Hopes were high on Friday night, as a crowd smelling of Axe body spray maneuvered past overfilled beer cups to their seats to see “Charlie Sheen Live: My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option” at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
After a disastrous performance in Detroit and ovations in Chicago, New Yorkers were keyed up to see Sheen’s brand of something they dole out famously: truth. The former star of “Two and a Half Men” took the stage to cheers but was unable to hold his own against the relentless tide of snark coming from the audience. There was booing. There was heckling. There were walkouts. True to stereotype, New Yorkers are “winning!” in the blood sport of insult-hurling.
The first victim was Sheen’s moderator, Joey Scoleri, who led a Q & A-format. The marketing director-cum-moderator interjected Sheen’s ramblings with leading questions meant to keep him on-topic. “So it sounds like you have some pretty good hotel stories, and not just hotel stories that have to do with New York!” Scoleri shouted over a grumbling crowd, seven minutes into the show.
Nobody was buying Sheen’s stories of “dreams” in which he “invented scotch tape” and “performed CPR on a supermodel in a heroin coma.”
The biggest cheers were reserved for Sheen’s drug references and, ultimately, the audience’s one-liners. The sign in the lobby warning that hecklers would be removed was of no avail. Thirty minutes into the show, Sheen and Scoleri left the stage and a seven-minute video came on, signaling the first big rush for the doors.
The bathrooms were mostly used as vomit stops for the Sheenius’ drunk fans. “This is worse than Chernobyl!” someone called out.
Sheen returned to the stage meekly, but it was long over. “What’s on your bucket list, Charlie?!” Scoleri served up, but the audience bested the warlock again: “Leave town!” came from the mezzanine.
According to CBSLocal.com, Sheen admitted that his first show in New York City was an embarrassment, but his Connecticut crowd roared through the entire show. Sheen mocked New York City for the show on Friday, leading the crowd in chanting “F- NYC.”
