First off, you've got to appreciate any event running in support of worthy charities:
Ohana Family Foundation Youth Fitness Challenge
South Bay Youth Rugby
Tongan Community Service Center
Doc's Weight Loss Challenge

As for the venue (Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center), comfortable and spacious. And yet, we sat at the farthest seats from the stage and still enjoyed the show. Our tickets scored us closer seats, but the pre-show music, though very nice, was played with the bass so exaggerated that we literally couldn't bare it and moved as far back as possible. I guess that squarely defines us as "old."

The Laughing Samoans were simply wonderful. They were welcoming, very professional, but not over-polished, and interacted smashingly with the audience. In fact, their use of key local references at just the right times busted the crowd into laughter every time. This particular audience was made up mostly of Samoans and Pacific Islanders, so the "Laughing Samoans" healthy supply of jokes based in Samoan cultures really tickled their funny bones and kept these Pacific Islanders and Samoans Laughing. But they deserve even higher praise, because all of that good humor worked on us old mainlanders as well. Sure, there were a small handful of very specific references that I didn't get, but somehow -- they were funny anyways.

The Laughing Samoans routines are classic Abbot and Costello. I swear at times, if you closed your eyes and ignored the accents -- well, I might be stretching it a bit, but my point is, you really get the feeling these guys studied those guys. (And those guys were/are well worth studying!)

In sum, they're loads of fun, mostly clean humor, though a few jokes pushed the boundaries of PC. Just as good or better than A-listers. And they just might be A-listers in the Islands.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --