Martin Short scores laughs at the Mirage with his character impersonations and more

By Rick Lax

Wednesday, July 4, 2012 | noon

Martin Short should call his show An Evening of Shameless Pandering With Martin Short. And I don’t mean that as a critique. Pandering is bad; shameless pandering can be charming. And last weekend at the Mirage, Short brought the charm.

From backstage, Short introduced himself as “the incomparable Martin Short,” which was cute, because he didn’t disguise his voice or anything. He’s known for his songs and characters, so it surprised me that the night’s highlight was actually its jokes:

Short on Short: “I call this show ‘If I Saved I Wouldn’t Be Here.’”

Short on the Mirage: “I love the Kardashian Khaos Celebrity Lifestyle Boutique—much better than its original title, Whores ‘R’ Us.”

Short on being Canadian: “We love living next to the United States. It’s like spooning with Paula Deen.”

Next up, the bagpipes. Short didn’t play the bagpipes; Short was the bagpipes. He leapt into the arms of Las Vegas Weekly’s own John Katsilometes, stuck his thumb in Kats’ mouth and sang like Jerry Lewis.

When Short became Ed Grimley, he introduced a bit with, “Let’s take a look at the people running for president,” then showed us photos of Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum and made fun of them. Given Short’s self-deprecation elsewhere, I wish he had introduced the bit with, “Here’s some fun, dated material!”

Short’s Franck Eggelhoffer was preceded by an Eggelhoffer video montage, and his Jiminy Glick was immediately preceded by a Glick video montage, thus forcing Short to compete against his best on-screen moments. By the time he emerged in character, we, as Adrien Van Voorhees would say, had already had our Glick fix.

Short’s great, but by the end of the night, I’d had my Short fix, too.