an audience drawn exclusively from fans of the show! The writing is cringe-​worthy and dreadful. I looked around and saw people who really wanted to enjoy it but simply couldn’t help rolling their eyes.
The names of all the characters are inexplicably changed to resemble the reality show’s characters — Rick Harrison = Rick Garrison, Chumlee = Chump and so forth. For reasons one cannot fathom the character of ‘Old Fart’ (the old man) is a puppet. If I were to guess I’d say the puppet’s creator is no more than age five. Maybe it would have been overlooked or forgiven if just once he’d had something to say worth hearing.

It is probably cliché to say I’ve seen better children’s theater but it is no exaggeration. The theater was nearly empty when we went which was a bad omen. Even then it could not have foretold just how bad the show actually is. Thankfully it’s only about an hour. I noticed after about 20 minutes people in the audience were checking their email and one person was even reading a book! If I hadn’t been with a group I would have cut the misery short and just left.
Do not believe the shills. Even the most ardent fans of the show will not appreciate this miserable waste of time. I felt so bad for the actors I could barely bring myself to make eye contact with them after the show. I’m amazed the show has not been canceled yet — if you want to see it you better hurry because it soon will be. The cast were friendly and stuck around for pictures but we just wanted to get the hell out of there.

This show was sooooo bad, we walked out after 20 minutes. What a waste of money. Will try to get our money back. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS ONE!

I am not sure even the biggest Pawn Stars fan could appreciate this garbage. Don’t blame the actors. They did the best they could with what was handed to them. It drags on and on giving useless «details» of how the Pawn Stars came to be. It is not an interesting story. Keep to the scripted «reality» TV please. Just like on TV, Chumlee steals the show. I give the extra star over 1 because of the watching the trainwreck nature of it and I did laugh at it a couple of times.

I think one would like this show if they were a fan of the Pawn Stars show. I’ve wanted to see the show because I’ve seen most of the cast in local theatre in Las Vegas and I was eager to see how they did this spoof.
The show is just under an hour and I was surprised at how quickly the hour went by. The lead characters who play the spoof characters of Slick, Lil’ Boss, and Chump look like the real life Pawn Stars. This gives the show a familiar look to those who watch the TV series.
A summary of this show could be that it has a very thin script and is goofy and corny. There are bits that make you groan and other times laugh. You know something is not quite right when my biggest laugh was the producer’s mention of the «Real Housewives of Pahrump.»
The show is stolen by the antics of Enoch Scott. His main part is to be the voice for the Old Man puppet. However, his many roles are where the show goes off track, funny and goofy though they be. Trying to move the story along, Scott plays a number of characters and it stretches the idea of spoof a bit thin.
Put all this together and add two Las Vegas showgirls (very pretty I might add), and you have a show that’s trying to hard and succeeds at little.

I’ve been a long-​time fan of «Pawn Stars», so when «Pawn Shop Live!» came along, I grabbed two tickets immediately.
I spent regular intervals of the show quietly apologizing to the person I roped into coming with me. I also regularly asked, «Why is this happening?»
Much of the play is exposition. LONG exposition. At these times, there is no joy, no humor, and no smiling.
Most of the rest of the play is spend with a nod to the fact that the «Old Fart» is portrayed by a weird, giant puppet upper-​torso, operated by the over-​worked actor giving this play (and his many different parts in it) his all. At times the torso is abandoned to sit on the stage as the actor plays another part. Everyone winks and nods and plays up the fact that the production is too… cheap, I’m guessing… to just hire an old man actor to play one of the most central figures in the story. This becomes unbearable as the Rick character carries on ad nauseum about his dad, when the «old Fart» should be out there telling the story himself.
As if all of this weren’t tedious enough, there is a multi-​media aspect in the videos they cut to from time to time. These are rudimentary at best, but there is a dream sequence the with «Chumlee» character where he’s fighting ninjas for no reason that goes on to the point where I thought I might lose my mind.
The production ends with a rousing musical number about how you should bring your stuff to them because they want to but it. CRESCENDO!
Save your money, wait a few hours, and go see Gordie Brown.

You would think it’d be a given that a crappy show on the History channel would still be pretty rough when it hits the stage. You wouldn’t be wrong. If you go, definitely be open minded and laid back– even if that requires having a drink first. It’s a four o’clock show, so maybe that’s pushing it, but it’s really campy.
On the bright side, the real Rick Harrison was there when we went last night– not sure if he’s there frequently or if we just lucked out, but even he seemed to realize that about half of their jokes were falling flat. Good effort though, and the one guy who plays several roles (you’ll know who I’m talking about when you go) is actually pretty talented.
Now, I’m on board for experimental and campy shows. I’m even on board with them using a puppet for the old man (even if it’s poorly done and I don’t understand it). I’m still with them through random showgirls, home movie flashbacks, fake celebrity appearances, and a few random Chumlee tangents that nearly seem to go off-​script.
But this show was almost too campy even for me.
Side note: I think I can count the number of people in the audience who weren’t senior citizens on one hand. And the BF and I were among them.
Bright side: when we were being seated, older Asian usher lady asked if we’d like better seats, and before we could reply she seated us in the fourth row. Very decent considering they were free tickets in the first place. But I honestly would not pay to see this show.

Oy! I cant believe we spent almost 27 bucks to see this… Maybe they should give away tickets for a while until it gets better, not funny, generally a waste of time and money. Rick Harrison did come out at the end of the show, even he seemed embarrassed to be there, If he just decided to spend 10 minutes shaking peoples hands they may not have felt so ripped off, but that is the nature of Pawn Shops, right? Save your money, see Gordie Brown instead if you are at the Golden Nugget

Since this was one of their full dress rehearsal shows, I was able to get free tickets. It is performed at The Gordie Brown theater inside The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.
This is based on the reality tv show Pawn Stars that is on the history channel. Basically its a parody on how Richard «Old Man» Harrison and his son Rick Harrison got their pawn shop started along with Rick’s son, Corey Harrison not to mention Austin «Chumlee» Russell.
They tried to get all the characters as close to the likeness of the actual crew of Pawn Stars except for the old man. His character was portrayed by a puppet. Why a puppet? Is the old man a hard character to fill?
This show is mixture of onstage acting, flashbacks, and video clips. You also have a couple of sexy showgirl characters strutting around shaking their assets in various parts of the show.
In my opinion, nothing really stood out for me in this show. Not sure if I really want to pay money to watch this or watch it again if I had the chance. It had a lot of cheesy moments and they would say a bad word or two so I don’t recommend bringing kids to this. If you are a hardcore Pawn Stars fan, I guess this is a cant miss for you. Supposedly, the actual Pawn Stars crew is said to have some appearances but on this day, I did not see any familiar faces at all.
Unilocal 2014 365 Review Challenge #20