I’ve always been fascinated by the paths late-night talk-show hosts take with their current career. Conan O’Brien wrote for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live prior to replacing David Letterman on Late Night. Letterman, himself, was a weatherman before becoming a comedian and getting his own morning show.
Now, Charlie Sheen, a.k.a “Mr. Tiger Blood”, a.k.a “The Warlock”, a.k.a “The Vatican Assassin,” is responsible for the recent bizarre and circuitous route to having his own late-night show. No one else can claim to have gone from fortunate son to movie star to TV star to tabloid darling to horrifying, misogynistic freak show to talk show host.
There are no guests or monologues on “Sheen’s Korner,” but make no mistake – it is a late-night talk-show. The inaugural program streamed this past Friday night over UStream.
Sheen sits in front of large, mahogany desk in what appears to be a living room or office of sorts. He has Rick Calamaro as an Ed McMahon-style sidekick, (only he’s wearing a fedora Ed wouldn’t be caught dead in). One of the “goddesses” (the one that’s not in porn) sits awkwardly on the couch behind the main desk. Sheen’s unnamed “sound guy” sits next to her, wearing oversized headphones and a laptop. He is presumably responsible for the steady stream of looped fart noises in the over 50-minute-long production.
It is interesting, and maybe even a little charming, that Sheen thought the late-night talk show, a format almost as old as television itself, would be the best way to keep exposing the world to his “duh, winning,” philosophy. But instead of using it to its full effect, Sheen relies on his sidekick and peanut gallery to contribute content, as well as a never-ending series of “interesting” news stories. From just ten minutes in, it already feels like a morning-commute radiocast or your weird neighbor’s podcast.
Of course, Sheen, crazy as he is, reserves the right to claim that’s exactly what he was going for (duh!). But regardless of intent, Sheen’s Korner commits the cardinal sin of late-night talk shows, radio shows, podcasts and any other entertainment — it’s boring as hell.
If nothing else, “Sheen’s Korner” has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that certain types of crazy aren’t sustainable. It turns out that crazy people are funny, but only for about ten minutes or so. On the scale of entertaining craziness – Sheen’s Korner falls somewhere between watching a homeless guy yell at an empty potato chips bag and a Kim Jong Il speech. All are entertaining, but certainly not for an entire hour.
Alec Bojalad is a junior studying journalism. Send him an e-mail at ab239807@ohiou.edu.
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