Apr 4, 2011
After being heckled and booed in Detroit, Charlie Sheen made some changes to his road show Sunday night – and this time, it ended with a standing ovation.
Sheen used a talk show-style format at his Chicago show, with a master of ceremonies asking the actor questions. The interviewer, who didn’t identify himself, kept Sheen on track and gave the actor a chance to make some snarky comments. Some audience members said the second performance on Sheen’s “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option” tour wasn’t outstanding, but at least it had amusing moments. And Sheen drew cheers throughout the show, which began and ended with a standing ovation. Mackenzie Barth, 19, said it was a “weird” show. “At least no one was booing,” she added.
During the show at the historic 3,600-seat Chicago Theatre, Sheen smoked cigarettes and answered questions about his marriages, his career and his life with the women he calls his “goddesses.” “They have not disallowed me everything that makes me happy. Period. The end,” Sheen said of the former porn star and an actress who live with him. Sheen also had some snappy comebacks for the emcee.
Asked how many times he had been married, Sheen retorted, “Seven-thousand. That’s why I’m broke.” Asked why he’s “paid for sex” in the past, Sheen responded, “Because I had millions to blow. I ran out of things to buy.” Sheen also seemed to have a better rapport with the Chicago crowd. As the show began, some in the crowd began chanting “Detroit sucks.” When one audience member asked Sheen to take off his shirt, he swapped his T-shirt for a collared shirt thrown at him by a larger man in the audience. He proceeded to wear the too big shirt for the rest of the show and referred throughout the show to the man who had given it to him.
Early on, Sheen urged the audience in an obscenity-laced statement “not to become (expletive) Detroit tonight. Let’s show Detroit how it’s (expletive) done.” Later when Sheen was asked by the interviewer when he had started “winning,” Sheen responded, “The winning started in (expletive) Chicago.”
Ellen Olson, who was wearing a black T-shirt with Sheen’s catchphrase “Winning!” in white across the front, said she enjoyed the performance. “I think he interacted with the audience a lot, which made it more funny,” said Olson, 55, of Elmwood Park. Before the show, audience members said they had low expectations based on what they heard and read about the inaugural performance.
“We figured we’d try it out and see what happens, and if it’s bad, we’ll leave,” said Katie Iglehart, 23, of Chicago, who was attending the show with a friend. Like the Chicago show, Sheen’s Detroit performance began with thunderous applause. But it soon disintegrated before ending 70 minutes later. In between, Sheen tried to appease his audience with rants, a rapper and a question and answer session, ultimately concluding the first show was “an experiment.”
Sheen, 45, reappeared after the house lights went up to thank the hundreds who remained. It wasn’t clear when the former “Two and a Half Men” star lost the audience, but there were many awkward moments.
Sheen, known for his wild partying and rampant drug use, said he thought Detroit would be a good place to tell some stories about crack cocaine. The remark prompted loud, immediate boos.
At another point, Sheen showed a short film he wrote, directed and produced years ago called “RPG.” He sat in the front row to watch the flick, which starred a much younger Johnny Depp. Again, more boos. Sheen didn’t show the film Sunday night.
Sounds like more of a WIN in Chicago.
