TJ Tyler’s All Star Karaoke Party
Harrahs Hotel/Casino (La Playa Lounge)
Wednesday-Sunday, 6pm-7pm
About 7 months ago I reviewed the (now defunct) "American Pop" at New York, New York and expressed my opinions concerning Tribute shows being reduced to the ranks of a casino bar/lounge performance.
“TJ Tyler’s All Star Karaoke Party” has been appearing in the La Playa lounge at Harrahs casino now for several years. The open lounge (no minimum) houses a very strange looking ‘cave’ styled stage - but at least it is separated from and not elevated above the bar as was “American Pop” at NY, NY.
The one hour ‘Tribute’ show actually serves as a prelude to an evening of karaoke which Tyler himself hosts and attempts to get audience members to participate. Besides the obvious omission of a ‘live’ band, the main thing that sets this show apart from “American Pop” and other lounge Tribute shows, is that most of this show is done tongue in cheek.
The show, which sets a new precedence for a low budget Tribute Show, features TJ TYLER doing numerous impersonations purposely performed as over-the-top caricatures, along with two other up and coming tribute artists. On this particular night, the two other performers were AVIS ELLIS (“Tina Turner”, “Aretha Franklin”) and ANDY DI MINO (“Dean Martin”).
DiMino opens the show as “Dino” and has arguably the strongest physical resemblance to his character (a mid 1960’s “Martin”) in the business. He makes numerous appearances throughout the entire show. DiMino’s vocal resemblance and onstage presentation of the Martin character is good but needs some honing that will come in time with more stage experience as a tribute artist. I believe if he devotes some serious time to studying his character, he could very well end up as the # 1 “Dean Martin” in the business.
AVIS ELLIS also appears periodically throughout the show as “Tina Turner”. She first appears in the recognizable 1980’s ‘punk-ish’ hairstyle which, in retrospect, ends up being her strongest character. Although, not a dead ringer in look or sound, she is an attractive talented high energy singer/dancer who believably sells this character to the audience. However, the illusion is pretty much lost when she later appears as an older 1990’s “Tina” - mostly due to a terrible wig that looks more like a blonde version of Aretha Franklin’s 1960’s hairdo. Speaking of which…Ellis’ appearance as “Aretha Franklin” is also almost unrecognizable as, for whatever reason, she chooses to appear in a 1970’s style wig that bares more of a resemblance to “Cleopatra Jones” than it does to Aretha Franklin. Her strong soulful vocal once again wins over the audience and made me wonder just how strong she would be if she devoted more time to sharpening her physical appearance and presentation (mannerisms) of the “Aretha” character. At this stage of the game, Ellis will have to take a backseat to Denita Asberry who is noted for also performing as both characters.
The thing that separates DiMino and Ellis from ‘star’ TJ TYLER is that, for the most part, they play their characters straight whereas Tyler makes no attempt to hide the fact that his ‘impersonations’ are strictly for laughs (as least let’s hope so). Tyler’s portrayals range from funny to silly to absolutely ridiculous.
TJ TYLER’S first two impressions are of “Rod Stewart” & “Frank Sinatra” and they are adequate at best. The reason being, he opts to portray these two musical legends more straight forward than the others - which is a hard sell since his vocal and physical resemblance to either musical legend is purely superficial. After a short performance, “Frank” calls upon “Dino” to share the stage with him as the famous pair attempt to partake in some “Rat Pack” shtick which, for the most part, is uneventful due to lack of chemistry (and humor) between the pair.
In all fairness, it should be noted that this is a free show in a bar and the mostly tourist audience is non-judgmental, appreciative, and receptive.
Tyler’s next three portrayals are funny over exaggerated characterizations of “Tom Jones”, “Richard Simmons” (his funniest) and James Brown’s (noticeably Caucasian) cousin: Dave Brown. With the “Jones” and “Simmons” characters, Tyler employs some physical comedy by climbing up on tables and getting right in the faces of enthusiastic audience members who seem more than willing to accommodate him. As “Simmons”, he even has the audience participate in the very familiar choreography to the Village People’s “YMCA”. With the “Dave Brown” character, he shows off some fancy (if uncoordinated) footwork which culminates with him failing to perform a split and unable to get back up with what one can only assume is a possible hernia. Hardly original but still good for a laugh or two.
Lastly, Tyler appears as a bloated ELVIS, in a cheap jumpsuit, and even cheaper (Halloween style) black pompadour wig w/sideburns and sunglasses. This portrayal is unflattering, unfunny, and actually makes all the bad ‘Elvi’ in town look good. Tyler tackles and destroys “Suspicious Minds” and the now standard Las Vegas finale’, “Viva Las Vegas”.
For what it’s worth, “TJ Tyler’s All Star Karaoke Party” can be enjoyable as long as one has no big expectations and accepts it for what it is… a low budget, FREE, glorified karaoke/comedy/tribute lounge show.
Note: Other performers that rotate in the line-up are the up & coming ‘Georgia Peach’, AMANDA OLIFF, who does a commendable job as “Britney Spears”, and karaoke hostess KELLY CLINTON who, more or less, is the female alternative to TJ Tyler, performing amusing parodies of “Cher” and even “Wayne Newton”.
 The FAB FOUR 11/03 |
TRENT CARLINI (The Dream King) 12/03 |
LEGENDS - MUCKLESHOOT 1/04 |
The REEL AWARDS 3/04 |
TJ TYLER'S KARAOKE PARTY 5/04 |
LEGENDS IN CONCERT 7/04 |
STARS IN CONCERT 8/04 |
DANNY GANS 9/04 |
PERFORMING AS 10/04 |
Legends In Concert 4/05 |
