The best show in Vegas. And maybe the whole wide world.

After mom and I enjoyed another fun day of sun and great food in Vegas (read about Day 1), we were ready for a night on the town. Some friends had gifted us VIP tickets to see Australian singing group Human Nature perform Motown songs (thank you M, A & B!). I thought it would be great fun for my mom, since she’s a huge Motown fan and loves to sing herself. As for me, I figured I’d just sort of sit there and let her enjoy “her music”.

Ninety minutes of dancing, whooping, cheering, singing, laughing, and yes, crying later, I was happily proven wrong wrong wrong. There are absolutely no words to express the enormous talent of Human Nature, and indescribable joy of watching them perform. No matter how old or young you are, even if you think you don’t like Motown, or you’re too cool for old-school song and dance stuff, you will be swiftly convinced otherwise as soon as HN hits the stage. If you’re not singing and clapping halfway through the first song, you must be dead. They’re that good.

Human Nature is really famous in their native Australia, and they were happily performing there and racking up singing awards when Smokey Robinson heard them perform his famous song “Oooh Baby Baby” (they’re singing it above, in an a capella performance that brought me to tears, and brought the crowd to its feet).  Smokey was so amazed that these four white Australian boys could sing soul songs like they do that he brought them to Vegas and put this show together. Now HN are being hailed as the best singers in Vegas. I think they can beat that and earn the same praise in any city. I grew up going to Broadway shows in New York with my mom all the time, and we both agreed that these guys were some of the best singers we’d ever heard in our lives.

Mom and I felt sooo lucky, because we were seated in this gorgeous booth in the Human Nature Theater at the Imperial Palace. We were front and center, and got to see every move and every moment from a super closeup vantage point. Part of what makes the show such fun is that the HN guys work their butts off to entertain the crowd, and you can feel how deeply and earnestly they care about delivering a great performance. They do it all while wearing three-piece suits, too. From where we sat, we could see the boys sweating through every single song.

And mom and I were sweating too! After the first song, we were on our feet dancing (or seated and chair-dancing) for the whole show. We couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces as the guys tore through an incredible variety of Motown classics like Stop in the Name of Love, Heard It Through the Grapevine, and many more. The raucous party atmosphere only quieted when the boys sang People Get Ready, a beautiful gospel-soul song that dates back to the civil rights movement. The way they performed that song’s harmonies was so mesmerizing, you could have heard a pin drop in a theater filled with hundreds of fans.

I actually couldn’t believe that four voices could create such a beautiful sound, and then a singer friend clued me in about something called ringing chords, or the fifth voice. Apparently, when four singers achieve perfect, exquisite harmony, the way that the Human Nature boys do, an overtone that sounds like a fifth voice emerges. People have credited this fifth voice with having spiritual, rapturous powers.

But enough of me gushing — words could never describe the experience of seeing HN live and in person. And neither can a video, but this one below kinda sorta comes close. Be sure to watch until the end to catch a moment of the show-stopping climax “Oooh Baby Baby”. That song will break your heart into a million beautiful pieces when you hear it live.

If you’re planning to be in Vegas for a bachelorette party, a vacation, a honeymoon, or for any darned reason at all, you cannot miss this show. It is the absolute best good clean fun I’ve ever had in my life. Anthony Cools might know how to hypnotize people, but Human Nature can put you under a spell too, using pure heart, soul, and talent. And they won’t make you wear your panties on your head.

Get tickets for Human Nature here.

A slew of bachelorette reviews, straight from the City of Sin

A few weeks ago, my mom called and pointed out that I hadn’t seen her and my dad for over six months. Now I’ve been pretty caught up in work for a while, but that just didn’t feel right. So moms and I decided to set out for a spur-of-the-moment trip to Vegas.

Admittedly, the city that prides itself on being a playground for salacious adult action wasn’t the most obvious choice for a weekend of mother-daughter bonding. But I wanted the chance to research some of the hottest bachelorette attractions in town, including a show by the “dirty hypnotist” Anthony Cools, a life-changing (really!) performance by the amazingly talented Australian singing group Human Nature, and the ultimate bachelorette party fantasy, The Thunder From Down Under. Mom and I had waaaay too much fun to cover in one post, so today is just Part 1 of 3, and we’ll top off the Vegas recaps later this week with an incredible Vegas bachelorette party package charity auction!

The rubber hits the road on the peaceful drive from Cali to Vegas.

So Mom and I chose the Paris Hotel, mostly because it was the first place we were able to find a good room rate on short notice. When we arrived at the flashy, blinged-out lobby, lit with enormous ornate chandeliers and decked in Liberace-style decor, I instantly got “Vegas headache” — a syndrome caused by extreme aversion to shiny lights, pseudo-luxury, ceilings painted to look like the sky, and massive excess. But hey, Vegas ain’t a yoga retreat, right? And it turns out that those big frozen drinks they sell in the casino are conveniently designed to help you adjust to the flashy surroundings. After a cocktail or two and a quick win at the slots, mom and I were totally in “Vegas mode”.

The glitzy, not-so-Parisian Paris Hotel

Our standard room at the Paris was clean, quiet, and comfortable, and would easily fit four girls on a bachelorette weekend or one very happy honeymooning couple. There’s plenty of nightlife within the hotel itself, though mom and I skipped the nightclub circuit and spent most of our late nights at Napoleon’s Bar listening to the incredible dueling piano dudes play everything from Alice in Chains to Billy Joel. Those guys are seriously. freaking. talented. The restaurants at the Paris were variable, with a horrifying buffet that you should definitely skip at all costs. But French steakhouse Mon Ami Gabi was a fantastic spot  to share a bottle of Bordeaux, sample escargot and sea scallops gratinee, and feel almost like you’re in Paris (France).

Lounging under the Eiffel at the Paris Hotel pool

Look Ma, it’s just like the Le Eiffel in Paris, with bikini-clad waitresses serving fruity oversized cocktails to shirtless dudes on cell phones. Ah, gay Pareeee! Anyway, mom and I really loved the pool at the Paris, situated just under the hotel’s hallmark Eiffel tower replica. It’s enormous, and they play a pleasant mix of familiar tunes over the loudspeaker while giant misters spray overhead to moisten the dry desert air. It’s not the most “scene-y” of the Vegas hotel pools, but that suited us just fine. And it was the perfect spot to relax and prepare for our fun nights out, starting with the remarkable hypnosis show, The Anthony Cools Experience.

Anthony Cools works hypnotic magic on eager vict...uh, subjects

The Anthony Cools Experience is *not* family friendly, and my poor mom sat through more raunchy, dirty, outrageously nasty humor and stunts than any mom ever should (luckily, she’s cool like that). It is, however, one of the most raucously funny and fascinating things I’ve ever seen in my life, and is an absolute can’t-miss show for any bachelor or bachelorette party. Here’s the deal: Anthony Cools invites audience members onstage to be hypnotized. It doesn’t “take” for all of the volunteers — he ends up telling about a third of the participants to go back to their seats when it’s clear that they’re not truly “under his spell”. But for those who go under, a series of shocking, embarrassing, and completely unbelievable activities await. Cools has his participants audition for a porn movie by making love to a chair. He tells one woman that her nether-regions are talking to her — loudly — and that she needs to keep them quiet. Another feels his butt burning every time the song “Ring of Fire” plays, and has to rub it vigorously on the floor to numb the pain. And that’s the tame stuff. This show will have you laughing riotously for 90 minutes straight — especially if one of your crew gets hypnotized. It also left me dorkily obsessed with learning hypnosis. (If you know what Cools  does at the very end of the show, you’ll understand why!)

Seriously, if you’re planning a trip to Vegas, book your Anthony Cools tix now. And come back here tomorrow for part deux of Weekend in Vegas, featuring the sweetest songs sung by the cutest boys in the single greatest show mom and I have ever seen in our lives. For reals.